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janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

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Renewable Energy for Asheville Area Farms

01-06-12
janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

Your heart can skip a happy beat just seeing the farms and farmland for sale around Asheville. (You may have ASHEVILLE Area Old Family Farmsurmised when reading my series on Asheville’s sustainable farms.) Now, Mountain Valleys Resource Conservation and Development, (MVRCD) a non-profit that has managed resource conservation and economic development projects in western North Carolina since 1976, has “heart-warming" news.

MVRCD has announced that it is accepting applications for its Green Energy Program. Western North Carolina farmers interested in generating renewable energy on their farms can apply.

This could be of special value given what Green Energy Grants could represent for the community and for those who supply locally-grown and harvested food here in the Asheville and WNC area! The benefits go beyond the 40 percent cost-share funding for their approved projects. According to Maggie Cramer over at ASAP, " The maximum grant amount is $8,000.

The goal is to reduce energy expenses and increases farm income by selling generated power to the electric grid, preserving farms, reducing carbon emissions, stimulating economic development, and conserving natural resources….Twenty-one systems have already been installed through the ‘Renewable Energy for Farms’ project. Most systems are photovoltaic (solar), but wind and micro-hydroelectric projects are also accepted."

More information and application is available at:

http://www.mountainvalleysrcd.org/7.html

More WNC Projects: Stream Restoration, Wind for Schools Program, Forest Products Grant
http://www.mountainvalleysrcd.org/3.html

News from the Land Lady at Asheville 1031- The Eco-Steward Firm. Asheville, NC 2012 ©Renewable Energy for Asheville Area Farms.

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Creston Community- Hiking Nature Trails – Creston Building Site

01-05-12
janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

 

Creston Community & A Sweet Building Site

Black Mountain, ( minutes form Asheville) NC.

 

HIKING and Nature trails will be right at your door when you build your dream home at this beautiful site at Creston Preserve. ( Creston Community is about half an hour or so easy drive from Asheville, and just 15 minutes from Black Mountain, NC.)  Think of my hand-drawn blue lines on the "Trail Map" below as treasure map. If you are a nature-lover, this Creston Community building site is the center piece.

 

You can hear the distant Allison Falls from the “Nestled In”  building site. Imagine walking the Allison Falls Trail along the border of the Pisgah Range adjacent to this building site. The sound of Allison Falls may beckon you. But here are a few tips to keep in mind:

 

1. For part of the trail, be sure to amble and enjoy the scenery.

2. Stop to soak in the views.

3. Take a blanket and picnic.

4. Wear layers as time disappears and the temperature may vary.

5. Be certain to take your camera! 

 

Soon the snow will arrive. That’s when a special kind of energy is in the air…Here (just below) is a slide show. See for yourself!   I’ve included a poster of
ECO-SMART homes you could build here …on a small footprint… nestled in…and cozy… a larger trail map that covers Creston Community …

 

 

___    ___ xo  ___  ___


 

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Asheville’s Sustainable Farms Though the Generations

01-03-12
janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

BARNS! American Chestnut -
Long-Lasting Family Farms Asheville American Chestnut Tobacco Barn- Asheville NC
Asheville Real Estate Journal

American Chestnut trees have played an important role in our forest ecosystems here in the Appalachians. (see earlier post) Back in the day, wildlife prospered with crops thousands of American chestnuts produced every single year.

And the American Chestnut’s durability made it a perfect choice to use for building barns and homes….a few of which I have seen near Asheville....like this American Chestnut Tobacco Barn you too can see in person.

Paul Gallimore, founder of Long Branch will tell you that this American Chestnut structure was built around 1920 with locally sawn rough cut lumber from that gallant and now nearly extinct tree.. Gallimore is an educator, author, consultant, and planner in renewable energy, environmental design, permaculture, appropriate technology, and recycling/resource recovery.

Resources: Asheville’s Long Branch Environmental Education Center

Resources:
Slideshow: Asheville Farms and Farmlands for Sale
© The Eco-Steward Asheville 2011. Home And Land- Asheville Yesterday and Today-


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Long-Lasting Asheville Family Farms & The American Chestnut Tree

01-02-12
janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

Asheville Farm Homes on the Land-
Asheville Real Estate Journal

The All-American Chestnut Tree
and Asheville’s Long-Lasting Family Farms
and Barns (slideshow)

Around Asheville a hundred years ago, the American Chestnut was a common sight. In fact,according to Wikipedia, 25 percent of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were American Chestnut. And there were billions of American Chestnut trees across the range.

So it is startling to realize that this magnificent hardwood timber tree today is nearly extinct. In fact, the number of large surviving American Chestnut trees over 60 centimeters (24 in) in diameter within the tree's former range is now probably fewer than 100.

Chestnut Trees of approximately 20 feet in diameter in this turn-of-the-century photograph from the Forest History Society, Inc.

Good News: An Asheville-based nonprofit The American Chestnut Foundation began a special breeding process which has produced the first potentially blight-resistant trees, called Restoration Chestnuts. These wee trees are planted in many locations across the Eastern US…and here at Asheville’s Arboretum. The program depends on so-called “mother trees” that have Somehow avoided blight long enough to produce seeds.

More Good News: We are always on the lookout for sustainable farms and land for sale on which you may find and American Chestnut treasure.

©The Eco-Steward Asheville 2011. Farms and Land For Sale –

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GOOD NEWS ...from Upside Down

12-31-11
janeAnne Asheville Signature Finds in Mountain Homes and LAND

GOOD NEWS from Upside Down

In retrospect, the Dogs might own how all that is
must surely be a large and lovely
watery compass—
arms pointing hither and yon between then and again,

and spinning stories like an old friend.

In such readily dispersing circumstance,
days gone by are drops in staccato
on Grandlife’s pond—a kiss-wet-kismet of hello,
a tear-laden gush at adios.

That whole shebang,
since it's in streaming form,
plinks, drips, drizzles, and circles ‘round beyond
Dog's ordinary recollection,

as the needle, magnetized
and painted red,
rotates back and forth with daily ripples
as they swell and crest.

"Crests may pound-down juicy

with renewal or regret," Dog says,
"While still the measured tale runs strong
at sun’s ascent!"

But then, some Cats that I have known might add and/or suggest,
the same device plots comings and goings
solely at their request,

and here I'm Cat-quoting,

“Suspended as the compass is,
and free to pivot until aligned

with Earth’s huge bar magnet

and dear old Father Time... .”

Both entities, from rare mid-planet,
some Cats allow,
are totally and completely
! upside down!

as the champagne flows

in a topsy-turvy drive
from what has come before
to what may yet arrive.

from The Dog and Verse© 2011- ~ Wind-in-the-Feather ~
janeAnne Narrin, Asheville, NC

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