Ever think of how extraordinary it is to place a teeny, tiny seed into the earth and watch it grow? I came home from work this evening to find dozens of small terracotta pots in neat little rows spanning the dining room table. Another good memory to store away for a later time. A memory enjoyed with the added pleasure of awaiting good things to grow from the labor that be had from the work of my husband’s hands. And all of these little pots had a dream and a purpose many years ago. We found them in the shed behind the house, awaiting this very day to be enjoyed.…

Chase & Tito arrived the next day & successfully dropped the last of the three pines. Gavin & I worked nearly every day to clean up the remains of those giants, one wheelbarrow load of branches at a time. The fire burned for a week straight, through all that rain, it continued smoldering with thick plumes of white smoke nearly up until his birthday. But this post isn’t really about the trees, it’s about something more than that. It’s about light. Its task is to illuminate, to cast brightness into dim spaces. It offers a sense of warmth, transparency & security. It diffuses the darkness until only certainty remains. Light…

Driving back from my sister’s wedding a couple Saturdays ago, Gavin and I rolled down the road in his new truck dubbed, ‘the billy goat’ (we’re getting more hillbilly by the day) and right at the top of the hill, we saw it. Orangy-red the color of a ripening tomato peaked out, unveiling itself to the world. A spark of excitement blazed through me. “We can see it!” While we were gone, our tree buddies, Chase & Tito got to work. We had asked a big job out of them – taking out three monstrous pine trees in the front of the house. Gavin & I drove slowly past, taking…

I came home from work last Thursday to an 80-foot Austrian Pine lying across the driveway. Gavin had called me earlier to tell me he noticed it leaning towards the garage roof. He called the first arborist that was nearby & thankfully the man was able to drop it just a few feet from the roof. We spent Saturday getting it cleaned up. Gavin used his chainsaw to cut all of the branches off then sawed the trunk into pieces. We were grateful to have the help of his friend, Ryan, to haul the brush down to the burn pile with me. We got it all cleaned up in about…

Homestead: noun – A place where a family makes its home, including the land, house, and outbuildings. [Collins English Dictionary] Gavin & I have a vision for the property – to accentuate its beauty while utilizing & cultivating the plot of land that we’ve been blessed with. With my daydreams of self-sustainability & his vast knowledge of horticulture, I believe we will one day makes those dreams come true.  Though, just as with the inside of the house, I’m learning that everything takes time & an incredible amount of backbreaking work. We began cultivating the land in May, 2017 before we officially moved in. Although I was set on jumping into…