How difficult and costly is it to maintain 2 acres of rural land in PA I am not talking about a beautifully landscaped property just something nice How much harder is it to maintain 8 acres of land?

Answer 1

Not enough information. The answer really depends on whether the acres are cleared farmland, forested, covered by a lawn, rocky, etc and what state of maintenance you want to keep them in. It also greatly depends on what your definition of maintained is since some people consider overgrown to be (self)maintained.

Generally speaking, two acres isn't hard to keep in check, even with hand held equipment like a basic weed and brush trimmer, but 8 acres is some real land. I've got 10 acres of forested land, two of which have had the brush and undergrowth cleared from between the trees, and even with limited time, an afternoon twice a month with the weed and brush trimmer keeps it nice and open. I haven't gotten to my 'back 8' yet. If the whole 10 acre property had been brushed, I'd probably be spending one afternoon each weekend keeping after it.

4 acres of lawn or grassland can be taken care of in about 3 hours every ten days or so with a good follow behind lawnmower. (get the mulching mowers because you'll get really tired of emptying the damned thing on THAT much land.)

In the end, if you're just doing upkeep on previously maintained land, two acres is easy and 8 isn't out of the question. If you're starting from overgrown, stumpy and brushy land that's never been cleared, it's a summers worth of weekends to clear out two acres.