So it starts

The building and room Nancy and I sat in, on Friday March 28, 2014, as we signed the stack of legal papers marking the start of our Duck Creek project, once was the Fowle warehouse on the Pamlico River waterfront in Washington, N.C.   What today is Keith Mason's law office, more than 100 years ago was a commercial hub for eastern North Carolina where goods from round the nation and the world arrived.  In the days before our massive network of highways and overland trucking, the river was the main thoroughfare for commerce in this mostly rural part of the state where agriculture -- tobacco, soybeans, corn and cotton -- still dominates the economy.

About 13 miles down the river, just past Goose Creek State Park , flowing into the river from the north is Duck Creek.  According to William Powell's 'North Carolina Gazetteer,' the creek "rises in central Beaufort County and flows south into the Pamlico River.  Appears on the Collet map, 1770.  From Duck Creek, by

water it's about 55 miles to Ocracoke Island.  Overland, it's another story -- driving on N.C. 264 to Swan Quarter and then taking the ferry (one-way toll is $3 for a bike, $15 for a car) to Ocracoke.

About 20 years ago, Nancy and I mentioned to her father, the late William M. Thomas, if he was so inclined, we'd be interested in purchasing a couple of acres of the land -- a part of a farm he owned on Duck Creek, near where his two sons, Bill and John, had homes.  Expressing no inclination one way or the other, he said he'd think it over.   In May of 1995, without any advance notice, a letter arrived from the Mayo & Mayo law firm in Washington, N.C. to Nancy.  "Enclosed is the Deed of Gift from your father as to  the ... Duck Creek parcel of land ..." Regardless of our insistence to the contrary, Nancy's father was steadfast on the very generous gift.  It has a view down the creek looking out to the Pamlico River. 

Over the years, we worked on our own to clear a portion of the site -- thinking after leasing horses; tuition for private schools and colleges, and a hiatus in Cambridge, Mass. from 2001 through 2004 -- we'd build something.Clearing land is this area of the state is like taking on the rain forest.  Over the years, we did make some progress.  The main lesson learned, for me, was that those who otherwise ignore your every utterance, suddenly become very attentive when you have a roaring chainsaw in your hands.  We'd managed to make pretty good progress and thought we were pretty much set and ready to build.   In late August 2011, Hurricane Irene hit.  Irene was a Category 1 hurricane, with winds between 74 and 95 mph, when it made landfall at Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks on Aug. 27, 2011. It tore through Highway 12, cutting off Hatteras Island from the mainland and stranding those who'd ignored mandatory evacuation orders.  On the area we'd cleared, a half dozen trees came down, including one that would have flattened a structure, had there been one where we'd planned to build.

So, our first task after signing the papers that get this building project started -- walking the site, identifying trees to be removed (in addition to those Irene pushed over). 
NEXT: It's about choices