We bought our rural south Salem house, which was built in 1973, from a couple in their mid-60s who said they were selling because the house on five acres was too much for them to maintain anymore.
Well, 35 years later, Laurel and I now are in our mid-70s, taking care of the same house (extensively updated by us) and an additional five acres, for a total of ten, since we were able to buy an undeveloped neighboring lot quite a few years ago.
Someday, probably, we'll have to move. In case I ever wonder why it took us so long, I like to write periodic blog posts with photos of our yard and property, given that our surroundings are the main reason we love where we're been living since 1990.
Here's a tour of a walk I took this afternoon.
Outside our front door, we recently had the stone steps leading to our detached garage/carport improved to be more stable. More rock also was added on either side of the steps.
We've also had the rock wall along a pathway to our yard improved. (In case you can't tell, we like rocks!)
This path is another recent addition. There used to be some grass here, but it didn't grow well, being directly under several large fir trees. So Norberto Flores' crew, who do great work maintaining and improving our property, installed a path with very fine gravel.
I like how the new path makes a big bend, kind of like a meandering river, to join with the end of the existing path.
The tracks in the grass were made by the John Deere lawn tractor I use to mow various fields and paths on our property. It used to take me much longer with a walk-behind field mower. Now I can do everything in just two hours. Power steering and four-wheel steering, and a heavy duty chassis, make the sometimes challenging mowing pretty darn easy.
This replacement Japanese Maple, which we planted after its much larger predecessor was crushed under a large oak limb in the Great Ice Storm of 2021, is growing nicely.
Our water feature adds some flowing liveliness and pleasing sound to the yard.
Leaving the yard, a path takes me to one of the fields I mowed today.
Below that is another mowed field.
Next to it, one more mowed field. I find mowing relaxing. It takes constant attention, to avoid large branches and to maneuver around the many trees, fallen logs, rocks, and such, but I'm so familiar with all of those things, mowing becomes a sort of mindful meditation for me.
A bench sits next to the path down to the spring-fed creek, which flows for most of the year.
Laurel has added stepping stones and gravel to an often-slippery slope.
We've had two nicely designed bridges made to replace my decidedly amateurish bridges. This is the first bridge over one tributary of the creek.
This is the second bridge, over another tributary of the creek, nicely nestled between two trees, one of them a snag.
The barely visible creek is lined with lush vegetation.
More steps made by Laurel lead from the creek to the community trail, on an easement, that we use to get to our community lake, Spring Lake.
The easement trail goes up, then down to Spring Lake.
Daisies next to the lake.
Spring Lake is about nine acres. No motorized boats allowed. A blue kayak is on the left.
After walking around the lake, I return home. I like how our house is nestled under large oak and fir trees. We could be happy somewhere else, I'm sure, but we'll never find a place as close to nature as where we are now.
beautiful setting and home. Very nature oriented
Posted by: Rain Trueax | June 11, 2024 at 05:28 AM