Where do I start to tell our homestead story?  As we look back, we can see the Lord’s hand on us in so many ways.  Peggy, my wife of 24 years and I have tried to follow the Lord’s leading in our life as we sensed His direction.  In 1999 we moved from a large city and a large church to Peggy’s grandmother’s old farm of 30 acres.  Grandma had died and Peggy’s brother had bought the farm.  I spent a year remolding the old farmhouse for us to live in.  Peggy’s brother at the time had been financial successful and bought the place to keep it in the family.  We thought it would be good to have our two boys out in the country and to experience farm living.  I guess that was the start of our homestead adventure.  We already had a dog Smoky and a flop-eared rabbit.  Friends of ours that have 15 children (about 9 at that time) had a chicken that they had to get rid of.  When I picked up Chirpy they told me that “she” would be laying in about 2 weeks.  Well about 2 weeks later I heard the first sounds of a crow.  Hmmm, hens do not crow!  Each passing day saw Chirpy changing from a hen to rooster.  Well, he has become a beloved member of the family and we are known as “the people who have the rooster”.  The boys have taught Chirpy to play soccer where he will kick a ball, chase after a boot thrown and stand at attention.  He is over 7 years old.  People ask how long roosters live and I tell them must do not make it past 4-6 weeks before they meet the frying pan.  There are a lot of stories I could tell on Chirpy which I will do another day.

Another pet we were given was a lamb from my uncle and aunt in Ohio.  They called and wanted to know if it was OK to bring the boys a lamb that was being given away.  We said yes.  Little did we know how the Lord would use Lilly in our lives.  Not knowing how to shear, Lilly did not get a “wool cut” until her second year.  She sure was fluffy.  The Lord introduce us to another home school family who lives an hour and half from us.  In talking we found out that they had alpacas.  Their oldest daughter said she would come and shear Lilly for us.  I learned that day the “fun” in shearing a sheep.  They invited us to come and visit them in their country home.  One day we headed out to an area that I had only heard of.  An hour and half later we show up at their looong driveway, well what was left of it.  I had driven our car and thought I was going to rip the bottom out of it.  Once I stopped and told Peggy I would walk the rest of the way to their house.  I was not sure how much longer I had to go to find their place.  Peggy and the boys did not want to be left alone so I continued to drive trying to split the road and stay on higher ground.  Finally, we turned a bend and saw their house.  They lived back in this “holler” ( that is how you say it down south for you Yankees – I was a Yankee 30 years ago when I moved from Ohio to go to the University of TN).  Peggy and I both fell in love with the beauty of the area.  As we talked with this family we found that they went to church with one of only two realtors in town.

To back track a little, living at grandma’s place had taken a turn.  To keep this blog shorter, we knew it was time to move and let Peggy’s brother have the house.  Our church had an empty parsonage that they let us rent.  We moved and started our search with the aforementioned realtor. 

Better close for now.  More later on finding “number 900”.

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Posted by southofthegnatline

Wonderful, wonderful narration of your new life in Tennessee. thank you for sharing ~

Harriette

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Posted by Carol

Wonderful indeed. Keep those entries coming, can't wait to read more.
~carol

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Posted by HSBFrontPorch

A soccer playing rooster named Chirpy. THIS is going to be good!
~Nancy

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