We live near the Kentucky-Tennessee line on top of one of the mountains in the Cumberbland Mountain Range. The locals and politicians felt they couldn't complete with the Great Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee, so they have chosen to call our area the Cumberland Plateau.
Before our road was named for the sake of mail delivery, the path along the area was known as Timberline Ridge, just a hop-skip and jump from Baptist Ridge. Folks unfamiliar with Tennessee often wonder how we come up with the names of our roads and areas (sometimes the folks familiar with Tennessee wonder the same thing). It's really quite simple though. If it looks like someone's name, it usually is. Our road is Benton Tidwell. Mr. Tidwell owned the land that he timbered and farmed. As it was sold and others bought and moved on to the land, mail service was established and Timberline Ridge became Benton Tidwell Road. Now other names are fairly self explanatory, such as Turky Town Road, Tick Road, etc.
Rhodes Research Farm is just shy of 13 acres. The majority of the acreage is in three hollows (or 'hollers') as they are known around here. It is where God has put us and he is still making his purpose known to us. Since the local power company wanted $10,000 to bring the electric line up the side of the mountain, we immediately decided to be "off-grid". That simply means we generate our own power with solar panels and use generator back-up. I will get more into that later.
Kimberly and I are both former military. I was in the Marines and she in the Air Force. Her degree from college is in English (why am I writing this?) and mine are in Music and Engineering. I was a concert pianist for 20 years and as music made the transition to electronic, I returned to school to study electronics with emphasis in computer hardware and software. The purpose was to translate music terms into engineering terms to develop what is known today as digital keyboards.
We are both constantly learning, and have a love of the earth and the gifts God has given to us. Kimberly loves flowers of any type and has a great knowledge of scents and how to derive those fragrances from plants for soaps, candles, etc. Her greatest pleasure is "to play in the dirt" as she calls it. I enjoy plants, but my interests are how-to's. How to have fresh veggies in the winter using hydroponics. How to have all the appliances that a family needs today using alternative energy (green power). How to use what God has given to us, rather then accepting the fact that you can just run to the local store to get it.
The reason we call our Farm a Research Farm is we are attempting to find ways to make homesteading and self sufficiency easier and less expensive by using the sun and wind as power sources. We are also interested in preserving heirloom and heritage plants and how to use them. We hope to pass on the mistakes we have made to others so that they won't have to endure the some of the things that we have had to. Yeah, we've made some mistakes and each time we have learned from them.
We have many projects in the mill and the biggest one right now is that we hope to start building our strawbale house this year. I hope y'all will follow our progress and even pitch in with help by making suggestions or giving us your ideas.
If you have questions on solar, I will try to answer them if you let me know. And I will answer one question right now. We presently have a Microwave, TV, Computer, Refridgerator, Coffeemaker, Washer, and A.C. in addition to lights at Rhodes Research Farm. So we are not denied any of the "conveniences" of modern living. Come to think of it, you probably have another question which is cost. We have seen the $28,000 to $30,000 systems. Nope, we are no where close to it. So far with panels, inverters, batteries, and generator, we have less then $2,000 invested. Our initial set-up to begin was around $750.00. Even then we were running the fridge, coffeemaker, TV and Computer.