[nutmeg]

Speaking for all Dakotans, I was surprised that there were any woods left east of the Ohio river.

I live in the middle of six acres of woods here in northern Connecticut. The one or so acre that the house stands on is landscaped, but the rest of our yard is "natural woods", complete with a stone wall built during Colonial times. All eight houses on our street have five + acres of property. My neighbor across the street has over nine acres.

We've seen black bears numerous times in our yard, along with wild turkeys, deer, fox, coyotes, owls, chipmunks and the usual squirrels and birds. We often hear the piercing screams of bobcats also - usually at night, and not too far from the house. The most amazing sighting of a black bear in our yard was in broad daylight last year... the bear was rolling around in the grass like a 250 lb kitten... LOL.

When touring New England for the first time several years ago, my husband's relatives from California were absolutely shocked to learn how much open farm land and forests are here and throughout New England. They expected to see houses "on top of each other", like what you see close to NYC...

[HairOfTheDog]

I have to admit, I also have a rural west-coast perception that everything east of the Mississippi is paved, and I know that's not true.

[nutmeg]

Looking at my post #17, I hope I didn't come across as boastful. Our house was actually quite inexpensive back in the early 90s when we bought it, six acres and all. The place needed work (which we've mostly done), but the key is that we're not near a major city like NYC. We are about 30 minutes from Hartford, but about 2 hours from Boston and 2.5 hours from NYC - not really commuting distance to either.

If this property was in Fairfield County, CT (a NYC bedroom community), it probably would've cost nearly a million dollars. BIG difference between northern and southern (as in Fairfield County or on Long Island Sound) Connecticut...