What is an Acre?

We have just under 8 acres in New Paltz, but what does that mean?

An acre was originally defined as the amount of land that a farmer could plow in a day with a yoke of oxen. Somehow that ended up being a square with sides equal to about 208 feet. And according to an Ozzie farmer I met, acres are measured on a plane. If your land is rolling hills, your 8 acres will truly play out more lile 9 or 10.

To get an idea of an acre, imagine a football field including the endzones (in other words, all the green stuff on the field). That's about two acres. Your typical baseball field? Just under two. In fact, if you can visualize the basepath and everyting inside of it, then a homerun trot encircles nearly a quarter of an acre. But just try to imagine a baseball player mustering a couple of oxen.

For those savvy of Sheep Meadow in Manhattan, that site comprises 17 acres, so cut that in half, give me the smaller piece, and that's about 8 acres. Plus we have a stream.

I've walked the woods surrounding our house, but I still haven't figured out our property lines exactly. I know that there are some Posted signs that mark one of our borders, and that helps, but the rest is a mystery. I do have a vague idea that our parcel somewhat resembles home plate.

What I do know is that when I look outside around the house, it feels like I am the king of all I survey, just like Yurtle the Turtle. Of course, he comes to an unhappy fate when the lowest turtle burps, so I try not to brag about my dominion too much.