Land clearing in Mt. Juliet, TN

Between Old Hickory and Percy Priest

Old Hickory sits off the north end of town and Percy Priest off the south, and plenty of the ground worth clearing runs toward one or the other. Cedar Creek and Shutes Branch on the Old Hickory side. Scotts Creek and Suggs Creek on the Priest side. Water that close changes the job. The bank drops off, the lake is right there, and there’s no corner far enough back to stack anything in. So nothing gets stacked. What comes off lies flat where it fell and holds the bank.

Thin ground up top, deeper in the draws

Central Basin here, 683 feet, limestone sitting close under the sod. Where the soil is shallow, a few inches over rock, red cedar takes any field that quits being farmed. Along Stoners Creek and the lower draws the dirt runs deeper and wetter, and that’s where privet and honeysuckle build up thick enough to stop a man walking. One property can hold both. The cedar side goes dry and quick. The low side takes its time.

Farm ground turning into streets

Wilson County has lost close to seventeen thousand acres of farm and ag land since 2015, and this end of the county is where you see it. Central Pike. Nonaville Road. The Golden Bear Gateway. Land caught between the last crop and the first foundation doesn’t hold still. Three or four seasons and the fencerow has doubled, cedar is standing in the old hayfield, and briars have the gate.

Fifteen miles west of Lebanon

Straight out I-40 to exit 226, or down Lebanon Road. Home county either end. Stoners Creek still winds under the low hills, and the town got its name, so the story goes, from a manor house in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Those hills do what they always do when nobody is cutting. Cedar takes the thin places, briar and vine take the wet ones. Walk the line with us and we’ll tell you what it’ll take.