Explore!

If you find yourself in a new place, and are a bit apprehensive to set out and explore, I say go for it! Excitement and the wonder of discovery will soon displace those fears. Our new home is on 1.89 acres and most of it is fenced and secure and landscaped and friendly. On three of four sides of the property our land actually extends beyond the fence line but I have been leery of exploring due to wildlife, or the possibility of, in the area. I'm not talking bunnies and squirrels here, I mean bears and cougars! So I have stayed inside the fenced area and felt just fine, thank you very much. Yesterday Dixon decided we should explore our yard (!) so I hesitantly went along with his scheme. We started out at the bottom of the lot, down the hill from the house, and I ventured outside the fence for the first time. This area is rather open and somewhat flat down to the neighbor's house so I felt pretty good about being outside my usual comfort zone. As I proceeded to the west to find the corner of our lot the terrain turned rather rocky with large boulders that I had to navigate over. As I approached the area where we thought the corner would be I could hear the neighbor's large dog start barking. I figured he must have seen me from their yard so I proceeded cautiously. The further I went the more the dog barked and at the point that the bark turned into growls, and I could hear rustling in the undergrowth, I told Dixon I had gone as far as I was going to and that if he wanted to find the corner of our lot he would have to come out here and do it himself. Well, he did just that! We traded places and he proceeded quite a bit farther than I had gone, not afraid of any dog. As it turned out he found the corner of our lot, right about where he thought it would be, the dog posed no threat and he returned to the fenced yard safe and sound.




As our house sits about in the middle of the lot we then decided we would attempt to venture UP the hill to see where the two upper corners of the lot are. Now, for comparison, this area is much larger than the lower portion outside the fence and is heavily wooded with a lot of undergrowth. Again I was leery so he charged up the rock and boulder strewn hill that borders our land, determined to find out how far 'up' our land went, and I stayed in the comfort of the yard. As I watched and he disappeared from sight we kept in voice contact, me staying inside the fenced yard-my safety zone. In a few minutes I heard someone greet him and figured it was the neighbor farther up the hill whose home we can see from our front yard. They spent quite a few minutes talking and it turns out the neighbor is actually the developer who built the eight homes that we are a part of. He showed Dixon where the lot line is and supplied some additional info on the area. We now have it figured that this guy can be a font of information, if needed. Anyway, this all transpired on Tuesday and Dixon talked me into exploring on Wednesday, to see where the upper lot line is.




I strapped on my hiking boots, bundled up against the late fall temps, and trudged up the rock and boulder hill right behind him! When we got to the top of our lot I snapped the pictures in this post. The view from there was incredible, even more so than from the house, and I was so glad that I sucked it up and ventured outside my comfort zone. We then climbed and ambled through the brush and forest, in search of the fourth corner of our lot, but that area is way too overgrown and dense and we gave up. We saw a lot of evidence of rabbits, which I have seen in the yard already, and deer, which we have not been sure were in our area. Apparently they are but the fence keeps them out of what is now OUR garden. It's hard to see the elevation change in the pictures but we figure from the top of our property to the bottom there must be a change in elevation of at least 100 feet, maybe more, which to a city boy like me used to flat surfaces is pretty incredible.


After all this, my point is - don't be too afraid of exploring, in the end it is usually very much worth venturing outside your comfort zone, even if for just a little while!

Thanks for tuning in....