Thank you Google Earth

Selecting the best site is going to be harder then I thought,. I have two parcels of land to work with, one is 20 acre's and the other around 5. The 20 acre site is flat and swampy, it's 1320 feet north to south, 660 feet east to west, with an elevation of 1516 feet above sea level. This site has no light pollution but also no electricity. It's a cold, windy spot in the winter, the road going past gets a fair bit of traffic, there is no security and it's 2 miles from the house.

The other site is approximately 1000 feet deep north to south and 200 feet wide, the elevation ranging from 1535 feet to 1670 feet. This is the back lot of our lake property. The lake lays northeast to southwest, is 2 miles long at an elevation of 1506 feet. This site is also clear of light pollution, it has electricity, less traffic, close to the house and much safer.

Thanks to Google Earth and a hand held GPS, I was able to find my property survey pins and the back lot line. The northwest corner of the lot is on top of a maple tree covered ridge and is where the 1670 foot elevation was found. From there the back line runs somewhat down hill at an angle to the northeast corner, then the 200 foot strip of land ends at the lake shore 1320' below. Our house is on the lower 300 feet.

Last winter 2008/2009 we got hit with a very bad ice storm and lost a batch of trees on this back lot. I was up there just before Christmas this year looking for the best site between the down trees and the snow it hasn't been fun. My first thought was way up the hill, the higher the better, but after going up and down a few times I think I might be just as good lower down the hill. I have found some spots that would take less tree removal, a shorter road, closer to the power box and closer to the house. If the weather holds I will do more looking around, Jim should be up early in February, he can also see what were up against and just how far we want to go