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Rachael took a bunch of photos with her ipod - the quality isn't great, but I'll post them soon.
Everything is so phenomally busy I hardly ever get time to even think about sitting down to post though I know I need to.
Rita gets milked twice a day, is improving slowly, Brooke and Rachael are here, I'm beginning to side the barn, right now getting a materials list together and will probably order wood today or tomorrow.
As far as the tunnels, the next two days of below freezing temps will test how well the plants inside can hold out. For our area, we should be switching to cold frames for the middle of winter, but it has been a pretty mild winter so far, and everything in the tunnels is doing okay. Some losses, like chard, or lettuce not shut up early enough in the night. Some plants are mostly dormant or growing incredibly slowly like spinach and all our seedling crops in beds 8 and 9. If they can just survive the winter they'll make a great early spring crop. Most of the brassicas and especially the mustard greens are doing great in the tunnels.
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I am 67 and my wife, Leisha, is almost 51. She has family in eastern Tennessee (Cookeville) and I was raised for a few years in Morristown which is further east. We are thinking about purchasing land "near" Cookeville and building a homestead on it, so in preparation for that I Googled "homesteading in eastern Tennessee" and eventually ran across your blog. Quite an interesting life you and your wife have had together so far. I am impressed with what you have accomplished so far with your dream and lot of hard work. Best wishes for a safe and prosperous new year in 2012!
ReplyDeleteHi Howard. My husband and I are also fans of this blog. When looking for land, also consider central tn. We are 3 hours to Cookville and the land is beautiful and cheap here! Best of luck with your plans.
ReplyDeleteThanks Howard. Cookeville is only 45 minutes from us. If you're out land-shopping this way, stop by and check out what we're doing here in Sunbright. Best of luck to you.
ReplyDeleteSince you mentioned your age, when I lived in the mountains of North Carolina I worked at an organic retreat for an elderly 'retired' couple off and on over the course of a year.
They'd both lived rather conventional lives with careers, and upon retirement, bought 7 acres in the mountains and began homesteading from scratch, with a passive solar home, biodome greenhouse, retreat center, root cellar, icehouse over the spring, many, many beds of organic vegetables and huge productive groves of blueberries and raspberries. They also had several fruit and nut trees. Jon was in his nineties, his wife Jo in her late eighties. They'd been at it for nearly 20 years.
There was one hiccup where when Jon and I were building a stone wall with stone we harvested on site and brought up with the bucket on the tractor, Jon forgot to put the brake on the tractor and it went tumbling down the hill toward the retreat center. But no harm was done and a local country boy righted the tractor with a long pry bar.
The last I spoke to them Jon and Jo were selling their land and moving out to Hawaii to finally 'retire'.
Wow Rob, what an awesome story about Jon and Jo. Gives me hope! lol.
ReplyDeleteI live maybe 20 mins from Sunbright, in Wilder. I bought land to live off it, and so far I'm moving 1 step closer each day.
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to be 100% off the grid. My expectations is that this country will experience a collapse economicly which will trigger a lot more problems. Just thought I'd let you know that you're in a great area to avoid the chaos, as I think will be the case one day.... sooner than later.
Take care.