{"id":3583,"date":"2018-09-19T19:46:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/?p=3583"},"modified":"2018-09-19T20:39:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T20:39:29","slug":"a-new-trail-to-explore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/a-new-trail-to-explore\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Trail to Explore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I’m excited to welcome you to a new monthly installment on the art\/life trail!<\/span><\/h4>\n

Once each month, on the third Wednesday, I’ll post updates and peeks into the art\/life on our 50 acre tree farm retreat in the Piedmont of Central Virginia.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

I begin with a bit of visual background followed by the first chapter of the story.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

December 2009, our first look at the property, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0recently auctioned to a timber company and clear cut<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The east border neighboring tree plantation
\nproperty comprised of hundreds of acres of pines<\/span><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To the left, the north bordering land; showing what the 50 acres looked like prior to being timbered…to the right…our first look at the clear cut view. The tall trees along the\u00a0 creek bed can be seen in the middle ground on the right.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Creek beds are spared the timber cutters saw creating a riparian buffer.
\nThanks to the EPA<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The timber industry knocks over and drags out the large mixed hardwoods <\/span><\/p>\n

and pines, the forests leave on the back of flatbed trucks, deep pockets of ruts and piles of debris are all that remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Back Story<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

BD and I have been together for decades. I’ve heard her lament the destruction of open or forested land in the name of “development” and I had long been inspired by her dream to one day, “buy that corner lot or bulldozed construction site and allow it to return to its natural state”.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

In 2009 she mourned the loss of her family farm in the Michigan ‘thumb’ near Lake\u00a0<\/span>Huron. The beautifully renovated 1800’s farm house antique and collectibles contents were auctioned, then the house, barn, woodlot and fields were sold following both parents death. <\/span><\/h4>\n

It was BD’s sister Becky who suggested that she could seek out her own farm. This created a spark and soon<\/span>\u00a0land was located in central Virginia that was available: right location\/right price. <\/span><\/h4>\n

The challenge: the 50 acres had just been timbered and carried the deep scars attendant with the logging industry.<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n

We drove to see the property 3.5 hours from the beach just before year’s end 2009. What we saw was a devastated landscape c<\/span>overed in deep snow. We could see, as we and our house guest, Sara, trudged the deep ruts and slush filled depressions that the ‘bones of the land’ were good. <\/span><\/h4>\n

A creek meandered through the center of the land sourced from two fresh water springs. The large trees along the creek created a reprieve for the heart and eye. The decision was made. <\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The Lumbering Chain of Events<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

The land is placed on the auction circuit. A timber company wins the bid. Large machines are moved in as clear cut happens over a number of weeks. Large flatbed trucks remove the trees. Following the removal of all salable trees the land is listed on the open market. The new buyers niche is brokering timbered land. BD finds the land for sale on line.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Two months later, after negotiations were complete, on Feb.19, 2010 BD signed the papers:<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

BD and John, the seller<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

On day of purchase BD registered the land
\nas a tree farm with the USDA<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first view of clear cut property<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me know, in the comments below, how you enjoy the first chapter of our tree farm story.<\/span><\/p>\n

I look forward to sharing the next installment with you on October 17.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visit:<\/p>\n

Wren House Studio\u00a0Painting website:\u00a0<\/span>Donna Iona Drozda<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Lifecycle Creative Coaching website:\u00a0<\/span>Lifecycle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

You Tube : Two Minute Creative Tune-UP^<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

22 Prayer Poems for Care Givers<\/span>\u00a0book\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Wren House Studio Face Book Fan Page:<\/p>\n

\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WrenHouseStudio<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Please\u00a0<\/span>LIKE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Fan Page<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I’m excited to welcome you to a new monthly installment on the art\/life trail! Once each month, on the third Wednesday, I’ll post updates and peeks into the art\/life on our 50 acre tree farm retreat in the Piedmont of Central Virginia.\u00a0 I begin with a bit of visual background followed by the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,193,99,183],"tags":[245,244,242,243],"class_list":["post-3583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artlife","category-creative-life","category-donna-iona-drozda","category-voluntary-simplicity","tag-riparian-buffer","tag-timbered-land","tag-tree-farm","tag-virginia-tree-farm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6htPT-VN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3583"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3602,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583\/revisions\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donnaionadrozda.com\/lifecycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}