I can’t see the forest for the trees, literally in the case of the farm. I attempted to take a look down by the creek today and it is more Mirkwood down there at the moment than the green pleasant banks I read books next to in my youth. If nothing else gets done this year I would like to see something happen about that. A waterway on your land should be an asset, not an overgrown marsh pulling unwary travelers to their doom.

Hopefully a few less trees might let in enough sunlight to dry things out. With some careful waterside cleaning the platypuses might even return. It’s currently the most depressing part of the property because it’s the part I have the best memories of. It was truly idilic in summer, a genuine babbling brook and dragonflies everywhere. It truly was wind in the willows kind of stuff, and there are still glimpses of it.

Over the next month or two I’ll alternate between risking life and limb with my chainsaw, and throwing some money at professional arborists to try and get it back to point that it was only 10 years ago, maybe I will appreciate autumn and winter this year as with so many deciduous trees I will be able to see areas that are currently to overgrown to get into. The current plan is taking the next 3 years to turn this into a self sustaining property generating a mostly passive income, and a weekend retreat. That should be enough time to find out if that’s possible, and enough time to make it an attractive prospect for somebody else to run if I decide to sell or lease it out.

Because I still don’t want to be a farmer, even a hobby one.