A ROOF!
We have one!
Also, we are officially in Nashville for the winter (even though it was SEVENTY FIVE DEGREES yesterday....what.) Jesse is working at his old stomping ground Woodland Wine Merchant and I am on the lookout for some holiday work as well. We are going to be making some extra money, traveling back and forth to Bugtussle to insulate and finish the exterior of the cabin, and enjoying one last hoorah of living in the land of electricity and coffee shops. And showers....oh how I've missed you, showers.- Hannah.
ABRACADABRA...CABIN!
Like I said last week, things started to move quickly once we poured the concrete footers! Here is some of the week's progress:
Can you believe it!? THINGS ARE HAPPENING! Jesse and I are exhausted, but so excited. We have learned a LOT about construction from some really great guys - and on top of that, we have been splitting our time between working on the house and clearing trees from our future pasture. We are trying to get some firewood stockpiled AND the roof on the cabin before we leave for Nashville this weekend. I'll let you know if we make it!- Hannah.
OVERDUE UPDATE.
WOW! That is probably the longest we have ever gone without a post, and I apologize. But truly...this is the first time we have been in the land of electricity and internet in about a week. It has been INCREDIBLY busy around here. In the last week we: decided on a basic plan for the cabin - a "salt box" house, with a lofted space in the back. 14 x 24, pretty small!
We scored a bunch of windows and doors from the Gallatin ReStore.
We took a trip to the lovely Hidden Springs Nursery to pick up some blueberry plants and fig trees. While we were there, we hiked up the hill to see some amazing waterfalls. Beautiful.
We planted the blueberries and began drying the popping sorghum from our old garden.
We've slowly been clearing the house site more and more...slowly because we have been basically using just a machete and the scythe. Once we finally finished cleaning it up, we dug holes for the concrete footers that will be the foundation for the cabin. We were originally going to sink cedar posts, but decided that the ground is just too wet and has too high a water table. So we are using concrete piers. THis was also a sloooow process - chopping through tree roots and unearthing all sorts of chunks of cement and cinder blocks from the old house. Later today, a mason is coming by to help us stack the piers, and then....everything will start happening pretty fast!
Like I said....busy! Busy, but good. It is an ultimate satisfaction to be sore and tired from the hard work, to snuggle into our little corner of the barn with a warm fire from the wood stove. We are happy farmers in this little corner of Bugtussle, and we will try to update again soon!- Hannah.
POSSIBILITY.
Beyond the cabin stuff (updates coming soon!), Hannah and I have these wonderful moments of bewilderment staring out at our new acreage wondering how we're going to start cutting in and then what we're going to do with it once it's tamed. It's our marble slab, our blank canvas, the first sentence to our (latest) book, but what in the world will it turn into?The farm is a place of unending possibility, where our options for what we can do are as overwhelming as they are infinite, but that's what makes farming exciting. Over the next year we'll be opening up pasture, clearing some garden space and, of course, building a home. But we'll also be deciding which of the thousands of ideas we have for our farm are going to meet fruition, and what kind of farmers we're going to become. Farming is a strange––and strangely physical––brand of art, but something Hannah and I love and look forward to seeing where it takes us and our new land.- Jesse.
