greetings from the Compound

I am at my destination.

Tucked up in the woods and farmland of rural Ethridge Tennessee, mere miles away from the famous commune "The Farm" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_Tennessee), my former boss from Lockheed Martin and black-projects one-man think-tank extraordinaire, Larry lives with his mom, his brother and sister, and a few dogs who came with the property.

During a short tour last night, we made a stop at the "battery room", where 100s of kilowatt-hours of lead-acid batteries sat awaiting entrance into the compound power grid. A combination of solar cells and diesel generator (activated only when needed) would keep these at the ideal charge. The hot water heaters were currently set-up on the supply of propane from tanks recently installed. "Although if propane were to become unavailable, we could transition the hot water heaters back to electric."

In the daylight, it is evident what enormous amount of work had been done to this single-farmhouse property since the family moved in August. A pool has been converted to a water-containment "tank" for runoff, above which a gigantic greenhouse was erected. A gigantic work-shed barn sits atop a small hill about 200 yards away from the house. And miles of 2-hot-wire electric fence surround the compound (ostensibly for animal containment).

I walked out into the "backyard" this morning as Larry prepared me coffee with raw honey and cinnamon. There I met Mary, his brother Jim's partner, and was enthusiastically greeted by Babe, one of the farms built-in dogs. Babe is a brown smooth-coated mutt with red cuticles from living the tough outdoor farm life. She is a tremendous sweetheart, and curls her entire body into a "C" as she wags her tail, as if it were an unintended consequence of serious, serious wagging.

"I'm happy to help any way I can, Mary, these next few days." I offered.

"Good, because there is plenty of weeding to be done," was the reply.

Right now Larry is in the shower and shortly afterwards we are headed out. I am very excited to see, in general, how a motivated, intelligent, ex-professional is able to thrive in a real, honest, independent, sustainable family farm.

more later
nodoubt

Later today we are going to visit a likeminded farmer's operation to pick up fresh blueberries, garlic, tomatoes and "other organic goods." I am looking forward to working here for a few days and getting a feel for the lifestyle.