This is our 3000sq ft earth shelter home that we built in 1987 into the hill,on 78 acres of land and on the 2nd highest elevation point in Carver County. Our driveway off HWY 7 was not fun in the winter, but oh my, the views were wonderful. For many years, looking to the south, we could see a huge portion of Lake Waconia, including Coney Island. Over the years, the foliage grew along the lake and land and our view was limited.

My husband dug out the man made pond. And we raised ostriches at that time and for many years, which you can see on the far back right in the picture.

For a couple of years, we rented out some of the acreage to a farmer, but we ceased that and put about 33 acres in a government planting plan called CRP. By planting native grasses and planted controlled food plots, we brought back an abundance of wildlife, such as pheasants, turkeys, more deer and many song birds. Also planted a lot of wildflowers, which brought back monarchs and many more long lost butterflies.

We planted hundreds of flowering crab trees along the driveway and around everywhere we could. Also planted beautiful maples from soft, hard and sugar, birch, colorado spruce, blue spruce, variety of evergreens,and many, many cedar trees which the deer loved. Everything grew and matured beautifully.

We raised our children, dogs, rabbits and many little hamsters there. We loved living there.

Unfortunately my husband passed away in 2007 and I then sold the house in Dec 2013. To this day, I still miss all the wild life, but mostly the views. Great memories.