The property next to ours is getting logged, and it’s certainly a mixed bag for us. The noise at 6:00am is unbearable. And the land I’ve been walking for 11 years, following old roads, game trails, and working in new trails here and there; it’s unrecognizable in a lot of places.
But it’s not all bad. Depending on what happens with the land next, we’ll still be able to use it some, and there will be new opportunities to make new trails if they let me. We might even buy some of it, who knows?
One thing I do know is there will be one more house now on our road, just next to ours, maybe 250' away. They cleared a lot yesterday and WOW. It’s probably 2 acres of just total clearcut. I guess that’s what the owner wanted, but damn.
One side effect that I’m not sure the landowner is aware of, is her now-unobstructed view of a trailer park and an industrial area. It wouldn’t have been hard to avoid that, but in fact, I think they’re going to cut even more on the left side. It was very foggy yesterday so you couldn’t see it... but I could have told them.
They haven’t been too close to our property line yet, but they’re going to come over and cross our property to get at some downed trees at the neighbor’s house on the other side - all with express permission. I spent a long time with the guy this morning, and he’s going to take out some pesky trees of mine on his way by, that are worthless but also tall enough to block our view partially. A clump of trees that would take me probably 40 hours to clear myself, will be gone in 10 minutes with the feller-buncher. And they’re going to level out a path across our existing clearing, to use to pull some logs out from the other neighbor. Free landscaping work! And free tree work!
Like I said, it’s not all bad. I just can’t wait for this to all be over.
I painstakingly maintain our view by selective cuts - whatever comes above the horizon. I want to see the distant mountains, nothing else nearby is worth cutting for. And with the clearing done to our north, we just might get a much better view that way than we’ve ever had. I think I’ll know by this afternoon.
Below is what we have already, to the south and west.
