Two new permits…

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I got quite a lot done in Stokes County on Thursday. The people in the building permits office in Danbury were delightful to work with. I explained my intentions and showed them the blueprints for the house and wellhouse. In no time at all I had permits for the wellhouse and for the temporary electrical hookup (the cost for the two permits was $90). It’s a little too early to get the permit for the house itself, but at this point that’s the only permit I still need. All the other permits — wellhouse, temporary power, the well, and the septic tank — are taken care of.

Then I went out to the land and put in some stakes (around here we call them “stobs”) and flags to mark approximate locations of the house, the wellhouse, and the driveway. On Sunday, I’ll go back with my brother and sister to let them have a look at the location of everything. Once that’s all settled, the next step will be to get the tree guy to come take a look. I’ll only need to take out pine trees — no need to take out any of the mature hardwood trees. Among the pines there are many young hardwoods, mainly poplar and maple, eager to have room to grow. I hope we can take out the pine trees with minimum damage to the young hardwoods. They should grow quickly once the pines are gone and they have light and space.

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The big rock is surprisingly difficult to photograph. But I tried.

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Finally in North Carolina…

I arrived in North Carolina on Monday (Feb. 4), and not until today (Feb. 6) have I had a chance to get at a computer.

The land is looking good. There’s been a fair amount of rain recently, and the little stream across my land was trickling over the rocks.

Next steps: I need to stake out the exact location of the house and wellhouse, mark the driveway, and tag trees for the tree man. Luckily I have to take down only low-value pines. I won’t have to disturb any of my hardwood trees.

I’ll have a real post, and some photos, in a day or two.