This is the front yard looking out from the house. A nice long driveway which passes all four ponds for great views on the way in and ultimate seclusion!
If you stand in the same spot and turn your head left you will see a nice clearing and a great deck already in place! (same pond as above)
A short walk down the drive and your majesty, the weeping willow which shall be named, presents itself. (on this day asking for a drink!)
Turn your head in the opposite direction and this is what you will see when standing next to our willow. The biggest of four ponds. most of our 51 acres lies behind and surrounding this pond. This is exciting because I can keep animal operations away from the house a bit to add a nice separation that will be enjoyed on quiet relaxing days.
This is a walk around the same pond and looking some what back up towards the house (you can see the willow in the background)
A look at the beautiful deck! as you can see the ponds are currentlly down about three feet due to drought conditions. Still stunning!
A glimpse of the third pond. In this one we have spotted monster catfish!! If you were too turn your head around you would be looking at the first pond I showed you with a possible view of the house.
And here is the fourth pond! A little TLC and these things will be beautiful and ready for plenty of fish (possible fresh water shrimp) to feed a self sustaining community.
Behind the largest pond where most our property lies a creek presents itself. It has not rained in around three weeks and hot hot days here in Ohio leave it at a trickle but still flows. I'm thinking good potential sustainable animal habitats.
This is a look at the sort of clearings we have available to work with. These will be used in various ways. The cut at the moment is ruff compared to what it will be in a few short years. LET THE DREAM BEGIN!
I am short on time at the moment. Many many more posts and pics to come! Stay tuned, plug us into your RSS reader! And for goodness sakes, send us a comment and say hello! Thank you all for checking us out at Sugar Grove Eco Village.
I know you posted this article months ago, but thought I'd make my offering of a suggestion for a name for your beautiful willow tree. I just came across he link to this page from a musician's FB page.
ReplyDeleteI'm an old-time/Celtic musician and have been singing a beautiful song for a couple of decades: "Down By the Salley Gardens." (Lyrics by W.B. Yeats) Since I am also a spinner and weaver, I enjoy explaining why "Salley Gardens" (and another mountain murder ballad... "Down by the Willow Garden")are connected. Back --waaay back-- before WalMart and plastic bags folks had to make their own containers. Villages would grow groves of Willow to use for making baskets from the flexible branches, and also to weave the bundles of thatch on their roofs. Another occasional use, as mentioned in these songs is for the secretive "tryst" hidden by the lovely long branches. From Wiki: '"Salley" or "sally" is a form of the Standard English word "sallow", i.e., a tree of the genus Salix. It is close in sound to the Irish word saileach, meaning willow.' Not only used for weaving, the willow bark contains salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, so the willow gardens also served a medicinal purpose as well. Especially since you are linked to a sustainable lifestyle, I thought you might indeed be pleased to consider "Salley" or "Sally" for a fine name for that beautiful tree by your pond!
With all best wishes
Ellie Hjemmet
in the mountains of East TN