Solvitur Ambulando

This update is long overdue, and there’s much to catch up on.

The most exciting news is that Melissa and I are engaged! We’ve been living together for over two years now, so perhaps it comes as no surprise, but I’m still hard pressed to believe it myself that we’ll soon be married!

When we first moved to Blacksburg, Melissa babysat for a couple who had also met while hiking the Appalachian Trail. They’ve become close friends of ours, and they generously loaned us their kayaks over Thanksgiving. So Melissa and I spent our holiday paddling alongside bottlenose dolphins off Hunting Island and floating on the blackwater Edisto River further inland, both of which were a blast. I proposed to Melissa as we walked along the beach at sunset; she apparently found the attempt romantic and sincere enough to accept!

We had our wedding spot picked out long before I proposed: an old homestead in Giles County, not far from the Appalachian Trail. But we’ve since discovered that the Forest Service will be renovating it over the next few years, which rules out having our wedding there. Seeing as we’re still scrambling to find a suitable outdoor location, we can’t announce a date as yet, but stay tuned.

As far as the farm goes, deer ravaged our garden shortly after we moved to our apartment in Blacksburg. It was also a very dry growing season, so very little survived aside from some onions and squash. This saddened us greatly, but there wasn’t much we could do to save our crop. We still visit the property sporadically, but we spend most of our time at work and at our apartment, much to our chagrin.

One thing we have done is to choose a new homesite, which we much prefer to the one we’d originally cleared. It’s more remote, has better views, and is flatter as well. We hired a forester to walk the property with us, and he disabused us of two key assumptions: that we could use yellow poplar to build a log home with (it splits too easily), and that one of the skid trails used by the loggers to shuttle logs down the mountain could eventually become our driveway (not a chance). So instead of a log cabin-style house, we’re thinking more along the lines of a conventional wood-framed building with a “green” material like strawbale or cordwood for the walls.

As far as day to day life goes, we both have reasonably satisfying jobs in town that, unfortunately, don’t pay as much as we’d like. I’ve been working in the mornings for PE Central, a website for physical education and health instructors, in the afternoons at the Christiansburg Public Library, and in the evenings and on weekends teaching SAT, GRE, and GMAT courses for Kaplan. I’ve enjoyed teaching so much that I’ve decided to pursue it as a career; I’m enrolled in a fast-track “career switcher” program and, with any luck, I’ll be teaching full-time in a local school system come August. I’ve also written two feature articles for the New River Voice, an alternative newspaper that launched last summer, and I’ve transcribed most of the podcasts at the BackpackingLight.com website (as yet unpublished).

Melissa spends her mornings working at a child care center for low- to middle-income families, and also works part-time during the week and on Sundays as an assistant to the religious education director at the Unitarian Universalist church we attend. She still babysits on occasion, and spends much of her free time reading and making plates, bowls, and mugs on her newly repaired pottery wheel.

But it hasn’t been all work and no play. We get out on the weekends and hike or backpack when we can, usually on or near the Appalachian Trail. Our most significant vacation aside from Thanksgiving and Christmas, the latter of which we spent visiting Melissa’s family on Long Island, was an October sojourn to the Great Smoky Mountains for a week-long backpacking trip. We don’t have any major travel plans in the works, which might come as a surprise, as we’re really focused on saving money and positioning ourselves for the long-term. We figure that there will be plenty of time for travel and other rewarding opportunities when I’m established as a teacher and have my summers off!

I’m sure there’s much I’ve forgotten, but that’s all for now.

I’ve uploaded some farm photos:

http://eric.trailfaqs.com/photos/farm/

The big news since my previous update is that we’ve decided to sublet an apartment in Blacksburg for the summer. We’ve done this for a number of reasons, mainly because living in the trailer without amenities was highly stressful. It was never our intent to rough it for so long, and having an apartment has definitely brightened our outlook. It wasn’t too difficult to find a cheap place, either, as most students spend their summers elsewhere and invariably wait until the last minute to find someone. We’ve also bought some reasonably priced furniture from recent graduates to furnish the apartment, supplementing these purchases with housewares and other furniture from local thrift stores.

Also underlying the temporary move is a desire to make friends and really be part of the local community in Blacksburg. Our neighbors on the farm have been great to us, perhaps in part because I’m related to those who originally settled there, but Melissa and I have very little in common with them. Everyone that’s stopped by has offered to help me find work, but I’m not really interested in learning to drive a tractor-trailer or taking up a trade like pipefitting. We feel much more at home in Blacksburg, especially now that the students have left town for the summer, as the atmosphere is more laid back and conducive to meeting the people who live here year-round.

But we certainly haven’t given up on the farm. We’ll still drive out now and then to tend the garden, and soon we’ll be selling our produce at the farmers’ market in downtown Blacksburg on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We had our first out-of-town visitor last weekend, Melissa’s grandmother, and it was exciting for us to show her around the property and lay out for her our future plans. It’s unlikely that we’ll be undertaking any major projects this summer, but the brief hiatus should give my father and brother a chance to drive out from Indiana and visit, as it’s important that we’re all in agreement as to the future plans for the property. The farm has been dormant for decades, so I guess it won’t hurt us to wait a few more months.

Melissa and I are both diligently looking for employment now that we’re in Blacksburg, though we don’t have any solid leads just yet. I won’t be teaching my first course for Kaplan until August, which is a disappointment, but I will be doing some freelance writing in the meantime. I’ve been working on an article about the New River Valley’s best outdoors recreation spots, which has been a great opportunity for me to get out and see what the area has to offer. The search for full-time employment has definitely been frustrating, but the upside is that it’s forcing us to think creatively about how we’ll be earning a living in the longer term.

Melissa and I have been living on the farm in Virginia for two months now. Things are moving along slowly but surely, and I wanted to share with everyone our progress.

For those who don’t know, “the farm” is 180 acres of forested property that was originally settled by my great-grandfather. It’s located in the New River Valley of mountainous Southwest Virginia; the nearest services are 15-20 minutes away in Pearisburg, seat of Giles County and one of the many towns that the Appalachian Trail passes through, and 25-30 minutes away in Blacksburg, home to Virginia Tech. The nearest town is actually Eggleston, but its glory days have long since past as it now has little else to its name but the post office.

The property has been abandoned and unoccupied for decades. The house had fallen into disrepair and was dismantled by a neighbor of ours, who has restored some of it on his land. There are two buildings remaining, a large animal barn that’s something of a landmark in this area, and a small shed that was used for food storage. The property was logged about 7 or 8 years ago, mainly for the abundant yellow poplar that grows straight and tall. The logging company left behind a maze of paths all over the side of the mountain, and created two unsightly bare spots near the road which they used as loading areas. This road bisects the property and turns from hardtop to gravel as it passes on toward the New River; our journey to Blacksburg begins on this well-maintained track that hugs the west bank on its way to the bridge in Eggleston.

When we first arrived in early March, we slept behind the barn in an old tent that’s barely large enough for two. That first weekend was a cold one, and we eventually moved to a campsite on the south-facing slope of the mountain, which was warmer and more remote. It had been our plan to arrive with a travel trailer in tow, but we didn’t end up finding one before we left North Carolina, so we spent the first few weeks scanning eBay and the local classifieds. Most of the trailers that we called about had already sold or weren’t really what we wanted, but one of the sellers eventually got back to us saying that she’d accept our offer because the original buyer backed out on her.

The drive back from Raleigh was a bit scary, as I’d never towed anything that large before, but we made it home without incident and are now living in an 18-foot Midas travel trailer from the mid-1980s. We don’t currently have electricity, running water, a flush toilet, or any other amenities, so we make the most of our trips to Blacksburg by charging up our gadgets and using the wireless Internet at the public library and by taking showers at the aquatic center. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we get cellular service at the farm, so we bought a mobile phone to stay in touch with the world (540-818-6128).

Our first order of business upon arriving and getting unpacked was to find out if there are in fact enough trees remaining on the property to build the type of log home we have in mind; we obviously don’t want to live in the trailer forever. We spent the first three days roaming around the property with a GPS in hand, looking for the straightest trees we could find that appeared to be at least 30 feet in height and tapered as little as possible. I’m pleased to report that we found over 100 such trees without straying too terribly far from our proposed homesite; we girdled these poplars with yellow ribbon and marked their location with the GPS so we can find them again when the time comes.

Next on our list of things to do was to clear out a lot of the vines and brambles that are choking everything in sight, particularly around the homesite. We rented a brush mower for a day, which did great on the landing areas that the loggers had already cleared out, but was impractical to use on any kind of slope or when there were a lot of saplings or larger trees hemming it in. I think what we need is a brush cutter, which is basically a heavy-duty weed trimmer that accepts a number of dangerous looking attachments, but for now we have a Stihl chain saw that I’m using to clear out more space.

Then we turned our attention to starting our garden. We’ve prepared a dozen or so beds in the landing area near the barn, which used to be an orchard back in my great-grandfather’s time. Melissa built a small greenhouse out of 2×4s that we’ve covered with 4 mil plastic, so we’ve already got lettuce that’s almost big enough to eat. The long-term future of the farm may rest with the success of apple and other fruit trees, but for now we’re focusing on our row crops. We’re hoping to have enough vegetables and flowers soon to start selling at the twice-weekly farmers market in downtown Blacksburg.

So while things are generally looking quite positive, our overwhelming concern now is financing. I’ve had some success finding work in the area, though I’m still on the lookout for a full-time job. I’m training to teach SAT preparation courses for Kaplan, which I’m genuinely excited about, and there are a few other part-time gigs that I’m hopeful will turn out. But I’m really hoping to find something permanent so that we can confidently purchase the equipment and supplies we’ll need to grow the farming operation, and so we can move forward with our home construction. One of the financing options we’re looking at is Prosper, which advertises itself as “the online marketplace for people-to-people lending”, but ideally we’d like to take on as little debt as possible. I’ve had modest success selling some old hiking gear and electronic gadgets online, which is keeping us fed for now.

I imagine everyone is curious to see what the farm looks like, but most of my computer time is spent looking for jobs and whatnot, so I don’t have any photos to share just yet. But I have posted photos of the three places we volunteered at over the winter:

http://eric.trailfaqs.com/photos/ov/

I’ll send out another update when the farm photos are posted.

It’s been far too long without an update, but with good reason…we haven’t had frequent access to electricity or running water, much less the Internet!

The avocado picking didn’t last as long as advertised. We only harvested on a handful of days, as the farmer couldn’t find a distributor for his fruit. The farm itself turned out to be more of a sprawling homestead than an organic farming operation, so we didn’t feel that we were learning very much. We stayed in the area long enough to celebrate Christmas with Melissa’s first cousin twice removed (so I’ve been told) and her family, who treated us wonderfully, then packed up the Jeep and visited Melissa’s grandmother in San Diego.

We contacted a few other farms in southern California to see if they needed help, but none of our top choices were. So we widened the scope of our search, and found what has turned out to be a far more wonderful place than either of the farms we worked at in California. It’s called the Coweeta Heritage Center, and is run by a couple who are working to preserve the culture and traditions of the people that settled in the southern Appalachians. Paul and Lara are both semi-retired teachers, and they both are sharing with us innumerable pieces of wisdom about country living.

Our internship has been to help Paul renovate a 24-by-24 foot cabin that will house overnight visitors to the Center. Paul has involved us in all aspects of the project, including mixing and pouring concrete for foundation posts, framing interior walls, installing electrical receptacles and wiring, and hooking up the plumbing system. We know that this experience will be invaluable when it comes to building our own home…but what we’ve found most beneficial about being here is the opportunity to experience such a simple way of life.

For example, the cabin is heated by a woodburning stove, which is not a terribly difficult thing to operate. But learning how to use the stove is just the tip of the iceberg; we’re also learning how to fell, buck, split, and season the wood that fuels it, so that we can be more self-reliant when we’re living on our own. We’ve also had to learn to run the pump that sends water from a nearby spring up to a storage box above the cabin, to run the generator that powers the tools we’re using for construction, to operate the diesel tractor that hauls construction materials and firewood around, to understand the hydroelectric system that powers the main house, and other such things. While all of this seems like a lot of work compared to a typical suburban household, the lifestyle resonates with both of us.

But it hasn’t been all work and no play! We’re so close to the Appalachian Trail that we can day-hike from our cabin up to Albert Mountain and back, and we’ve done a few other out-and-back hikes on the AT in the area as well. The nearest city is Franklin, North Carolina, which has a decent public library and numerous grocery, department, and thrift stores to keep us entertained on the weekends.

We’ll be staying here until early March. Our current plan is to purchase a travel trailer before we leave, so that we’ll have a reasonably comfortable space to live in while we build our log home and get our gardens and orchards readied in Virginia.

I’m hopelessly behind on my correspondence, so please bear with me while I try to catch up. I’ll try to upload some photos in the near future of the places we’ve been, too.

I have some interesting news to pass along. First is that Melissa and I have moved down the coast to a farm near San Luis Obispo and are helping the crew here finish up their Hass avocado harvest. As much as we liked the farm in Petaluma, we didn’t really like the farmer; the situation was resolved when he basically fired us and hired on someone who had worked for him previously. It was stressful having to pack up and move on such short notice; it’s a bit awkward when your employer is also your landlord! But we’ve settled in nicely at our new farm and have already put the old farm behind us.

But the more important news is that we’ve taken to farming so much that we’re planning to move to Virginia in the spring and homestead on the land my grandmother grew up on, the plan being to start our own organic vegetable and fruit farm and eventually to build our own home! It’s exciting how this has come together, as I had never imagined myself being a farmer, despite my love of the outdoors and my desire to be self-employed. We’ll be spending the winter bouncing around to different farms in California trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible, then we’ll head back east to start our new lives in rural Virginia.

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season. Melissa and I will be spending Christmas with some distant relatives of hers in the area, as well as sharing a feast with the crew members here at the farm.