Happy Solstice!

We cut down our own tree on our land this year. It was a 60 degree day, so it didn't feel very christmas-y. Jackie fixed that!

Robots, Lasagna Gardens and Works in Progress

View from the kitchen window. Makes washing pots and pans pleasant.


We've enjoyed some fall veggies from the garden - kale, lettuce, still lots of beets and carrots - and are creating a couple of new beds for next season using the "no-dig" or "lasagna-layering" method. It has nothing to do with yummy Italian food (except maybe the dishes with good vegetables). It's basically making a compost bed - layers of green (like hay, grass clippings) alternated with layers of brown (leaves, compost, manure). We were motivated by Kevin and Laurel's gorgeous gardens next door, and the pain of roto-tilling this soil which is so dense and full of clay. We thought we'd give their technique a try!

First trip to the Feed and Seed Store.
Shoveling a truckload of goat----






Jackie and Caroline have been working on a deck for the entry to the basement (future apartment, we hope). And the woodshed's almost finished...










We had a robot visitor for Halloween. ("I come in peace!")

Jackie made a beautiful box for the kindling.


Hard to believe we've been here almost a year!

Getting Ready for the Hunkering Down...

We've canned peaches (from Caroline's trees next door), made apple butter, frozen yummy greens, and stacked firewood.

The siding on the house is finally finished, ready for winter winds.












We've had more great visits from people we love and miss.












Kevin and Laurel got chicks, so we're looking forward to really fresh eggs.




We had mixed results as novice gardeners - the carrots and beets are outstanding, but we don't talk about the onions or broccoli - and we're already fantasizing about a greenhouse. Fresh lettuce in the winter, mmm...

(Photo credits to Dana, who can make even our humble veggies look stunning! And some photos by Elizabeth and Jackie.)
















We mourn the loss of Jackie's beloved mom, Josephine - a wonderful, warm woman. She passed away peacefully on August 19, surrounded by people who loved her. We will miss her very much.

Yankees and Others...

We've had some wonderful visitors from FL, MA and NC! It's been a beautiful summer (here's a first - Jackie had to come in from the deck the other night because it was "chilly"!), and the siding is slowly getting done. We decided to put some cedar shakes on the east side, facing the road. We've been working with Kevin, who is doing a great job.
Jackie jokes that we have a "bonzai" vegetable garden. The onions failed (maybe too much rain), and so far things have been tiny, except for my first 'taters - they are healthy!
p.s. I may have "misrepresented" the goats - they belong to our neighbors Kevin and Laurel, but we did learn to milk Juliet, and I've got a regular shift now! Still experimenting with making goat cheese...

Welcome Fiona and Norman!

We've done a little more work on the house - our bathroom is painted and the sink is installed, and Jackie did some more great tiling. We did a bit more of the siding, but we're going to work with someone who's willing to get up on scaffolding (not me anymore!). The garden's more fun than real work. I'm chicken about thinning, obviously, so that's why the beds look so crowded. The potatoes seem happiest - must be because I'm Irish! We're plagued by flea beetles, which munch green leaves so that it looks like they've had buckshot go through them. Lots of rain has given everything a healthy start.
The exciting development this month was the arrival of Fiona and Norman, beautiful Nubian goats. Our neighbors Kevin and Laurel built them a great barn. These goats are very affectionate and chatty! We're looking forward to goat cheese - yum!
Jackie's gone to visit her mom in Arizona for a few days. Deco and I are missing her!

Dog Days of Spring

No, we didn't get puppies (Deco would never stand for that!) - our neighbor Caroline rescued these Louisiana Catahoula dogs. Maybelle and Roux are overwhelmingly cute and distracted us from getting much work done on the house. But we got our garden beds planted, and Jackie made this simply beautiful gate (to keep out troublemaking puppies and rabbits, we hope). We had a few days close to 90 degrees, but our house stayed comfortable (thanks to the cool concrete floors). I'm campaigning to keep air conditioning out of the house, but it is only May...

We are new to gardening, so we are listening to all the advice there is, which gets confusing. It seems to range from scientific ("when the third set of of true leaves appears, lower the night temperature to 55 degrees for four weeks ") to casual ("just plant the seeds and they'll grow") to superstitious ("plants like the attention when you mess with them"). Anyway, there are some seedlings coming up, so we're happy. We'll see if we eat this year... I sometimes think of the Transcendalists - big on ideas, short on farming skills. It'll be an interesting experiment!

We're heading to Florida this week to celebrate Luca's birthday and see some dear friends we miss!

La Casa de Tyvek

Finally started getting the siding up! Board and batten is right for this house...

Equinox/Spring is Springing

It's easy to fall in love with the mountains when there's forsythia, apple and cherry blossoms, dogwood, and all kinds of beauty blooming. We finally finished the shower (the tub was fine, but I need a shower to really wake up) - Jackie's the queen of tiling - and now we are focusing on the outside work, like the siding (hemlock boards stacked in photo), and making our plant beds. We are excited about our neighbors getting ready for their goats, and we are going in together on a chicken coop. Lots of planning!
I had to take a day off when it was in the 70's to hike - the closest Blue Ridge Parkway area is Craggy Gardens. I thought I saw a shortcut on the map, but DeLorme lied. I just parked and walked from where the road was closed. It was a gorgeous trail, although I never made it all the way to the top. I had to include my hat in one of the photos to show I was really there. All these rhododendrons will be blossoming in the next couple of months.
We had a nice surprise when we saw crocuses (croci?) in front of the house, left from someone who lived in a trailer on this land years ago.

Jackie and I think we have crossed a line - we are thrilled to drive home with huge, stinky bags of compost (aka garbage) from the juice bar at our favorite local natural food store, and from a local vegetarian caterer. Already looking forward to next year's compost.

Mucho Mulch

We got a beautiful pile of mulch (we've got a lot of mud to cover!) from the C & M Sawmill, where we ordered hemlock to do our siding. We're going to do board and batten siding - vertical boards, also called barn siding. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there's a lot of hemlock that's been cut down because of the pest the woolly adelgid. It turned out to be the most economical option for us, and we think we'll like it better than the other choices we had considered, stucco or hardiplank.

We've been working on the office and Jackie's studio - we had a ladder/stairway built to get up to the loft.

And Deco supervises from her doggie bed!

Happy Chaos

We are slowly and gratefully making our way through boxes and bags (why can we find all kinds of useless chachkes but not the important paperwork we need), and settling into our new home. Can't remember what day it is, but it's starting to feel like we were always here. We spend time talking with neighbors about compost and squash bores (take a guess), and are loving our comfortably warm radiant floor heat on the colder days. This weekend, temps go back up into the 60's. We think it's hilarious that 2 inches of snow brings everything to a halt, but altitude does matter - we are at the cutoff, it seems, so we don't get the big snow and ice. Lotsa mud, though!

We painted with Sherwin Williams low voc brands - Harmony and Duration. Definitely less fume-y, but there are types with no voc's - harder to clean, we hear, and more expensive.

We've got a nice pile of firewood, some seasoned and the rest getting there. Getting ready to make some raised beds and start some seeds inside.

We couldn't have gotten here without the fabulous support of friends and family! Thank you all a million times - we really do wish you were here, and hope you will be eventually!