Tennessee - My Future Home

I've been gone on a trip to Tennessee for two weeks - visiting my fiance, Jordan, and his family. I'd never been to TN in the summer before, and  just couldn't get over how green and lush everything was - the bright sunny fields, and the cool dark woods.

I love the little details of the woods - the ferns, patches of moss, the wildflowers...

These wildflowers we gathered our first day back in Tennessee.

Aren't they beautiful?

Jordan and I have been busy this Spring planning our future home.

 It was so nice to be able to see the progress in person, instead of just talking about it over the phone.

He is going to build us a cozy log house, in the style of the 19th century.

We are planning to live semi-off the grid, with minimal electricity and "modern inconviences". :) I am so excited - I've always dreamed of living a more old-fashioned lifestyle.

The last Saturday I was there, there was a 'working' where many of Jordan's friends came over to help get the site ready for house-building. Clearing, cutting, and burning felled trees, digging footers on the house site, and sawing up more house logs were the activies for the day. It was so exciting to see things beginning to take shape, and I am so grateful to all the families who took the time to come help!

(see the pile of finshed house logs in the picture?)

Us girls stayed busy before lunch time getting the big noon meal ready, and transporting everything across the creek to the hungry workers. Later in the afternoon we made time for a swim in the *freezing* cold creek, where we had watermelons floating to chill.

The days preceding, Jordan had been hard at work sawmilling - cutting out more logs for our house, and felling trees.

I got to assist Jordan a bit in his work- and it was so fascinating to see the process - from living trees, to square logs cut, stacked, and measured ready for the house-raising.

Tennessee seems to have such an abundance of edible wild things!

 During my trip I enjoyed sampling many of them...

The wild cherries were my favorite. Just the right mixture of dark bittersweet tartness.

Though sometimes they were rather difficult to obtain....

The wild blueberries were small, but so flavorful!

And then, of course, the blackberries.

One morning we all took buckets and tramped through an enormous patch of blackberry brambles, getting very scratched and hot by the time we were through, but emerging with about a gallon and half of delicous berries. These later transformed into three large, juicy cobblers for the working day.

More Tennessee posts coming soon....