Tennessee Winter in a Little Brick House

This morning I woke up needing to be outdoors somethin' fierce. I laced on my trusty Baffin boots and hiked our dark homestead hills 'til the sun came up. I love this place and want to take a minute to document our Almost successes.

Garden:
Because we bought the house in July, we got a late start in the garden last year. As we broke down moving boxes we threw them down on the grassy sunny side of the yard and planted right on top of the cardboard. We used only organic heritage seeds and had a lovely crop of okra, tomatoes, horse radish, peppers, and butternut squash. We lost most of our sprouts and seedlings to a tornado, but grew enough millet to start producing our own chicken feed next this year.

Animals:
Annie- our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian. She's about 9 years old and sweet as can be. She came to us with heart worm but is fully recovered and full of spunk now. Annie can clear a fence like a gazelle and likes to go adventuring. She sleeps in the barn with the birds and does her job well.

Teller- a three-legged Cane Corso pup we rescued this fall. We all love him, but he is Nate's dog. Those two are inseparable, I tell you. Teller sleeps with the kids every night and guards the house well.

Chickens- we have 18 hens now and 2 roosters, Romeo and Big Red. We lost two hens to predators before Annie came to stay, and one to illness. The rest are incredible foragers though and so fun to have around the yard. My favorite hen, Lou Ellen, is glossy black and sassy. She's sitting a nest of a dozen eggs right now, our first chicks should hatch in a couple of weeks.

Ducks- 12 mail-order Khaki Campbell ducklings arrived this fall. At least, we thought they'd be Khakis. This bunch has white patches of feathers, is short and stocky, and wild as can be. They take a daily pilgrimage to the neighbors field and forage there, but come home to their little corner of the barn every night.

Pets- the kids have quite a little menagerie going now: two cats, Vivian and Charlotte, mice, and a parakeet, Ace.

Homestead:
We spent the summer outside clearing trees for pasture, then hired a bulldozer last week to push logs into permaculture swales and terraces for us. The neighbors are dismayed we've "wasted" all our trees, and thought we should have used them all for firewood. We did save plenty of oaks and some hickory to burn next winter though, and the kids are learning to split logs and fill the wood box daily.

Spring seeds have been ordered, this time from a local co-op and next month we'll order bees! I'm most excited about the bees, I think. Nate's promised to build some top bar hives and a homesteading mentor is going to help us get started.

When the snow melts Nate and I will build a fence sturdy enough for livestock and we'll add lambs and some turkeys to the mix. 

Transplants, Sprouts, and Southern Hospitality

Those rumors you've heard about Southern hospitality? All true.


Before settling on the little brick house, we walked through dozens of others, including a charming historical home with a stunning organic garden. For the record, I'd have made an offer on a spot if it hadn't been zoned "residential." Darn laws! The home's owner was incredibly gracious. She asked us to come back and collect several transplants, and invited us to a party where she introduced us to local beekeepers, farmers, and homeschooling families. We took all that we could from her perennial bed, including berries, a three-year-old asparagus bush and several varieties of wildflowers. The cosmos and bee balm are still in bloom.

We also purchased our first five chickens from her son. He was upgrading to heritage breeds. That's what I call raisin'em up right. Because we didn't yet have a house of our own, Nate rigged up a makeshift chicken coup with a couple of found pallets and our bicycle trailer.

Another generous friend, Mike, offered his home to us while his family was away for the summer. So we filled his yard with buckets of plants and started sprouting seeds in rain gutters on his back porch. Unfortunately, the bulk of our plants were lost one late tornado night, but we still had tomatoes, peppers, soy beans, peas, bush beans, collards, sorghum, corn, butternut squash, cucumbers, and watermelon ready for a permanent piece of dirt when we moved.

Thinking back, Nate adds, "The leeks and celery would've done great if they hadn't blown away in the wind!" Pros and cons of the sunny South.

The Almost Homestead

We bought a little house on three shady acres. It's not what we expected- classic case of real life vs. the master plan. While our larger goal remains, we'll stay here a while and learn to feed ourselves. It isn't a farm, but it's a lovely little homestead. At least, it almost is.

Stick around and watch us grow!

Bryce Museum and Duck Creek Pond

The Bryce Museum is not what it seems. From the road it looks like a giant warehouse--inside it's a world class wildlife museum that rivals some of the best we've seen. The kids loved the African room, I was impressed with the exquisite butterfly collection, and we spent hours out back feeding the deer and chickens. AAA calls it, "a must see." We're concur.

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The kids love to hear about Nate's "Huck Finn" childhood. Like when he piled up garter snakes and threw them down the path at his sisters to keep them from walking home from school. Or the time his cousin dared him to swim in a near-frozen lake for five minutes in exchange for an ice cream cone. Despite his descriptions of the biting cold, the kids have long been sure that given the chance they'd prove to be just as tough as Dad.  

After our trip to the museum, Asher and I hung out at the cabin while Nate took the girls exploring. Destination: Duck Creek Pond. They didn't dunk themselves in the glacial water like their old man, but both waded in a bit and swear they had a great time

Red Canyon

Another red rock favorite! The Pink Ledges Trail is a short 3/4 mile hike just off the highway. We'd only planned a quick stop, but spent the whole day playing Hide-N-Seek among the sweet-smelling Ponderosas.

 Spotted! Can't lose with a little camouflage.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon is calling to me

This land of mystery

The valley of hoodoos and warriors of stone

Creation and nature set free

I sang those words at the 1996 Utah Sesquicentennial Celebration but hadn't actually been to Bryce Canyon until this week. It is truly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Add it to your bucket list! As a non-photographer I simply could not do the landscape justice.

For pictures of the park, head to Google. For pictures of my people, carry on.

 

Zion National Park

 

We got there. We walked around. We dug it.

Ven. Vedi. Vici.

You know. 

Greetings from Base Camp

We're in Utah. Surprise! The kids and I returned to the states in early January after Asher became ill in Korea. He was immediately diagnosed with Lyme disease (say what?!) and is responding extraordinarily well to treatment--a triple-antibiotic cocktail and a daily dose of hefty vitamins and probiotics. Nate will be in Seoul another few months, but flew in this week to join us for some much needed family R&R.

A friend tipped us off to vrbo.com (vacation rentals by owner) and we found a great little condo in Duck Creek, a couple-cabins town tucked away deep in the high desert. After only a  few days of red rock dust and Nate by my side, I feel good as new. So great, in fact, I thought I'd take a minute to rejuvenate the ol' blog. "[We're] not dead yet!"

We'd planned to visit nearby Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks--where weather was predicted to be hot and sunny. We neglected to check temps in Duck Creek itself however, and packed only t-shirts and warm-weather hiking gear. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up to the condo and found the place covered in nearly three feet of snow!

Luckily, we came loaded with plenty of firewood and S'mores supplies. The advertised fire pit is buried in ice, but Nate got a roaring fire going in the driveway and our "winter camping" adventure turned into an unexpected bonus!

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Everything,

Nate, Erin, Jensie, Asher, & Frances