An Habitation Enforced

[poliphilo]

After six months on the farm I'm beginning to feel twinges of ruralism.  I even look the part;  in the thick wool jacket that used to be my father's and my Yorkshire wool cap,  I walk round my mother's fields and worry about them. The fields miss their sheep. There are corners where  the tussocks are so deep and thick it's like walking on a lumpy mattress. Yesterday I noticed how many self-sown saplings there are popping up around the existing trees. Leave the land ungrazed and unmanaged for another ten years and it'll revert to woodland.

I need to discuss all this with Matthew . 

Comments

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Why not let it revert? Are you using the land for anything? Do you plan on using it for anything? You'll end up with more wild bunnies.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That would be the easiest option- and, I suppose, the cheapest.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

When I had my house on the lake, I had 3 acres of land, about half of which I left wild. Why? For one, I didn't want to pay the extra money to make and keep more lawn that I didn't need anyway. But also, the wild part attracted wildlife, and I really like wildlife. I enjoyed the wild part a lot more than I enjoyed the lawn.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like wilderness too, but it seems irresponsible to allow perfectly good pasturage to turn into scrubby wasteland. I'd like to keep it semi-wild, I think.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

It's not irresponsible if it isn't going to be used, unless, maybe, you are going to maintain it to enhance the property value for when it is finally sold.

A pasturage is a resource for people who have grazing animals. If you can RENT it to people with animals to graze, that is one thing, but if you are PAYING people to have their animals graze, that is quite another.

There are goat farmers here in L.A. that rent their goats out to property owners to keep their scrub land trimmed.