A tract of real estate situate in the Northwest Quarter (NW/4) of Section Sixteen (16), Township Twenty-two (22) South, Range Twenty (20) West, Pawnee County, Kansas, described as follows: Commencing at the Northwest corner of said Section 16, thence East along the North line of said Section a distance of 350 feet for a place of beginning; thence continuing east along the North line of said Section, a distance of 370 feet; thence South a distance of 300 feet; thence West a distance of 370 feet; thence North a distance of 300 feet to the place of beginning.
So this property is an exact square whose sides are 370 feet long and 300 feet long. This means the land is 111,000 square feet, which is equivalent to 2.55 acres. The property is almost exactly square in relation to the four directions: north, south, east and west. In other words, the northern boundary runs almost exactly or exactly due east and due west, the eastern boundary runs almost exactly or exactly north and south, and so forth.
As you can see from the legal description, the northern boundary and the southern boundary are each 370 feet long, while the eastern boundary and the western boundary are each 300 feet long.
Now we will for the sake of organized discussion conveniently divide the property into 3 parts and describe what is in each part.
WESTERN SECTION OF THE PROPERTY: Approximately 30,000 square feet. The primary features of this part are as follows:
1. The House. The house is situated close to the western edge of the property, half way between the north and south edges of the property. The house is ranch style, so it is longer than it is wide. The length of the house runs almost exactly east and west. Past the western edge of the house, there is a small strip of lawn separating the west end of the house from the post and barbed wire fence marking the western edge of the property. This strip is about 15 feet wide or so and the grass grows well here.
The distance from the door on the east end of the house, which is in between the porch and the dining room, and the big garage door to the quonset building, is about 27 yards. The distance from the east end of the house door to the barn is about 30 yards. Finally, the distance from the western barn door to the quonset garage door is about 28 yards. So you can say that the eastern end of the house door, the western end of the quonset building garage door, and the western door of the barn form a triangle, and it is almost an equal sided triangle.
2. The North Lawn. To the north of the house is a rectangular lawn where grass grows nicely and generally crowds out weeds as long as the lawn is cut occassionally in the April-June period. There is a "miniature forest" of 8 relatively small trees about in the middle of this roughly 15,000 square foot lawn, 6 of which are evergreens, 1 of which is deciduous, and one of which is dead (it does not bloom in the spring anymore). Further north, there are some really small trees growing up on the northwest corner of this lawn, which is the northwest corner of the property as a whole.
There are two older, very large deciduous trees just to the northeast of the house, on the southeast edge of the north lawn.
Finally, there is a small steel beem apparatus from which a swing used to hang and could theoretically hang again, or else this could be used to hang clothes out to dry if someone didn't want to use an electric dryer.
3. The Small Workshop. The small workshop that needs new roofing to be attached to its wood roof planks is situated southeast from the house roughly 25 feet from the south door of the house, which is the door that opens to the pantry.
4. A Very Small and Very Heavily Damaged Structure. Next to the small workshop, just to the south of it, is a very heavily damaged and very small square structure, maybe 60 square feet, that may have used to be an outhouse many years ago. Fortunately, this tiny but very ugly wreck of a building can hardly be seen from the house, since it is mostly hidden by the small workshop.
5. The South Lawn. On the south side of the house, the south lawn is almost a twin of the north lawn in size, rouughly 15,000 square feet, but the south lawn takes on a somewhat rougher appearance than does the north lawn, mainly because there is a fairly large pile of tree branches about 10 yards to the south of the house from trees that were heavily trimmed and/or from an ice storm from many years ago.
There are four blooming, relatively large deciduous trees in various spots on the south lawn, and one dead deciduous tree next to the workshed, which is on the eastern edge of the south lawn to be exact. Also, the cement cap mound for the underground well service room is on the south side.
Just south of the well installation, out near the southern edge of the property, is a square roughly 150 sq. feet area surrounded by a 2 foot high cement wall, which is filled with tree branches. Like the somewhat larger one described below in the Central Part, this smaller square enclosed by cement area could be used as a safe place to burn stuff. But keep in mind that there is regular trash pickup service for ordinary household garbage from a garbage bin that is 1 mile east of the property, so you would never need to (or want to!) burn ordinary household trash. If someone never had anything to burn, these two cement squares would probably have no other useful purpose, and an owner interested in landscaping this property might want to have the low rise cement walls bulldozed away.
5. The Well Service Room (Underground). Visible on the south lawn is the cement top of the small, square, approximately 7 feet underground, cement room where the components needed for the well system in between the well water and the pipes leading to the house are situated, such as the pressure tank and the electrical.
6. Sidewalks. There is a sidewalk running from the house door and the cement mini porch on the southeast corner of the house and the doorway of the small workshop building. A connected sidewalk then runs along the eastern edge of the house to the much larger and more elevated porch, off of which is the door to the dining room at the eastern end of the house. Finally, another 5 yards of sidewalk extends from the mini porch off the southeast (pantry) house door out to the middle area where cars have been traditionally parked.
CENTRAL SECTION OF THE PROPERTY: Approximately 40,000 square feet. the primary features of this part would be:
1. The North Side of the Quonset Lawn. This relatively small lawn, maybe 5000 square feet at the most, is north of the quonset building and is an open lawn area where grass grows well.
2. The Quonset Building Itself. The Quonset building is in the north central area of the property, about half way between east and west boundaries. The quonset building, which is much longer than it is wide and is situated so that the length of it runs east and west, just as the house does. Remember that there are also the two circular grain bins, one just to the northwest of the quonset building and one just to the southwest of the quonset building. One of them is about 14 feet in diameter and the other one is about 11 feet in diameter. These make for useful specialty storage areas.
3. The Driveway Leading to the "Middle Area." The driveway to the property is dirt and it runs up a gentle incline along the north boundary eastward and then turns to the south so that it ends up in the "middle area," which is what I call the area between the three largest buildings, the quonset building, the barn, and the house. The middle area is an open treeless area. In the central parts of the "middle area" grass does not grow very well because cars have traditionally been parked in those areas when they were not parked inside the quonset building.
The driveway and, of course, the road that leads to the property are plowed during relatively rare snowstorms. The plowing is done either by the town of Sawmill, a 36 square mile area where this property is located, or by Pawnee County, I'm not sure which it is technically.
4. The "Middle Area" Itself, as described just above in (3). As a rough estimate, this is about an 8,000 square foot area.
5. The "Mini Forest". This is a stretch of about 8 relatively large evergreen and deciduous trees, and a lilac bush on the south end, southeast of the "middle area". Situated in between this tree line and a south of the barn corral fence is my favorite spot on the property, because I am a fan of tree lines and of evergreen trees in particular.
6. The "Rough South Central Area". This is a rough looking area whose main feature is a roughly 200 sq. ft. square area enclosed by a 1 1/2 foot high cement wall. This enclosed area is currently filled with tree branches and can be used to store wood for heating, or to burn wood if you don't have a use for tree branches, don't want them lying around anymore, and nor do you want to haul them off the property. Remember that you can do what you want as long as you burn safely; there are no zoning hassles here.
7. The Lawn Between the Quonset Building and the Barn. This is mostly open, grassy area, but it does have a few smaller trees near the two buildings. It forms a corridor between the "middle area" and the eastern section of the property. The grass in this area tends to have a tougher time crowding out weeds than in other areas, so it is important to cut this area in the April-June period in order to avoid weeds in this area at that time of the year.
8. The Barn. The barn is almost exactly in the middle of the property overall.
9. Corral areas to the south of the barn. Some fencing is intact and needs no repair, especially the fencing just to the south of the barn and the metal fence just off the east side of the barn. Other fencing is partially intact and needs repair, and still other fencing is heavily damaged and needs a complete do over if someone wants extensive corral space restored. For even more information see the post on this page called "The Barn and the Corrals Off of it".
10. The Spigot. The spigot is next to the largely intact corral just to the south of the barn. It works: when you pull up the handle, the water flows at a fairly good pressure.
EASTERN SECTION OF THE PROPERTY: Approximately 40,000 square feet. You might call this the "Great Plains" of this property!
At one time the southern half of this area was fenced corral area, but most of that historical fencing is heavily damaged, to the point where only remnants of it remain.
In the northern half of the Eastern Section, there are five larger deciduous trees, two pairs of twin trees whose trunks are about a yard from one another, and a separate, single tree, all relatively close to each other. These five trees are in a roughly 2,000 square foot square shaped area that is about 20 yards northeast of the barn and at the same time about 20 yards southeast of the eastern end of the quonset building, the end that has the sliding steel/metal doors.
In general, the eastern part of the property could best be described at the moment as scrub land, because it has been neither mowed, landscaped, farmed, or used for pasture for many years. Fortunately, because of the quonset building, the barn, and the fact that the Eastern Section gently slopes downward away from the house, this area is invisible from the house and so it does not need to be mowed or landscaped if the objective is simply to keep the living area grounds looking nice.
There are about 10 coils of barbed wire left from fencing work from many years ago lying on the ground in the north part of the eastern section. Each of these coils is about a foot and a half or two feet in diameter. And there is a whopper of a barbed wire coil east of the barn, roughly 4 feet in diameter.
Since this part of the property has not been mowed for many years, and probably was never mowed in the city/suburban sense of that word, the eastern section is characterized by less grass and more weeds then are the other sections of the property. However, since the climate is relatively dry, there is a limit on how bad the weed problem gets even in the "wild" eastern part of the property.
Obviously, the eastern part could be the focus of a very large gardening/very small farm operation. I'm no farmer, but I will tell someone interested in growing things here that the climate here roughly produces:
A ROUGH DESCRIPTION OF HOW FAST VEGETATION GROWS HERE
March 1-March 25: Slow growth
March 26-April 20: Moderate growth
April 21: May 20: Rapid and sometimes very, amazingly rapid growth
May 21-June 15: Moderate growth
June 15-July 10: Slow growth
July 11-August 20: Very little growth due to the heat and to the maturity cycle of the vegetation.
August 21-September 10: Slow growth
September 11-October 20: Slow to occasionally moderate growth
October 21-February 28: No growth to speak of after the first hard freeze until about the first of March
TREES AND SHRUBS
In total there is one relatively large evergreen tree, a medium sized evergreen tree, and half a dozen smaller evergreen trees. As for the approximately two dozen deciduous trees, according to a Kansas person who recently toured this property, some of the trees are "Chinese elm" trees that were imported into the prairie many years ago by homesteaders.
There used to be a rose bush on the south side of the house but I cut it completely down because I don't like bushes with thorns. I suppose you could let it grow back if you like roses. On the north side of the house next to the house, there is a row of 4 bushes that bloom with small green leaves and that have small white flowers in the spring. As mentioned above, there is a lilac bush on the south central edge of the property.
WILDLIFE
Rabbits love this property unless the owner has a dog, but don't get me wrong, the rabbit population on the property is never more than about 10 rabbits and sometimes you go for many days without seeing any of them. You occasionally see very large birds visit the property, hawks or eagles I guess. Roughly twice a year in the warm part of the year, I have had an owl pay a visit, because I heard it hooting at dusk and or at daybreak. Oh, and you might end up with a free horse if you wait long enough, because in March 2006, I had an older pony and a young pony just wander on in and start chomping on some vegetation on the southeast corner of the property!
