The Land in Winter

. A friend and I decided to go up to Tennessee to see the property on the 12th of December. I brought the girls and the dog along.

It's a four hour trip from Atlanta, and we got a late start, heading out about 2 pm. Visibility was dimming by the time we got off the freeway, and the last hour which is normally very impressive was hard to see.

I stopped to get a newspaper for tinder at the gas station in Sunbright. The guy who runs it told me they just had 4 inches of rain, and last night around 9 it started to snow. I didn't see snow anywhere, so I was skeptical. But when we pulled up onto the property there it was:


The girls immediately started pelting each other with snowballs. My friend Seth and I got the bedding ready in the trucks - futons, sleeping bags, and wool blankets - and started a fire. None of the wood around was really usable after days of rain. But I had newspaper, he had shims, and I had some lumber cutoffs in the shed. It took a while to get it going, but eventually it was a good hot fire. The fireplace is really comfortable:

We set boards down to sit on over the snow [it was covered in snow the first night].

A full moon rose over the trees, as the clouds thinned and disappeared. We had a few beers and talked. What I thought would be a miserable arrival, in the dark, and snow and cold, was actually a great time.

But the night was incredibly cold. We had frost on the inside of the windows. We didn't sleep that well. A neighbor dropped by and said it got down to 17 degrees.

The snow started melting fast, so I went around and took photos. Here's the barn:

Hasn't changed a bit, other than the wood's faded. That's the swimming pool inside. The driveway has now become a permanent feature of the landscape, like it was always there.

Looking down towards it from the swales:

Here's the garden and compost bin:

Here looking towards the gazebo:

It's interesting how the oaks have shed their higher leaves, but held on to their lower ones. They're still going through that slow transition from tall forest trees to spreading field trees.

The peach trees are huge, and loaded with buds:

They should be spectacular in the spring.

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The most exciting thing is the creek. We can hear it flowing while just walking down there. I've never seen it so full. It's flowing all the way to the road.

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Here's a shot of some falls and a pool:
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Here's a shot looking downstream from above:

So at least half the year we'll have flowing water.

The roof for the gazebo's been destroyed. It never had a good design in the first place. Rain always pooled and sagged the fabric, and poured through the grommets. I tried to tie it down once and the grommet just ripped out. The weight of snow has now torn it to shreds:

We'll have to fabricate something out of canvas once we go back. The metal frame and the pad we built are in excellent condition. I'm amazed the surface treated landscape timbers still look like the day I put them in.

Here are more shots of the shortlived snow:

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On Rachael's fort:

It's hard to see, but icicles are hanging down from the barn:

Two neighbors drop by to offer anything we might need, which is nice. Everyone is so friendly here.

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I feel a tremendous attachment to this place. I feel myself slowing down and enjoying life much more. It is an ideal piece of land. I've been reading EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS, and our property fits every qualification for just the spot to have one; with its sun, and openness, and southern exposure, and hardwood environment, with just the right humidity for flowering trees. This was a very important and necessary trip for me - I realize I prefer a long-term development of this property into a Garden of Eden over anything else (even, for the moment, more than running off to New Mexico, which is tough to admit).

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Seth took a family photo of us before we left to go see the Obed:

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A great flock of sandhill cranes fly by, with their tremendous honking. They actually fly quite low:

The Obed was cold and flooded, the rope swing underwater, and the falls we canoed preposterous. Mishka ran back and forth along the bank biting at the waves. Here's one shot from Lily Bridge:

Seth's presently in Maine, so he took off for his long drive back. The girls and I went back to the property for some last photos, and to take some measurements for the cabin site. The old cracked parking slab is 15'x19' feet. It's where I'm going to put the cabin, south of the garden:

The girls aren't too happy that the temperature today tops out at 39 degrees:

Next year they'll be in this same spot, but inside sitting near a wood stove.

Here's a couple shots of what's left of the garden:

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I find a few deflated cantelopes. And the three-year old mint that we've had in a little black pot in an apartment, year after year, is actually putting out fresh shoots! It is invicible.

The thyme we planted in a ring around the persimmon has also done very well. They've gone from six tiny plants in a tray to miniature bushes. And they keep the grass back - it's an excellent permaculture technique:

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A closeup:

We need to give our other fruit trees similar treatments.

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Here's Rachael in front of our burgeoning peach tree, still cold:

And the winter sky:

I've only got three and a half more months to get through. I'm going to try building furniture, and birdhouses, and keep uploading books on other blogs. We've also got a large order of fruiting trees and shrubs to prepare for Hidden Springs Nursery in Cookeville, Tennessee. We want to get the order in and paid for by the end of January, so we can count on getting the rest of our planting done in the spring. We'll be getting plums, and apples, autumn olives, currents and gooseberry, a local fig, maybe pawpaw, jujube dates - whatever they have.

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