Growing Things

 

There are things growing all over the place at the farm! When we were home back in late January for a weekend, I had discovered the emergence of some buds.

This past week, they were making appearances all over the place.

And the daffodils are blooming. I love daffodils. Who can help but love those first bright rays of brilliant yellow after weeks of brown (or in some cases, white) on all surfaces?

While Malcolm was working on clearing the hedge out of the fence lines last week, I did some clearing of my own. Someone planted a lot of English Ivy around the house and it's lovely...

....but English Ivy is kind of like Privet Hedge, in that it knows no boundaries. And I wondered what it might be smothering. So I started ripping it out of a flowerbed last week, and made all sorts of discoveries. It was keeping so many treasures captive beneath it's weighty vines!

There were dozens of bulbs trying to come up through it, as well as several shrubs, and though this Lenten Rose was able to grow and bloom through the ivy, I'm sure it will by happier now that it doesn't have to compete for space.

There are other things growing around here too.

Fancy is at 8 months now, and her baby belly is making itself more noticeable.

It is sometimes lopsided, which makes me laugh. It's probably just the way she stands sometimes, but I like to think it's the baby laying on one side or the other. Let me pretend.

I think her official due date is June 13. That is 330 days from her last breeding. But according to her breeding records, her last two foals went around 345 days, so it could be later. It's going to make guessing how to be off work a little hard, with such a broad window, but I'm determined to be there for this one!
We're considering working clear through the next two months with no break at all, and then possibly taking off nearly all of June, maybe coming home a week into June and staying through July 4th or so. It shouldn't be a problem, especially since we no longer need to take off several weeks for haying like we've done the past two years. We'll just take off several weeks and use them to play on the farm and wait for Fancy's baby. I can't wait!!!

Boy or Girl? Her last two were colts, but this is a different stallion. I've only had one foal from him, and that was Gemma. It will be interesting to see what we get this year, and I'm in touch with Dawn's new owner, and looking forward to hearing from her when Dawn foals in early June. It's going to be so hard here in a few weeks when everyone else starts having foals on the ground and I'll still have weeks to wait!

Even without a foal around, we still have a baby on the farm.

I think he will always be the baby. I think he thinks so too.

He still comes running to meet me at the gate, and he's still impossible to photograph unless there's a fence between us. It's because he insists on being right next to me if I'm on his side of the fence. I used to think I was special to him, but recently I heard from a couple of neighbors who were going on and on about what an "incredibly friendly horse that black one is" and I soon realized Sky has been kissing up to everyone on the street. I felt a little bit betrayed. I wanted to be his special someone.
I know he doesn't turn down anyone with a cookie and from what I hear, several neighbors are passing them out to my little herd.

I've been on the phone a lot over the past week or so, and I think we've narrowed the search down for a trainer, as well as a new romantic prospect for Fancy.

So we're back on the road for a couple weeks, and then we go home for a break toward the end of the month.
Our plans are to enjoy the hopefully fine Spring weather, do some work around the farm, drop Sky and Ringo off at boarding school, and go meet Fancy's prospective suiter and his owners.

Hope the coming days go by quickly. I'm looking forward to being home again! So much I want to be doing, and sitting in the truck is not one of them right now! I'll have to content myself with day dreaming until we get there.

Getting to Know Redbud Farm

in September

Things are kind of brown and winter drab here at the farm right now, but there are signs that Spring is quickly approaching.

We went home for about a week to take care of some trucking stuff. It was nice to be home, and even though a little cold snap came through while we were there, we still took the time to do some work outside. And there were a couple of nice days before the chilly weather returned, which made it more enjoyable. Now that things are settled and unpacked inside the house, we are enjoying exploring and getting to know Redbud Farm a little better.

After my "house tour" post, I told you I'd come back to give you an outside tour of the farm later on. I expect you'll be seeing plenty of it over the months and years to come, but here is a quick walk around the place.

 

The house, as I told you previously, was built in 1915. I expect Malcolm and I will be spending many summer afternoons in the shade of our porch, enjoying the sound of the creek and the birds, and a cool glass of sweat tea. We are still very much in love with our house.

We love the rest of our property too. We don't know much history about the buildings on the farm. We don't know how old they are, but it's clear that they are not new, and we suspect a few of them may even be as old as the house. They are all going to be project buildings.

This is the big barn. It sits between the house and the small pasture that runs down to the creek. It obviously has some issues. We debate back and forth on what to do with it. The reasonable thing would be to just take it down and rebuild, but I cringe at the thought of doing so, and Malcolm still goes back and forth on it himself. What we'd like to do is try to salvage the center section, but it would be a pretty big, and probably expensive job.

It is a neat old barn, even with the sagging and brokenness of it. We have a resident ground hog that has made his home beneath the barn floor, and in the hay loft we have a barred owl that roosts during the day. We've seen them both several times, though I haven't had my camera handy when they made their appearances.

I still hold out hope that one day down the road we'll be able to tackle the job of saving this barn. But it's not high on the priority list, and so we'll continue to watch it sag for a bit longer while we tend to other things.

Like pasture.

We have a 10 acre farm that has been neglected for a while. While the house was being loved and repaired over the past years, the rest of the land and buildings were unattended to. There is some fencing but it's over grown and in disrepair, and what there is of it is no longer worthy of the title "fencing." On our first day on the property, our neighbor walked down and offered the use of his pasture. We were over whelmed by his generosity and God's providing a solution to a delima so quickly, even before we'd given it much thought really. So our horses are next door keeping his pasture cleared for him, and enjoying being the neighborhood pets (apparently the neighbors all around are buying horse treats and making offerings of apples and carrots, or so I hear from them), while we work on getting our pastures ready.

Years ago, people planted a shrub, called privet hedge, as landscaping. You might be familiar with it. It can be a lovely, ornamental shrub. It can be a huge headache that wants to take over the world.

It is growing on all boundaries of the property, among the trees, and along all the fence lines that are sort of in existence, and it creates an awesome privacy fence as it gets well over 6 feet tall! But it also happily encroaches on every square inch of land that you don't watch closely. As in the picture above, it is trying really hard to take over the world, creeping off the property line and into the woods and pasture. It's even poking it's nasty head up here and there in the landscaping around the house. I hastily pull the random sprigs of it up whenever I find them trying to take root in my gardens and landscaping areas.

 

We have the one large pasture on the hill behind the house, and then two smaller pastures, one behind the house, and the one behind the barn that runs down to the creek. It was terribly over grown on the fence lines and well out into the pasture. Doesn't look like it in this picture....

...but Malcolm got out this week with the bobcat and started clearing brush and hedge off the fence line. The result was impressive. He more than doubled the size of the pasture, just by clearing out hedge!

He also worked back into the woods, what used to be shaded pasture that had turned into scrubby wooded mess. But now with some cleanup, and then smoothing the ground back down, we should have some nice shaded pasture back here.

We'll also be having a HUGE bonfire at the end of the month. Anyone want to come roast marshmallows?

After pastures are repaired and fenced, we'll be moving on to the building projects. Right now there isn't a building large enough to pull the truck into, so that will probably be the next project. We are thinking about taking down this old machine shed...

...and building a large barn that will fit the truck, but we want to build it to look like it is one of the old farm buildings. We'll probably do board and bat or something like that, and use an older style of barn design on the exterior so that it looks like it belongs.

And after that, we'll tend to the other smaller building needs.

There are 4 other smaller outbuildings. The woodshed/garden shed/catch all building by the house needs upkeep. It's a neat building though and we plan to stay true to it's current style and design. The previous owners did a lot of landscaping around it and put in a chain link dog pen on the back side. I love the plants they chose, and the dog pen will make an awesome chicken yard once we get a top put on it to keep out the hawks. So we think we'll try to reconstruct this building within the current space, so that we don't hurt some of the unique landscaping that's been put in.

Speaking of chickens....

...the old chicken house, complete with concrete floor. It's pretty much a useless structure and a little far gone for help. We'll probably be taking it out completely. See that door on the far end? That would be our two seater out house. No joke! And we're high class here! We have concrete toilet pedestals with wooden seat covers! (and about 1000 crickets and spiders, and the roof is off of it so you and your creepy crawly company can admire the stars while you see to business.)

There's an old grain barn that is neat. Somehow I've managed to not get a picture of it. We'll have to fix that. It's actually in pretty fair condition and as we look at it, currently being used as a tool storage building for Malcolm, we both can see it renovated into a little guest house, or play house. I think it would be neat to make it into Malcolm's gun house with all his reloading stuff and such. But if he won't claim it, as he seems reluctant to do, I have no problem taking over. It's going to make me a BEAUTIFUL little sewing/craft play house! He better speak up soon if he doesn't want me to move forward and stake my claim on it.

Though our buildings are in need of some serious TLC, I still love them. It's a frustration to me that they are so far gone, because I despise the thought that we are going to tear them down, after they have survived so long. But it's impractical to try and salvage them all. So I've made it my mission to try and save at least part of the big barn, and sacrifice the others.

I don't have to cross the creek to go visit the horses, but I like to. It's easier to just walk on the road, but I like to cut across the pasture and wade through the creek with my waterproof boots on.

It is about 1 1/2 feet deep at our crossing with a nice sandy/pebbly bottom. I envision hot summer afternoons wading in cool water. It should be pretty cool water as the creek is spring fed from somewhere across the road. I'll have to take my nieces wading with me this summer. We'll hunt for crawfish (Malcolm and Dad found a fist sized one earlier this winter), and pretty pebbles, and have fun splashing each other and getting good and wet and cooled off.

In our exploring and walking around the property, we keep making discoveries. As with all old farms, things were tossed aside when they were no longer needed or wanted, but they weren't always hauled away. We have found some interesting things hiding in all that privet hedge I was telling you about. Back at Christmas, Malcolm was working with his tractor on a patch of brush, and discovered an old fuel tank, the remains of a Sears manure spreader, and then later he pulled this out of the brush to show me.

It has a huge hole in the side of it, which was disappointing to me. It would have been neat to set it up somewhere. It's tempting to do so even with the hole. I could grown some pretty flowering vine on it or something like that.

There's some old farm equipment lined up in the pasture behind the house that we've got to haul off or at least move.

Treasures tucked in every corner, or at least treasures to some of us. Even if they have no use, they are still historically of interest.

We have other treasures too. There are these four fruit trees.

By the time we bought the property they had shed their leaves and there was no trace of fruit left on the ground (probably thanks to our resident herd of deer), so we have no idea what they are. I'm leaning towards thinking they are cherry. I know they are not apple. But we'll have to wait for warmer weather and baby fruit to know for sure.
There is a huge pecan tree in the back yard and I'm hoping it will bear plenty of nuts to share. This past year, I suspect the squirrels carried them all off because we only found a handful on the ground.

There are also these two trees...


...which were loaded with these tiny speckled berries in September...

...which the birds had managed to devour by the time we got moved in. I have no idea. Mom has no idea. In fact, I haven't been able to track down their identity. A cousin suggested perhaps they are Autumn Berry, and that's the closest thing we can come up with. Any other suggestions? The fruit is about the size of large chokecherries.

I can't wait for things to turn green again. There are traces of green in Tennessee year round, but the full out green that means warm weather and beauty has arrived is just around the corner and I can't wait. Spring Fever has hit I think. There are signs all over of bulbs emerging. I have daffodils blooming among other things, and I fully expect that giant Redbud by the house to be blooming when we get back home in two weeks.

There is a lot of work to be done on Redbud Farm to get it back into shape, but it will be a fun project, and with the coming of Spring, we both are looking forward to being outside and getting our projects underway.

Every time we pull up to our yard, returning home from being on the road, I feel so overwhelmed by how blessed we are. This place has surpassed all my years worth of day dreams about having an old farm house and living on a farm.

A Tour of Our Home



This one's going to be long, but you don't want to miss it. If you've got time now, grab a cup of tea (or whatever strikes your fancy at the moment), sit back and enjoy. If your in a rush, come back later today when you have time for a lengthy visit!


 I was going to post pictures last week and give you a tour of our new home. However, with the holiday, I just didn't get to it. I'm sure you can all understand. But I've had several people asking me for pictures of the place, and I told them to be watching for the post. So I'd better follow through with the promise!


When we started house hunting, we had a short list of "must haves" for the new place.
We were determined to find exactly what we needed no matter how long it took. And we were prepared for it to take a L.O.N.G. time because we knew our needs were a little out of the ordinary.

We knew our new place needed:
- most importantly to have room for the truck to get in and out, as well as a place for Malcolm to keep his tools.
- some acreage (the more the sweeter) for our horses and farming hobbies.
-to be within a reasonable price range, something not too easy to come by if your wanting acreage too.
-to be close to our family in Chattanooga. Also not so easy to do if your wanting acreage as well.

We did a lot of internet hunting before we ever went to Chattanooga to look in person, and we found some pieces that interested us, but each one was going to need some tweaking, and nothing was going to be any closer to my parents than 45 miles. It's that hard to get acreage in the right price range that close to Chattanooga.

And then we got to Tennessee in September and took a week off to go look at the properties we were interested in , as well as some Dad had heard about, and each one got vetoed for various reasons. One was just too far from Mom and Dad. Another one was too much money for what it was. The next one, and the next one, and the next one you couldn't get the truck in without major ground moving/tree cutting work. And by Friday, we'd exhausted our list and our motivation. We had found a place we liked. It was going to be an exhausting awesome long term (3+ years) project to get it livable, but it came with 56 acres(!) and was only 25 miles from my parents. We had decided that was the place, because we like a project, we had a lot of fun renovating our little farmhouse in Georgia years ago, and, well, being as we live in the truck anyway, we could live in a camper or something until the house was ready, and shoot! 56 acres! Need I say more?
 We actually did put an offer in on that one, and thought we had it in the bag. The realtor had assured us it was ours. He just had to get the owners to sign on it. And he procrastinated by one day, just enough time for another offer to come in. We had a one day bidding war, and in the end the other people got it, and I hope they are happy with it. It will be a really neat place! I pray they aren't going to make it a neighborhood!

So on Saturday night, a day after exhausting our list of hopefuls and having just found out we'd lost the only one we were even slightly interested in, we weren't feeling too good about the whole situation, and we knew we needed to get back to work on Monday. But we were also feeling pressured to find something even though we had promised ourselves we weren't going to rush into anything and we were going to take our time and find the PERFECT place.

It's been said for ages that when God closes a door, he opens another one, and it is so true. We'd had our heart set on that 56 acre project. It would have been, eventually, beyond what we'd thought of possibly having, after a lot of time and money invested. And after that, it was hard to think of anything else even coming close to being as good. But God sees beyond what we see. He sees what's better!

So that Saturday evening, when Malcolm called me into Mom's living room to look at a house Dad had found on CraigsList, I wasn't feeling much like looking. But I was also trying to keep my spirits up and trying to lift Malcolm's too, so I went to look.


How we missed it in all our internet searching I don't know. It was listed on all our websites we'd been using to look and had been on the market for almost a year! It was within our price range. It was, from all appearances on the computer screen, practically perfect in every way. It was, honestly, a little too good to be true, and made one wonder...."what's the catch?"

And so on Sunday, after lunch, we set out to do a drive by, just to see if this place really existed.

And on Monday, after taking a look at the inside of the house and walking the property, we put an offer in on it.

And on Tuesday we had a contract for a closing in October.

We moved in a few weeks ago. I still pinch myself nearly every morning to make sure I didn't dream this all up.

I didn't.


It sits nestled into a secluded valley only 20 miles from my parents house. It feels like you drive quite a ways out into the country. It is so quiet and peaceful and yet just 10 minutes from every convenience you could dream of.

Down a two lane highway that meanders along the banks of Chickamauga Lake and the Tennessee River...

...you turn onto a tree shaded one lane road...

 

...and arrive at Redbud Farm.

picture taken in September when we were viewing the property





The house was built in 1915. We know very little of it's history, but I'm making it one of my projects to find out. One of the benefits of my home town is that, as large as it's gotten, it's still one of those places where you always know someone who knows someone, and it turns out my cousin used to work with the guy whose grandparents farmed this land and lived in this house. So I have a contact already!

 

 

We're thinking of calling it Redbud farm because of this tree that grows next to the house.

None of us have ever, EVER, seen a redbed get this big! It has to be ancient, by redbud standards. I almost wonder if it's as old as the house. You should have seen it with leaves in September! Amazing! And I can't WAIT till spring when it's covered in those dark pink blossoms that redbuds are famous for! Can you picture it in your mind? Don't worry! You'll get to see pictures!

 

There are redbud sprouts coming up all over the place, and I remarked to Mom, as she and I were walking around the yards and noting which shrubs and plants were there, that "well at least we know the place will grow redbuds." to which she replied, "Redbud Farm!" And the name stuck.

 

There are a number of barns and outbuildings. A creek babbles it's way through part of the front of the property. Year round water for the horses and whatever other animals join us in the years to come. An answer to prayer because now my dad doesn't have to go over there during our absence to water our critters for us! And behind the house and buildings, there is a gently rising hill that is covered in thick green grass, that in September was taller than Malcolm's head because no one had cut it this year! There are at least 5 walnut trees, and in the back yard this massive pecan tree. I'm in love!

There are 10 acres in all, and though that's small by some western standards, in Tennessee that's enough for us to be a farm, and so we are! Very happily! Those ten acres are holding a passel of dreams and possibilities for us. So many dreams that are going to come true on that ground!

 

I'll give you a tour of the barns and property in another post, but for this time, I promised those folks a look inside the house, and so lets get to it.

 

I just have to say, I am still, even after a month and a half of happy home ownership, absolutely amazed that in the past 97 years no one ruined this house! Someone (or multiple someones), bless their souls and love them, loved this house and maintained it enough to so that it didn't fall into disrepair beyond saving. And then a few years ago, another angel of a someone bought it and renovated it. RENOVATED! not remodeled! The first time I stepped through the front door, I thought I could have walked into one of those historical home tours. Praise God for people who love history and old farm houses!

the front living room as you enter from the front door

 

It's been updated beatifully. The walls may not have originally been sheet rocked, but now that they are, the paint colors that were chosen are complimentary to the age of the house. Care was taken in selection of light fixtures (I still want to know where they got them because I love their choices, and I've never seen anything like some of them!), and the original floors are still in place.

this one's kind of dark, but gives a feel for how large the room actually is, something I find odd in a house this old. The rooms are huge, relatively speaking!

There was love and care in that renovation project. Care to make updates that didn't clash with the ambiance, and care to preserve what could be preserved. One of the original fireplaces and mantels, now equipped with gas logs.

From the front living room, you can head down the hallway that passes through the center of the house...

  











...or you can turn to your right and enter the other front room. We're still debating what this room's original purpose was. We're leaning towards office or parlor. But now it serves as the guest bedroom.

And no sheet rock here. Original tongue-in-groove pine board walls, floor and ceiling! Makes for a dark room, but a lovely one. And some brightly colored quilts and rugs will snap the gloom right out of the room.

This room has two doorways. One goes out to the front living room, where we just left, and the other goes into the other living room. Guess we'll call it the den.

note not one, but TWO closets flanking each side of the doorway. Another unusual feature for a house of this period.

The other living room, or den, is where most of my library has landed. It's also where your most likely to find the girls, if they aren't shadowing you.

"Why is that you ask?" says Carlie Jean.

 "Do we really need to explain?" says Paris.

 

Because this room houses the second fire place in the house, now equipped with a very effect wood burning stove. Plus it's just got that cozy cabin feel to it with the woodwork. Plus, (and this is the biggy!) it's the only carpeted room, and the girls LOVE carpet!



From this room, you have three options other than the way we came in. You can go left into the hallway, right into the laundry room and then exit the house, or...

 

... straight ahead and into the kitchen.

Nooks and crannies abound, which I love! I wasn't digging the black and white linoleum, but it's growing on me quickly. The light fixture in the kitchen is awesome and unique, as is the one in the breakfast nook...

....which sits at one end of the kitchen and looks out onto that lovely redbud tree, and now several of my bird feeders.

 

I have only one complaint about this kitchen, but it's nothing that can't be fixed. And so it's my "think on it" project and it involves the lack of counter space, and this wall.

I'm wondering about getting an antique stove. But the more practical solution would be to get some kind of table of counter. We'll see what happens. In the mean time this wall looks really bland and barren, all except for that awesome built in cupboard. It's one of two and I just adore them! I've always loved built ins!

 

 

The other door leaving the kitchen leads into that central hallway you saw from the front room, but now your at the back of the house. Right outside the kitchen door is a doorway to underneath the stairs, and the most awesome storage space ever! If I lack counter space in the kitchen, the house has made it up to me by providing abounding storage space, which is something Malcolm and I have never ever had! It's awesome!

And heading back down the hall towards the front of the house, brings you to the two other bed rooms. We think perhaps it was originally one large room. Or maybe it was two rooms. Hard to tell. We're calling it the master suite because they are smallish, and so we're using them both as our bedroom.

Enters the third and final fireplace of the house, complete with original mantel. This one is non-functioning. We're toying with the idea of putting in gas logs.  Functioning or not, the colors are lovely!

Note the little cupboard above the mantel. It has two shelves in it and is about 6 inches deep. Interesting.

In fact, there are two more similar cupboards in the den, one on each side of the door, and so high on the wall you have to have a ladder of chair to climb on. They are deeper and one contains an old straw hat and a newspaper scrap from 1920. They are clearly original to the house, and also very mystifying. Never really seen anything like them before.

 

And back out in the hallway, is the stairs to the attic.



A little over 800 square feet of fairly easily finishable living space but right now completely awesome storage!

previous owners stuff. Not ours. It's much more cluttered now as we stacked boxes here and have been unpacking from that point. Made the rest of the house much more livable!



There are dormer windows on three sides, and even if we finished it, we'd still have TONS of storage! Each dormer has attic space on the sides that have been closed in to create 4 massive closets, one in each corner. I'm thinking what an awesome space this will be for Malcolm and me! We want to lay some carpet and bring up our wood pellet stove. He has set up his gun reloading stuff in one corner. I can just see my sewing space in one of those dormer window alcoves, and a  table for working puzzles under another window, a comfy sofa and chair for relaxing...just loads of possibilities. And the girls can lay by the stove while Malcolm works on his guns and I quilt. It will be so cozy!

 

There are so many different little features, small details, that add so much charm to this house, right down to the doorknobs.

And no matter which window you look out, there is a lovely a view that gives the feeling of being secluded and very far out in the country....

out the back (the pool is probably going by by in the spring. Anyone in the market for one?

the master bedroom windows look out onto the screened in porch and across into the soybean fields of the farm that borders us on two sides

out the front windows and from my porch swing I can enjoy the views of a wooded forest

from the other side of the house I can the barns and look down to the creek there at the far end of that small pasture

....even though we have neighbors. No one is right on our doorstep. No where near that! We can only actually see one of the houses clearly and it is still set back down the road a ways from our house. We've met our three closest neighbors, and another neighbor that lives down the road. All amazingly nice, helpful, and generous people. We feel so blessed and fortunate. One always wonders and worries abit about having good neighbors (or nightmare neighbors) when moving to a new place! It just adds to the "too good to be true" question that seems to linger about the place in my mind.

 

 

The porch wraps around three sides of the house. I've dreamed of, and longed for an old farmhouse for years and years and years. And if I ever expected that dream to come true, I thought surely it would be dilapidated and in need of lots of work. So to get handed one that is so old, and already "fixed" and landscaped beautifully, and nearly perfect in every sense of the word, at least nearly perfect according to the standards of those years I've spent dreaming....well I can't help but wonder if I'm still dreaming.

 

But then we ended up going  past the house for Thanksgiving weekend, and I walked in the door and all our stuff was there in that dream house, and our horses were there to greet us, and our mail had been delivered to that address. So I guess it really is a real place! And I really do live there!