November 27th:

Weather

More swings from highs in the upper 60s to highs in the 40s. Sunday afternoon was a rainy, cold and misty, very different from the rain showers we’re used to in FL. I got in my car this morning and had to wait 20 minutes to melt the ice on my windshield. Ice scraper?

Down On The Farm

I’ve been on the lookout for a two-bottom turning plow that we could use in our garden, because the man who does our tractor work does not own one. I was headed home one day with John, Samantha, and a load of red oak firewood when I noticed a two-bottom plow for sale in someone’s yard. We pulled in and made a deal to buy it for $150. We’ll plow the garden and orchard area in December, giving time for the turned sod to decompose before tilling and planting in the spring. The best part of the deal was talking with the seller of the plow for an hour, listening to his stories about this place where’s his family has been for many generations.

Observing nature is a deep pleasure for me, and on Tuesday night just before sunset Quinn and I were working on splitting some kindling when overhead flew three separate groups of Canada geese in perfect V formation across the cold sunset sky. There must have been close to 300 in total, heading due south.

We’ve hoped that our underground tornado shelter will double as a root cellar, but until now we haven’t been here to observe the cellar’s temperature and humidity. After a couple days in the 40’s and nights in the low 20’s, I went out at sunrise, opened the cellar door and climbed down the steps. Sure enough, the temperature was 47 with 70% humidity. We’d actually like to see it get down in the 32-40 degree range with 90+% humidity for ideal cellar conditions. We’ll keep watching it through the winter.

Best Thing We Ate

Easy one this week – Thanksgiving dinner! It was a strange experience to be away from family for Thanksgiving, but familiar food helped.

From Family Worship

At breakfast we’re reading a section each day of Psalm 119, and one morning this week we considered v. 14, “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches”. Imagine watching someone learn they’ve won the lottery. Their reaction is a good starting point for how the psalmist says we should delight in God’s ways.

Other Happenings

We are officially Tennessee residents. Erica and I went to the DMV and surrendered our FL driver’s licenses for the TN version. New plates for the vehicles will come next.

We decorated for Christmas and cranked up The Lettermen Christmas album, a tradition that never disappoints.

November 20th:

Weather

After a cold weekend when we moved in, it warmed up to the low 70’s on Wednesday before plunging again, courtesy of a rainy cold front on Thursday morning. I’m told the temperature swings are common this time of year. The last couple of mornings have been in the mid 20’s with highs in the 40’s. We’ve been having fun getting to know our wood stove, and we’ve never slept so good as these nights when the house has been in the low to mid-60’s.

Down On The Farm

Both things happening this week on the farm have been humbling. We’ve been stacking the firewood pile we bought, and splitting some pieces into kindling. Humbling experience #1: learning how to get a good fire going in the wood stove. I eventually get it going, but it shouldn’t be this difficult or take this long. However, practice is paying off and I think I’m getting a little better each time.

We came here anticipating that wild meat would be an important source of food for us, just like we rely on our domestic farm-raised meat. The timing of our arrival here was perfect as opening day of deer season was today. This also happens to be Samantha’s 13th birthday, and she jumped at the chance to go “hunting” with me. This leads to humbling experience #2: learning how to zero in a new scope so we could actually hit what we’re aiming at, should the opportunity present itself.

We know there are abundant deer all over the area and we have been seeing a big buck in our pasture every day, chasing does around and throwing caution to the wind. I say Samantha had a chance to go “hunting” with me because I’ve never really hunted before, but I think we know enough related skills to figure it out. We are really putting to practice the Picasso quote, “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

With little time to correct my rifle troubles the deer were all quite safe today, and our “hunting” time turned into “scouting” time. Deer season lasts until early January, and I bet we’ll be spending more time doing some real hunting in the coming weeks.

Best Thing We Ate

“Eggy hoo’s” – a simple breakfast idea from a friend…Fried egg over easy on top of a piece of buttered toast. Slice up the egg and toast together so that it all kind of mixes together.

From Family Worship

We’ve been reading through 1 Peter in the evenings, and one night led to an interesting discussion about the fleeting nature of time and how the Bible has much to say about how short our lives are. A child may think 80 or 90 years is a long time, but I bet most 80 or 90 year old people would disagree, and say that it went by in a flash.

The wisdom of Scripture tells us how to live in light of life’s brevity. Without the proper perspective we’re left to cling desperately to life under the motto, “you only live once”. But if, because of our faith in Jesus Christ we recognize that we are passing through this world and that death is not the end, but the beginning of something greater, we’re freed to live generously and sacrificially in this world, enjoying the good gifts of life without trying to cling on to them.

Other Happenings

What do you do when you first move to Tennessee? You go to Dollywood. Actually, I don’t think we would ever have gone to Dollywood if another family didn’t generously invite us as their guests. It was a nice, mild day and we had a great time, but we also saw the family divided into two camps: roller coaster people and non-roller coaster people.

Quinn got a kitten named Summer. She has looked forward to this for some time as it was an agreement I made with her back in Florida in a moment of weakness. The agreement is she can have the kitten, but it will eventually be an outside cat. The problem is the cat is something like 4 months old but looks like it was just born. How long it will take to be viable outdoors is something I failed to account for.

Final note: I think of myself as the luckiest man in the world to be able to work from home and be around my family every day, joining them for meals and not commuting 45 miles a day. Some people can’t stand working from home, but for me it is wonderful.

November 15th:

Saturday, November 13th, we unloaded the moving truck with the help of some friends and took in that thrilling and overwhelming chaos that seems to always come with moving into a new home and being surrounded by boxes. We’re here in TN! We made it. After all the weeks, months and years of dreaming and planning, we finally made it.

My hope is to record a blog entry every Saturday evening to record the events of the week under these broad headings below, which seem to capture the main areas of farm and family life for us. I’ll try to also post a few pictures each week at the bottom.

A brief explanation of each heading…

Weather

Weather is an endlessly fascinating part of daily life, especially when you are trying to raise plants and animals. Expect here a recap of the week’s weather, which for us Floridians will probably be full of remarks about how cold we are during this first winter.

Down On The Farm

This is where I’ll note the farm activity from the week. Part of our enthusiasm for living in a place with four seasons is living in the cycle of farm work that changes with those seasons.

Best Thing We Ate

Deep satisfaction comes when we look down at our plates and see food we raised with our own hands. It will be fun to record some of our favorites, but we recognize it will take time to rebuild a farm from scratch, so there’s no shame in Hamburger Helper in the meantime.

From Family Worship

As Christians of the confessional Presbyterian stripe, we count worship of our God to be our highest privilege. Public worship (church on Sunday) is paramount, yet we are not limited to this, but encouraged by Scripture to worship God both as a family and individually throughout the week. It is my great joy and privilege to daily lead our family in family worship where we sing a hymn or psalm, read the Bible, talk about it, and each take turns praying out loud. There is always something special to record from family worship.

Other Happenings

This will be a catch-all for other things that just have to be recorded for posterity.