A Weekend Of Fun And Work On An Off-Grid Homestead !

Recently we spent the weekend with our dear friends in Tennessee. We learn SO much when we are with them, and our families have a wonderful time working together. They've lived off-grid for many many years, and they know so much about so many things.

I love their chalkboard door and the way they post a list of chores to be done while we're there! They have a post for the big folks and a post for the not-so-big folks!
Mending fences and building a new gate was on the to-do list:)
Don't they look happy? Well, maybe not...now they won't be able to escape and eat the garden vegetables!




They have a lovely creek for keeping their milk and food cold, and our little ones ALWAYS end up in there NO MATTER the temperature:)
Mending fences. Is he hiding behind that post?
Always looking for pretty rocks and arrowheads. They especially love these work weekends 'cause it means they get to be outside just about the whole time, and mom and dad are out there with them.
The little ones kept arriving at the door with a new bouquet of flowers to be put in water. Here a daughter is receiving yet another one:)
They have some very nice starter plants thriving in that hoop house. He looks very happy!

The girls are taking good care of the chickens and I think they made some repairs on the pen.
Don't you just love their washroom?!!

Their wood stove kept us warm and fed. It was an unusually chilly weekend, and the wood felt and smelled SO good:) Do you see their little box of chicks next to the stove?
These girls stayed busy in the kitchen cooking for a crowd!
Another pretty bouquet picked by the little ones.
Peeling potatoes for the gigantic pan of potato salad they made to go with the yummy venison sloppy joes which were served on homemade slabs of whole wheat bread.

Aren't these cinnamon rolls beautiful:) They were super yummy!
Scrambled eggs fresh from the hen house.
Lots of talking going on!

Love the summer kitchen.




Their pretty cat had kittens a few days after we left.
They always send us home with lots of plants and herbs dug up from their yard. I try to learn all that I can, but she is so knowledgeable and I just can't seem to absorb everything she tells me:) I take notes and pictures.

Above is watercress. I really wanted to become familiar with how it looks. I've often read how the early immigrants could be seen combing the hillsides for the first watercress to grace the banks in the springtime. I hear it's also high in vitamin C!



Straightening the woodpile.
Good bye and God bless!