88 Acres of Heaven
On eighty-eight wooded acres nestled in
the western mountains of Maine you can find Spruce Nubble Farm.
About 5 miles outside the town of Strong, we are located in
Freeman Township, an unorganized territory.
The land we now steward was part
of the Brackley Apple Orchard at one time, and was developed
by Richard and Ardy Rausch beginning in the 1970's. They
built the house, garage, sugar house, and ran a commercial
sawmill (Strong Lumber) on the site for many years. When the
Rausch's passed away they donated the property to The Nature
Conservancy.
The property was aquired from the Nature
Conservancy in 2005 and work began almost immediately to convert
the sawmill building into a barn and make a number of improvements
and changes to the living spaces.
Today the facility is a bit more than 13,000
square feet – the main house, a four car garage with
second floor hay loft, a sugarhouse, and a five stall barn
that also contains tack room along with a big feed room, a
chicken coop and several other simple shelters for seasonal
animals.
The view is the first thing
that you notice when you pull into the driveway. We have an
almost 360 degree view of several mountain ranges in the area.
There's much more to the beauty of this land than a pretty
view, however. Mixed hardwood forests dominate, with several
large stands of Spruce and Beech. There's a lovely stream at
one end of the property, with just enough depth to cool you
off in the summer time. The other end of the property is home
to several large vernal pools which provide safe habitat for
endangered salamanders, as well as providing a spectacular
serenade during the spring time when the " peepers" take
center stage.
There are about 12 acres of cleared land
which surround the house and outbuildings. This is enough to
let our animals graze most of the summer, but not enough to
grow hay, or raise grass-intensive animals like beef. We're
working on expanding our grazable acreage, but its a slow process
that takes years.
The balance of our land is in "tree growth"
- meaning that we only harvest the wood using selective cutting
and proper forest management techniques. |
