November 22,2018 Re-imagining Creekside Farm

The New Farm Plan
The little images are hints of the nature of each place.
Click on the picture for a larger version.

Thanksgiving is an everyday occurrence here, we seldom take any of this for granted. Our good fortune in the past few years has been notable. Many would never believe the place where we started from, or what we did to get to this point. All I can say on this is that we did start from nothing and have come this far with God' good graces.  And for that we are truly grateful.

The Farm was a dream at its onset. Once we found the property I imagined what we might eventually build there, then as more information came to the forefront I spent time re-imagining the plan to fit the new circumstances and conditions. Today I put some finishing touches on the new Farm Plan, the changes forced by having to re-locate the house in order to get a permit to build it. This plan takes all of our previous ideas into account, but changes all of dimensions from previous plans. If you are interested in looking at the old plans click here.

This new plan is merely a vision of perfection, not likely to ever be completely built. There will be many more re-visioning images as we go forward with building because things change and reality gets in the way of good imagining. I make these pictures so that I can keep the entire thing in my visual mind as I do everyday work. This past week, for example, I began to think about the Creekside Path (which follows Dairy Creek outside of the fence at the back of the property). So as we cut and burned the brush I began visualizing the different aspects of the proposed new path, because these aspects will become the backdrop for the gardens to eventually be found inside of the fence.

And then there is the County approvals needed to build the thing, which may or may not come (easy or at all). We will need a Type Four land use approval in order to fully realize the Farm plan as a public space. There will be three other land use approvals decided before we get the thing built and in use.

All this being said, we didn't remove much from the original plans, and the new things incorporated in the new plan are:

A Cherry tree lined path which runs from near the proposed Barn Store to the Northeast gate at the back of the Farm. It should make a very nice picture and add a substantial length of walking path. In designing this space I am trying to add a colonnade sort of thing. Something like the Colonnade images taken at the White House to add a sense of time and removed contemplation to the images taken there.

I moved the Yin Yang Pond to a new location due to a lack of a proper surrounding in the northwest corner gate. In the old place the pond would not have had a good backdrop, or provide a good backdrop for pictures taken there. But the pond might have a chance of making a good picture with the Cherry Tree Lane and Chinese Gazebo in the background. And since this is a semi-reflective pond, mirror images might be more interesting.

We had been toying with allowing each guest to have their own fire pit near their cabin, but this is a bit dangerous and would take a load of maintenance. So instead we thought of putting a centrally located fire pit in the midst of a communal gazebo where all guests might come and be together as they wish. I have an idea about surrounding the space with a curtain water feature, something of a rainy day during the hotter months with water falling gently on the landscape surrounding the Gazebo. But this space is intended to allow a gathering of people around a fire in the evening, something which people have been doing for the entire history of people.

As we build, we find new things to build or things which ought not be built. But each change is a refinement of a vision which, at its heart, is intended to bring things to people and ourselves.

Today it is three years since the very beginning of the Creekside Farm Project and only two years from beginning this written BLOG chronicle, so much has been accomplished. In this three years we have reclaimed the land from trash and wildness, planted food and flower crops, raised a flock of chickens and dozens of dogs for a profit, and begun actual building of what we hope will be something special. It seems a lot longer, but it has only been eight months since we began living on the Farm (full time) in our tiny home cabin, which doubled in size while we also added hundreds of feet of covered space for animals and work. Is seems incredible that we are only five months from the point of achieving the money to begin making the bigger dream a reality. Time means nothing once you reach fifty or so years old, days tend to flitter by unnoticed. So taking the time to reflect is important or we might miss all of the fun we are having.