Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

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.