After browsing Edenton we headed for a short excursion through Norfolk
and to a Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach.
We were supposedly among thousands of people sleeping there. We gladly paid $35 to pitch our tent among the wacky signs and silly toilets. We took a quick jump into the beach and headed to our guardian's office.
He showed us some property, much of it a bit too far from the tri-city area for our liking. We could not get in touch with the seller agents and had to rush back to North Carolina
to buy a new car
and to pick up a treat being shipped to us via freight.
We drove another hour to Greensboro
and settled, this time for good. We celebrated by eating more eucalyptus.
On the way up to Virginia we stopped in the war torn town of Edenton, North Carolina.
We saw a sign after the tracks Took our real estate to the MAX With the help of Tina Slack's Expertise in local tracts.
We sorted through the properties and picked our favorites in the mix.
Alec Holland, ABR, CRS, ePRO, GRI
170 acres for $350,000, with half a mile of frontage on a large river.
"Property has approx 3500 ft of frontage on the river. Great property for development. Near the Creswell city limits. Posibility of connecting to city sewage and water with formal agreement with city. Great opportunity for investers."
As a special treat, it appeared to be a short drive from the Albemarle Sound:
However, Tina found the price ($2,000/acre) to be suspicious, so she talked to Tim from the Mappings Dept of Washington County. In fact Tim had done the survey for that property, and his notes for us were as follows:
Almost entire area is a swamp.
Recommend a specialist to determine feasability of building 6 homes on this property.
Our hearts plunged and were eaten by a crocodile.*
*Crocodiles do not live in the US. You were probably thinking of Alligators.
Long Lost Faves
Next on faves was 112 acres for $285,000 ($2,500/acre), with several creeks and shooting lanes. However, it was in Rich Square, pretty far from both Edenton and from our final destination for the day, Norfolk.
We had to pass it up, along with another property in Lowland – 105 acres for $400,000 ($3,800/acre) which did not look very interesting.
Fruitcake
This left only one viable option. To get there, Tina sent us over a river
and through a woods
Grandma says:
Nature lover's dream home! Tucked in the midst of 50 glorious acres with access to the Albemarle Sound, this cute home offers an open floor plan & handicap access. There's a serene 3/4 acre pond surrounded by walking trails, wildlife, and appr. 12 cleared acres lovingly planted with a variety of Fruit Trees, Pecans Trees, Grape Vines & blueberries. Greenhouse, Large Workshop. County H20 available.
All that for only $275,000, not bad, except that's $5,300/acre. Not as mouth-swamping as those wetlands, but not bad.
After several minutes crawling up the driveway into the property, the place felt very open. A large cleared bushy area served as a several-acre front yard.
Hundreds of birds gave us the cold shoulder.
They didn't care one bit about our visit and would rather read the morning paper or live up to their lofty ideals, never speaking a word to humans.
Through detective work we deduced that fruit is everything to these people.
Passionfruit
Grapes
A medium quiet pond sat near the back.
Around it sat an unknown volume of woods (only unknown when measured in ping pong balls).
Since we didn't have a map of the property, we just pretended, and correctly prophesied that we would not get shot.
The house was acting standoffish, dodging questions about the war, so we left it alone. For the birds, we say.
Overall this property was nice. A field for frisbee, semi-mature fruit trees already planted, woods, and a pond. The only downsides were slightly low acreage / high price per acre, and a shallow pond teeming with stillness. And of course location: Edenton is a small town of 5,000 residents.
City
Distance
Population
Elizabeth City
45 min
17,000
Greenville
1 hr 45 min
75,000
Norfolk, VA / Virginia Beach / Newport News
1 hr 30 min
1,500,000
We moved on to the metropolis of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Newport News for a short visit with Guardian Miguel...
LOOK OUT! This is a guest post from Home Ghost Erin Gleeson in Oakland!
Drew and I headed north to Boonville, CA. There's an intentional community up there that practices permaculture gardening, natural building and baby rearing. They are our kind of dudes.
Food It seems like their diet was largely vegetarian. Most of their protein would come from beans. But now, as they're trying to eat more local foods, they want to shift away from beans grown in Mexico. It seems that locally raised meat would be the most bountiful source of protein for them. While we were there, we ate a lot of fruits and vegetables grown on-site (they have two pretty large gardens and a greenhouse), but the main things (rice, noodles, olive oil, etc.) were purchased. They also raise chickens for eggs.
They're drying cherries on a screen in the greenhouse. One of their showers is also in the greenhouse. It's beautiful.
"The Shit Cooker." Every six months, they clean out the compost toilet and put the poop in here. After another six months, they use it to fertilize trees. They don't use the mixture with vegetables b/c some diseases (ie, hepatitis) cannot be broken down in the process. Toilet. They used materials gleaned from the land in conjunction with a couple purchased materials. It cost them about twenty dollars.
Here are my notes on the place:
Location Located just outside of Boonville, the Sanctuary is very similar to the model that we've been discussing for MV. 180 acres, 20 minutes from a town, 2.5 hours from San Francisco. Of the 180 acres, they use 20.
History Twenty years ago, several friends from Berkeley decided to set up their own community. One of the members came into some money, so she bought the land, which at the time only had a plywood hunting cabin on it. They established a non-profit and called it Emerald Earth Sanctuary, after their hippie drum circle. Eventually, it disintegrated, and one guy was left on the land, holding onto the hope that it would all come together. The woman that made the purchase gave the land to the non-profit. About ten years later, four plucky youngsters with natural building experience approached the last remaining drummer and asked him if they could help revive it. He was down, and the Sanctuary grew into what it is today.
Non-Profit Status They're a 501(c)3, which means they have a Board of Directors. It all appears to work just fine. It sounded really casual and not at all like Purchase Student Government, where people demand pizza and activities based purely on their own desires.
Monthly Fees About $300, which goes toward food, power and internet costs.
Zoning Everything is illegal, but no one has bothered them yet.
Jobs No one works more than three days a week. Most of the members work in Boonville, but one guy said he works from home doing computer stuff. He commutes into Boonville one day a week to meet with his employer. His wife is an acupuncturist, and another woman is a massage therapist. They both have practices in Boonville.
Buildings Most of the buildings are smallish cob structures, but they're all hybrids of several different styles. They're really beautiful and good at keeping cool in the summer. The biggest undertaking is their new community house, which is going beyond their means. They're having a fundraiser to help with the costs. I wish I had gotten pictures of the Community House site, but we had to dig fence post holes. In essence, it's effing huge.
They Need Cars to Get Around To get to their property, you have to drive on a narrow, hilly dirt road that isn't bike friendly. One of the members said that's his biggest problem with the place. He would like to be able to bike into town with his 18-month-old daughter, but it just isn't safe.
Approx. 600 road frontage. Soil report on file, percs for 5 large tracts, plus 2 septic systems installed on old homesite. Cut over 3-5 years ago. County Water tap in place. Perfect for mini-farm subdivision, or build your private homestead on this beautiful tract with a short commute to the hospital and/or ECU. Small pond on site and bordered by a nice creek
The land was nice,
but cut.
And we quickly realized we were not alone.
Around the watering hole, adjectives made Heather feel something.
Word on the street is that they were murky, small, and still. Luckily we didn't get too down on ourselves and soon found a roller coaster.
Along the front, among six hundred feet of road frontage, sat an invisible home with septic tank and clean green coaltricity:
A long animal confirmed our suspicions of non aloneness, and raised hairs of Godfrey, former venom victim.
After exploring, the interim road ghosts shared the evening together,
and traversed our usual checklist of Guardian Angel Discussion Topics:
1. Shriners. White Masons have asked black Masons on a play date. Developing story. 2. The Confederate flag. According to Godfrey, not about hate, black people just have too much time on their hands. Debatable. 3. Flooding. Before Y2K, Greenville flooded 25 feet. Heavy rains and opened floodgates rushed water from state capital. No love for Raleigh. 4. Sweat rags. Essential.
As the sky darkened, we said goodbye and went on our way.
As we arrived at an RV resort some miles away, Godfrey and his bluetooth checked to make sure we made it OK. We had, and did, and our morning calisthenics around the lake ended with a surprise.
Overall Greenville did not impress during our short visit. We hear it's a nice place. But Northward we continued.
