Far too quiet for far too long

Good morning to everyone who has followed the Heart of Home: Finding My Homestead blog since it's creation in 2012. I know I dropped off the face of the Earth after I lost someone close to me and it's been difficult to find my muse after that. There was much need to sacrifice leisure for more work and more money, less time with family and for writing.

My Engagement Ring.
18k yellow gold with pear cut, pink sapphire.
Inscribed: "Royina De Mi Corazón"
Translation: Queen of My Heart   

Yet, I find myself missing the writing more than anything. It is my intention to reignite this flame called Heart of Home. Let me begin with a few personal updates.

I started working in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park September 25th 2018.

I got engaged October 24th 2018 to my long time lover. We plan to be handfasted at Samhain 2019.

I got accepted to Walters State College here in Sevierville, Tennessee. Classes start August 30th 2019. I'm studying for an Associates in Culinary Arts: Concentration- Baking and Pastry. I also plan to minor in Biology.

Heart's Pride

Wednesday saw Colin and I headed south to Fort Jackson, South Carolina to see Rhiannon graduate Army Basic training. The sun beat down on the sand and pine trees, filling the air with the bright smell of the South. It was a good day and my thrift store dress did me good service. Rhiannon is sharp and I don't have the words to tell you how very proud I am of her. She has worked so hard and kept her chin up through the more grueling parts of her training. We spent two days with her and then we took her up to Fort Lee, Virginia where her AIT training will be taking place.

 We wished we could have taking her back with us to Tennessee for a while but there was little time for it. She was due to report and so we dropped her off at Fort Lee after much goodbyes. Rhi may well we coming home in October and that does our hearts much good. Kieren's birthday is then and it would be wonderful if Rhi could come home just in time for the celebration. Already, I am planning a birthday/home coming feast that is full of fresh, baked bread and I'll put a lovely pie or cake in my glass rose stand.

Now, back at home, I have been watching the garden and our new watermelons growing. The rabbits are on the back half and I have taking out the live trap and baited it. A little more fur and a little more meat will not go amiss in this clanhold, to be sure.

Pleased as punch

Starting August 1st, I will be working part time at Butler and Bailey Supermarket in the Rocky Hill community of Knoxville. I went down to respond to the employment ad last Thursday, filled out the application in store and talked with the store manager. He was very professional and kind, complimented me on my various experience in retail and offered me the job on the spot. He handed me the employee paperwork, W-4, background check and direct deposit form. He told me to call him as soon as I got back from Rhiannon's graduation and he would have me on the schedule for the beginning of August.

I'll start part time and he told me as soon as my schedule opens up, he would like to put me on full time. I am pleased as punch at the state fair.

Financial independence is very important to me. I want to establish credit and good credit at that. It is my ambition that once I am into my forties, I will have established good credit and will be able to then purchase a small house in Knoxville, Tennessee. My intention is to renovate said house and then place the property up for rent. It is a plan that, at this time, is in it's infancy but I have started to make a few steps toward it by playing outstanding debts.

Tonight I will be spicing up ground beer with cumin, browning onions, cooking rice and black beans for something my mother used to make for us often. Black beans and rice was a meal often had in my household when times were tight or mother was pressed for time. Tonight I am making it more for the later reason than the former. It brings me back to a time were I was small and safe under the cocoa brown eyes of my mother's gaze.

The fruits of summer

Summer waxes hot in the Tennessee Valley, here in sleepy Rockford near the Little River. So much heat and sun is a blessing to the tomato farmer; for five days now I have gone out with little Rose to pick tomatoes. Big boy, plum and cherry tomatoes line out window ledge and fill small ceramic bowls . The garden also sports acorn squash; at the moment we have two large ones who are going from light to dark green quickly, hardening as they ripen. There has been raw slices of tomato for dinner sides and cherry tomatoes for quick, juicy snacks. Colin has made beer and is currently working on dark chocolate mead and apple wine. I will be cleaning out a carboy to start my hard root beer, the pyment being all drunk up and Colin already working on a cherry mead. So I will make hard root beer and a quart of Alba vanilla ice cream. After which I will treat myself to the best root beer float on the face of the planet.  

Cherry Tomatoes

Those are some beautiful tomatoes we have. Not just the color but the taste. So sweet and juicy; a true balm to the southern girl's heart.  In addition to tomatoes and squash, the garden is also turning out a metric ton of mint. Last year, we planted spearmint and sweet mint. This year, we have sweet spearmint. Love blooms in the garden. The mint saw fit to interbreed and its offspring is a redolent, beautiful blooming mint. The chocolate mint has spread and I had to prune it aggressively to keep it from wiping out my lemon balm. The carrots, unfortunately, never grew from the trimmings we kept. Gods keep the warm days here; I have two adult squash and five babies growing away on the vine. I want more than anything to grow a lot of acorn squash. When we were first replanting the garden for 2016, I mistook Rhiannon's acorn squash for Japanese pumpkin and pulled the sprouts thinking to prune the population. Only took late did I realize my mistake and mentally kicked myself over it for weeks after Rhiannon left for boot camp.

Sweet spearmint, purple sage and chocolate mint

The kitchen and dinning room are filled with the wild, green scent of herbs. The bouquet of sweet spearmint is festooned with tiny, starlet flowers. I cannot look at it without smiling; what a good bouquet for a bride. The sage is run all green and purple; we added to the lamb stew the other night and it was heavenly. The chocolate mint is begging to be added into ice cream. I might be pressing some into oil soon. My rabbit skins are still well salted and stored in a cool place. I need to flesh them out soon but finding the time and patience for such delicate work is difficult. I have been working on my crocheting a great deal and have added 6 skeins of yarn (Wool of the Andes and Patton's) to the queen sized Afghan I am crocheting for Colin. Gods, give me the strength to keep working on it until Yule. I would love to give it to him, finished in it's whole to keep him warm through the winter.

Opal with her twin girls. We can't wait for our babies to come home. 

As summer spins itself down from Solstice, the time draw near that our fuzzy girls can come home. We get to go pick them up in Oak Ridge on August 1st, the same day Kieran starts her senior year. It has been a long time since this Clanhold has hear the tiny meows of little kittens and we wait with baited breath to hold and love them both. Adoption is the best way you can find your beloved fur babies. 

As I bring this post to a close, I wish all my friends and readers a Happy Independence Day! Enjoy! 

Coming Summer

Almond Maple Bundt Cake

The summer comes on sweetly, waxing between sun glazed humidity and driving rain. My seasonal position with Plant Partners is over, ending a day shy of Memorial Day. I have been very busy between vending and looking at houses. The Clan has been out to see two properties now, one a 1899 Civil War Plantation home on 12.8 acres in North Knoxville, TN and another split level, slab wood cabin in Tellico Plains, TN. This week we will be going to see another property in Seymour, TN, a place we are calling Round O' the Hill. It is a dance of spoons, house hunting.

While I hunt for houses, I also hunt for a job. I had initially put in an application and attending a job fair for Clayton Homes. I was called for a first interview and then a second. I got a take a profile assessment on the day of my shadow job trial.

These are competitive things, white collar office worlds. I was not offered the position in question and so I come back to square one. I was troubled for a time; anxiety coated me. Reassurances from my love and the council a good friend gave me have put me back on track. I have put in two applications so far, made three inquiries and have complied a list of eight places I wish to work.

Until I have a position outside the home, my mind turns back to management of the home. I have had time to bake; a blueberry lemon load cake and an almond maple cake (shown: upper left). Tonight, I will glaze a portion of ham and if I have any yeast left, I will shape hearth bread loaves today. If no yeast is to be had, I will take down the meal and make cornbread. Also a pot of black eyed peas and I will brew another gallon of tea.

Oh, it is good to be home thought. Even if only for little while.

I have scrubbed the kitchen to gleaming, stove as well. Yesterday, I took a damp rag to Angela's china cabinet, wiping it free of dust. I wiped down Colin's work table and the dinning room table, swept clear the floor and even fashioned a bookcase/table out of a box. Nothing extraordinary, just a typical day in the Clanhold.  The tomatoes are coming in and the mint is rambling. Later today, I will go out to do my pruning and offer a little water to the plants if I see they need it. It has rained the last few days but not last night.

I know it has been a long time since I have written. I am sorry for that. Work, need for money, want for farm and all in between have kept me hopping.

Peace be with you, Readers. Lughnasadh comes anon.

Breath of Spring

Working for Plant Partners has started off a blast. I have had three days of work so far, with tomorrow being my fourth. I hope to do a house cleaning on Friday or sometime this weekend. Working outside in the Garden Center has been more fun and pleasure than I could ever have dreamed. Working with flowers pours light into my soul and I feel my general sense of happiness increasing. I am enjoying the job to much, I have decided to continue to seek plant/flower work after this season has ended for Plant Partners. My Clan, I have come to believe, is best served by me continuing to manage the Clanhold, hold a part time job and continue writing for The Heart of Home.

Let me tell you, it is a relief to actually have a 'game plan', so to speak. While I will not go into the particulars at this time, I will tell you it will involve me containing to work outside the home. So no, I will not be returning to school to pursue a degree but my higher education will come from my own research, my jobs, and my volunteer work.

All of this realization and with Spring coming on strong, I have a smile that won't quit. I have a mind to plant a lot of trees and flowers this year, to create the garden my Clan sister Angela had wanted to put in this year. I hope to put a bench under the dogwood tree and marigolds, white roses, leopard's bane, Georgia blue speedwell, Leland Cyprus on the property in addition to butter lettuce, tomatoes and, with luck, watermelon in the raised bed garden. Most of these flowers will go toward the creation of Angela's memorial garden which will run down the front of the house and down the right side facing.

I chose to do this for her.

Tell me, Readers. What are your plans for the upcoming Spring? Do you have any projects or plants coming in? Let me know!

Electric Brain

Now that I have everything turned into the district manager of Plant Partners, I am as eager as a racehorse at the starting gate to get my schedule and start working. Work=Money=Homestead and my brain is buzzing like a swarm of bees.

I'm also super excited because S.J Tucker, one of my favorite musical artist, just released a new song in honor of her birthday. The song is entitled "Snow Moon" and you can find it for the next lunar cycle on http://music.sjtucker.com/track/snow-moon. Please consider donating to Sooj for her enchanting and wonderful piece of music.

All signs point to the likeliness that I will be attending my first ever Caldera Pagan Music Festival in May as a late 32nd birthday present to myself. S.J Tucker will be there, as well as Damh the Bard. I am super excited. It's right before I will start my first day of classes, so what a way to start off my academic year.

I am also pleased that as of 6:50pm, when last I checked, the Heart of Home: Finding my Homestead was at 5,998 pageviews, So close to 6,000!

Victory in my hands

I am pleased as much readers to announce that I got the job with Plant Partners. It is part time and seasonal but it will bring in much needed money so that I can contribute more to our goal of a homestead. With luck, I will start training in the next week or so; I cannot wait to learn the ropes of a plant distribution center and get working. I am restless and I am ready.

I am also thrilled to announce that Heart of Home:Finding my Homestead is almost to 6,000 page views. We are all very thankful and humbled by all the attention HOH has gotten over the last year and then some. You have been wonderful readers and I am blessed to have you with me over the course of this journey. Thank you. 

Good News!

The day before yesterday I put in an application for a local flower and plant distribution center. The advertisement had been up for sometime but since it was very local in relation to me, I decided to go for it. I had long come to the realization that a steady PT job would benefit the Clan and me personally. I didn't expect to hear back quickly, so I was surprised when I got a call from the district manager last night while I was washing dishes. We talked about the schedule, laughed about work place related things and I walked away from the conversation smiling.

I have an interview for said position on Tuesday at Noon.

:D

Seizing the Year

2016 began and I already knew my life was changing. I was going to the gym regularly, at least once a week. I was eating less carbs and less overall. I was debating going back to school to pursue higher education; the homestead dream takes heart, work ethic, faith and money. I had the first three in spades but money...well that was only going to come by putting myself in the position to earn it. All adult members of the Clan contribute to the homestead fund but I knew I could be doing more.

So, I filled out the FAFSA.

I applied to Pellisippi State College.

I started researching scholarships.

I began looking for a part time job.

I am pleased to tell you that when I contacted a former professor of mine, he agreed to writing me a letter of recommendation to satisfy a scholarship requirement. I received my letter of acceptance to Pell State and hope to start classes in May 2016. I did some cleaning work and now am looking for a more regular scheduled job to earn more money for our future homestead. 

I am pleased to also tell you I have started going to the gym 3 times a week. 

The achievements of a sub rural girl going back to school and working out at the city gym doesn't sound like the voice of a agricultural blog. Keep in mind, this is part of my journey. I do what I can in the environment that I am currently in. It is my dream that in a few years I will fill the Heart of Home with pictures of feeder pigs and a barn full of hay. We keep moving forward and that is the story to be told here.