Not my farm, but a farm that I have a history with.
Warning for folks with slow internet: Lots of photos included, but posted as thumbnails.
So here’s the deal: A longtime friend finally inherited a family farm she’s been taking care of for years. It’s been in her family since the land was stolen from the Cherokee, and is one of the three places I’ve used as reliably-awesome trip settings while living in the Southeast and was the primary spot where I introduced people to psychedelics for their first times (which I have done quite a bit, using fungi).
But she doesn’t live there these days, and prefers to hang out in the mountains out West. That’s not a viable long-term arrangement so she’s considering selling it. This would be a tragedy as far as I’m concerned, so my main focus is finding someone who wants to put it to work to generate revenue. That way I can keep playing there 
(and the usual rednecks intent on clear-cutting it won’t end up with it). All the neighbors covet the hell out of it, but only for cows and logging. Having a farm like this with virtually no flies around at all is pretty nice (and unusual), so the lack of any livestock at all is a major advantage over most other farms in the area (or in general).
I’ve tried contacting some hemp growers but not heard much back yet (looking for farmers with knowledge and equipment but no land), though it wouldn’t necessarily have to be hemp (just something more lucrative than hay, and legal!), and I’ve been reaching out to some old Tracker School contacts to see about starting a wilderness/tracking/survival school on it, or even throwing an annual bluegrass festival on it. She’s not really into offering hunting leases. I've seen lots of does, the occasional buck, and flocks of 20+ turkey often there. Plus bobcats, coyotes, and various other unidentifiable critters that make creepy noises at night out in the bushes. But NO FIRE ANTS!! Not yet, anyway.
It also needs a live-in caretaker. There’s a small 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house on it. Bathroom needs work (from either re-seating the toilet on a new wax seal or renovating the whole thing; a full renovation would be preferable), the kitchen is pretty nice and the house is otherwise clean and in decent shape.
The land is composed of ~40 acres of pastures and the rest is kind of steep with hardwoods, a large creek, and several unexplored and very intriguing cave entrances (a friend of mine with TAG -a group of hard-core caving enthusiasts focused on the TN/AL/GA area- has been contacted so hopefully the caves won’t be unexplored for much longer and haven’t been yet because they require being on-rope to enter).
Total acreage is 127, though it feels a lot bigger thanks to the cliffs and small valley where the creek is. A couple other old pastures are grown-up in cedars that are too big for bush-hogging but could be reclaimed for some more farmable acreage. The creek is chock full o’ fossils and geodes and the flora and fauna present suggest good water quality. A huge and very scenic (and clean!) lake (Dale Hollow) is less than a mile up the street.
FWIW, the caves might be a big deal because this property is only 62 miles from the entrance of this rather mid-blowing, world-famous cave (and the cave has only been mapped 40 miles in so far so it could be much longer than 62 miles!):
https://www.national...bling-falls.jpg
(See the National Geographic article for more details about the cave in Spencer, TAG, and how cavers party, lol; it’s exactly like raft guides; I went to one of their annual bashes a few years ago). https://www.national...9/06/tag-caves/ )
It’s fuckin’ rural. Neighbors are sparse, weird, and mostly unpleasant. If someone doesn’t already know what they’re getting into with this kind of thing then they probably shouldn’t try.
As if I don’t already have too much crap on my overflowing plate to deal with [SIGH…]
Ah well, screw it. The shit my friends need help with never seems to accommodate my schedule, so it is what it is and I’d rather delay my life reboot a bit longer than possibly lose the farm, so in my estimation it’s a worthwhile effort. I think my inability to achieve escape-velocity at the moment no matter what I do is the Universe trying to tell me something. Not sure what yet, though. So I might as well do what I can were I’m at.
But if it does have to be sold, I’d like to find the buyer. Asking $5K/acre. It’s a 115 mile drive from the center of Nashville.
So… does anyone need a stunningly gorgeous farm for anything? PM me, lol. Tours will not be given until any such inquiries are proven to be serious.
So here it is...
Up by/around the house:
The tree standing alone in the pasture was left because it's a persimmon, and the clump of trees is one of the cave entrances (a sinkhole you can hear water flowing in). The road on the left is the County road, not her driveway, and the one going across the screen past the trees is the neighbor's driveway:
It's literally a pastoral scene that you can run around nekkid and tripping your face off in all day and/or night long without concern over neighbors and such (weather permitting):
This is an ideal property for boomerang, model rocket, atl-atl, archery, or other ballistic and/or aerial hobbyists:
The barn, and a fascinating tree that grew in a spiral that's hard to make out in the photo:
House as seen from the barn:
Garden spot:
The "back" field (behind house):
The "upper" field (off to side of house by barn, and these images sort of stitch together from left to right (starting with the first image) for a panoramic view of it:
Leaving the pastures, the land drops off quick:
All the way down to the creek:
Which you can follow to a big cave with a spring next to it:
The first time I saw this it had 10-foot long icicles hanging off the top and it looked like a giant open mouth with sharp white teeth (but only from an angle that I can't take a good photo from:
Looking back from the entrance:
The entrance quickly funnels down to a small squeeze about 40 feet or so back from the entrance. No one has gone any further and it used to have water flowing from it year-round until they started putting in natural gas wells in the area. So it is probably going to require SCUBA gear o explore:
(this probably should be a hard-hat area)
As far as I could get; small gap is real hard to see but it's there:
One of three other sinks that need exploring (you can hear water flowing down in one):
A hole that warm air comes out of in Winter:
Some of the trees are truly impressive, like this beech (of which there are many, and beech nuts are really tasty):
Edited by TVCasualty, 05 December 2019 - 02:32 PM.
