aound the house

Just a couple tid-bits of the "happenings" around the house. The children are having fun being creative as usual. Here are a few costumed as clowns.



and the creativity with LEGO's has reached a new plateau. Flat tw-dimensional scenes!



and the rainy days that are hot.



and did I mention the frogs that are on the house?



And lastly, from August 15th to September 15th we ran the air conditioner almost all day and night. We were slightly concerned that we would have to take out a loan in order to pay Duke Energy for the wonderful service of air during the record heat out here. I got the bill today....including all electric, running the air....my entire bill was $141.00! What in the world is that! I told Ildi she could run the air as much as she wants and turn a few extra lights on while she's at it :)

You may be wondering.....How did their big adventure to Tennessee go? Did they like it? Was it pretty? Are they going to move there? Follow along and I'll give you the shorter account of our weekend (really only Sunday)in the Appalachian Mountains.

Sunday morning we woke up at six. We planned on leaving at half-past the hour but didn't roll out of the barn until seven. We spent some time feeding and milking the chickens (all six of them) and had to spend a few minutes pumping the hot coffee into the tank for such a long trip to "church" We headed North through the upper part of the state and passed Pilot Mountain.



We then traveled up into Virginia and over to the western most part of the state. It was there in the corner that we found Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee. Church started at ten, and we went to an all church picnic after. If you want to know more about the church you can visit http://saintpeterpresbyterian.org/, and if you want to know what we thought about the visit you'll have to call us.

The picnic was a great way to actually meet and talk with the church members. Here's where we spent the afternoon.



Looking back down at the road...



And then leaving for the day...



Finally, we got home around 9:30. Made for a long day just to go to church!

tennessee

Today was the usual Farmer's Market run. Ildi got some Kombuca mushrooms so we will have some tea shortly. In the morning, we are leaving for Tennessee for the day. 6:30 AM is going to come around real soon! It should only take us around 2 1/2 hours to get there. The children are excited to go on another road trip. It has been a couple months since our trip across the nation so they have forgotten what it is like to sit for long periods in the van. I don't think I will EVER forget.

it's beginning to feel a lot like.....

HOME! Not really. However, we are starting to feel a regularity with what we are doing. The schedule is as follows. Monday through Friday I go to work (school-pretend work) and the children are at home studying. We are getting out of the habit of calling what they do here at home school. Saturday we go on the shopping trip. It consists of late morning trip to the farmers market, and several little stops to local stores in Greensboro. Saturday evening working around the house still putting things away from the move. Sunday morning back to Greensboro (it's only 20 minutes :)) for church. Back home and relaxing by playing outside, reading, or watching T.V. Oops, no watching T.V. Since we left Los Angeles we haven't had a television. We did watch some when we stayed in hotels until we got here, but since we've been in the house, we haven't seen any. I have one in my room at school and I am not even tempted to turn it on.

This weekend is going to be an eventful one. We are going to visit a church in Bristol Tennessee/Virgina. It's a city that borders both states and is only two and one half hours away. This will be the first of many visits to neighboring places to scope out the land for our future farming needs. Kind of sounds like Future Farmers of America huh? Which is an organization that I would have greatly benefitted from had I been involved in it earlier in life.

The children are working hard at studying and are developing nicely into fine young ladies and gentlemen. They still squabble a bit but are working hard on honoring me and their mother, and treating each other with kindness, truthfulness, and helpfulness. (thanks Sara fro your input....it stuck!) I am reading another parenting book that is challenging me to be more involved with the implementation of scripture in the "milieu" of life's situations. Milieu being French for middle of life's circumstances.

The weather has been a little nicer lately. Two nights ago I went to the store later in the evening and it was around 88 outside. I laughed at myself when I said to myself that it felt nice outside! This morning it was actually chilly outside on my way to work/play.

Ildi has been making homemade ice cream in the evenings for us from her raw milk. It is DELICIOUS! I have actually been drinking the milk "naked" as well. The first taste if cow and I am finished though.

updates

Today was another day spent in Greensboro. We went to the Farmers' market again and along with the usual pickup (eggs, milk, grain) I made a great contact with a local agrarian farmer. Sort of a Bohemian kind of man who has lived in the area for years and has grown sustainably for 18 years. "Growing for the table" as he put it. :)

Here's a shot of the place.

It's an indoor market that has been running for over twenty years. What's great about it is that most of the people who are selling products are local farmers who sell out of "excess" and they are extrememly knowledgable and helpful when asking questions about information relating to providing for your family by growing your own food. We have had two men invite us to visit their farms. One has a dairy farm (the man we are getting some of our milk from) and the other tends bees. The children hover around and ask lots of questions because he has a live bee display for everyone to see.

On our visit to Costco, we began talking to a women who had many small children. Long story short, their family seems to be just like ours and we struck up what could be our first friendship in NC.

The children have started studying for the year as well. Back to the math in the morning, and the usual thousands of hours of reading. Books on milk, caring for chickens, and books of God's grace are on the top of the list. We are starting a "farm" notebook that records the valuable information we are getting here about how and what to do in order to buy a farm. We are looking online at property in many areas of the south. It is difficult to narrow the search but we are working on ways that we can limit it so that it makes it easier to find a place. The children are crawling out of their skin in anticipation of actually owning animals.

the home

For those who are interested, here are a few photos of the rental home.

The house was rented to us from a property rental company. The nice thing about it was that it is new. Everything works. Also, it is a comfort being able to fell good about putting the youngest down on the carpet.

The building company is building a new house right next to the one we are staying in. It's so like God to give us a first-hand look at a house being built from the start. I wonder what He is planning for us. :)

The back yard is a far cry from the Pasadena house. It's a pretty view of the forest though!

back to school again

This Monday will be the first day back to school. I am somewhat excited to get the year started, but more excited to get it over with. Not that I don't want to teach this year or in the school that I am at, but that this year the task of finding a farm will be consuming our thoughts and actions. Although it hasn't taken any of our time yet. We are still slowly moving into our rental home! Yesterday and today were successful days in the house. We got most of the boxes of books unloaded onto the shelves. More and more it is feeling like home.

I read a great article in Newsweek today. It was an article about the newest trend of Universities to go Green. Going Green is just a shorter way of saying that the school is interested in the environment and is doing it's part in trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle. From the looks of it, over the next few years we should see some graduates come from the schools with more of the "good life" desires. New degrees are being offered and even new schools like the School of Sustainability being offered in the fall of '08 at Arizona State University.

Which leads me to the reason we moved. We had talked about sustainable farming for awhile before we actually sold our city home to move the more rural area of Winston-Salem. After being here for a month now, we are beginning to feel like this too is a little too city-like. Our original plan was to purchase a house on a couple of acres and grow some food for us to live by. As well as vegetation, we would add some animals to the mix when we were settled and knew how to take care of them.

Now the story is unfolding slightly different than that. We are now working on the thoughts of owning several acres and the possilibilties that come with owning a substantial amount of land. I can hear some of my friends saying "what are you guys doing NOW!" But, you know us, willing to take the risk a do something a little different. Speaking of different, it doesn't seem all too different with the amount of people we read about who are already working on family farms and now this new information about schools working on becoming more agrarian

In the next few weeks, we are going to visit a church in Tennessee. It's right on the border of Tennesse and Virginia. It's a family integrated church that Ildi has been looking at online for awhile now. For the meantime, we have been attending a church in the neighboring city of Greensboro. Quite a lovely group of Christians who love God and one another.

In reflection of today's events, I thought of several things. During our school/county training, we were required to role play several times acting out real life school situations using the new teaching strategies we have been learning. (using William Powers' work on PCT)

Anyway, when most people were acting out their skit, they spoke with a pronounced southern accent. It dawned on me that they were not "putting" on a southern accent like I had done before. In fact, they had a southern accent.

Tonight, after I got home, I went to the store to buy half/half for our morning coffee, two other occurrences reminded me that I was no longer in proverbial "Kansas" anymore. One was the shock of going outside after dark and it being as hot as it was during the day. That's just plain weird. Secondly, frogs were crawling on the side of our house. Two of them were sitting on the shutters like they were waiting for the next convention. When I get a moment, and a service besides dial-up, I'll post a couple of photos of their visit!

Good report...We have found the MILK. Ildi contacted someone today who purchases milk in SC and then transports it to the lucky customers here.

a leisurely drive

Today I drove through the country to get to my scheduled school workshop. The point being that I drove through the country and not that I went to another school workshop. Even though the workshop was good (Perceptual Control Theory and applications in the classroom) the drive to and from it was even better. It took me around twenty-five minutes to get somewhere that could have taken me only fifteen. But, I had a mission in mind......

I knew that if I continued driving south from the city that I would eventually run into a cross-road that would get me to the south-west part of the city that I needed to be in. I gave myself plenty of time so as not to be late for the training, and enough time to drive slowly and look at the farms in the area. By far, it was the prettiest part of this area that I have traveled so far. Slightly rolling hills, houses set back off the road, ranch style home intermingled with older country farm homes. The kinds of places you know for sure that work is happening and that at the end of the day, you could sit for a spell on the porch and watch the traffic go by.

Which reminds me of an encounter yesterday at the post office I had here in town. I needed to send some packages out and wanted to pick up some postcards to send to some friends. I stopped by the Old Salem post office downtown knowing I could accomplish both things there. It was there that I realized I was in what seemed like another world when I heard a lady from the museum giving directions to a man, who along with his wife and daughter, where visiting the Historical Living Museum of Salem. In passing, I heard her give him directions about how he could just walk right out the front doors and take the first road to the right to get to the historic buildings. To which he replied "Oh no! I'll be driving around the back o' this place cause it's the only place I saw that I can by cigarettes and I ain't had one in THREE hours!" I chuckled as I walked out the door with my postcards and stamps. Not that I was laughing at him, his need for a smoke, of how he even said it, but more at myself being in a place that is so different than I've been in the last twenty years of my life.

On the way home I traveled the same way. I noticed a blacksmith shop on the corner of one of the turns I made and I made sure to stop by to check it out. The Smithy wasn't in so I peeked through the doors and got a real good eyeful of some of the work he has done. It looked like a shop that had been there for years. I'm going to return to see if I can actually go in and see his work. On the last leg of my trip home, I deviated from the path a bit to do a little more exploring. To my benefit, I came across an antique store (which was also closed) that I will be SURE to visit soon. I saw a couple of Tiffany lamps in the window and am curious to see if they are authentic. Tomorrow I am going to travel the same way to catch all the things I missed today.

in and settlin'

The trip, in hindsight, wasn't all that bad. Looking back over the last few weeks it seems to have gone all to plan. Traveling, staying with friends, finding a place, then moving in. Rather simple really.

Our stay at our friends was refreshing. Lovely couple with six beautiful children. Having been raised in Ohio only a few miles away, I was completely taken by my new attitude about the northwestern part of the state. I actually could envision myself moving there! We spent time visiting, cooking outside over the fire pit, and visiting some local agrarian farmers. The time spent with them completely motivated me to action. I really want to own a farm now.

After our stay, we drove down to NC to find a rental home. Our idea was to rent for a year while we look for possible places to buy. The hunt for a home was exhausting, mostly due to the time crunch with finding an address to have our furniture shipped, but after two full days of looking, we settled on a house a few miles from the school where I'll be teaching. Here's a picture of the side yard. I mean the side forest :)

We have begun to travel out to see what the countryside looks like and are excited about the possibility of actually owning some of it to farm!