When we bought the farm in June of 2011, we were told renovations on the house would take until the end of September. Then the end of October. We finally moved in near the end of November – two days before Thanksgiving, to be exact. The timing seemed rather inconvenient back then, but I’ve come to appreciate it. Now everything Thanksgiving, I remember to give thanks for everything that led to us living here and everything since.
We had intended to rent the house where we living for another year. The landlord agreed, then later announced that he might have a buyer for the house, so we had to leave — in six weeks. It was class-A jerk behavior on his part, but in retrospect, he did us a huge favor.
Chareva immediately began scouring the real-estate listings and spotted this place for sale, which led to us driving out for a look. As you may recall, I wasn’t impressed. The land and the house were both in awful shape, and I was ready to move on and keep looking.
Here are some before pictures, in case you’ve forgotten (or never knew) what kind of condition this place was in when I first saw it.
Those are the front pastures. The area behind the house was even worse. It was so scary, I don’t have pictures — I didn’t dare fight my way through the briar and the shoulder-high weeds to take any.
But Chareva’s artist brain saw what it all could be, not what it was, and talked me into buying it. I’ll be forever grateful to her for that. Yeah, it’s been a never-ending job to get the land into usable shape and keep it there, but that’s how I discovered the joy of working myself into a state of Dog Tired Satisfied.
I’m thankful I was given the opportunity to take what was once a weeds-and-briar jungle and turn it into this:
I’m thankful for these ladies and all the eggs they give us.
I’m thankful for all the work Chareva put into her big ol’ garden, which is still giving us fresh greens in November.
I’m thankful for the work that made the front pastures a great place to play. This is how I’ve been spending most of Thanksgiving week so far:
I’m thankful that at age 57, I have the energy to both put in the work and enjoy the play. That in turn means I’m thankful for all the doctors, researchers, authors and bloggers whose work has become part of the Wisdom of Crowds. (One of those bloggers is here playing disc golf all week, as you can tell from the video and pictures.)
And as always, I’m thankful for all of you who read this blog and keep the conversation going with your comments.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
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Happy American Thanksgiving, my Yankee doodle dandees! Are you going on the cruise this year?
I’ll be there. Unfortunately, because it takes place during finals week for the girls, they’ll have to stay home, which means Chareva will as well.
Deep gratitude back atcha!
When I send folks to your movies and blog — I always describe how unbelievably KIND you were to me at the first Ancestral Health Symposium in LA. It was a mere couple of weeks after my husband had died, and I was reeling. (Mike Eades raised a (kindly) eyebrow at me and said he was surprised I came. I never got to say to him: that trip and conference were the last gift from Michael to me, and he was SO proud and pleased that I was going. And my family is out in LA, so it was a double benefit.)
YOU recognized me from my nametag (as a blog commenter) and gave me a hug, and when you heard about Michael, you said “that deserves another hug!” For the rest of the weekend, whenever you joined one of the sessions I was sitting in, you came and sat somewhere nearby. You even ate lunch with me that first day. You were like an anchor in a storm — not hovering, not obvious, just so kind.
I love learning about your farm and your darling girls (all three of them {wink}) and you’re an important part of my low carb journey. Happy, happy T-giving and on after!
Elenor
It was my pleasure, Elenor. You were a brave woman, making that trip so soon after a tragic loss.
Is that Jimmy in the pic?
From the Land where Thanksgiving all started…. a big Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
That’s Jimmy. He and Christine are here for Thanksgiving week.
Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for all the info you provide, Tom.
Thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving! Your place looks wonderful now! It was nice to see those before pictures. And it was also nice to see you and Jimmy relaxing (?) with the disc golf!
Relaxing in a competitive, trash-talkin’ sort of way, yes.
The best to you and family, thanks for all you do. Disc golf looks like a great deal of fun, especially with such an esteemed partner. My family is spending a few unexpectedly sunny, even warm days on the Oregon coast. Family and friends definitely make the holiday.
Disc golf is way big fun, although Jimmy and I have a tendency to overdo it during his visits. We squeezed in 24 rounds in six days, and that was with him taking a day off to go visit his father, who lives 2 hours from here. According to some app Jimmy has on his phone, we walked a bit over 36 miles during those rounds. That would explain why my calves were sore on the day off.
Happy Thanksgiving Tom!! We are thankful for all that you do! Best wishes to you and your wonderful family!
And to yours.
The best to you and family, thanks for all you do. Disc golf looks like a great deal of fun, especially with such an esteemed partner. My family is spending a few unexpectedly sunny, even warm days on the Oregon coast. Family and friends definitely make the holiday.
Disc golf is way big fun, although Jimmy and I have a tendency to overdo it during his visits. We squeezed in 24 rounds in six days, and that was with him taking a day off to go visit his father, who lives 2 hours from here. According to some app Jimmy has on his phone, we walked a bit over 36 miles during those rounds. That would explain why my calves were sore on the day off.
Glad to see you have tamed the Wild West and now have it under control. Errr…. maybe the Wild East?
Wild mid-south.
Whoa–I just moved into my new house the day before Thanksgiving this year. I was in a hurry, too–I didn’t know how much longer I could get a ridiculous amount of money for an 800-square-foot house near Denver and buy an upgraded place in Indianapolis for less than half that price. And I moved for a similar reason to yours: Denver has become Los Angeles, without the beach. So, bye-bye trendy, crowded and overpriced big city where I spent nearly two hours a day commuting. In fairness, Indy is pretty scary in some places, and I miss the freedom to go out walking at 10 PM. I even looked on the Crime Stoppers web site for the man who approached me at a gas station yesterday. But it’s lush and green, there are screaming bargains here, no ugly new houses in the historic district where I live, and the low-fat craze never seemed to have caught on.
Sorry it took so long to approve this. I missed it somehow.
Congrats on the house and the move. Back in my standup days, I spent four weeks per year in Indy. Always liked the place.
Whoa–I just moved into my new house the day before Thanksgiving this year. I was in a hurry, too–I didn’t know how much longer I could get a ridiculous amount of money for an 800-square-foot house near Denver and buy an upgraded place in Indianapolis for less than half that price. And I moved for a similar reason to yours: Denver has become Los Angeles, without the beach. So, bye-bye trendy, crowded and overpriced big city where I spent nearly two hours a day commuting. In fairness, Indy is pretty scary in some places, and I miss the freedom to go out walking at 10 PM. I even looked on the Crime Stoppers web site for the man who approached me at a gas station yesterday. But it’s lush and green, there are screaming bargains here, no ugly new houses in the historic district where I live, and the low-fat craze never seemed to have caught on.
Sorry it took so long to approve this. I missed it somehow.
Congrats on the house and the move. Back in my standup days, I spent four weeks per year in Indy. Always liked the place.
No Tom, you’re supposed to be thankful for the Union’s victories over the confederacy, just as Lincoln wanted when he declared thanksgiving an annual holiday!
It was before my time.
Same here, I think it’s very amusing how the meaning of thanksgiving changed so much from its original intent. I was actually very surprised when I learned the original intent.
I think when a celebration comes, history of it is less important than a current perception. I like the idea of Thanksgiving – to think about what you are grateful of. As a non-believer, I complitely disagree with anty-Christmas sentiments. Christmas music is beautiful, lights are everywhere in a darkest time of the year, displays of nativity scenes are quite and look peaceful (sometimes funny when Santa Claus is standing next to a baby Jesus and another decoration is nearby with a snowman or raindeers). Let holidays to bring joy to your life, not a discourse with others!
Beautiful!
Congratulations.
Beautiful!
Congratulations.