As always, things are so busy around here that we barely have time to breathe, but the weather has been so beautiful this week that, when the kids all took off to spend the day in town, Jim and I set aside the work to be done and took a day to go exploring. It was a perfect day of discovery, rediscovery and healing.
You would think that, after living here for so long before we would have found all the hidden little nooks and crannies, right? Not so much. You would be surprised how many nooks and crannies there are on 120 acres! There’s this one pond that we knew was rumored to be on the back 40, but after several half-hearted attempts to find it, we assumed it had dried up and we finally gave up. Then, we went to the courthouse and got an aerial view of the land and there it was, big and gawking at us. So, we took up the search again. SCORE!
Our 8th and (we think) final pond has been located and, man, is she a beauty!
We stumbled on it by accident. We could only get the four-wheeler so far back in the woods, so we parked and made our way through the trees on foot. A few twists and turns and down a little hill, then, suddenly there she was!
Our 8th pond
We were amazed at how large it was, despite the obvious signs that the water line has gone down in the last few years. It was surprisingly clear, also. The trees are all far enough back from the edge that it doesn’t appear to have an algae problem and a cluster of fallen trees will provide a perfect fishing spot!
This pond was so pretty that I was tempted to redesign my natural swimming pool site. Too bad its so far from the house. Besides, I really like the spot we have picked out for the pool, so I guess its for the best. I’ll have to use this new pond for moments of quiet contemplation, hiding from the kids and, maybe, a bit of fishing.
I can already picture it in my head…a little dock that juts out over the water, a comfy lounge chair, a glass of strawberry-peppermint tea and a good book. Nothing but me and the sounds of nature. Yeah…this could totally work!
Of course, this will have to be put on the to-do list, a monstrous thing that grows longer by the day. I swear, for every one project we finish, three more get added. We have to finish the house. That’s the big priority. With just a bit of luck, we will be done before winter sets in. Attaining our goal is only slightly hindered by the other things we have to accomplish before the world turns frigid.
Namely, my orchard. Well, its not really an orchard yet, but it will be. One day. We have a bit of a start on it. There’s this sweet little fenced off section along the western border of the property that has a ton of persimmon trees and the loveliest old apple tree. I was afraid the apples would be wormy, but, surprisingly, they aren’t. They are perfect. It had a lot of old, dead branches and the upper part of it was crowded. The apples are beautiful…crisp, red and juicy, but a bit small. So, we pruned it vigorously and thinned out the apple clusters up high. Hopefully Mother Nature approves and will bless us with bigger apples next fall. For now, though, I’ve gathered enough to freeze for use later in the year and I made the most awesome apple pie!
The amount of persimmon trees is somewhat astounding. We knew about 2 or 3 of them, but after our day of exploration I realized it’s more like 70 or 80 of them. I’m totally not kidding. they are everywhere! I’m currently collecting any and all persimmon recipes I can get my hands on!
Persimmons abound!
And, to remind me once more of how lucky I am to be living way the hell out here in the absolute middle of nowhere, as we stood by our new-found pond, a loud rustling sound caught our attention. We turned in time to see a huge doe sprinting through the woods less than 50 yards from us. She was beautiful! Later, as I made my way up the hill to check the mail, four more of them stood in the cemetery. They weren’t bothered by my presence. They acted like they were going to bolt, but then simply stood back watchfully, waiting for me to go on about my business.
Just another day in paradise, huh?
It’s finally done! Woohoo! We did it! I’ve been dreaming of having my own greenhouse for more than a decade. I’ve envisioned all of the herbs and flowers that I could grow any time of the year. I’ve thought of all the delicious, organic veggies I could grow. I’ve dreamed about this!!!
I wasn’t sure it was ever going to be finished. Who would have thought that building a simple greenhouse was so much work?!? To be fair, its not really a ‘simple’ greenhouse, although, that’s how it started out. Then it grew. And got more complicated.
You see, our original plans were for nothing more than a hoop house set on the ground. Remembering the strong winter winds that whip through here, we thought that maybe we would need something more substantial. So, we found the perfect patch of ground to start with. It sits just above the pond on a gentle slope so any excess water drains off right into the pond. It has a full day of sun and a nice tree line to block the north-face of the greenhouse. The rocky soil that I mentioned earlier provided enough stones to build a great little stone retaining wall, with tons left over for round two!
So, we hauled in some dirt to level out the spot and built concrete block side walls and placed 3/8″ rebar every 4′. Sounds simple, right? Ha! You try hauling all those conc blocks and spreading all that dirt! It was at this point that my husband and I both realized we were no longer 20 years old. This part of it took several days and I promise you, we felt every single one of them! Still, it was a great learning experience and kinda fun.
After we finally finished this part, we added the hoop frame. We used 3/4″ PVC. We originally planned to use 20′ sections, but ended up adding another 4′ to each of them to get some extra height. The ribs are also PVC and are attached to the purloins using heavy duty zip ties.
We chose to use rough-cut 2″x4″‘s and 1″x 10″‘s for making solid end walls that we covered with thick black plastic on the inside. The rough cut is much cheaper than treated and easy to obtain if you live near a lumber mill.
This part went the quickest. It only took a couple of hours to get the frame up and secured, but the end walls took a bit more time to construct. Now that it is done, I’m glad we put out the extra effort. The whole structure is exceptionally secure and will easily withstand the winter winds.
We found an awesome deal on a heavy screen door and some small windows. The local hardware store had some display models to get rid of and they let them go really cheap. We salvaged a couple windows from previous structures that we were going to tear down anyway. They all worked nicely to provide ventilation for the greenhouse.
Finally it was time to put up the plastic. Our original plan called for regular plastic that you can buy at any hardware store. After thinking it over, though, we decided that since we had gone to so much trouble to make the rest of the greenhouse sturdy we should splurge and get the good stuff. We ended up buying 6 mil UV greenhouse plastic. I’m so glad we spent the extra cash!
The only thing left to do was to fill it. We used more rough-cut lumber to build the inside boxes and some unbelievably rich river-bottom soil to fill the beds.
We also incorporated a very small wood stove for the coldest part of the year.
So, there it is. My dream made reality! The final dimensions are roughly 15′ x 28′ and it is awesome! I’m having so much fun learning to make this thing work! I’m really looking forward the coming months and seeing if it’s all that I dreamed about.
August has arrived with a vengeance here in Southern Missouri! We had our hottest day of the year this week ~ 102 F. Yeah, I know…for some of you that’s nothing to get worked up about, but around here, that’s just freakin’ hot! So, of course, we had no desire to get anything done outside. Instead, we started checking things offour ‘Inside To-Do List’, and we spent our evenings on the front porch watching the sun go down, and, on very good days, watching the rain move in across the field.
My To-Do list included drawing up plans for my greenhouse and ordering the materials. Oh, have I had fun! I’d tell you more about it, but that’s a post for another time…like, when I finish it and I can add pictures!
No, really, this post is just me rambling on. You are welcome to stay and listen.
Thinking of my greenhouse, I got to considering what I wanted to grow in it. Flowers don’t hold a lot of interest for me. I’d love to have a few fresh veggies come winter, but I know they can be hard to keep going through the winter without a set-up more advanced than what I have planned. Herbs, of course. Maybe run a few plant-experiments on growing mediums?
I settled on not deciding, then I went to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and…well…I spent a few dollars. I’ve been to this place in person for one of their Heritage Festivals and it is really unbelievable. If you ever make it down to this part of Missouri, it’s worth checking out!
Anyway, it turns out that I’ll be stashing a lot of seeds away in my personal food bank and I’ll be planting flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables in my greenhouse.
Not doing all the physical labor outside gave us some time to think, too. I know, dangerous, right? I have to admit, we all had a moment of, “Holy crap, what have we gotten ourselves into???”. We have bitten off more than a mouthful here, after all.
Thankfully, the Universe often sends us the answers we need, and this was no exception. When the heat finally mellowed and the rain passed, this is what remained:
A Double Rainbow
I swear! A double rainbow! That’s almost as good as seeing a leprechaun! And, this was no fleeting rainbow. It stayed for more than an hour, just glowing at us as we sat there on the front porch. We are taking this a sign that we are right where we belong, doing exactly what we need to be doing.
I’ve also been taking an immense amount of photos. There is so much here to see and capture! These little fellas all posed for me
I’ll send a free lip balm to anyone who can tell me what they are are something about them! That’s four lip balms up for grabs..one for each bug! Just send me your comment here and if it is the first one posted, I’ll contact you for your mailing info and flavor choice.
Then, there is my favorite new pastime…watching these beauties:
We hung up three feeders and they empty them in a day. We’ve only been able to count 14 of them before they zip off, but we think there are about 18 of them.
I wish I could have snapped some shots of the deer and owl that we saw, but they were gone too fast. Maybe I’ll go hide out by the pond around sunset and see what I see.
Till next time…
Well, here we are. This is our new home and I sure hope you feel welcome!
For those of you who followed us over from Tamara’s Herbes, you may be wondering why we’ve decided to make this change.
The simple answer is that we are embarking on an entirely new life. The long answer is much more interesting, though. It goes like this ~
Back in 2001, my in-laws bought this beautiful piece of land in a tiny town in Missouri called Edgar Springs. Now, when I say tiny…well…I think the population sign just got updated to 210. Really. I swear. It’s one claim to fame was the fact that it was designated Population Center of the United States in 2000. We have a pretty little monument to prove it, complete with concrete slab, concrete bench and a flag on a really tall pole.
Back to my story…
So, they bought this property and my husband and I fell in love with it the moment we first saw it. It is a gorgeous piece of land with rolling hills, forests both dense and sparse, ponds and a plethora of wildlife. When the invitation to move there and take care of the property was made, we immediately packed up our kids and moved there.
Imagine a couple of city-folks being dropped in the middle of nowhere with their three young children. That was us. Our first week after getting moved in, we woke up to 2 feet of snow and no way in or out, since our driveway was nearly 1/8th of a mile straight up a rather steep hill and the six miles of gravel road you have to travel to reach a paved road was nothing but hills and curves buried under layers of ice and snow.
You might think we are crazy(and we are, just a little), we were more enchanted than ever. We had plenty of food, not another human for a mile in any direction, and the world had just been transformed into a winter wonderland! 
We were completely content and had high hopes and big dreams for the land.
Things didn’t work out quite like any of us planned, though, so we left, truly believing we would never have the opportunity to return.
Then, my father-in-law died and my mother-in-law decided she wanted to return to ‘the farm’, so, here we are. It was agreed that, in order to be able to make this work we had to find a solution to make the land profitable. We began to brainstorm.
We had a few stones in our path, and I mean that quite literally. While the land is beautiful and fertile, it is also rocky and difficult to work. The land, as all sizable pieces of land are, was in a very remote location. The economy is hardly conducive to building prosperous businesses. My mother-in-law is in very bad health and is, for the most part, home bound. Add all of this up and you are left with very few options.
Fortunately, stones are easy enough to work around if you can’t find a way to move them. We came up with a solution that we believe is ingenious. We decided to turn ‘the farm’ into a working herb farm. Sounds boring, right?
Not so much. See, the land is loaded with wild herbs. Convenient since my business and passion is herbs. To date, I am a certified Family & Nutritional Herbalist and I am only a few courses away from attaining my Advanced Herbalist Certification. Both my husband and I have a love for plants and animals that lends itself well to raising both, and there is plenty of room here to do just that. And, best of all, this solution will allow both of us to be home with my MIL and share the responsibility of her care.
Our plan is simple, really. We intend to coddle this bit of land that has been untouched for nearly a decade. Land that has had time to rest and heal, time to cleanse itself. We want to nurture the herbs that grow wild in abundance and cultivate new life and new color. We want to open it up and share it with others, teaching them about the beauty and magic of herbs. We want to turn it into a place of peace.
I know, sounds super corny, eh? And, of course we still haven’t worked out all the details, but we are getting there. I’m having the time of my life plotting flower beds and planning herb walks and nature retreats. Finally, this land and all it has to offer is here, just waiting for us.
And, I haven’t abandoned Tamara’s Herbes, either. While my Etsy shop is down as we get settled in out here, I’m still taking orders and making herbal goodies whenever I find a few minutes. I’ll still be blogging about natural living, the dangers of chemicals and the awesome power of herbs, now I’ll be throwing in the triumphs and tragedies (and the comedies, too!) of living in the twigs…you know, the place that’s a few miles past the sticks…
I hope you find something to heal you, something to make you laugh, something to make you think…
I hope you come back often and let us know you were here. I’m really glad you stopped in!
