A Farewell To Farms

On Wednesday we woke up early and ate a good breakfast.  We fed the animals, and then got cleaned up.  Dianne, Lori, the boys and I  decided to go to Jonesborough, Tennessee.  Jonesborough is a small town of approx 6000 people that was established in 1779.  It's Tennessee's oldest town.  It has a touristy feel, because of it's historical significance, and is lined with quaint shops of all kinds.  We got there in the early afternoon, and had lunch at a small restaurant called The Creekside Restaurant.  It was located on the courthouse square, and the food was southern home cooking.  Yummy!

After we ate lunch we decided to walk down main street to visit some of the shops.  Umm....next time we do this, please let it be much, much warmer.  The wind was whipping around 25 mph, and the temperature was around 40, so it was COLD!

The first place we ducked into was This wonderful Candy Store The owner was a super nice older man, and once he saw my Texas A&M shirt, we hit it off.  While the rest of the crew was frolicking in sugary heaven, he and I talked about the recent football season, and the current basketball season.  He of course was a huge Tennessee Volunteer fan, but he was quite welcoming to the new kids to the conference. We talked for a long time, and then we all purchased some great treats.

From there is was art shops, and import shops and general stores........you get the idea.  If it wasn't so cold, we would have visited many more, plus some really great looking museums.  As it stood, everyone was freezing their collective rear ends off, so we made a break for the car.  We all piled in, started to thaw out, and headed back to the farm.

We played around the farm the rest of the afternoon, and for dinner, I cooked some delicious Hawaiian and Caribbean Jerk chicken with grilled pineapple.   Mmmmm....Mmmmm....it was good!

After some challenging games of dominoes, we hit the hay around 11:00pm, all very tired. 

Thursday came too soon.  It was the day before we were leaving, and also Lori and my 15th anniversary.  I want to stop for a minute and say a little bit about that.

Lori and I have had a very memorable 15 years.  Most of it has been wonderful and joyous, and just like other couples,  some bumps along the way.  I would not trade a minute of my time with my beautiful wife, and all of the wonderful things that have come to fruition during our marriage have been a dream come true.

The 15th anniversary is the crystal anniversary.  With that theme, I sat out to find the perfect gift.  After much searching, I found a artist in Malaras, Sweden that produced just what I was looking for.   His name is Mats Jonasson, and I purchased his Tree of Life sculpture, and had it imported.  It came to the house back in December, and I had been hiding it with anticipation ever since.  I snuck it in the luggage, bubble wrapped of course, before we left.  I surprised Lori with it on Thursday, and she loved it.

She surprised me with a new Garmin running watch when we got home.  I love it, and now track all my runs.

Thank you Lori for saying "I DO" 15 years ago.  With apologies to Robert Frost.....It has made all the difference.

Anyway,  back to the farm.

Steve and I got up early on Thursday and went out on a quest for hay.  He had made previous arrangements to purchase 50 large rolls of hay from a dentist friend he knew, and we took the goose neck trailer to Greeneville, Tennessee to pick up the first 14 rolls.  Everything was going fairly smoothly until we reached the farm to pick up the hay, and discovered that the keys to the tractor that were supposed to be left for us, were no where to be found.  Grrrrr....... We ended up dropping off the trailer, and heading back to the farm.  A wasted trip.

After we got home, we piled into Dianne's SUV, and headed over to "Rocky Top Mountain" to observe the scenery.  It was stunning.

Creek waterfall

Small spring fed waterfall, complete with icicles.

View of the French Broad River.

Spring water seeping from the side of the mountain.

Beautiful Dead Tree on the side of the mountain standing guard.

It was simply beautiful up on the mountain, and I am really happy Dianne took us to see it.

After we got back to the farm, the boys and I went to the playground, while Dianne and Lori went to check on the horses.  It did not take the boys long to come up with a new game to play.  SWING SET KICK WAR!

Check out that playground view.......best ever????

We made our way over to the horse barn just in time for feeding.

As the feeding was going on, the boys decided it was a good time for......A LIGHTSABER WAR!!! (boys are so fun!)

We avoided any lightsaber limb adjustments, and made our way back to the house.  Steve cooked us some wonderful steaks for our anniversary dinner, and we shared a good bottle of wine with Steve and Dianne.  Our meal was topped off with this stunning sunset.

Wow.  Perfect.

Friday we got up and had to start getting ready for the airport.  We were all very sad to go.  We all had a great time.  Such fantastic memories.

William

PS.  Steve and Dianne are wonderful hosts, and I am really grateful for everything they do, and have done for us.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.