There is an old Joni Mitchell song that goes "They paved paradise and put in a parking lot". For the nineteen years we lived in the suburbs we will attest to that truth as being central in our desire to leave the suburbs and move back to the country. We watched the approaching changes get closer and closer, taking out the woods and creeks and putting in roads and houses. I understand perfectly, people need homes to live in and as the town grows, more land must be developed and houses must be built.
Now we reside in the country, loving the deep woods, open fields, and picturesque ridges. We own 34 acres where our home sits, and 3.5 acres across the street where our guest house is located. Since we moved here three years ago we could compose our own song that goes something like this..."The trees grew big and they called in the timber men...". So many areas around us have been timbered, and we were even contacted about having our trees timbered too.
Just the incessant noise of the large machines that take down one hundred year old trees is stressful enough, though fascinating to see the power of those wheeled machines, but to see the changes in landscape and watching the wildlife scamper and stand puzzled takes a stout heart indeed.
We wanted to buy more land around the guest house, but in the process of contacting the land owner, we discovered she was already under contract to have the land timbered. Grace filtered through, remarkably so because the logging company agreed to sell us some of the trees in the places where our property borders close to the timbering. But trees come with a high price tag, however, we were able to buy all the land as timbered, which goes for a less price. Therefore, the "timbered" land we are purchasing in the long run we feel was an equal weight exchange overall.
I have been wanting to share a blog post from Under An English Sky. Shirley, a former homeschooling mother, writes an encouraging and inspiring blog and I for one anticipate her book when it is published. When I first read this particular writing, it was as if she had been reading my heart and mind. I had struggled with what I had been witnessing in our culture, and though I do little social media, what would sometimes pop up on my YouTube feeds from homemaking sites I actually acknowledged as spurious created home living.
Slow Living Today Is an Attitude, Not a Dress Code
A slow, intentional life is still very much achievable in 2025. It’s about your mindset—pausing, choosing what matters, and sometimes saying no to good things to make room for the best ones. ~Shirley
Isn’t Romanticising About Deeper Meaning?
The phrase taps into something universal—a longing to reject superficiality and embrace authenticity, simplicity, and connection—the very depths we feel placed in our hearts by our Creator. That’s beautiful. But chasing it through staged aesthetics? That’s another story.~Shirley
16 comments:
You can plant trees on the land you got from the timber company! 😁 That'll show 'em.
This post resonates with me. When we moved to our home, we were "out in the country". We still are to a degree, but it seems there are houses and developments going up in so many farm fields. And like you, I hate seeing all the trees come down. I'm happy for you to have lots of land around you!
Yes, definitely, replanting with pines is the expected course of action for many around here.The resilient hardwoods will begin to spring back fairly quickly, but it will take longer than my lifetime to see them beautiful again. Pines are replanted for later timbering, only taking about fifteen or twenty years to get a hardy pine forest to timber again. We will possibly replant pines on part of the land toward the road. We thought about the possibility, especially when we did not know if we could keep any tress, to excavate and plant a field/pasture. That can be a quicker fix to see good results, yet extremely costly. In some places I do like more light thing through, and I know from our own woods and piney forests, that trees fall naturally all the time.
It is inevitable, isn' it? How deep and far must we live in the rural areas? Farming is not as desirable for the younger folk either these days. I am thankful meat cows are still be raised in my area. I love hearing their moos and I love seeing them in the green rolling fields.
Well good news /bad news...the bad about the trees being used as timber, the good is the land price. But really, timbering does help reduce any fires spreading and forest management is regulated. Plant oak trees. I planted one three years ago and it is already up to my second floor level. andrea
I'm glad you got the land, now you can plant lots of trees and no-one can touch them. What a wonderful legacy to leave for future generations! Thank you for linking to my post on my blog.
Cathy, I really appreciated this post. We definitely live in the country, but it's been sad to watch the younger generation around us find it more profitable for them to sell off the timber from their property than to enjoy it for it's beautiful landscape. It makes me sad.
Yes, the land was cheaper, but the price of the trees purchased were high. Yet, the timber company agreed to sell them to us and we are super glad about that! And if they had not agreed to sell us those trees the money we spent in excavation would had been expensive too.
I get quite horrified when I drive around the rural areas. I do not have a life time to see trees grow that big on that land again.
What kind of oak tree did you plant that grew that fast?
Yes we can! But I do not have enough years to see trees that big again on that property.
Wendell Berry's The Memory of Old Jack includes a part near the end where Jack is pleased that his daughter wants to inherit the land that he has given his whole life to farming. But in the passage where she and her husband talk about what they will do with it -- and I can't remember this very well -- it becomes clear that they do not actually value the land or the legacy that Jack has by much labor and pain laid up for them. It's heartbreaking to read, and to realize how common this tendency is now, to value things purely in terms of numbers, and to want to get as much as one can out of the land with as little labor as possible.
I know there is some pushback against this among younger people, but they are fighting an uphill battle and typically don't have the finances to rescue places before they have been robbed of what good things previous generations built and preserved.
It's wonderful to hear about your efforts in your area to save and curate!
Cathy, you have a beautiful blog. I enjoyed reading some of your back posts. Thank you for visiting my silly blog. About the trees! One of the first things we noticed when we moved to Franklin County was the many logging trucks on the road and it's still that way. The one hundred acres across from our property had just been cut when we moved into our cabin 34 years ago. It has now been cut again. Makes me so sad. We left way too many trees when we built here, but we love it.
I love stopping by here. Sending smiles your way
I feel sad when I see yet another tree coming down so a big house can be built on that lot. It happens far too often.
How fortunate you are to live on acreage💗💗💗💗
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