Puzzle

So I can't remember if I've said this before, but my land is currently in timber tax, a low tax bracket designed to encourage the growth of timber for commercial sale.  Unfortunately, you have to take acreage out of timber tax in order to build a house on it, and that comes along with a hefty fee.  You also have to have a forester put together a forest management plan so that you know how to maximize the growth of your trees for harvest.  

I had a forester out on Monday for a consultation, and he estimates that it'll be 15-20 years before my trees will be able to be harvested again, since it was logged sometime in the last couple of years.

That suits me just fine...I'm happy to have two decades to decide whether I want to sell my trees!

I need to keep walking around and decide which few acres I want taken out of timber tax to put my house on.  My initial thought was to only take out 2 acres, but I took some measurements the other day to get an idea of what 2 acres looks like, and now I'm leaning toward 4-5 acres, just to be sure there's enough space for a few small pastures and all the necessary outbuildings.

All the details of this adventure are like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle - I have to do such and such before I can do this other thing, but first I need to do this...  :P  

I think this is a low-bush Blueberry plant: 

Spotted this guy as I was driving away: 

Ironic, because I thought, "Wow, I'm not sure I've seen a (live) Porcupine in person before"...and then the next day, my friend was out on a hike somewhere else in Maine, and her poor dog got a face full of quills.  Maybe it's Porcupine season??

In other news, I made an exciting purchase yesterday...something that makes me feel like a REAL homesteader (albeit a modern one, lol): 

Heh heh heh....  NOW I can get some stuff DONE!!!  :D  :D  :D  

(And that's good, because look at this ridiculous mess I have to clean up...)

And this isn't even the worst section!  

One of my goals, though, is to make use of what's already on the land as much as possible.  I've got some ideas of things to do with all of this junk wood; hopefully I can get start making progress soon.  Lol, I think I've got many years of work ahead of me...but it'll be worth it!!  :P