2010

This summer the walnuts are growing, the thistle is lessening, and I was able to extend quite a bit of effort on the structure itself.

Corey H-berg and I gathered our redwood and fashioned a temporary structure of wood and ratcheting straps to keep the lumber off the ground and to provide shelter in a downfall. 

I collected fossilized stone from a road-cut in Brookville, IN with my parents.  I will work the fossilized rocks visibly into the structure.

Some notable species noticed on the property thus far:
-pileated woodpecker, ceder waxwings, turkey vultures, black rat snakes, water snakes, grass (garter snakes), five lined skinks, small mouth bass, various caterpillers, moths, and butterflies.

2007-2009

Work began on the property in the summer of 2007. After mowing down Canadian thistle, digging and pouring the structure's foundation, and the laying of limestone, some friends and I inserted a variety of trees from the Indiana DNR into the property.

The summers of 2008 and 2009 were much the same--more tree planting, more stone laying, more thistle chomping.

I imagine the creation of the structure will take around 6 or 7 years. With various work obligations in Minnesota, I manage a handful of weeks work each summer at the property. I return each year chopping thistle, scratching the green growing moss from the limestone, and assembling another layer of wall growth.

Intoduction

A long-term living landplot,The Land Project encompasses seven-acres in Indiana's rural rolling Rush County countryside along the Flatrock River. This patch of forest and grassland exhibits a freshwater spring and a growing nut forest variety of shellbark Hickory, black walnut, oak, and pecan. Black rasberries and blackberries ripen abundantly in late June and Early July.

The Flatrock River stretches some 90 miles southwesterly from east-central Indiana to Columbus, where its gathered waters encourage the east fork of the White River. The White flows into the Wabash, ’ the Ohio, and ultimately ’ the largest river system in North America, the Mississippi River watershed. As the Flatrock ambulates Indiana's dense farmland and mixed hardwood forests its waters reveal the abundant Indiana flagstone that give the river its name.

The in-progress structure is built entirely of local limestone. The Roof timbers, flooring, shelving will be constructed from recovered redwood beams, and also from recycled barn and corn crib timber from Rush and Shelby country Indiana. A comprehensive drawing collection of all the wildlife noticed on the property, a roadkill effigy mound, a natural history museum, and other long-term land   developments are to be established...