Did ya ever sell a place then go back and look at it a few years later and think...

[greybeard]

As most know, I sold the old place in East Texas in 2022. I had taken it from a horrible tangled forest, cleared it, cleaned it up, planted grass, fenced and ran cattle and built a new house and some out buildings on it. It was hard to leave. Kept the 1 acre yard clean and mowed and mud and rut free. I kept things simple, didn't junk it up, kept the trash burned or hauled off. When I sold it, I made SURE the new owner was well aware of the flood potential, showed him pictures of the water and the high water marks of the shop door. That really peeved my realtor, but I knew it was the right thing to do.
How I left it May 2022 google earth:


Realtor sale ad for it:


I like the new owner and so do the neighbors. He'll pitch in and help just about anyone there.
I went back by there Thanksgiving 2022 and New Guy had torn down my 40x22 loafing shed/hay storage barn for some reason (top left of 1st picture but out of frame in 2nd picture) and had put up a big fabric building in it's place, plus bilt a greenhouse off the the right of the house, some other outbuildings and had begun accumulating lots of 'stuff'.

Went back by there again last Christmas and the place was one huge muddy mess. He had moved the big fabric building and put it back up in a different location just behind the yard. Had hauled lots of heavy loads right thru the yard to the rear behind the little shop and everywhere ya looked was sand colored mud...and junk and old vehicles. He's not really a cow guy, & tho I didn't see any cattle I know he has the pasture leased out for ag exemption.

Google earth presently:






Yeah, I know, not mine any more and I got a good price for it so I shouldn't care what New Guy does to it. Still, it really breaks my heart.

 

[Ouachita]

Sounds like you started with a blank canvas. I did too, and still a work in progress. Ain't much here we get to take with us, but I still don't want to imagine someone making a mess out of it after I'm gone.

 

[greybeard]

Sounds like you started with a blank canvas.

It don't get much more blank than this.. We had run cows on it for 4 decades but dad was a firm believer in 'woods cows' and I hated trees. black square is where I built my house.

 

[A.J.]

Sad to see that after all you put into it. Things can take so much time and work to build up right, then get undone and rundown in no time. Like taking the time to put up a nice fence just to have a a bull tear through it in a matter of seconds and leave you with the aftermath.

 

[Travlr]

As most know, I sold the old place in East Texas in 2022. I had taken it from a horrible tangled forest, cleared it, cleaned it up, planted grass, fenced and ran cattle and built a new house and some out buildings on it.

Yeah, I know, not mine any more and I got a good price for it so I shouldn't care what New Guy does to it. Still, it really breaks my heart.

My wife and I bought our first cheap little house, fixed it up and sold it three years later, doubling our money. The last time I drove by it there was a CONDEMNED noticed on the door and from the looks it had been used as a meth lab.
Some of the places we' lived in or owned have been torn down. Some gone to hell. I have yet to see one that has been taken care of well. People are strange...

 

[Logan52]

Back in 2004 we bought an old store building and a little over an acre just down the road. We had dreams of a farm market. It also had an old blacksmith shop, a nice hand dug well and a small barn. It was little changed from the late 1800s, had once been a post office, a grist mill and the center of a small community. Old antique roses, daylilies and other plantings filled the lot. I put most of it in garden as it was level, fertile and had access to water. My grandfather had ridden a mule there each Saturday night in the 1910s to dance and play a fiddle.
With kids in school, I really could not afford to just sit on it and sold for a small profit.
It changed hands a number of times. All the old buildings are gone and a double wide sits in the middle. The rest of the land is piled in junk with muddy paths between the piles. I hate to look when I drive by.

 

[Lannie]

As most know, I sold the old place in East Texas in 2022. I had taken it from a horrible tangled forest, cleared it, cleaned it up, planted grass, fenced and ran cattle and built a new house and some out buildings on it. It was hard to leave. Kept the 1 acre yard clean and mowed and mud and rut free. I kept things simple, didn't junk it up, kept the trash burned or hauled off. When I sold it, I made SURE the new owner was well aware of the flood potential, showed him pictures of the water and the high water marks of the shop door. That really peeved my realtor, but I knew it was the right thing to do.
How I left it May 2022 google earth:
View attachment 42212

Realtor sale ad for it:
View attachment 42213

I like the new owner and so do the neighbors. He'll pitch in and help just about anyone there.
I went back by there Thanksgiving 2022 and New Guy had torn down my 40x22 loafing shed/hay storage barn for some reason (top left of 1st picture but out of frame in 2nd picture) and had put up a big fabric building in it's place, plus bilt a greenhouse off the the right of the house, some other outbuildings and had begun accumulating lots of 'stuff'.

Went back by there again last Christmas and the place was one huge muddy mess. He had moved the big fabric building and put it back up in a different location just behind the yard. Had hauled lots of heavy loads right thru the yard to the rear behind the little shop and everywhere ya looked was sand colored mud...and junk and old vehicles. He's not really a cow guy, & tho I didn't see any cattle I know he has the pasture leased out for ag exemption.

Google earth presently:
View attachment 42214





Yeah, I know, not mine any more and I got a good price for it so I shouldn't care what New Guy does to it. Still, it really breaks my heart.

Same thing happened to us. We had a nice, tidy place in Central Oregon, and we really took pride in it. We hand dug a beautiful pond (with a waterfall and a circulating pumps) in front of the large front deck and landscaped it with flat lava rocks into a multi-tiered flower/herb bed, we planted a couple of flowering trees, and put in beautiful paver walkways to the house from the circular driveway. Now when I look at satellite pictures of it, it looks like a slum. There are all kinds of little shed type buildings scattered all over, and parked cars (lots of those). It's hard to see, after the work we put into it.

 

[simme]

Nature reclaims improved pasture quickly if it is not maintained.

 

[kenny thomas]

Nature reclaims improved pasture quickly if it is not maintained.

Exactly. I sold a small 22 acre place 3 years ago. They put a plank horse fence around the hay field. Let the grazing part just grow up. Would be hard to bush hog now. He called last week and ask if i would give him his money back. I might offer 20,000 less.

 

[wbvs58]

I don't think I would like to even look. When I leave here it will be in a zip up bag. I think the first thing my daughter will do is get rid of the cows. I don't know how she intends to keep the grass under control without the help of cows.

Ken

 

[Little Joe]

Nature reclaims improved pasture quickly if it is not maintained.

I have a neighbor that I used to share a bull with, he has went out of the cow business, has about 30 acres of pasture. I asked about running cattle on it, he said his sister in law owns the area of the pasture where the pond and shade trees are and she has decided she no longer wants cows on her part because she wants it to return to nature. That is the only section of her part of the place that is cleared, rest is hardwoods, he and I believe she has the assumption that it will be a beautiful hardwood forest. I told him to explain to her that it will be nothing but briars, cedars and gum in no time and that you won't even be able to get to the pond. I told him to tell her that if she wants her part back in woods that as payment for the lease, I would provide my labor and equipment to plant hardwoods on her part and manage it so that the cattle can still utilize the shade and pond. Otherwise his part is pretty useless with no shade or water and will have to be bush hogged to prevent from growing up. She lives in the city hundreds of miles away.

 

[Ouachita]

I have a neighbor that I used to share a bull with, he has went out of the cow business, has about 30 acres of pasture. I asked about running cattle on it, he said his sister in law owns the area of the pasture where the pond and shade trees are and she has decided she no longer wants cows on her part because she wants it to return to nature. That is the only section of her part of the place that is cleared, rest is hardwoods, he and I believe she has the assumption that it will be a beautiful hardwood forest. I told him to explain to her that it will be nothing but briars, cedars and gum in no time and that you won't even be able to get to the pond. I told him to tell her that if she wants her part back in woods that as payment for the lease, I would provide my labor and equipment to plant hardwoods on her part and manage it so that the cattle can still utilize the shade and pond. Otherwise his part is pretty useless with no shade or water and will have to be bush hogged to prevent from growing up. She lives in the city hundreds of miles away.

In 2014 I sold all of our cattle. Had medical bills and my day job was taking me away from home. I was very surprised how fast nature was taking over. We couldn't fish in the pond without fighting briars and woody shrubs. I couldn't keep up with bush hogging, so in 2019 we decided to employ cows again.
If I count my time, fuel and cost of tractor, I save a lot more than I make on the cattle (and they do a better job without complaining).

 

[Logan52]

Its happening all around me. As the older farmers (such as myself) pass on, none of the heirs want to fool with cows. They allow the more level ridges to be cut for hay by someone, but the majority of the farm slowly grows up. It takes about 40 years to return to something that could be considered a forest. That means at least 30 years of briars, sumac and increasingly, multiflora rose.
After well over 200 years of intensive cultivation, the land here is becoming an escape for tired town dwellers to build a home, while most of the land produces nothing but deer, turkeys and coyotes.

 

[greybeard]

It takes about 40 years to return to something that could be considered a forest.

Not where I used to live. Those pines and Chinese tallow grow really fast in that rain rich environment,

 

[SmokinM]

Doesn't bother me near as much when they let it grow up in briars as when they let it grow up in houses or junk. That being said around here the state had a program going for awhile that paid to plant pines. Sure stuck in my craw to see prime farm land plowed in with pines knowing what it takes to clear a piece of ground. Especially considering a lot of this was probably done with mules, axes and dynamite the first time.

 

[Twisted]

I spent 15 years of my life working on a place and landscaping everything that wasn't pasture and some that was. I moved from there in 2012 and refuse to look back. I have friends and relatives who occasionally tell me what the place looks like now, but I try my best not to care. I always called the place my forever home but there were many times I had the feeling that I was only working for someone else.

For the next 10 years or so I just floated around not really settling for very long at a time. I just couldn't find a place that I thought that I belonged. I found plenty that needed tons of work and did do lots of it.

The place I am on now feels much different, it feels like God wants me here. So I pour just as much or more into this one as the last one. I just wish I was the younger me.I haven't lost the creativity or the desire but my back is getting worn out.

 

[gman4691]

The first house we bought was in a subdivision…everything brand new. We lived there a few years and it was pretty nice. Everybody knew each other and there were virtually no privacy fences. All of the yards were just open to each other…neighborhood kids had a blast. Most wound up at our house on Saturdays. I got several to lay down on the concrete driveway one day so I could trace them with sidewalk chalk and they could color themselves into the outlines. They were all pretty small so my driveway looked like a crime scene where a bunch of dwarves were attacked - lol. Drove through there a few years ago and almost everyone has privacy fences - most of which are in pretty crappy shape…it's a shame…it was a pretty nice place when we were there.

 

[Ouachita]

That memory, as pleasant or unpleasant as it may be at different times in your life, is one you should hold close.

 

[gman4691]

That memory, as pleasant or unpleasant as it may be at different times in your life, is one you should hold close.

Won't forget the time spent there. Hitting the grill with neighbors, etc.

 

[Ouachita]