Return to Tennessee

. We packed up and left Atlanta for Tennessee on April 8th. We weren't bringing seedlings this time so we had a little more room in the car. Gardening is not going to be as much of a focus as getting a cabin built. We put our furniture in storage.

Here's the property as soon as we pulled up and parked in front of the pumphouse:

The barn is still in good shape, even after a long wet winter. Sealing the boards must have helped. Their color has faded, but there's no sign of rot.

Our old block fireplace made from debris from the fire hasn't changed. I need to take down the ramshackle board wall I put up to keep the wind from destroying our screened-in tent:

Remember the flycatcher that nested in our pumphouse . . . where I got totally fed up with her eggs' inability to hatch and her constant in and out so we had no place to rest, and when I went to move her eggs I found 5 little chicks? Well, she's nested in the pumphouse again (she gets in through the eaves - the door was shut and locked). But this time she's built a new nest at the back of one of the shelves. And she's already got one egg:

She's not going anywhere.

Here's a shot of the garden, with our old tomato stakes:

Our creek is full of more water than we've ever seen it before, which is exciting. So we will have a guaranteed water source at least half the year, besides our well:

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Here's a shot looking down from the gazebo over the property . . . no leaves on the trees, the sight rather empty:

The roof of the gazebo is basically destroyed. It looks like the weight of snow has ripped the canvas. We'll have to rebuild the roof with metal conduit and create some sort of custom-yurt covering that will shed water better:

But the pad we'd built for the gazebo is still in perfect condition. This is where I'd stayed all last year while the kids slept in the truck. It was comfortable except for the giant hornets.

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Since the gazebo's out, we first move into the pumphouse:

It's pretty cramped for the three of us, but we've got a space heater, and at night we stuff all the cracks in the door with sheets, so we stay quite warm.

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Our first project is to move the gazebo down to the barn to create some sort of livable dwelling while we build the cabin. I place a board between two corner sections and carry that, while the girls each carry one corner. We walk it this way down the hill to the barn.

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But unfortunately it won't fit through the big barn opening because it's too tall. I foolishly try to turn it on its side to bring it in, but it's too heavy and one of the metal crossbars bends. It doesn't break though, so it's not the end of the world. The only thing to do is to remove the roof to get it in, which takes a while.

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We put the gazebo in the center of the barn to use the posts to tie tarps to. And the floor is graded level with no vegetation, so there will be far less bugs. And it's much closer to the toilet and building site and our source of power, so it will be a far more convenient place to be.

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Once the gazebo's in, we lay old boards down across the dirt for a floor:

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I put a large blue tarp up for the roof, folded in half and doubled over to give it extra strength. We then put up our gazebo mesh and bamboo blinds. Once the futon's in, and a rug, it's like a little apartment:

The earth behind the barn where I'd cut out for the dwelling has caved in a little and washed over the corner and sill plates. At some point I'm going to have to cut the land back, and create a 10' wide aisle like I did on the side, so that the land slopes down and away from the building at all points. Hopefully I won't be doing that by hand. For now I just shovel out the dirt that's spilled over the foundation:

The borate-treated sill plates show no sign of rot, which is good. This building gets a tremendous amount of sun and that helps keep everything dry.

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We move more tents into the barn area to use for storage. The barn becomes 'tent city'. If you look closely you can see I've put a little cook-slab out in front of the refurbished gazebo:

We use this slab not only to cook, but a place to continue our daily practice of making green smoothies. The dandelions are in flower everywhere:

Here's a shot of my collecting bag full of flowers, and the creek-water and bananas for our smoothie:

Here's another shot of the property. It's quite cold for April, and Rachael's got her sweater and hat on:

The first rainstorm that hits pretty much soaks everything in the gazebo, and I'm depressed. Rain just blows horizontally through the mesh and makes sleep impossible. I think about it for a while, then decide to run to the store for tarps to use for makeshift walls. The tarps can hang from the frame and be lowered or raised depending on the weather.

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We put the tarps in, and it works! With the mesh, and blinds, and tarps, and board floor, the place, though only 12x12, really feels like a home. Not only does no rain blow through, but wind doesn't either, so it's much warmer and feels more secure. We even bring the space heater in during extreme cold, and it warms up fast.

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This is where we'll live while we build the cabin:

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