Undeveloped and Heavily Wooded, Osprey Acres Will be Our Playground for Years to Come.

The greenbelt behind my neighborhood was a fabulous place to grow up.

At some point a crazy woman (legend has it) paid a fortune to move a two-story cabin into the forest, and then left it to rot.  The bones of that cabin became the neighborhood lumber yard – dozens of kids scavenged supplies for the forts and tree houses that sprung up everywhere.

The trees stretched for miles, or at least until Bainbridge Island, a good six or seven miles away.  At least it felt like it went on forever.

When you live in the city, you never feel that way.

It’s part of the tradeoff for convenience, I suppose.  But I have missed the feeling of  open nature I had when I played in those woods.  And I’ve mourned the fact that my son – if he continues to grow up in the city – will never know that feeling.

Which is one of the reasons we’re pleased to announce that we are now the proud owners of a few wooded acres in Plain, WA. We hope to make this a weekend playground and little piece of paradise in the mountains for our little family to explore.

Future Yurt Site

Our wooded strip of land lies between a big old farm overlooking the Wenatchee River basin, and hundreds of miles of Wenatchee National Forest in our back yard.  And, it’s smack dab in the middle of one of the most beautiful little communities in the state.

Doing Our Perc Test With Our New Neighbor Jeff

There’s nothing on the land right now but tall trees and a well. Our plan is to hit the ground running, build a big deck for camping this summer and by next year install a good-sized yurt. In the next few years we hope to have a cabin on the site, but in the meantime there’s a lot of prep work that needs to be done.

We will be hosting work parties and camping with friends in the coming months, so let us know if you’d like to pitch in and help us create something beautiful (You can see the creative rustic designs we’re after in our Future Folder on Pinterest.)

We have ideas for a frisbee golf course and an underground wood fired sauna. We have a lot of learning to do about off-grid living and yurt construction, so we welcome your knowledge.

Amanda’s Birthday Present was a Pole Trimmer – But She Quickly Named it “The Torture Tool.”

You can follow our progress on this blog. For now, here are some photos of the area. We’re calling our little plot, ‘Osprey Acres’, as an homage to our spirit animal.

The White Spot in the Tree Line is About Where the Yurt Will Go

Future Cabin Site to the Right of the Canal

The New Fire Pit is Just Waiting for Someone to Come and Camp

While Scouting our Frisbee Golf Course We Came Across These Tracks – Cougar? Bear? Bobcat?

Ian’s First Day of Work as a Lumberjack

A Rather Large Ant Hill

While Not on Our Property, this Swing is a Short Walk Away and is Typical of the Views You Get Near Osprey Acres

This Stretch of Water Fronts Osprey Acres and is a Seasonal Irrigation Canal For the Valley. It’s Water is Diverted From the Chiwawa River