August in Tennessee

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When we get back to Tennessee, the first thing we notice is the screened-in tent. This time it's finally destroyed:

It already had a huge rip at the back, when I tried to tie it down hard in a wind. It ripped right where it was tied. We later taped this rent with duct tape and sewed all around the outside of the tape - a strategy that usually works with a tear like that.

Once during a heavy rain Rachael and I sat around the fireplace watching it pour. The floor of the barn was a sheet of water. Then a gust hit and actually picked the tent high up into the air, and Rachael and I ran to the car to get out of the rain. I slept that night in the back of the Explorer with the kids (very claustrophobic). It rained for three days solid. The tent was covered in little rips, which we sewed, and one of the poles got bent.

But this time it's not worth fixing anymore, so when we go to town we replace it. This is the new tent ($40):

It's not quite as tall, and doesn't fit as well, because it's hexagonal, but it's far more stable.

The garden after two weeks away is full of food. We can even smell some tomatoes rotting. It's exciting to check it out. Here's some squash:




Beautiful. And it has a very clean taste, nothing like ordinary grocery squash.

And there are tons and tons of tomatoes, I don't know if we'll be able to eat them all. There are about 40 plants:


We also have cantelope, which is doing very well in the 4th bed near the potato bin:


Brooke picks one that's only the size of a baseball but very fragrant. It is dead ripe and delicious.

However, it seems we've missed the prime of the berry season. The blackberries are now on the wane, and the blueberries are mostly gone.

Here's where the barn is at, before I get back to work:



The driveway is settling in nicely.

I have lumber delivered to finish the frame. It takes me ten days. I then seal it with Thompson's Water Sealant (I get a 5 gallon can for $45). I'd planned on waiting till just before winter to seal the barn, but after one heavy rain I noticed a green mold forming on a lot of the wood. I tried to spray it with a 50/50 bleach/water mix, like a local builder had recommended, but though it stopped the mold, it didn't disappear. So I felt I'd better seal the wood now and not wait. It took two days to brush on the sealent, and it's almost as thin as water. But it does work - I noticed pools forming on the sill plates after a rain - the wood wouldn't absorb it. And the barn also took on a lacquered look, which was neat.

Once I had the frame done I moved on to the four main beams which will support the roof. They are doubled joists which go from each center 6x6 post to an outside beefed-up 8x8, across from left to right. I put them in on double hangers. Each beam is a doubled 2x10. I get one board up and in, then the second, use clamps to get them flush and tight, then go on to fasten them together with screws and ring shank nails. I use a few spiral nails also, whatever I have. It takes an entire day and a half to get these four beams in.

Here's the original drawing for the barn:




The gambrel roof has two separate pitches. The upper pitch is shallow, the lower pitch steep. At the break in roof pitch, it's usually a good idea to have an interior wall or some other type of support. I'm going to have four posts that run from the break in roof pitch down to the big 4x10 beams [as well as posts in the same line at the front and back of the barn]. Where the top of the posts meet the roof, there will be a beam that runs front to back, and the roof framing will connect directly to it with bird's mouth cuts and metal connections.

So that where these posts for the roof rest on the 4x10 beams isn't put under too much stress, and possibly sag, I'm adding knee braces. These will be doubled 2x6's. They will take the load from the posts supporting the roof directly to the exterior 8x8 posts and into the ground. These inner roof-supporting posts will be set about 4' in from the outside of the building, directly in line with the front and back studs 4' in on the lower story.

Here are shots of the 4x10 beams and their knee braces [these photos are taken later, after the joists and bridging are in]:



It's difficult to see the 4x10 beams in these photos, because they're centered above the parallel 2x6 horizontal braces. The knee braces go up through the horizontal braces and connect to the beam via toe-nailing (screws actually), and large mending plates on either side of the beam. The bottom of the knee braces are connected simply with toe-nailing (again with screws). These knee braces should take much of the load of the roof and distribute it down through the posts.

My wife comes up and we try to pack as much fun into her visit as possible. We take our canoe and paddle a few miles down the Obed River. At the beginning is a heavy rapid, a waterfall really, and I persuade her to ride down it with me in the canoe. The girls watch from the bank. Patty and I are still so shell-shocked from our 3 month, 500 mile trip up the massive Susquehanna River, fighting it every day, that we're both rather terrified of rapids. But we go down and it's actually a lot of fun. We make it all the way through and only get stuck on one rock.

There's also a great rope swing you can take way out into deep water in the river, which is an absolute blast. Rachael and I do it over and over (Brooke is too scared, and Patty doesn't want to get her hair wet - right). And there's almost never anybody around. The place is so virgin in a way.

We'd taken another canoe trip up the Emory River earlier in the summer. On the way back down we found a huge mulberry leaning out over the river covered in fruit. We ate for a while from the boat. Rachael and I jumped into the river to get at some lower hanging boughs. We ate a ton and got covered in wine stains from the berries.

We took a 6 mile hike up to the top of Frozen Head peak, in Frozen Head State Park. It reminded us a lot of the Appalachians the higher we climbed, as well as our old hiking days. At the top was a clearing with several black cherry trees, covered in cherries. And there were also many huge apple trees, 30 to 40 feet tall, loaded with apples, that were excellent. We ate and gathered some and climbed the fire tower for the view. Next year we'll bring backpacks and get a supply of apples.

Every recreational area around our property we tried was pretty great. No disappointments at all. Frozen Head even had free hot showers at the trailhead, so in a pinch we had a place to bathe. We all took showers at the end of our hike.

The Morgan County Fair was running, so we went one evening. The parking was rather expensive, and the event was mostly a carnival. Carnies called out to us to come play their games as we walked the aisles. This was particularly annoying to Patty and I, as in our teens, after we dropped out of school, and took a train west, we ended up in a traveling carnival for 6 months - calling people in, and swindling them, and sleeping in the back of a Ryder truck, working with mostly ex-cons. We knew that lifestyle all too well.

Brooke rode a pony, and both the kids got to try rock climbing. Here's Rachael, nearing the top:

And Brooke:

They had a little zoo, too:

We're still thinking about getting goats.

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The carnival sucked with its overpriced rides (which are actually dangerous and put together with mouse keys by drunks - we knew from experience), so we left and went to see one of the main attractions, the mud derby. It was interesting because this is where most of the locals were. It was their own brand of cheap entertainment, mostly improvised. We watched kids and adults race their 4 wheelers through the mud. We felt pretty out of place, but it was mildly entertaining.

Patty had brought birdhouses which the kids painted and I hung up. Here's Brooke's up on the red oak beside the fireplace:

No birds yet, but many large grasshoppers have checked it out (you can see one on the sill).

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I did a little framing while Patty was here. I did the X frame over where the barn doors will go. I half did it because I thought it would look cool, and half for structural purposes - it will strengthen the upper 2x10 beam which will serve as the header for the deck to be hung off.

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Here's a shot from the front:

And the back:

The boards are all 2x6, except the horizontal boards at the bottom which are 2x8. We might hang a barn door on rails on the 2x8.

The day before she leaves I order the 45 joists (2x10, 12 footers) from Christmas Lumber in Harriman. I actually spend an hour picking out the boards myself - for joists you want the best boards you can get, no splits, no big knots, minimal bowing. I also pick out 2x8 boards for the bridging. With fasteners and hangers this step alone in the barn costs us about $800. That's about all we have at the moment, but we decide it's better to invest now in the barn and work towards getting it finished than sit on the money.

The Barn Frame

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Once we returned to Tennessee after being gone for nearly a week, it was amazing the change in the garden. Everything had grown so fast! We watered it right away:


Here's a good shot of the corn and winter squash:
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And here the broccoli and cauliflower, with tomato behind:
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I pulled a potato out of the bin that was starting to flower, to see if it had any tubers coming:
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Here's a closeup of the young red potatoes forming:
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Very exciting.

And there's lots of yellow summer squash to eat, which we steam:
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Cucumbers also:

Butternut squash:

Here's a mantid on the corn:

Back to the barn:

The huge pressure treated 2x10 cleat on the front left post of the barn wasn't staight. It had a slight crook to it, so I just nailed it up at top and bottom. It bowed about a half-inch to the right at the center.
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In Atlanta I got a pipe clamp and a 3 foot piece of black pipe, to use to move the board straight before I completely fastened it down. It did the job almost effortlessly. And this began a new era of building for me - one of clamps. When you're building alone, you must have clamps. And the more the better.

On the barn I basically just picked up where I left off in an earlier post (THE MODIFIED POST AND BEAM FRAME), maybe a little wiser, refreshed, and with a few more tools. Here are some close-up shots of connections. The mid left inner post:
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The front left side of the barn, from outside:

A closer look at the beefed up 4x4 post, now 8x8, with it's cleats and 2x10 beams and 2x6 braces:

Here are more shots of the framing:

The front left corner of the barn, from inside:

We've been back in Tennessee for 2 weeks, and the frame is 2/3rds finished. And we're now totally out of money. The girls and I will have to go back down to Atlanta for 2 weeks so I can work at my father's factory to make money for boards. We'll stay with my parents. 2 weeks' pay should cover the cost of lumber and fasteners for the back 1/3rd of the barn.

Here's a photo of where it stands now, with the kids swimming in the foreground:

And one with me out front:
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Since we're going to be gone for 2 weeks, I need to build a door for the shed so I can lock my tools away. I call it my "bad mood" door, because I just throw it together with old boards and drywall screws in a hurry and don't give a damn what it looks like:

Here's my journal entry a few days before we go back to Atlanta:
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7/16. A whole month since I've written. Night, full moon rising, insects calling. We've got a cantelope down in the garden. The tomatoes are beginning to turn red. We had a salad from the garden, kale and mustard greens and three big cucumbers. We also steamed some yellow squash and had it with pasta.
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I've been building the barn ever since Patty left and I finished the driveway. I've put in 92 boards according to Rachael's calculations. It's a modified post and beam made out of 2x4, 2x6 and 2x10. The framing is over 2/3rds done. I can't finish it because we're out of money. We're going into Atlanta on the 21st and I'm going to work at the plant for money for boards. Then I'll come back, finish the framing, scrub and seal it, and harvest food from the garden. We've been gathering a quart of berries, blue and black, every morning, for our oatmeal. Today we put them in our pancake batter. There's no shortage of food here. And no shortage of insects either.
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I read in the evenings. I finished a great book called MIRACLE IN THE ANDES by an Andes survivor. It sort of fortifies Doestoievski's outlook for me, that wisdom is found in suffering, when I read this book. This guy really saw life for what it was. I'm also reading a book on the Soviet gulags. Man's inhumanity to man knows no bottom. I just finished tonight a book by a guy who paddled the length of the Tennessee. It reminds me a lot of our trip up the Susquehanna.

We looked at a couple of foreclosures in Atlanta. I'm still ambivalent about it. Patty's all for the pragmatic money side of it. I'm concerned about the soul side of it. Do we really want to sit in Atlanta and work and commute up into our forties? Hell no! is my instant reaction. But do what instead? We could homestead up here and I could work locally and we could use food stamps and I could finish the barn. But that's a lot of work, a lot of $, and rough living. I'd love to try the Southwest again, but am partially bored of it. Hawaii is too small, and the Northwest is miserable.
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Patty's flying to L.A. (she's never been on a plane before) with my mother and sister tomorrow morning for Stephanie's bridal shower. She'll be gone for 4 days. Then I'll meet her down in Atlanta on Monday.


Some things we've found great solutions for. There's a sawmill right in Sunbright, three miles away from us. The actual mill is huge, in what looks like an airplane hanger. They've got many pallets of 2x4, x6, and x10, because roofers use them for trusses. Not only is it a great cheap local place for wood, the guy who runs it has told me I can come in for sawdust whenever I please, and take all I want for free. So I go in with large black garbage bags and shovel dust from around the saws for an hour. Three bags of dust should last me months. And sawdust works a lot better in the collection toilet than peat moss - the bucket doesn't fill as fast. And the stuff is free.
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Ripe blackberries and blueberries are absolutely everywhere. The north side of the dirt road below us has tons and tons of blackberries, some of Oregon proportions. Blueberries are everywhere also, but small and low to the ground. It's hard to pick as much in the same amount of time.
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Fruit in the Garden

Our garden is now bearing fruit. Here are some cucumbers:

Tomatoes are on the way:

And winter squash:

Here are some deeper shots of the garden. The squash and lettuce and corn:

The tomatoes:

And the potato bin:

Our mail-order trees and shrubs are all thriving (except the one sumac that was split in half when run over by the dumptruck - it seems to be dead).

Here's the juneberry by the compost bin:

We have two juneberries that have transplanted well and put out leaves. However this one beside the compost bin has really taken off. Before it got its leaves, it burst into flower, every stem covered in flowers, and now it has many unripe berries developing. It's either the moisture that comes off the compost, or the nutrients, or both, but it's a good sign for our humanure composting.

Here's our stick of a persimmon now settled in and putting out leaves:

Here's the one healthy sumac, with a ridiculous amount of foliage:

One of our peach trees, with new growth:

The redbuds up behind the gazebo:

The blueberry up at the swales, not doing much, but some have shed their old sickly growth and put out new tiny buds and leaves:

I took a few overview shots of the property before we left.

Here's the barn under construction in the distance:

A look down the gravel driveway:

The compost bin:

We are leaving for the 4th of July, and going down to Atlanta to stay for the weekend with my parents. The girls want to see fireworks. It will be strange leaving here for any period of time, as we've been here since April 23rd, 10 weeks. It will be very weird being in a busy place like Atlanta. We're used to a great deal of peace.

On the way we stop at the Obed River. It's about a half hour away by car, because you have to go out and around on the highway. It's designated the Obed Wild and Scenic River all through this area. So it's very clean and beautiful, with no development. Here's a photo:

It's one of the many big rivers in this area, like the Emory, the Clinch, the Big South Fork, and the Tennessee.

If you look closely you can see the girls tubing in this one:

Instead of taking the freeway to Atlanta we take the highway at Sunbright, 27, all the way south. It goes to a little town called LaFayette in Georgia. From here we take a short detour up Pigeon Mountain.

Pigeon Mountain has a famous rock climbing area called Rocktown, with a ton of boulders. That's how it was discovered for us, going climbing with a friend.

But Pigeon Mountain offers a lot more than climbing. Once we'd sort of given up on the Southwest, on permanently living out in the Gila Wilderness, whether due to lonliness, isolation, boredom, or longings to go back to where we come from, the East - Pigeon Mountain became the last place we believed we could permanently live outside in secrecy. The mountain is a wildlife management area, with tons of springs and creeks and fields. We found a field a half mile in where we set up camp:

Built a fireplace:

And started a thatched hut:

Here's a view out over the field where I collected grass for the hut:

And Alan Creek, where we bathed and stayed cool:

This place had it all. Forest and fields, and creeks, an infinite quanitity of blueberries, blackberries, autumn olives, acorns, nuts, edible greens, elderberries, persimmons, apples even, black cherries - the list goes on and on. There are even giant linden leaves which I would soak in vinegar and use as tortillas to wrap our beans. Here's us picking blackberries off an old dirt road:

And a ton of wildlife. I even saw a coyote chasing a turkey once, down the road.

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The drawbacks are the mountain is small, a few miles square, and the summers with the heat and bugs, especially the deerflies, can be very rough.

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But our visit this time after 10 weeks up building and gardening in Tennessee was pretty anticlimactic. Our old life, especially in a tiny circumscribed place like Pigeon Mountain, no longer seems possible for us, or even appealing.

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I took a photo at dawn off the Lookout. We camped at this spot once for 2 weeks. It's sheer down to the valley below.

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