CRANE MEADOWS
...the continued Adventures of Cameron & Therese July 24th update... First real work weekend. The plan is to start around the shack and work our way out. Water meter was installed Friday. Good news! Water line is good all the way to the shack... bad news is there is a major pipe broken under the shack.
Here is the before after picture:
We had Therese's niece and nephew: "Baby T" Therese and Stephen for the weekend. They got a big kick out out watching the bees and learning a bit about the bees.
Most of the front and one side cleared. Also cleared the under brush from under the trees that are between the front yard and the pond.
Sunday there were many cardnals male and female fling in and out of the trees. One particular male was really keeping an eye on me.
As I find balls, i've been rolling them over by the old tree snag... July 17th Update... Closed on Friday July 15th - no problems and everything went smooth. Went by the Appraisal District Tax Office and got things in our name. Went by the water district office and are having the water turned on next Friday. Sunday, Cameron got a Gate and installed it on the property.
Found someone had been on the property shooting the week before: over 50 shells left next to the pond. With the No trespassing signs and gate we're hoping this won't be a problem anymore. Water level is getting lower. about 6-8 inches lower then the first pictures below.
Bees are doing great, click the link above to check on them... Previous: June 17, 2011 we went under contract for a 13.33 acre piece of land. Closing Date is Friday July 15th! Property contains a large pond that Cameron likes to refer to as a lake. It is a little under an acre in size. Listing said "small house that needs TLC" - what we found was built in 2007 and is 640 Sq. Ft. - VERY small. It is built out of landscape timber. Landscape timbers are pressure/chemical treated boards that are flat on top and bottom 3 1/2" thick. Cracks were calked at one time, but with age, there are hundreds if not thousands of gaps in the seams letting lots of light in the "shack". Floor is a bit weak in some places. We plan on turning this into storage and a workshop for Cameron. It does have a bathroom and shower. Property seems to be fenced all the way around - we'll determine that in the next couple weeks.
Images from the Real Estate listing:
Pond from the driveway, CR 2270 on right. Looking back toward driveway - Pond on left and Shack on right (not in picture)
Left is looking towards the front neighbors on CR 2270. . . . . . . .Right pic is looking North from driveway. Notice the small dock in the upper left. Condition is still good and sound. Below are aerial views from different time periods: about 2004- before small house (shack) - Stables/pole barn left and above center group of trees, left of lake.
Below shows what the land area actually is. At one time the property was 15 acres. A 1 acre lot was sold, then a few years later a .67 acre lot was sold out of the front along CR 2270. This gives the property a "C" shape in the front. What appears to be a road going up the center top of the property is no longer there.
Next is a post hurricane Ike image.
Saturday's exploratory hike with Ivy.... Here's a reference map to where different pictures and videos were taken.
Yellow lines are fencing- also whole property is fenced as best we can tell. Blue areas are small, dried creek beds. Pink lines are the two loops we walked. Position A:
This is what is at the end of the current driveway, West. We'll likely extended this all the way to the back of the property. Next is getting close to area B on the above map, looking north.
Here we are at B, looking north
At B position, there is a very small dried-out pond/ watering hole with deer and raccoon prints in the mud.
Most of the aerial pictures show this to have water in it. Above right is on the way to C. Position C next:
On the way to D:
We're on the edge of the big clearing on the back half of the property.
GPS app on my phone shows where we are in this panoramic.
Above, is more of the clearing looking east as we are heading west to the back end of the property. View to the west:
Next 3 pictures are as far west as we made it - position E
Red-tail Hawk flying from tree to tree. Lots of birds around. You can hear some of them in the videos. Position F 1 only shot a video, I'll get these added in later. Next is traveling east along the northern boundary fence. Much more in the videos of this area.
I refer to this as a pole barn in the maps and video but have decided it's better called the "stables".
Electric meter and pole are down, I believe since Hurricane Ike. ALL the rest of the lines and poles across the property are intact and good.
Living/entrance room on left and bunk beds and loft in above right photo.
Above: bathroom in left photo and outdoor luandry area.
Septic tank is in GREAT condition- seems to have been not used since it was last pumped out. YEAH!
The dark spots in front of her are round indentations, each guarded by a fish.
The 2 above are a bigger ravine off the east side of the lake, Position L. Left looking east towards road and right towards lake.
There is little hill by the railing, that drops off sharply to a ravine that would have water in it when we don't have drought conditions.
Next two are from around area M. ...........Below right shows neighbor's house.
Following are a few pics from area N - inside the corral - about a two acre area that is fenced off. Half of it with wooden fence.
The next group of picture was leaving the property- front end along the road CR 2270, then pictures of the neighbors.
Above small clearing up by the road and on Right- fence line along CR 2270.
2 Lots out of frontage road with three houses that share one driveway. Records show both lots were owned by same person. Current Appraisal District shows different owners. Left of driveway- 1 acre lot, right of driveway a .67 acre lot. Picture on right above, is our property on the left edge of picture and about 6 very well maintained mobile homes. We need to work out how to get the videos up here- hope I'll have those in a day or two. OK, here's the videos.... lots of good audio tracks where I talk about what you are looking at. I sized the videos down a lot, but they are still a bit to download. On the map I list the file sizes, so you might want to check out one of the smaller ones to see how long they will take to load up. I arranged the videos as hot spots on a map of the land. Mouse over a letter and click on it to see the video there. Enjoy!
Cameron & Therese
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Some of it is missing the roof. Some of the tin roof is nearby.
Back corner of "shack" master (only) bedroom on right side.
Ivy watching the small fish that have a breeding area in front of her.
These three are from around position L also.
This pole is north of area N.
