The farm has been keeping us busy! Our land came with 4 outbuildings: a raised barn, a garden shed, an Amish shed, and a chicken coop. We decided to convert the little Amish barn into a cabin so that we have more space for friends and family when y’all come visit. Well, steps one & two – plumbing and electric – are now complete! The plumbers had a tough job because they had to dig…
We’ve been movin’ and groovin’ on the homestead this past month! And we still have all our fingers and toes 😉 Our area is full of lakes, rivers, and streams, and AC had been itching to check out the waterways. So a couple weeks ago we took the kayaks out for the first time and we went fishing (separately). We drove up the Nantahala River, to a spot that several locals have recommended, and cast…
Yesterday we got our first egg! One of our ladies finally decided to start pulling her weight and has given us 2 eggs so far (one yesterday and one today). Now we just need her friends to get with the program, too, before AC follows through on her threat to turn them into dinner. This past weekend was very “homesteady.” It was exactly what I expected homestead life to feel like: productive! Last Friday, we…
It’s been a busy few days on A|C Acres and we’re loving life. We’ve had a ton of rain lately so everything is a bit waterlogged and we’re waiting for it to dry out before we start any big projects. But that didn’t stop us from venturing out to pick up 4 Golden Comet pullets late Friday afternoon. They all look alike so we haven’t given them names; only one has any distinguishing feature and…
Last night was…eventful. I was sitting on the porch at 8:30p when I got an emergency alert on my phone about a tornado warning and advising me to seek shelter. I checked out the map and we were on the far right side of the endangered area; the valley didn’t look too doom and gloom so I decided to wait a bit to see if it blew right over us. In the meantime, I started…
Short version: On Monday morning, we closed on our property! Give us a few months to settle in and build some things out, then we’re open for visitors 😉 Long version: Last week, AC drove back to Louisiana for her nephew’s 8th grade graduation. I opted to sit that one out because we’d already made that drive twice in the last 4 months so I was tapped out. Not only did AC get some good…
We’ve been building up to this moment for over a year and it’s finally here! Buckle up, y’all–we’re under contract on our homestead property and it’s gonna be a fun ride! Our new home is in the tiny little town of Marble, NC, in between Murphy and Andrews, and about 2 hours from Chattanooga (we’re the yellow star in the map below). We’ll be about equidistant from my sister’s family, and my parents, brother and…
It’s been a good week y’all! I’ve gone from Boston to Austin and, though I’m pretty tired, I’ve had a lot of fun. My brother, Miles (also known to some of his high school Spanish students and cross country runners as Mr. Master Senor Coach Bryan) accomplished an amazing feat and ran the Boston Marathon this past Monday. Miles didn’t become a serious runner until he lived with me in Austin back in 2014 and…
Hi all! We’ve been at my parents’ in the piedmont of South Carolina for about a month now. When we first landed, we did absolutely nothing for a solid 3 days. We were exhausted and just needed some time to recuperate. Once we were recharged, it was back to the house hunt, with a lot of basketball and a bit of fun sprinkled in here and there! Mom’s tiny little alma mater, Presbyterian College, made…
It feels weird to be writing this, but the travel portion of our adventure has finally come to a close. It’s a bittersweet ending because we learned so much and had a ton of fun, but we’re also ready for the next phase: putting all those learnings to use on our own homestead. We have many, many people to thank for supporting us throughout our trip–too many people to list in this post so, whether…