I am no mapmaker, but in response to requests, here is a map of Stringtown Rising Farm (to the best of my ability). The shape of the farm is traced from the plat, so that part is perfect. I won’t claim the rest of it is precisely to scale, but at least it gives you an idea of where things are when I talk about the duck ‘n’ buck yard or BP-land or the bottom fields.
Our 40-acre farm is located in Roane County, West Virginia, on a dirt road bordering the Pocatalico River. The river is marked with a solid blue line. The creek that runs through our farm and empties into the river is marked with a dotted blue line. The red line is the road. As you look at this picture, if you were to go left on the road, it would take you over 2 miles of dirt road traversing a hill with narrow spots on the road and no guard rails until you reach a hard road. If you were to go right, you’d quickly cross the river ford and reach a hard road on the other side.
Map Legend
1. Orchard
2. Old derrick
3. New milk stand in BP-land
4. Chicken house
5. Goat yard
6. Goat house
7. Farmhouse
8. Garden
9. Duck ‘n’ buck yard with pond
10. Old milk stand
11. River ford
None of the hillside areas are fenced in right now, except a little bit of hillside in the duck ‘n’ buck yard and some parts of the hillside in BP-land. Eventually, we hope to fence in more hillside areas. (They’re a little difficult to get to.) There’s also another plateau up the hill behind the house. Again, hard to get to, so we haven’t done anything with that yet. Also again, my drawings of pastures etc are not accurate to scale (for example, the duck ‘n’ buck yard is as big or bigger than the goat yard, so I didn’t size those quite right on the map), but hopefully it gives you some general perspective.
Here is our farm on Google satellite maps. This isn’t the entire farm, mostly the area around the house. As you can see, the house doesn’t actually squarely face the road. I told you I was no mapmaker!
Here is some identification of a few of the landmarks you can see in this view.
A. Farmhouse
B. Garden
C. Goat house
D. New milk stand
E. Road
F. Driveway
G. Chicken house
H. BP-land
I. You can’t see it, but the duck ‘n’ buck yard is thatta way
J. Goat yard
If I pull back any more in the map, you can’t see much identifiable because of all the trees. The white squiggles on the road are where I’ve marked out the name of the road on the map.
Pulling back even more, you probably can see most of our farm in this photo, but you can barely even see the house. The gray solid lines that partially appear at the top left corner, to the right, and at the bottom in this image are some kind of map something, not sure what, maybe old district lines or something related to utilities, I have no idea. They don’t correspond to anything that actually “exists” in the real sense or to our property lines. (The one in the top left corner cuts through our third field.)
It does give a better view of our bottom pastures, which you can see in the “un”treed strip of land along the road. The arrow points to the dot that is BP’s old milk stand in the third field of the bottom pastures. Everything looks flat in these maps, which it is very much not. The house is halfway up a steep hill. There is a plateau where the house and all the various things are, then it goes up a steep hill again to a ridge where our property ends.
Here’s the farm in super closeup.
Howdy.
skippymom says:
Clover looks as tho’ she is saying “Where’s my cookie.” lol
Nicely done on the mapping.
On April 19, 2011 at 3:27 am
bonita del rey says:
oooh, thanks. This makes it ever so much easier to picture where you and your chore boots and clover, et al, spend your idyllic (!) days.
On April 19, 2011 at 3:50 am
Lisa says:
My favorite is the super close up one 🙂 Also not at all how I pictured it, I always pictured the house atop a hill and everything in front of it going down a hill, not sure how I came up w/that 🙂
On April 19, 2011 at 4:54 am
Tracey In Paradise Pa. says:
HUGS and KISSES precious ONES!Soooo Cute.
Granny Trace
http://www.grannytracescrapsandsquares.com
On April 19, 2011 at 6:32 am
Cheryl LeMay says:
Thanks for doing that. It really clarifies locations.
On April 19, 2011 at 7:15 am
Window On The Prairie says:
Oh wow, You’ve got a lot more woods there than I realized. Ever think of clearing some of it to make more pasture for the animals?
On April 19, 2011 at 8:33 am
Suzanne McMinn says:
There are really more clear spaces than it looks like on the satellite map. The trees are tall and reach over, so you can’t see that there are strips of cleared land between them. Some of the hillside area is fenced and animals don’t mind clambering around. There’s lots of stuff growing, even in amongst the trees.
On April 19, 2011 at 9:19 am
claudia w says:
I love Google Satellite! Such an interesting tour today. It makes me what to be there in person that much more!
On April 19, 2011 at 9:23 am
Ramona says:
Very interesting. It is easier to visualize now. Thanks for taking the time to enlighten us. I feel like I am looking into a celebrities home. Thanks for the day brightener. It is rainy, gloomy, & depressing here in southern MN.
MN Mona
:sheep:
On April 19, 2011 at 10:32 am
Lisabeth Olson says:
Very interesting!, but I like howdy.
On April 19, 2011 at 10:52 am
Michele says:
I hope you never have a fire. There seems to be lots of trees close by. Love your farm though.
On April 19, 2011 at 11:00 am
Miss Becky says:
this is delightful Suzanne. I love looking at maps. it brings things into better focus, seeing the layout. thanks a whole lot for this. :yes:
On April 19, 2011 at 11:08 am
Kristen E says:
I’m so glad you posted this! I’ve been curious about the lay of it all. 🙂
On April 19, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Barbee' says:
Very good! Just think how you used to have to go all the way down to the lower area to milk BP… Whew! glad that’s over.
On April 19, 2011 at 1:38 pm
MzE says:
I appreciate that this is helpful in the context of the stories/challenges you share with us on your website. However, the contents of this post leave me a little worried for your personal safety and privacy! Please be safe.
On April 19, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Amber says:
I can’t believe how far you used to have to go to milk your cow! :cowsleep:
On April 19, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Chickenlady62 says:
love the farm in super close up view ! what a face! 😆
TinaH
On April 19, 2011 at 5:56 pm
tinamanley says:
That’s great! It helps to be able to visualize where you are for all of the farm activities. It looks like a wonderful place with lots of potential (but then I love trees) 😉 Good luck and best wishes.
Tina
On April 19, 2011 at 8:25 pm
sophanne says:
super close up!!!!! made me laugh and laugh!
On April 20, 2011 at 1:12 pm
JeannieB says:
Thanks, it helps a little, can’t wait until we get to actually come to the farm1
On April 20, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Ramona says:
a wonderful home
On April 20, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Julia says:
Thanks for posting this map. Here is a suggestion. If it’s not too much trouble, please find a place on your main page for a link directly to this topic. I was reading about the weaning, and I started to wonder where the goat yard is in relation to BP land. I remembered this post, but it took me several minutes to find it–it makes sense that it would be in Country living, but that isn’t where I looked first. I bet I’m not the only person that wants to consult the map when reading about the animals. Thank you.
On May 7, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Suzanne McMinn says:
Julia, thank you! I have done so now! The link to the farm map is in the sidebar in the About Me section now, and also can be found on the Find page and the About page from the green submenu.
On May 8, 2011 at 7:20 am
Julia says:
Thank you Suzanne!
On May 8, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Flowerpower says:
Nice place. LOVE The woods all around. When I had my house built…I did not put it straight on the lot facing the street. I didnt care..I just wanted it where I wanted it! Good map and now you can kinda tell what you are talking about. Thanks! :wave:
On June 25, 2011 at 9:51 am