Posted on

Power is Getting Closer!

Y’all, we have said it before and we’ll say it again…we have THE BEST neighbors!!! One of them spent his entire Sunday afternoon helping us get our meter pedestal installed. Another one made us chili for lunch because it was cold out and he knew we were stuck working outside all day. And all of them welcomed us with open arms at their local music festival on Saturday! We don’t know how we’ll ever be able to repay them for their kindness and generosity, but we’ll sure try.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day picking up field corn the combine left behind in our North field. There’s no sense in letting the leftovers go to waste, so we’ll put them in the bird feeders.

We got even more than this! Once all the kernels have been removed, it will be about 10 gallons worth of tasty treats for the birds this winter.

We also started clearing along the creek and treeline. There is years and years of overgrowth, so it’s a very slow-going process. Of course this time of year, we have to be watching for snakes (copperheads and rattlesnakes are our venomous ones…and love the woods), so that also slows things down. Unfortunately, this project is not one that can get done in a weekend. It’s something we’ll be working on all winter long, as the treeline and creek are several hundred feet long.

That little brown and white speck in the middle of the picture is our well. To give you an idea what that area looked like before, either go back a few blogs or look at the weeds/trees/bushes as the left, middle of the picture. The entire treeline, from the east side to the west side of our property is like that. Obviously, we plan on leaving the mature trees and any berry bushes/vines, but everything else has to go!

The biggest news of the weekend is we got our meter pedestal installed!! This is a HUGE step in getting power to our trailer/barn/greenhouses/construction crew. Our awesome neighbor Will helped us get it setup this weekend. The building inspector is coming out to inspect it tomorrow morning. As long as it passes, it will get a green tag and REMC will be out next week to trench in our electric line!

I now want an auger for our tractor! It drilled 2, 2-foot holes in about a minute. It would’ve taken us so long to dig those by hand. (LOL see our corn harvest mess from the day before?)
It’s in! This picture was taken before the ground wire had been fed into the box, so nobody panic. There is extra space next to the box for an outdoor panel that will have outlets, which will provide power for our contractors…so no temporary pole for construction! At a later point, this entire box will probably be mounted to the side of our barn.

Saturday evening, the campground (where all of our wonderful neighbors live) hosted a music festival and we were invited! The bands were good, the food was good, and everyone was so nice. So many of them were glad we’d purchased the farm across the street, and some of them even said they wished they could’ve purchased the farm. We are honorary members of the campground now and have been invited to all their events. And I have a feeling we’ll be hosting a party or two of our own for our neighbors.

Delicious food!!!

Since we hung out at the campground into the evening hours on Saturday, we finally got to see our farm at dusk! All the sounds, the smells; it was so peaceful. Just a few more weeks until this is home for good!

Taken from the driveway, looking over the foundation toward the north field.

When Jim made chili for us yesterday (it was so good!), we stood in the driveway with Will and Alli and Jim, just talking and eating. It’s like we’d all known each other forever. We talked about tractors and the weather and our plans for the farm next year. It just felt so right…we both felt it. Like we’ve said before, we can’t imagine being anywhere else. Our tiny little town of 250 people is right where we’re meant be… AND WE LOVE IT!

Peace, Love, & Farming,

The Murphy’s