The Farm

Living Room Camping

 This photo was taken the night we closed on our house. We camped in the big tent in the living room for four nights before our household effects came. I'm missing those days. Oddly, I was not pining for our things. OK - maybe I was sweating the fact that we were running out of clean clothes just a little bit, but things were much less complicated without all our stuff!

The Cauldron

 On our second night, we roasted wieners and marshmallows over our new fire pit. I think we ended up doing the same thing on night three and four. Lots of fun!

BIG back yard!

 Somewhere back there lies a lovely black raspberry bush. It is not quite so lovely now. Daddy got crazy with the industrial-grade Round Up you can get at Southern States. Not all leaves of three are bad. Some things we find out the hard way

Canada Geese

A new thing to fascinate John Muir Jr. -- Canada Geese.  We have several collections of their feathers tucked in boxes around the house. Nature has already invaded the little house in Hamilton. {Smile}

Riding the wagon to the strawberry patch

 There's this really lovely place called Great Country Farms not too far from our house. We left the unpacking behind on Daddy's first day back at work and high-tailed it there for the last week of strawberry picking. While we were there, we joined the CSA and hauled home four quarts and a pint of strawberries, spring onions, the prettiest asparagus I've ever seen, kale, chard, a basil and parsley plant and two pints of cherries. There was more, but I just can't remember it all. Believe it or not, we've already eaten almost everything we brought home. Now we will go to "the farm" every week to pick up our produce. There's a giant play area for the kids and several ponds for fishing. And it's a free for all if you're a CSA member.

Big Helpers!

 This made a pint of frozen for our smoothies and two quarts of freezer jam for ice cream and toast. And yes, there are still piles of unopened boxes in my house.

New friends

Found!

Hamilton has this little gem of a store called the Natural Mercantile... a.k.a. Heaven For the Honey Snob. I found this dinky jar of wildflower honey that didn't taste like honey at all when I went on my maiden grocery shopping voyage to Harris-Teeter. Then I found THIS! Ahhhh... And that little box behind -- that's my favorite brand of herbal tea. And it was just sitting there, on a rough-hewn wood shelf. It didn't come in an Amazon box. I picked it up in my warm little hand, carried it to a cash register and was enjoying it like three minutes later because THAT IS HOW CLOSE THE STORE IS TO MY HOUSE!!! AYEEEEE!!! 

Adjustment period or no, I could definitely get used to this... this being deer foraging in the backyard at dusk as a million and one fireflies dance about... all while the sun sets behind a dusky blue Mount Weather... Venus presiding over the whole lovely scene.

Update: The bush attacked by the industrial-grade Round Up was actually a wineberry bush... apparently much better than a black raspberry. It looks as if even industrial-grade Round Up couldn't knock out this hardy native! At any rate, I think we'll wait until next year to enjoy our wineberries.