The mapping brain

Today I finally got a copy of the property survey done just before our house was built six years ago.  I had to laugh at myself when the town clerk handed it to me.  I am not sure what I was expecting, I mean, I have seen these surveys before but I guess I have never tried to really read one.  I do not have a brain that is adept at mapping.  I suppose that would make my spatial intelligence a bit challenged.  This is something I have always, always, always known about myself.  I am definitely not the person you hand a map to while you are driving and lost.  I can almost always promise an adventure but not necessarily a destination.  So now I have this piece of paper that is beautifully detailed with sketches, lines, and numbers.  I enjoy looking at the drawings used to represent land marks like the river, boulders, and some white pine trees.  Those I could interpret immediately.  The rest of the information came across as visual static.  However this is pretty cool.  I have never really had an interest strong enough to motivate me to improve my spatial intelligence beyond studying a piece of art.  One would think that finding a destination in a timely matter would have been catalyst enough.  I will admit with my head hanging that if I wasn't sure of where I was going, I'd just leave earlier to accommodate my, ahem, creative wandering.  For some reason my interest in changing the landscape of our yard has proven to be just the ignition I need.  Sometime before Sunday I am going to go out in the yard with a nice long tape measure and note pad.  I will measure just about everything and anything that will allow me to understand just what this map is telling me about our pocket of land.  It will also tell me a lot of necessary information such as where the well and septic are located, as well as where our property ends and our neighbor's begins.  While I am at it, I may just take out my tree id book and make sure that those tall evergreens out front are in fact white pines!
Once I have all that figured out then I can start deciding where the garden beds, greenhouse, coldframes, chickens, and rabbits will all go.  I will have to start watching where the sun light falls and where the shadows follow closely so that I know where to best place all these things optimally.  I am very happy to admit that this is the first time I can hold something resembling a map in my hands with out anxiety!