In the fall of 2008, I engaged Bob Smith of Smith Planning in Watkinsville to help us develop an overall land-use plan.  Since we had not done this type of work before, we felt it valuable to invest in professional advisors along the way of building our dream home and farm.  Bob performed a detailed topography survey and we created a Vision document to capture our future ideas, concepts and plans for Elder Mill Farm.  Based on these inputs and dozens of hours walking the land, Bob created an initial plan that identified a driveway, cottage, equipment building, pond, barn and main house building envelopes.