Going to look at 40 acres about 75 minutes from town. $3600/acre. No improvements. No buildings.

Satellite from Goog

A large(r) tree branch was ripped off my silver maple in the backyard and fell into the garden last night. It broke my sunflowers, about half the tomato plants and knocked over the bean tripods. I'm still cutting it away. No major damage to the fencing or anything else.

The storms with high winds bring a lot of the deadwood out of the trees as well. The neighbor and I talked about going in on a tree cutting service to trim up the trees or maybe remove them before they do major damage to our houses. Several years ago, the homeowners association organize a neighborhood discount twice: 1) after a major ice storm brought a bunch of trees down and 2) when a 'drought' killed a bunch of trees. It would help.

Much gratitude to aisa0, yarrowcat, and selkiechick for their advice and discussion. I decided not to adopt the banties because I am not ready for the responsibility nor do the ordinances allow for "farm animals" in residential neighborhoods.

I saw a posting for 27 acres of land about 45 minutes away for about $3K/acre. It is landlocked from a subdivided parcel. I have Laura, my real estate agent, checking into the other (smaller) parcels or acquiring perpetual easement in order to get to the parcel. One day.

I'm in a funk at work because everything is going too well. I know. I know. I'm whining because there is nothing to whine about. Sheesh. I need a hobby other than whining.

Oh wait...

I'm sitting here sipping on a guinness. makes you strong. good for what ails ye. even toucans love guinness. lovely day for a guinness. ++++>insert your own guinness motto here<++++

Was sitting outside to watch storm blow in. Fast moving low clouds brought blowing rain so Tigger the Cat demanded we go inside so as to not get any wetter. She's like that. Went inside. Sat down on couch to watch. Big branch (5 inch diameter) from silver maple tree broke and flew into the picture window. No damage. It hit and then bounced off the lie on/over the front deck. We had just been sitting there. Partial lyrics of a song on the internet jukebox: "Is it raining on you now?" Wow.

Edit: July 30 (the morning after)

For 2008, I am going to visit most, if not all, of the state parks, forests, fish & wildlife areas, and nature preserves in Illinois. I'll maintain a google map for it.


View Larger Map

For today, in not my smartest move, I visited Sand Ridge State Forest. Left over from the receding glaciers 15,000 years ago, the sand was swept into dunes during a dry period that allowed southwestern plants to flourish. The prickly pear cactus can still be seen at the nature perserve. The pine topped sand ridges follow the Illinois River contours. Sand Ridge contains the last remainng wild stands of oak and hickory in Illinois. Most of the pines were planted for timber as they grow well in sandy soil. Too bad they don't really plow the roads and half of them are gravel. Bad idea, but I still managed a small hike. Definitely worth another visit, perhaps to backpack on the Yellow Trail which follows the perimeter of the Forest. I also visited Powerton Lake. Nothing exciting unless you like gazing at the coal fired power plant.