* 4 acres of level and clear bottom land – at a bend in...

* The West Fork of the Little Kanawha River – suitable for kayaking, canoeing, swimming, great fishing.

* A log-sided house – ready to move in, built in 1937, 2-stories, front porch, lovely, rustic, mostly wood (tongue-and-groove) walls and ceilings, large kitchen (laid out by someone who knew how a cook works), 2 wonderful sun rooms, living room, dining room, den, 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom (downstairs, with 2 entrances), walk-in closet that could be made a small upstairs bathroom, washer & gas dryer, large upright freezer, ceiling fans in just about every room.

* A modular home – ready to move in "double wide", front porch, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths (large master bathroom with large clothes closet, separate linen closet, shower, lots of floor space; compact hall bathroom with normal size tub), 1 largish living room, average size kitchen with decent table space, utility room with washer and gas dryer (with side entrance, so it could be the mud room), sliding glass door (needs a deck!) looks over the river. The exterior has wood walls; the interior is very generic and unremarkable – mostly harmless – like an average suburban apartment.

* A small "barn" – studio and workshop space on 2 floors. about 24' x 24'. The upstairs workshop could also be converted into a charming studio apartment; it has a rustic balcony looking over the river. (I love that balcony.) On the north side there's an addition with 3 separate exterior entrances to a shower, a bathroom, and a utility room (and back entrance to ground floor studio space). Good light in both spaces.

* A two-car garage – storage space! Floor needs work, especially if we wanted to put cars in it. Otherwise, the structure is basically sound, but needs some repairs.

* 12 camper hook-ups – water & electric. Imagine, pitching a tent (or parking a camper) riverside, and letting the babbling water whisper you to sleep at night. (Or encamping on the mountainside, where the wind in the trees will be your lullaby.)

* A well house.

* Storage sheds.

* 2 chicken coops.

* FREE natural gas:

* Excellent well water.

* Perfect Verizon cell phone reception. (Sprint is digital roaming, with the same perfect reception. Don't know about other cellular providers, yet.)

* No neighbors in sight or earshot; and no where that anyone could reasonably build a house along our property borders. (The river and rock formations are prohibitive to building nearby.)

* No zoning or building restrictions.

* The 2-lane asphalt Adams-Altizer Road (County Road 18), with light traffic, dividing our mountain from our bottom land. With the road leading right to our driveways, we should never be snowed in.

* Less than 1 mile north of US-33.

* Around the bend from a community center (playground, pavilions, baseball diamond, fields; we saw evidence of large cookouts over hardwood fires), and the fire department, at corner of our CR-18 and US-33.

* Less than 2 miles away from a large 24-hour gas station and convenience store, Calhoun Bank with ATM, and a self-storage facilitym, on US-33.

* About two miles from Arnoldsburg – a small crossroads with a modest restaurant, motel, gas station, elementary school, post office, some houses, and a few other things.

* About 20 minutes – on US-33, an easy drive – from the town of Spencer, county seat of neighboring Roane County, with 2 supermarkets, Super Walmart, courthouse square / downtown, 1 old-school hardware store, 1 midsize lumberyard and larger hardware store, a small rubber factory (for anyone who wants to make Dagorhir weapons), maybe 10 restaurants (from fast food, including a McDonald's with WiFi, to sub shop, to old-school downtown cafe, to Chinese), public library, small hospital, a motel, various gas stations, laundromats, and other enterprises, high school; population about 2000.

* About 20 minutes – of lovely country driving, following our river upstream – from Interstate-79. Depending where you're coming from, your drive here can be almost all Interstate, all the way – with easy mountain grades and lovely scenery throughout West Virginia. (Of course, there's nothing to keep you from taking more scenic routes, on the smaller U.S. and state highways that crisscross West Virginia.)

* 2.5 hours from Ragnorak, just under 4 hours due north to Pennsic, for you historical reenacters out there.

* (You can use this Mapquest map, as a start or end point, to find your own directions to and from our new hometown.)

* An area about as remote as you are likely to find on the east coast (unless you live in the middle of a great swamp). It is far enough from all major metro areas, that even if they continue to sprawl at their current and alarming pace, I don't see any major development spreading to this area for at least a quarter century; maybe never in our lifetime. Maybe, after a decade or two of economic prosperity in the surrounding regions, you'll see more vacation homes built near the Interstate. And, perhaps, as the internet and other communications technologies gradually make geographic location less important for certain professions, and as people realize this is so, you'll see more lovers of the countryside seek refuge in these far hills. But people accustomed to and dependent on the soulless conveniences and generic consumer emporiums of modern suburban sprawl, are unlikely to come this way.

* A little travelled valley. Drive north on our county road, following the river downstream, and as the miles roll by it gradually gets narrower and narrower, and eventually stops being asphalt. It occasionally intersects with other small county roads. In places, these get sketchy in a small 2-wheel drive car. These county roads are mostly unmarked (in our county; Roane county has some small markers). Even with a map that showed every road, we got very confused and lost for awhile, when we explored northwards. This means the only people driving by our house will be the folks who live on those back roads, and the occasional utility truck. Nobody, in their right mind, would consider this road a shortcut to anywhere else! In daylight, I'd estimate, we saw one car every few minutes, if that. Presumably, traffic is a little heavier at the beginning and end of each work day.

* A bend in the road so sharp, it guarantees the every driver slows down, significantly, as they approach our property. Any damn fool who zooms by will end up in the river! And probably in traction, or the boneyard.

I could go on and on.

I have photographs galore, of everything: houses and barn inside and out, other buildings, bottom land, the river, the mountain, the views from the mountain, even the old outhouse. I have what passes for a land plat in Calhoun County. I have the previous deed, which offers some interesting insight into this property's last century of family ownership, and the relationship these people had with their land and each other. I have been gradually bookmarking web sites with history and other info about the county and the river valley. I have boat-loads of enthusiasm – which means you can call me up and ask me anything, and I'll be more than happy to tell you all I know and/or think about it (and then some).

Hey, if you've read this far, it must mean you're at least interested or intrigued. Email me for more information, or just to chat.