Sunday, June 5, 2011

Discoveries In The Wild

I went for a stroll this morning to clear my head before sitting down to some long avoided chipherin. The transfer of land to me also involves transforming a construction loan into a mortgage in my name too. I have to know how much Hale Mana actually cost.

Can you put a price on the first lilies of the season blooming in the wild cultivated garden? I suppose the bulb catalogs can.



The cozy cabin cost more to build than I had estimated four long years ago. I won't be the first person that has happened to.

There are a lot of ways to look at numbers so I am looking for ways to make the numbers more palatable. When you take the $20,000 off for land clearing, road building, a well and a septic system, the actual cost of building the finely appointed cabin itself came in at $96 per square foot. Not bad. The labor was free of course.

And if I want a start of this Japanese Roof Iris it will be free too. All the landscaping costs should forever be considered free on this project even if a little cash money gets spent on impulse now and again.



Last week some time a Tricyrtis or Toad Lily, followed me home from a nursery. It was only $7.50 or so. Seemed like a good price so I bought it and planted it in the garden to be. Well some varmint in these parts has a propensity to dig up freshly planted plants. When I strolled by this morning the poor Toad Lily had been pulled out of the ground and tossed aside so the varmint could inspect the newly dug hole.

Sometimes plants are bit like the cozy cabin's plumbing. It takes a few tries to get things to work right. I added a few anti-varmint reinforcements to my replanting scheme.



A whole other set of processes is now in motion and for the first time in my life I will have a mortgage and be a land and home owner instead of a tenant gardener. Relatively speaking it will be a tiny mortgage compared to most and very appropriate for a tiny cabin.



A tiny cabin on a big piece of land surrounded by the ever growing wild lush. Some where in all that lush are the beginnings of a garden. In another fifteen years I will own it free and clear.

8 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Once one has a mortgage you are no longer a nomad. How does it feel to have a mortgage on a piece of the american pie?

Fairegarden said...

That is really something to look forward to, 15 years goes by very quickly. Well done, my friend!
xo
Frances

Lola said...

Don't like the paper work. I'm knee deep in it now. Try to resurrect yourself.
Love that lily, the color combination is nice. How white the iris.
The Cozy Cabin sure looks welcoming with the lush around. The garden will appear more as time goes by. Anything worth having is worth waiting for. That time will pass very quickly. You have done an awesome job.
Welcome to the world of ownership.
Thundered loudly here, got a little shower. Not enough tho.

Anonymous said...

That lily is just gorgeous. Does your mom know which one it is?
As Lisa said, you are no longer a nomad. And Frances is right, that time will pass quickly.
Sallysmom

Lola said...

I meant to ask you if you had tried moth balls. I've heard if you bury one very close to plant it won't be bothered. Also we use to use moth balls to help keep varmints out of mobile home in N.C. when we weren't there. It also helps even if you are there.

Anonymous said...

WOW, love that photo of the cabin in the lush! Very much worth owning, eh? Congrats on the mortgage - sort of. (:

So glad to see this milestone pass, and the quality of your work was spectacular.

bev

Christopher C. NC said...

Lisa strange as it seems, a mortgage is a bit scarier than paying higher rent to the same landlord for 16 years.

Yes Frances, time flies. Who knew it would take four years to build such a tiny cabin.

Lola paper work sucks, but I have to do it and then do some more of it. Haven't tried moth balls. I think I just saw the varmint, a raccoon, on the deck that has been up to all kinds of mischief around here of late. It was trying to get at the bird feeder.

Sallysmom have you ordered any bulbs from catalogs? My mother gets every catalog there is and then some because she orders bulbs every year. I can ask if she knows what that lily is, but the only answer I am likely to get is "it was something different that I didn't have. I don't remember a name." If you have catalogs look through the pictures and see if you can match it to something.

Benjamin Vogt said...

15 years ain't so bad. It'll fly by. And then you can give your place to me so I have somewhere quiet to go write. Yup.