An American Homestead

Wow what a weekend. First of all I got a pack of seeds in the mail from one of the sweetest people. THANKS BEN! I can’t wait to plant them! Don and Chris hauled the rest of the hickory to the house. I think it was 2-3 truck loads of large hickory pieces. We are so happy to get that wood and cannot believe they offered it to two other people and no one showed up to get it. I picked Perrin up from school and we headed to the Broken House. He was excited to get to spend some time down there. When it was time to take him home it started raining a little. By the time we got to the end of the road it was storming like crazy and the wind was awful. We had to stop and get a tree out of the road. When it passed, the sun came out and everything was nice once more. Later that night more storms came and thankfully the worst of them was just north of us. We got some winds and lots of lightening. We had a board in the cellar to nail up if it got so bad we needed to head down there. It is pretty ironic that the day we get the root cellar done, we get tornado warnings. We faired well tho and the storm passed.

Saturday we made a point to do practically nothing. We were both exhausted from the week. We had coffee and cocoa together in the living room and talked about everything we needed to do. LOL We decided to take a walk on part of the property that I have not even had a chance to see yet. Good idea for the most part, except for the fact that we live beside Chestuee Creek. The back of the property was just flooded due to all of the rain we got the night before. We waded through the water though and walked the woods back up to Brannon Brook. We have a lot of clearing to do, cutting down a bunch of undergrowth and making pastures and fields and such. It will take a long time for us to get the farm the way we want it and need it to be. But the journey itself will all be worth it. We have come a long way already and every bit of it has been an experience we cherish.  Cletus and SadieMae walked with us as we made our way through the woods back to the house. On this walk I discovered we have a LOT of Sycamore trees. There is plenty of tall pine on the back of the property and LOTS of Cedar. Some of those cedar trees are just beautiful. There is a lot of birch, hackberry and dogwood as well. I am still hoping to locate a persimmon tree and maybe a few sassafras trees. We marked some trees to remind us NOT to cut them. We should be OK on wood for the next few years. I spent time in the root cellar admiring our hard work. Yeah that’s sappy but I have wanted a root cellar for more years than I can remember and this one is just as I had it pictured in my mind ever since I saw my Great aunt’s cellar in Coker Creek when I was little. I got word Saturday that my uncle had passed away. I have only fond memories of him and nothing will ever change that. I think when I was a child I had a crush on him. lol He was married to my aunt and I thought as a child he had to be the most handsome and coolest guy I had ever known. A great hunter, a great guy, a great uncle. I will miss you Burch.

Sunday there was no more rest. We had goofed off long enough on Saturday. Chris went to church with Don and I could not wait for him to leave. LOL….just had to say that. The reason I was anxious to have some time alone in the house is that I have started making his Yule present and it is hand made. It will take a long time to make it and I needed to get started on it. That is hard to do and keep it a secret with him home. So I was excited when he left with Don. I was able to pull out the things I needed and get started on the gift. I got the dished done and more food hauled to the cellar before I started on the gift. Of course I cannot tell here what I am making as he will see it. But I will let those of you I email know. I think making things by hand has tons more meaning that buying a gift for someone. I just hope I am able to get it done in time. When he got back from church we had lunch and then headed to Athens to get a truck to haul more wood. We needed to get the wood Mr. Johnson gave to us before he decided to burn it. Oh my goodness was that hard work. We hauled 3 huge truckloads of the scrap lumber from his farm to ours. After unloading it we would take a short break and head back for another truckload. There was huge slabs of hardwood, several inches thick, some 2 feet wide and 14 feet long. I thought my back would break trying to get that stuff in the truck. Unloading was not so hard as we just slid it off the truck onto the ground. There was a lot of 1×2, 2×2 and some rough cut planks that Chris can use for projects around the farm. I am surprised that Mr. Johnson did not keep those good pieces when he sawed his lumber. We got it all to the house and there is nothing left over on his farm but the bark and saw dust. I am going to try to go over with the car this week (if it ever stops raining) and shovel up the sawdust. I am sure we can use it for something, maybe the chickens coop or something. It is a huge pile and will just rot into the ground if we don’t get it. So we got tons of the stuff, 3 huge piles of it now on the farm. Plus the hickory and the oak we had already, the walnuts we had cut. We have probably a bit over 4 cords of wood now and that will be plenty for the winter. We were so tired when we got done but we managed to get cleaned up and went to the funeral home. I felt so sorry for my cousin losing his Daddy like that. It hurt more to see him cry than anything. I visited with my aunts and uncles for a bit and got to chat with my favorite cousin. We took the truck back to Athens, I will be so glad when we own a truck of our own) and then got home well after dark. It was chilly last night and I actually had to shut the library door before we went to bed.

I got an email from Ben this morning about the wood heater. We were going to run a pipe up the chimney and then I thought maybe it would be OK to just run it into the fireplace and put sheet metal up. Ben suggested I still do the stove pipe for various reasons. I know it might seem like overkill to some but I don’t want to lay awake at night worried my house is going to burn down. So we are going to do the sheet metal but use our stove pipe to run it all the way up and out of the chimney. It just seems much safer that way and thanks again Ben for the suggestion. I mean it can’t hurt to be extra cautious and I appreciate you reminding me of that. Chris and Don will think I am being ridiculous most likely….lol…but they will do it anyway. J

Speaking of, the troublesome twosome are hard at work today making the door for the root cellar. So that should be on some time this week. Their other plans for the week are to plow the garden and put a few more loads of dirt on top of the cellar. Chris plans to chop wood and then do chimney repair if it ever dries up enough.  Then we will be installing that wood heater and also put some plastic up on some of the windows for winter. Chris’ birthday is the 19th so I am trying to plan a cookout/birthday party for him this weekend as well. His birthday was ruined last year as that woman told us she was taking out home away from us just a few days before Chris’ birthday. This year, I want to make his birthday the best I can with his family and friends at our dear Broken House. I will have pictures of more of the farm that I will put up tomorrow. Hope everyone is staying dry!

This morning I woke up and did not want to get out of bed. It was so nice cuddled up underneath my Mother’s quilt and my body wanted to stay there all day.

THey came to look at the windshield yesterday. On the way back form making the down payment a truck passed and something hit my window hard. There was a big nasty crack about 2 1/2 inches in my windshield. There was another crack in the middle as well that looked like a small chunk was taken out. She came by work about 3pm and was done a little after 330pm. Both cracks were fixable so I do not ahve to buy a new windshield. Not only that, but the insurance company covered it all so no charge to me. I was very relieved to here that!

When I finally got up this morning Chris was getting his fishing gear ready. He was heading out to the back creek as I pulled out of the driveway. Maybe we will have panfish for supper! I was backing up and had to stop for a minute to go check out the root cellar. I am so pleased with our work and also thankful that it did not leak any during the rain. I will be glad to get the roof on.

We really need a few days without rain so we can get the chimney repaired. So I am hoping for that very soon.

We are going to plant muscadines soon! Can you imagine having your own row of muscadines? ALso I found someone with a good chestnut tree and she is bringing me a big bag of chestnuts to work tomorrow. Does anyone have a clue on how you can start growing those from the nut? If that is possible at all?

Now for the third week and third phase of my lingering illness. I have strep, which is no surprise, Perrin has strep. I felt it coming on yesterday, low grade fever and then a full blown breakdown with a nice red and white soar throat. Last night I went to see Doc Morgan, you all may know him as Capt. Morgan. Between him and honey, and some herbs, I feel better this morning. A trip to Gee Creek last night did a world of good. I am still very low on energy. Sometimes I can walk around the yard, make it to the car, walk around the office building and I am OK, not great, but OK. Sometimes I stand up and cannot make it to the copy machine. So I am still increasing the protein  and other things and I can see that I am getting stronger every day.

Chris burned brush from all the wood cutting yesterday and cleaned some on the house. He got all the nasty brush taken care of by the driveway and it looks so much better. It poured rain and it doing that again today. He replaced the mailbox post. We decided it was an accident as we found the post and there is blue paint all over the post and mailbox. The curly part of the post was up on the hill, the mailbox in the middle of the driveway and the bottom of the post near where the mailbox was. There were tire tracks off the road. So someone unfortunately messed up their car pretty bad when they hit it. Chris got it replaced with a temporary one until we can go exploring the woods and come up with another one we like.

The rain has been nice for the most part. Cooler temperatures and the water barrels are full again. It is bad timing in regards to the root cellar. We need to get that done and now have to wait until this rain ends before we can work with the concrete. Oh well, it will be done in time I am sure *crosses fingers*.

Today Chris had to go over to Amanda’s to watch Perrin so Amanda could work. She was out yesterday. Hopefully he will be well enough to return to school tomorrow. Chris will start working for a friend of ours this weekend clearing her land for a log cabin. So he will be able to help take care of some things that need to be paid as soon as possible.

Someone has offered to help with the down payment on the farm and I am not sure how I feel about that. I have never been in a situation in my entire life that I had to turn to someone else like that for help. I feel honored someone cares enough to offer, but weird that I have to even consider it. I guess I am not superwoman like my grandkids think I am.

I really must get off here and get some things caught up here at work. Piles of paperwork adorn my desk. Life goes on and I just hope that on October 1st I am able to post a picture of the down payment being made. We shall see.

I can only post something very short. I have been very ill for two weeks. It has set us back a bit on things. I had the flu a week and pneumonia really bad this week. I am still not released to return to work. Saw Doc today for another breathing treatment and ekg. I can only put it like this, I have been sicker than I have been in at least 20 years. It has been very bad. I have put off entering the hospital because I am so worried about making the down payment for the farm by the 1st of October. Pretty much, the stress from the pat year just finally caught up with my immune system. HOWEVER, I do feel come better today. Stopped by Amanda’s after Doc appointment to get strength to drive home. It has been bad. I am worried. Prayers are welcome.

Cyndi

Chris finished the woodshed last week and we have started getting the wood chopped and put in it. We have a lot of trees cut down, we just need to get them cut up and put into the woodshed. He started clearing land as well and it is starting to look really good across the driveway from the house, into the woods. We sold the windows from the old house yesterday for $1000. That will certainly help on the down payment of the farm. Sickness is going around like crazy in the schools and where I work. So far we have been spared, but I began to wheeze last night and have a light sore throat this morning. I took some honey before and after breakfast this morning and will continue that and an herb concoction until it goes away. I have been ordered by my Doc to take a few days off work and I had planned to take off tomorrow, so it figures I would start feeling sick before I get a chance to go up to Santeetlah Creek for the day.

The weather is much cooler and that is so nice. We had just a few rough days in which I would have been glad to have a fan in the house, but for the most part, we made it through Summer OK. I realize it is not completely over yet, but the worst part I think has passed and we survived the heat. So now we prepare for Winter. I am looking forward to getting the garden plowed up and everything hauled over to the root cellar for Winter. I will be glad when we have a wood heater installed in the livingroom and know that things are secure and ready for the cold Winter months.

We still get strange looks from the neighbors when they pass by. Yesterday we were down at the Spring washing some clothes by hand and a few cars passed and did double takes at us. I don’t think most of them know that we live without electricity because there are power lines running to the house. But I am sure seeing us at the Spring getting food out of it, doing laundry and stuff makes them wonder.

We had a very good weekend. My health has not been too great lately. My Doc blames it all on the stress from the past year and wanted to put me in the hospital for exhaustion last week. I told him I was trying to come up with the down payment on the farm and could not sit in a hospital. I would not be able to rest in there and would come out worse off than when I went in. He actually agreed with me, but ordered me to take some time off work and NOT stay at the farm working on my day off. This weekend I did a few things around the house on Saturday, but spent time playing my banjo, visiting the Mennonite Market just down the road, getting a little shopping done and then we went to the County Fair with Amanda and Perrin. I sat on benches and watched Perrin and Chris ride every single ride that Perrin was tall enough to get on. It rained on us right before we went into the Carnival. Sunday morning I got up early and played the banjo on the porch in my rocking chair. I am learning a new song this week “Blackberry Blossom”. It is really a cute little song and so far I am doing pretty good with it. I have memorized Cripple Creek and Wildwood Flower and enjoy playing both of those. We cleaned house, finished my jigsaw puzzle and started another one, had a visit from my friend Joanna and her son Tsali.  They stayed for several hours and we had a very nice time together. Then we had to go get chicken feed and cat food and littler and all that wonderful stuff. It was nice to get back home and we had a good evening.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my day off work to leave home and relax all day. We are planning to go into Tellico, stop by the bakery and see our buddies there, grab some fresh bread and pastries then head up the river and across the Cherohala Skyway. We are planning to go up to Joyce Kilmer for a little while and then down to Santeetlah Creek, which is my favorite place on Earth, and spend the rest of the day on a blanket reading book or crocheting or something. We will start heading home right before dark and hopefully things will go well. I am already thinking of a million things I could get done around the farm or even here at work if I don’t take off, but I have promised my Doctor and MY family that I will take a day off and relax. Amazing the things some of us have to go through to relax and how stressful the thought of relaxing can be. LOL

So we are still doing OK and still enjoying our farm. It is beautiful and each day I find more and more things about it to love.

I have not been able to post too much lately. We are trying to get the rest of the down payment for the farm and well, I will just be glad when October is said and done so we can have this down payment behind us and there will not be that stress on us. We like 2500.00, well more like 2000.00 now. We have 5 weeks to come up with it. So….yeah…prayers are welcome!

As for things on the farm, we have been working around there getting things fixed, moved, accomplished as we can. The root cellar (root beer cellar as Perrin calls it) has been prepped and ready for its transformation. We moved all the firewood over near the woodshed, which is being finished today. We hauled a LOT of stuff off this weekend. We have cut trees and are beginning preparations for winter. I have been canning like crazy and storing food for winter as well. We had a hen die. I think an egg busted inside of her. It was one of my Reds so that upset me. Chris called today and he discovered another one of the old cedars full of honey bees. That makes two trees now. I am going to get an empty hive or two and put them out, just in case these bees swarm maybe I can get some in a hive. I won’t be able to get honey from these in the tree trucks, but by golly we have plenty of bees to pollinate the garden. I miss my bees and am thrilled that there are bees at the farm.

I plan to take some pics of the root cellar and the transformation, Chris is working on it with Don this week. I also have more pics around the farm to post as well. The weather is a bit cooler and it is so nice to be able to get out and get some things done without fear of heat exhaustion.

So pics will be up this week and a proper update of things we have managed to get done so far.

Rain, rain….RAIN! YAY!

I love rain! I love it even more now that we collect it for our daily lifestyle. It rained yesterday and we got home to find the barrels filling wonderfully. I was excited. Fresh rain water for fresh baths and such. I love seeing the barrel beside the porch fill up. It makes it easier to get a bucket of water to flush the toilet or wash dishes. It is nice!

I heard it pouring rain in the middle of the night. I woke up briefly and heard it pouring from the overflow. The overflow! That meant the barrel was full! I wanted to go outside and just splash it everywhere.

We are still in the middle of apples. Chris is making fruit leather today and I will be canning LOTS of juice when I get home. And the jelly, I will be making some jelly as well. 12 fresh jars of jelly and all those gallons of pure apple juice! Delicious!

It is due to rain through most of the weekend I think. We won’t be able to get out and cut trees or work on the root cellar. I guess we will be working on the bedroom this weekend.

Canning pics coming soon.

I have been promising pictures for awhile now and finally have them edited and ready to load. So prepare yourself for a picture overload in the next few posts.

Yesterday, Chris got the apples cut up. I helped with more when I got off work. I have decided to make juice out of them and then fruit leather with the pulp. We never have enough juice and I have plenty of applesauce. Yes, to the question, I do can the applesauce normally. I may make a few jars of jelly out of this run as well. We have a lot of other jelly and jam, but not any apple jelly left.

I got to practice the banjo for an hour or so yesterday evening. We are going to start canning the apple juice this evening, so I doubt I will have time for anything else. Enjoy the pics!

First: Pets…

Cletus B. Hound Dawg

Chris loves his hound and Cletus loves his Chris!

Two of a kind!

Kerosene Lamp Cat, Kerrie for short, named so because Perrin stuffed him into the globe of a kerosene lamp when he was little!

Mr. Prim and Proper, Squirrel lounging on a rock

My lovely baby SadieMae

Sadie loves her Mama!

And her Daddy too!