Family Update #1 - We made it!!!
Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings from Whites Creek. First of all, we want to thank everyone for all your prayers and support. Your love and friendship has taught us something about ourselves that we could not have discovered on our own; we are a bit nuts.
We’ll do our best to keep you updated every week or so on our progress on the homestead.
Enter the Zuk’s!!! Their whole family just happened to be in Tennessee for a family reunion. They stopped for the night to hike and go to Mass with us before driving North to see more family. What a blessing to not feel homesick for a few days! Ryan and Kelly, thanks for coming! And sorry for getting lost a mile away from our house and turning around in middle on a 2 lane road.
July 5th – Zipline. Installed 80 foot zipline in between a large pear tree, and what we think is a chestnut tree. A fun diversion in between unpacking.
July 8th – Is it getting humid in here? AC breaks down. Main return line broke under the house. Repaired in 2 hours by the boys and I with 2 five-gallon buckets fashioned into 14in ducting. Large snake skin on the supply line looked fresh.
July 9th – What’s that smell? While scouting out potential planting areas a smelly muddy area was found. I described it as swampy and a potential natural water feature from the run off on the property. Rebecca described it as septic and a potential for typhoid for the children. Ends up Rebecca is right, no typhoid, but the septic is backed up. Stinky Pete’s the local septic company comes on Thursday. In the meantime water rationing and no playing in “Dad’s water feature.”
July 10th – Where are the goats? After a week of having the goats in the front yard at night dancing on window sills, with Gideon, our buck, wearing an emasculating Masai goat chastity belt that Rebecca fashioned from a leather ASU Life Alumni Member folder—go Sun Devils—we finally picked up 330ft. of 4x4 fencing. See pics below. This is the temporary goat area until we can figure out where to build a permanent goat area. Also poured an extra fence post for a pulley clothes line off our back deck and began preparing a spot for our first TN garden.
I wouldn’t say that Tennessee has changed us but we did eat at Steak and Shake twice, and for the first time we actually priced out made in the USA overalls.