WaterWar.net

LOL - guess what I found in my new backyard? A natural preserve that outclasses the Goffle Park both in its beauty and capabilities to play host to possible future tournaments. Officially, it is known as the Paine Open Space Preserve, so informally it may become "Paine Park" - a sweet name if you ask me. The preserve is 128 acres and is well-served by marked trails maintained by the Aspetuck Land Trust. There are several large ponds and streams in the area, and these things are CLEAN. Unlike Ridgewood's Goffle brook that turned bright orange and green from pollution sometimes, the water in Easton is incredibly clean, enough for trout to survive naturally. This is water worthy to be loaded into a water gun.

Paine Park has a main entrance capable of bearing dozens of cars, whereas both of our Ridgewood parks could fit only a handful. Easton, CT may not be as convenient to the general region as Ridgewood, NJ was [Easton has no train station], it is still convenient to the Mid-Atlantic and New England, and the park is only 10-15 minutes off the Merritt Parkway. It is actually quite an interesting contrast to Ridgewood. I'm moving from a 6 sq mile, 27K person town to a 29 sq mile, 6K person town...that's a BIG transition. Easton has 1 traffic light, a handful of stores, 3 acre zoning, and most roads lack yellow lines...Ridgewood has a downtown with apartments, a movie theater, 3 highways, 2 railroads, and is bordered by Paramus with its 5 major malls. Right now I live in a dense neighborhood with a hundred houses...I will be living between a working farm and a natural preserve. Instead of 28 neighbors, there will be 5 lol. Bye bye buses, trucks, and gangsters, hello birds, horses, and roosters!

Since it is still early, I don't know much about the lay of the land. I haven't seen any of this huge preserve except the main field and the edge that borders my land. That's another strange new concept - I have 4.5 acres now - vs 1/8th of an acre in Ridgewood. My new land is the size of two full Ridgewood blocks. The Paine preserve would probably fill the rest of the neighborhood.

Pictures will come next time I am in Easton! In addition to Paine park, I've also discovered another park nearby with tournament potential. It is called Trout Brook Valley and sounds epic already!

Wow, Easton sounds remarkably like Ben's and my hometown. And it's great to hear such a good park for a possible tournament in a location so close to where you live. Can't wait for the pictures.

Welcome to my life. Or at-least, a step closer.
My nearest neighbor is a mile off and the closest thing to what you might consider a town is 15 minutes drive away.
On the flip-side, my family owns a parcel of nearly 1000 acres here, consisting mostly of mountainous forest, some open fields, a grassy marsh, the occasional pond and an abandoned village from the 1800s.

In past years, we had been earning money from the land vie sustainable logging (taking just a few prime trees at a time while leaving the rest to grow), which means that there are TONS of old logging trails winding through the area.

This year I picked out a new spot for my team's meetings on our land.
The area is a shallow elongated bowl, consisting mostly of forrest, some brush and a few open fields, a stream running down its middle, numerous paths, remnants of some old machinery and a still standing structure near the west end.

We haven't taken the new map for a good test run yet though, as our first attempted meeting of the year was accidently set for Mother's day, which threw almost everyone off.