My new place

[Turkish]

My first land tour thread (if I made one) was certainly a failure to launch. Due to a number of factors that maybe I'll get into later, I kept doing most of my hunting elsewhere and really didn't have any improvements or projects or questions to share. I'd been looking to trade up for a few years, mostly focused on that same neighborhood (my folks own land there, too), but all the while with a worry in the back of my mind about it being too far from home. Life is a million miles an hour now and needing to devote a whole weekend to visit the farm just wasn't working outside of Christmas time. Almost by mistake, I came across a listing that caught my attention and was about 45 minutes from home. I checked out some maps and decided to take a look. LIked it, liked the price the agent thought was a fair price and lost out to another buyer during negotiations. Two weeks later, that deal backed out, I re-upped my final offer and we were under contract. I managed to sell my other place quickly and closed on both transactions in one trip to the lawyer's office. With so many things just falling into place for this overthinker engineer, gotta be meant-to-be!

I'm a map freak, and they are my "first impression" for every piece of land I look at, so let's start there...

 

[Turkish]

This is in extreme SW MS. Loess hills close to the MS River, generally known for fertility but accessibility challenges. Steep bluffs and highly erodible ground are common, with creeks and drainages commonly being 100' ravines, made worse with the Flood Control Act of 1927.

My place has mostly mild topography and about 3/4 mile frontage on a pretty lazy spring fed gravel-bottom creek that runs all the way to the River across the state line. It also has a little intermittent stream, also spring fed that splits the north end that has water despite our recent drought. It'll complicate access a little, but I think I can manage it with some dozer work.

 

[Turkish]

The good:

While I regret not getting much enjoyment from my previous property, I don't regret its purchase. It taught me a lot about land ownership, most importantly confirming the fulfillment I get from owning land... even when the hunting doesn't meet my expectations. It taught me how much I WANT to spend time on my land and wasn't able to. Also very importantly, it helped me feel more confident in my next land purchase.

My top few characteristics, somewhat in order of importance, were as follows:
* Seclusion -- this place is at the end of dead end road, then about a 200' deeded non-exclusive easement. 1 mile from some houses and closer to 1 or 2 weekend houses and hunting camps. I don't hear ANYTHING but birds there. My last place was on a busy county road and a Federal Parkway. Road noise was not something I enjoyed.
* Access to utilities -- not something easily accomplished if you value seclusion. This place actually has access to county water with a power line 50 yards from the gate. 5G cell service, to boot.
* At least 120 acres -- This one is a touch over 200. I need enough room to chase after some longbeards -- rather my 10-year old son needs enough room to chase after longbeards.
* Not turnkey -- I'm tight and need to feel like I'm adding value to land. This place has been neglected and is in a really sought-after area. I didn't get it for a steal, but there is plenty of room for improvement and forced appreciation. Places like that have become increasingly uncommon in this region.
* Decent campsite location -- perfect high spot where the driveway enters the property for as big a yard, campsite as I wanted to create with a little heavy equipment.
* Reasonably good access to the entirety of the tract -- with some dozer work this can be done and can be maintained. Not perfect on this one, but good enough.
* Closer to the house the better -- land in my county costs 3-4x what my first land purchase was. I didn't think I'd really ever find a place I could afford closer than 1.5 hours away. This place is 45 minutes from my driveway, 30 minutes from my kids' school.

It's always been tough to apply literally, but there's the old advice about pick 5 criteria and look for land that has 3 of em. I feel like I got nearly all my most important characteristics. In a perfect world, this place is about 20 acres smaller, so that I have some $$ for a tractor, but we'll figure that out.

 

[Turkish]

Other positives
* I really wanted to find something with old fields or pastures but this wasn't crucial. That's hard to find in this area. This place has about 50 acres of neglected pasture. Now this is going to take some work to reclaim, but at least the potential is there and I'll learn a lot from it. It's good flat land and it won't require excavators stumping the entire acreage to reclaim it. I'm trying hard to get my hands on a skid steer with a brush cutter. That would be the ideal tool. Gonna need plenty of help from you guys on strategy with this. Old fields can be seen in the map below, from about 15 years ago.
* I wanted hardwoods. Pine plantations are nearly ubiquitous here, especially to the east where the soils get a little poorer. This place was logged pretty heavily about 30 years ago. There are spots with very pretty cherrybark oak logs and some other closed canopy trash (beech, sweetgun, elm). There's lots of merchantable timber but I'd probably have to give up a lot of my really good stuff to even get a logger there to improve some of the trash. Maybe in a few years we can get that in a better spot and make some $$ on a timber sale. Ideal would be enough prime stuff to entice a logger to come get the trash and just enough good stuff to make it worth their time, but still have plenty good stuff left over. I'm not there yet.
* I haven't even mentioned deer hunting -- this place is in a great deer neighborhood, even though that wasn't really a requirement for me. There are 160s within 2 miles of me for sure. However, I am not going to be able to compete in terms of baiting. This may greatly diminish my opportunities at the top end bucks. I also share a corner with a 16th section lease.

 

[Turkish]

The bad:
* Perimeter road establishment will be a little tough. I've found this to be very important to deer hunting small tracts down here, where deer are smelling human intrusion for 4 months in the fall/winter. I have one ravine to get across and a bigger, but shallower creek, on the north end.
* Some invasives but not terrible. Chinese privet and trifoliate orange are pretty common many of the upland areas. I'm afraid at what they may do if I start opening the canopy. I've seen worse, but I've seen better.

 

[KY wild]

Wow looks perfect to me, just enough needs to make you enjoy the ride of improvements that you will be making probably the rest of your life. In a a few years you will be glad that it is 20 acres more than you can currently digest. I know in KY hardwood trees are almost always worth more than people think they are worth, if it was select cut 30 years ago, I bet you are setting on more nickels than you realize, probably gives you more options than you think. I have chiggers from picking milkweed pods after work today that I plan to plant next spring, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Congrats

 

[SwampCat]

Great looking place. Less than one hour from home is a big advantage. You will be able to enjoy it a lot more

 

[Turkey Creek]

Nice! Enjoy it.

 

[Turkish]

Wow looks perfect to me, just enough needs to make you enjoy the ride of improvements that you will be making probably the rest of your life. In a a few years you will be glad that it is 20 acres more than you can currently digest. I know in KY hardwood trees are almost always worth more than people think they are worth, if it was select cut 30 years ago, I bet you are setting on more nickels than you realize, probably gives you more options than you think. I have chiggers from picking milkweed pods after work today that I plan to plant next spring, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Congrats

Thanks. I grew up hunting leased land in the same territory, owned by a hardwood timber company that owned timberland in the MS river bottom and these thick loess hills. The species makeup on that lease, after a half century of thinning operations, is such that they can thin about $1k/ac of logs every 8 years or so and you hardly notice it. Right or wrong, that’s my benchmark and this place is far from that.

I’ve grown to appreciate that plantation pines in this region carry some advantages for succession management that hardwoods don’t, mostly in the way of herbicide. However, pines don’t allow for the management continuum of always having a living standing timber stand that mixed-aged hardwoods afford.

 

[BenA]

Congratulations! That's a good area. Looking forward to seeing what you make it into.

 

[SD51555]

Sounds like a little bit of everything there! Is there room between your spring and where it goes to dig a catfish pond?

 

[cbw]

Congrats! This looks like a slice of heaven!


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[hunts_with_stick]

What does an acre go for down there? Where I’m looking in Ohio it’s gotten out of hand. 5-9k an acre, that’s without mineral rights! Another reason I’m hoping for a downturn.

 

[Tree Spud]

Congrats! Time to get to work and get dirty.

 

[Turkish]

What does an acre go for down there? Where I’m looking in Ohio it’s gotten out of hand. 5-9k an acre, that’s without mineral rights! Another reason I’m hoping for a downturn.

Rec ground is commonly $7ish close to where I live. Turnkey is commonly around $5 1-2 hours away.

MS is a pretty poor place so that has let prices lag the rest of the country here.

 

[Turkish]

Sounds like a little bit of everything there! Is there room between your spring and where it goes to dig a catfish pond?

I doubt it but it’s an interesting thought. I haven’t identified any actual springs, just the creek that collects water from upstream. Unfortunately the topography is not conducive to a great pond/lake site. Maybe one small blemish.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Awesome!!! Congrats. Jealous with how close to home it is. That will be a massive advantage. Also seclusion is under appreciated until you don’t have it. Your open ground is huge!! You have relatively easy ability to plant enough ground to create destination plots and actually hold deer. I see a winning property all the way around.

 

[Turkish]

Access is paramount. Getting to the place easily, getting equipment and utilities to it... to the right spot. Getting equipment to where it needs to go. In this region that's often a problem, especially when you don't own enough acres to forget about a few. Also, I've come to really appreciate the importance of perimeter access when deer hunting.

It's obvious that I haven't posted many photos. The place is a bit of a jungle, no pretty vistas so to speak ... yet. Trails are wide enough for an ATV and not much else.

First thing on my list has been to get a dozer guy out for cleanup and new road construction. This won't be cheap, but I feel like I could legitimately get a 10-fold return in equity. I got plugged in with a near-neighbor that has a gravel pit and a dirt moving business close by. He had actually hunted this property as a younger man. He'd even considered buying it before it hit the market. When he told me that, I was expecting him to spend our whole visit poo-pooing it since he'd missed out. On the contrary, he was super complementary. He seemed to read my mind about what it needed for both deer hunting setup and family recreation. He's assured me he can get a machine or 2 moved there this month. Here are some maps of my plans. Existing trails are in red. New roads in blue. You can see a lack of access to the top-right, and an excess on the lower portion. The bulk of the "construction" he'll need to do is 1) on the road across the middle of the property from the driveway to the creek, 2) the 3 new ravine, creek crossings I've marked with yellow X's. Depending on time, one or two of these may have to wait until later. Also hoping to have a small <0.5-acre campsite pushed one near where the driveway enters the property.

 

[Turkish]

Couple more photos. Not sure why but properties with some history have always been neat to me. I think this region saw European settlers a little earlier than the rest of MS. The south part of the state was settled from New Orleans, north ... folks coming up the MS River ... before it was settled by Americans coming from the east. This is my take on it, don't put it in a history paper for school.

Looking at this piece the first time, I stumbled across an old family cemetery. Folks buried between early 1800s and into the 1920s. Looks like only 2 gentlemen had the pleasure of being buried inside the cool iron fence. Lots of other graves scattered on a small ridgetop flat outside the fence, including one that was hand-engraved (somewhat hastily apparently) for a young lady.

I really hope I can find some Native American artifacts and think there is a good chance there are some there. The gravel bottom creeks and bluffs should make for good places to poke around.

 

[BenA]

Is there any evidence of ATV traffic on the bayou? I know further south on the LA side, I've seen people having trouble with joy riders.