As we prepare to mark the anniversary next week of our arrival to this “beautiful middle of nowhere” as one friend put it, a little reflection is in order. In the couple years leading up to moving to Tennessee, we experienced a growing desire to put our values and interests into greater action. In God’s providence we had found and purchased our property several years before, and each time we visited we saw more clearly how perfect a place it was to experience the seasons, grow a big garden, raise much of our own food, and be in nature. It is no small thing to have the freedom to order our common affairs the way we desire, and we are deeply thankful for that freedom. And as we could never have expected, we’ve seen how much more God had in store for us here in Tennessee than we could have imagined when we set out on this adventure.

Some Successes – heating with wood, pig pen, a prolific garden, electric fence, garden deer fence, canning, trim carpentry, orchard established, tractor and implements, chicken coop, birding, reduced expenses, wood chopping, chick hatching, seed saving

Some Failures – seed starting, tree grafting, dairy cow not pregnant, poor tomato plant support, poor potato yield, dogs eating chickens, raccoon eating chickens, snakes eating chickens, dog issues

One year in, and our appetite is eager for year number two. We have a list of untried projects and plans, and a number of adjustments to make to things we did try this first year.

Going forward, we are going to try posting monthly instead of weekly. We’ll see how that goes.

Our motto for this first year has been the quote from Picasso, “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it”, and that curiosity-based approach has opened up whole worlds to us. We pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone, failed plenty, and have found great satisfaction in the whole complex process. What a great gift life is!