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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Wild water
  • Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 10:33:07 -0700


On Nov 6, 2008, at 9:22 AM, <eureka AT hctc.net> <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:

I would've like to have met the people involved in making
the well. Don't you know someone with good diviner's
ability figured that placement out. My neighbor, the one
that cut all the trees, tried to drill a well in line with
mine and got nothing after 200 feet. This is a skill I'd
love to learn. I have a feeling this river is running
below my house, mostly from the size of the trees
surrounding it.

I planted two Chinese chestnuts about twenty years ago, so I call them sisters.
One is now about forty feet tall and has large branches. The other, planted about thirty feet away, is about one fourth the size. At first I thought the bigger tree was so much larger because of a waterline leak. Well, that would have helped in the beginning. But then I thought that, hey, the old well by the house--only about thirty feet deep--may be tapped into a watercourse and that tree found the same water.

Back in college, I took an interesting class in "Urban
Geology" that touched on how to read a landscape. It
taught things like how to look at tree growth and tell if
hillsides are shifting. I looked at a house for sale once
on another river that supposedly had never flooded, but I
could tell by the types of sedges growing in the yard
there had been water. When you know an area's pioneer
species, you can tell where there's been disturbance and
fire. I have been thinking about working up a course for
real estate agents or prospective home buyers, who always
seem interested when I start pointing this kind of stuff
out.

My experience is that there are few Realtors who would take the time to learn such. And home buyers are thinking mostly how to get the most of what they want for the fewest dollars. There is a long list of higher priorities.

Perhaps the rural Realtors and buyers in your area are different. I hope so.





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