There wasn't a whole lot else going on during our trip other than looking at land. This post is the last day of our trip before we headed home for Georgia the next day. The houses were nothing special. Everywhere we went in Virginia seemed to be teeming with wild game and an abundance of natural resources. This land seems to be unmolested and is asking for someone to give it a little nudge in the right direction before it explodes with ripeness. I can't wait for the next chapter in this new and seemingly great state.
Seeing droppings is a sure way to tell if animals are there. These pellets belong to a deer. How much they clump together is determined by diet and hydration. All the tracks seem to be inconsistent in their freshness but they are all facing the same way. I'm wondering if this property is part of a gateway path from bedding, feeding areas, and water to other areas used the same way. Many of the deer seem to be larger than the ones in my home state of Georgia.
Standing 50 yards in the front yard this is the view of the land.The row of bushes on the left hides the paved driveway. This driveway passed 2 other properties from the main road. You could hear cars passing by and the people living around fairly easily despite there being space between all.
Here is a side view of the home. If you look at the home and see the brown square on the bottom center of the main building. Directly on the bottom left right in the yard you can see a drain where the rain water goes. It makes a puddle 10 feet off where there are so many deer drinking from it that it looks like drunk ancient hieroglyphs.
What set this property aside from the others is the prominent black bear presence. I went down the side of the driveway and saw a sow with 2 cubs run off. I found some down fur right in the front yard about 10 paces from the front door. The other sign was a cache of bones from various animals. There were so many fragments it looked like one of those gardens littered with sea shells. I only found these bones intact, all from deer.
Along the entire perimeter there were wild berries saturating the underbrush. The first 2 plants were raspberry bushes that are close to blooming. The next are wild blueberries. There was barbed wire surrounding the areas with the thickest concentration of berries. The realtor showed a picture of the house while being constructed and there was an electric bear fence surrounding the site. I think there has been a bear problem in the area for a while.
There were newts breeding in one of the many fresh springs on the last property. There were also egg clusters and tadpoles halfway to maturity. The last pictures can be found in Georgia. This particular specimen was found on my back face down ass up.