Growing! Growing! Growing!

A summer shower came through this afternoon and as quickly as it crossed over the mountains, it disappeared again. When the sun came out, my daughter and I went out on a scavenger hunt.

Today's theme: Things we can eat! Have a look at what we found!

Tomatoes!

Summer apples!

Blueberries!

Figs!

Mulberries! (at back) foreground= NOT edible!

Fall apples!

Patio Herbs!

Holy Moley!

So Spring has sprung here in the American South and with it all kinds of wildlife! My outside cats are taking it upon themselves to thin the numbers. Thus far, they have eliminated two squirrels (sigh), lots of mice (not so sad), and a handful of lizards (most of whom I have saved). The neighbor dog (who I will write about later) seems to have a major rodent fetish and I am no longer surprised when she comes round with small critters hanging out of her mouth. Even though they have expired, it seems to be great fun for her to throw them in the air and catch them again. And when she is done, she rolls in them. Gross.

I make it my personal mission to try to free whatever critter the great hunters have caught and it is not uncommon to see me charging through the yard yelling like a deranged nut. They usually drop whatever they have and move away. They know the routine. This is our game.

So yesterday, I saw my older cat strutting through the yard with a small rodent in her fanged grasp. And as usual, I said in my oh so sweet voice, "Here kitty, kitty...." (she falls for it every time) and when I grabbed her, she dropped it.

Baby mole about the size we found.
(Photo source unknown)

It was a baby mole. It was still alive. But probably not for long. It had puncture wounds. So I did what I always do- take the critter and put in a safe place until it... well, you know. Expires.

I had a small plastic bowl handy, so I put him there high on a cool dark shelf in our outbuilding so the cats would not get at him again. I intended to go back and remove the body later. And I went on with my business.

About 2 hours later, I went out and to my surprise, the little guy was still alive! He had bled quite a bit but was not in shock and was moving around a little. So, I put some dried leaves and other soft material in the bowl and covered him with a light cloth until I could release him later that evening when my yard patrol was not so "intense."

And of course, my four year old was helping me with all of this. I explained to her how we could not touch the baby mole because he was a wild animal. She was concerned about his wounds, so we went in the house, got a Q-tip and some Triple Antibiotic ointment and slathered him up a bit. Poor mole.

In the meantime, we came in the house and did a little mole research. We learned where they live, what they eat, and how they survive in the wild. We decided baby mole was about 2 months old (by his size)- so old enough to make it on his own.

Then we went on a scavenger hunt to try and find the mole's hole. We found it quickly! It was under a rock and when I lifted it, we saw his burrow. We decided to put the baby mole back in his hole right away. So I lifted the rock again and we slid the mole out of the bowl into the hole and I gently placed the rock back over the burrow.

But the mole didn't stay in the hole! No sooner than I replaced the rock, he reappeared out of the hole! So, we used a stick and gently directed him back into his hole. And,  a few seconds later, he reappeared out of the hole again! Darn mole!

MOLE HOLES!

So maybe this was NOT his hole. Indeed, as we looked around the yard, there must have been a dozen or so mole holes built around our large oak tree. Great! There's no telling which hole that darn mole came out of.

So back in the bowl the mole went and there he stayed until evening. At dusk, we made a little burrow in the old mulch hay under our fig bush and finally set him free. We haven't checked on him this morning but my four year old made up a song for him and tells everyone the story about how we took care of a baby mole for a day.

We'll have to buy this children's book.

The Llamas are coming! The Llamas are coming!

So it's official! We are officially approved as a SELR adoptive home!

Yes folks! Within the next month or so we will be bringing on 2 new four legged family members to our farm! It is a bit of a fulfillment of a dream to live with llamas and now it is really going to happen (double fingers crossed not to jinx it)!

Why llamas you ask? (Or as my husband asks- Why llamas? in a dejected monotone voice). I don't know. Because they are cool.

They are larger than goats and sheep so I don't have to stay up all night worrying (as much) about predatory attacks. And they are not as large as horses who usually don't know their own power.

Llamas are brilliant, quiet, stoic creatures who form life long bonds.

And NO, they do not spit (unless provoked or are harassed like this ridiculous kid and her obviously intellectually challenged father who in my opinion both need to be taken out and horsed whipped). Sorry, stupid people annoy me.

Besides who can resist big eyes like this?

Or a face like this?

I actually began thinking about Llamas about 5 few years ago and bought this book. Very informative and a great intro to llamas.

And now that we have the facilities, I began doing a little research online about availability. And that's how I found SELR.

I have been fooling around with horses long enough to know- I do not know anything about animals. So to go out and purchase a set of llamas (like they are pair side tables.... right?) seemed a little dumb. And that is why SELR appealed to me. SELR is a nonprofit made up of a group of enthusiasts, veterinarians, and professionals who have been working with camelids for years. The majority of the animals they acquire are surrendered by owners who are no longer able/willing to care for them. Only a few are abuse and neglect cases and the majority of those guys are kept in house through an EXTENSIVE network of individual volunteer farms.

Sounds pretty cool. So I started chatting with my husband about it and believe it or not, it was his idea to submit an application for adoption. Wow! (Although I understand this does not mean he is in any way excited about the prospect.) But I am :-)

The SELR rep who visited our farm is Deborah Logan. She is extremely knowledgeable about llamas and seems very attuned to our needs (we are first time llama parents, already have 2 rescue horses, and have a small child). She asked us a few questions about what we are looking for in a llama (age, sex, fiber quality, etc.) and I told her she knew more than me. Just bring us two llamas :-)

And so she will. As we speak, she is now searching her network. Finding us the perfect guys (or gals) to add to our four legged family!

SELR's network extends from Maryland to Florida and as far west as Texas. If your state does not fall in SELR's territory and you are interested in adopting, please contact SELR and they can direct you to sister organizations.

(All photos courtesy SELR facebook page)

The road to home (farm) ownership-part 2

We are not wealthy people by any means. So how in the world did we afford to buy an existing farm in this economy? While I cannot offer a straight "this is how we did it" answer, I will share some of the lifestyle tips which we live by and I believe allowed us to now be where we are.

First of all, we set our priorities. What do we really need vs. what do we want? Yeah for a while there, (before baby) we had a great time buying frivolous things. I admittedly have a fabric buying compulsion. I can't help it. I just love fabric. My husband likes high end man stuff and tech stuff. But one job loss coupled with a newborn baby pretty much quit us of those habits.

We set realistic goals. What was our time frame for moving from the city to the country? How much money did we need/could we save during that period of time? My husband's job loss followed by a few years of poor paying positions put our dream behind. But not really. If we had been rigid in our timeframe, we might have lost the farm and everything else we had when we found ourselves faced with no income for an undetermined period of time. What is that old saying, "Life happens when you are busy making plans?"

Finally, we are capitalism's worst nightmare. We try to be self sufficient. We do not mind expending a little bit of energy to do it ourselves. We make our own laundry soap, make our own yogurt, supplement our winter heat with wood, and use the barter and trade system whenever possible. We try to save more than we spend. We never buy new cars (or really anything else new for that matter). We're happy with last year's model (or the year before that... or the year before that). I buy most all our clothes at second hand shops and I am a regular at consignment sales. We still wear name brands and maintain our high end/high quality taste but at less than quarter the cost! We also try to make smart purchases. I won't say we never impulse buy, but rarely is it for large $$$ items. We are happy to leave a store, think about it for a day or two, and come back again later. If the item is still there when we come back then it was meant to be. If it is gone, then we simply shrug it off and move on.

My super awesome $50.00 antique couch!

I think too we are blessed with a great deal of luck. We listen to the little voice in our head. When it tells us to wait, we wait. When it tells us to go now- we GO NOW! We know when to ask for help. And when we get "no's" (and we have gotten many of them), we do not let it be the end of the road for us. We simply change our course and carry on, our heads up and our feet planted firmly on the ground.

Over the years, we have never lost sight of our goals and dreams. When faced with roadblocks, rather than sit and stare at them hoping they would go away, we find ways around them. We reset priorities. We set new short term goals in order to meet long term ones. We get creative. We were patient and we ultimately persevered.

Original farm relocation goal: 2 years
Realized farm relocation: 6 years

The road to home (or should I say- FARM) ownership

So it's been a while since I updated. We've been busy. I mean REALLY busy. Let's catch up.

Last time I posted, we were soul searching over a beautiful old Victorian (built in the 1880s) in the little town where my husband now works. We decided not to pursue it. It was a short sale and as first time home buyers, we just did not want to get ourselves into something like that.

So we decided to build. From May until October, we threw ourselves into the building process. We chose our house plan, worked out the details with the architectural firm (Allison Ramsey of South Carolina- awesome people. LOVE THEM!), began talking with local banks about construction loans, and started searching for builders.

And that's where it got crazy. The new construction loan process was pretty smooth- believe it or not. However, getting a commitment from a builder was not so easy. In fact it ended up being the downfall of our project. Five builders did not even call us back. One met with us and said he would be back in contact with pricing-  we never heard from him again (and he was the president of the local home builders association to boot!). One refused to commit to pricing all together and the final builder backed out last minute.

For a while we took it personally. Maybe we were too direct? Maybe we were too practical? Maybe we  just had no idea what we were doing? I checked with a couple of other builder associations to ask if we were going about the process correctly and they said yes. They also said they have received multiple complaints about builders refusing to return calls, refusing to commit to price quotes, not finishing jobs, etc. Seems like during the recent economic downfall of the housing bust, many builders are out of business and the ones who stuck it out are a bit frayed at the edges.

So the week our last builder backed out, we decided to explore our options. We called up our local real estate agency (the same one who showed us the beautiful Victorian in town) and gave him some details about what we were looking for and a price range. Back to house hunting we went.

That afternoon, he had four prospective properties for us to view. He showed us a pretty green ranch style house nestled between two mountains. It had a little over 11 acres- with page wire fencing, a working chicken coup with yard, a functioning goat shed, an additional small animal barn, a pond, an in ground swimming pool, and a separate 1300 square foot block building with a canning room! My husband and I talked about it for a day or so. It had everything we were dreaming of. It was a working farm! So we decided to make an offer.

When the offer was accepted I was overjoyed, terrified, anxious, ecstatic, and heartbroken all at the same time. We had spent years dreaming of a house on our 30 acre farm. We had our house plan. I had the cabinets picked out. I had paint chips and samples of wood flooring.

But that is how life goes. If you hold onto something so tight it blocks the light of possibility around you, you might just miss out. So I put my book of dreams on the shelf and there is shall stay until someday- or not. Life is about being flexible and pursing your dreams in whatever form they may come.

To be continued......

Happy Spring!

Hello all and Happy Spring!
The world is green again and the air is getting warmer! Despite my last post, we really did have a pleasant winter here. Actually, it wasn't much of a winter at all. It was unseasonably warm and Spring came very early! In mid February we had snow and by the end of the month it was in the low 70's! It has been warm ever since!

This year is going to be a big year! In February, I worked on a huge commission for an upcoming network television series. I can't release too many details until the pilot airs. But it was my biggest commission to date. (As many of you know, I create historic costumes for the film, television, and museum industries.) More on that later!

In addition, we are in serious get ready to move mode. This is something we have been thinking about for a few years and as "just the two of us" has now become "three of us", we are finding the need for a little more room.

Right now the housing market is a buyer's dream but a seller's nightmare. Houses are priced 30-50% below their 2008 values. Definitely a great time to buy! Not a great a time to sell. However, when a house like this one comes on the market at a price we can afford, one gets a little more incentive to start packing those dishes!

This c1900 house (fully remodeled in 1988) is located in a small historic community outside of our current city of residence. It is just 5 miles from my husband's place of employment (whereas he is now commuting over 35 miles one way.) It is on a corner lot and has just enough side yard for our little one to play and the dogs to stretch their legs. But it would be city living as there are residences all around it.

It is by no means Eutopiaville, but the streets are quite and the crime rate relatively low. In our current city, there is a growing gang problem that is reeking havoc on our revitalized downtown residential districts.

This house is within walking distance to both the children's park and the local elementary school. (And, the schools in this community DO NOT have school resource officers! Can you remember a time when there was no need for police presence in our schools?) In addition, I could walk to the post office and ride my bike to the grocery!

However, it is city living. Our dreams have always been to build a house on our rural 30 acre farm (just 5 miles from this house.) But unlike the depressed housing market, the building market is still very high. Sky rocketing gas prices are driving up materials prices and right now it would cost twice the price to build a house on our property.

Lots to think about, pray about, and just plain wait and see about. But, I know in the end it will all work out the way it is meant to be :-) It always does!

A visit to Sequatchie Cove Farm

This past weekend we visited a local farm that specializes in sustainable farming and organic produce. Recently, they have gained notoriety across the South for their artisan cheeses.

On Saturday, they hosted an open house and farm tour. We were curious, so we went. (Besides, who could resist the opportunity to explore a secluded mountain cove on a beautiful autumn morning.)

One of the owner's residence
(and the official greeter on his way to meet visitors)

Gorgeous mountain cove

Brood of hens gleaning spent garden beds

My little one and her accomplice trying to herd a cat

Sequatchie Cove Farm is by no means a typical commercial farm. It is maintained exclusively by six people- two of whom make the farm's cheese. I am not sure how many milking cows they have total, but during our visit we saw about a dozen or so. "The cheesemaker" said they are at about half their capacity right now and are excited about expanding as demand gets higher. Their dairy barn is the latest addition to the farming operation and houses a state of the art commercial kitchen and aging room. (We were not allowed in for sanitation reasons but did get to peek through the window!)

Who's watching who?

The creamers

My little one and her daddy- right at home with the cows 

The autumn colors

All in all- it was a lovely visit on a beautiful autumn day. And while we have no intention of ever going commercial with our farming (or raising our own meat- sorry folks, just can't do it.....), we were very inspired by what we saw at Sequatchie Cove Farm. Who knows- we may just try our hand at cheese making too someday!

A Nature walk with Fairies

This past weekend, my family and I attended the Festival of Jack O' Lanterns at our local nature center. This is an annual fundraiser and all proceeds go toward the preservation of our local wildlife. In addition to being a sanctuary, the center has several greenhouses on the grounds and a wildlife conservation area that is instrumental in raising awareness about the South's endangered red wolf population.

This year we decided to attend the festival in costume. I had the pleasure of being accompanied by the sweetest little fairy!

Happy Autumn everyone!

Celebrating Appalachian Culture

There is an exciting opportunity coming up in February centering around Appalachian culture. From the schedule, it looks to be pretty intriguing. And best of all- it's FREE!

Here are the details:
Where: The Mildred Haun Conference- Walter State College in Morristown, TN
When: February 4-5, 2012
Theme: "A celebration of Appalachian Literature, Culture, and Scholarship"

Here is a link to the schedule
Here is a link to the site

Best part of all- they will be paying homage to noted Tennessee History scholar and writer Wilma Dykeman! Amazing Lady! A true Steele Magnolia mixed with a heavy helping of Tennessee tenacity!