Consequences of Sloped Land?

For what it's worth, we put a berm along the upper side of our property that directs the water to flow into a retention basin on each upper corner. I suppose if you had a pump you could use the water later. Seems to stop a lot of flooding and keeps what topsoil we have left. We then terrace where we need to ie: outbuildings, garden (raised beds) etc. The horses, well we just breed them with their left legs shorter than their right.

We've got 15 acres in a holler in Appalachia and most of or land is sloped. The high point is in the middle and is about a 200 foot elevation change from house level. We've had to fence on 60 % grades in a lot of places and have some steep paths.

It's saved us money on a tractor. I can't see any way to get a tractor safely to a lot of our land, and put a bit of rain on it and a tractor would be downright dangerous. Instead, we spent $150 to get a calf to train as a single ox. She's getting agile enough to keep up with the goats in steep areas and should be able to work on muddy slopes.

The previous owner did a good job with drainage by the house. We actually have a waterfall in what we call "back yard #1" near the house that flows October through June and trickles during the dry months. It empties into a creek that runs from Backyard #3 to the house and also drains the forest land and hills behind us. The creek never freezes so we always have a back-up source of water for the animals. A big rain will move a lot of water throught the creek, but we have enough slope and a good drainage channel near the house so that the water zooms right past us and keeps going downhill another 4 miles and does all of it's flooding downtown.

The land would be lousy for horses, but it is great for goats and the calf seems to enjoy it. We've muscled up as well since we've been here, and the dogs are in super shape. Work can be a lot harder on the hills, but we gotten stronger and it isn't a big deal.

We do have to keep an eye on the fence because the land is slowly reshaping.

One of the best things is that we can have neighbors close enought to be neighborly, but we don't have to see their houses because they're across the ridge line. The land is more interesting because it isn't all in eyesight. We stay in shape without having to leave home and we expect that's going to help us stay healthy as we age. And except for right in front of the house, the road frontage is basically a 20 foot wall of rock. "Visitors" would have to climb a nearly vertical grade there and then jump the electric fence to tresspass - and they'd be doing it with two big dogs sitting up at the top watching them try. The "cliff" along the road frontage also prevents people from throwing their bottles or fast food crap onto our land. They do throw it into the ditch by the cliff, but the next gully washer rinses it back downhill and takes it downtown. We hope the folks that litter all live downhill from us and they're getting their junk delivered back to them.

As you can tell, I really love having land with a rugged terrain. It is more work than flatland, but the water stays out of our crawl space. The land feels more healthy and more interesting to us than flat land ever would.

Lynda

Can't answer for them, but our house is on the flat land and only about 50 ft. back from the road. We like it because:

1. It was build on proven land. The previous house stood here for about 100 years. We doubt there's a surprise coal mine shaft under the house.

2. If we do get feeble when we age, we will be able to handle the small part of flat, close to the road land for a long time and sit on the back porch looking at the more rugged land.

3. If we need emergency medical care at age 80 in the middle of a blizzard or ice storm, an ambulance can get to us without delay.

4. When a major lightning storm or high winds come through, we are protected on either side by hills. Most times when we have the really fierce storms like that, we end up talking about how glad we are that we didn't buy the house plopped on the top of the hill that the real estate agent though was so charming. We'd rather sit on the back porch and watch the trees whip back and forth at the top of the hill instead of being in the middle of that. I'm sure it has saved us on storm related house repairs as well.

5. After the major storm, we don't have to go down to the road to haul all of our driveway gravel back to it's proper place.


We do wonder if the things we like about not being at the top of the hill reflect the same kinds of considerations that were used to select the original housing site a century ago. Around here, houses that have been around for a while are in hollers, not up on top of hills like new construction. Watching the hills change shape, we keep wondering how many of those houses will shift and move over the next 50 years. I bet the feeling of living on high ground on top of a hill can be downright intoxicating when the weather is right, but for us, the tradeoffs didin't seem worth it. Now that we are so used to the protected feeling of being tucked in the holler, we are actually less comfortable in wide open terrain. It seems too busy and over stimulating to us.

Lynda