Saturday, March 31, 2012

Spring Creek Farm

WWOOF usa tennessee
Our sweet room, note the corner of the awesome drawing table
In our most haphazard and higgidly-piggidly pack up, we threw our stuff in the car and drove the ten minutes down the road to Spring Creek Farm. We had one day to learn the routine of the farm before Adam and Shelby left with the kids for a week of spring break in Florida the next day.
WWOOF usa tennessee
Randy's victorious lamb wrangling
To help show us the ropes were two other WWOOFers who we were WWOOF-swapping with; they were headed to A Place of the Heart in a few days, where we'd just came from. The farm-sitting couldn't go too awry, however, because Adam's mother, Barbara, her friend Pete, and his brother, Larry were on the farm running things. Adam and Shelby had also left us a list, and we kept busy planting, weeding, watering, transplanting, and caring for the sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, turkens, cattle, and dogs.
A local
Apparently chicken+turkey=ugly
The morning commute

Even though the vegetarian food at A Place of the Heart was exceptionally delicious, we still eagerly anticipated the pasture-raised meat at Spring Creek Farm. When Adam and Shelby left, they granted us access to their freezer-trailer full of meat and all the eggs we could eat, which we ravenously tore into. One day, for example, we had breakfast sausage in our omelet, lamb ribs for lunch, a ham sandwich for an after-work snack, and boiled dinner with a ham hock for dinner. Even though this is well below the average American's intake of meat, compared to our typical beans-rice-veggies diet, it was quite extravagant.
The origin of the pork was a pig with a sordid past. First of all, pigs are usually castrated before being butchered. This pig, however, was not "cut" when he was young, so Adam and Larry attempted to do it themselves. The details of this part of the story are fuzzy, but Adam returned from the attempt covered in pig blood and only half successful. One testicle was still on the loose.
The chicken fruits of our labor after a daily egg washing
They called the vet to inquire how to proceed. He recommended getting they get the pig drunk as an anesthetic and a sedative, and he would come by after work one day to do the deed. They gave the pig a six pack, but detected no change, so they moved on to moonshine. A quart of moonshine later, and the pig was still acting normally. Someone finally decided to try giving it a Xanex, washed down with three more beers. Alas, when the vet arrived the pig still had most of its senses. In fact, as if to demonstrate his virility, he had upended his feeder and was vigorously attempting to impregnate it. The vet wasn't even going to try at that point, so he wished them the best of luck and left. Eventually the problem was remedied by the local butcher who finished the castration in ten minutes.
WWOOF usa tennessee
In the hoophouse, surrounded by the starts we planted
With Adam and Shelby gone, we enjoyed getting to know Barbara, Pete and Larry. Barbara is an excellent cook and we enjoyed the heck out of her potato salad, deviled eggs, BBQ, homemade hushpuppies, and fried gator.
Larry and his wife Sherry
Larry mostly mended fences and drank beer, but he also enjoyed playing cowboy, and whenever a cow got out he would herd it back in with the Mule (a golf cart-type farm vehicle).
Pete worked part time at Home Depot, and put his plumbing experience to work fixing the hot water heater in our kitchen. One night for a special treat Barbara and Pete took us all out for delicious pizza.
We loved getting accustomed to the picturesque Tennessee countryside; the farm was set in a beautiful valley with cows on one rolling hillside and sheep on the next.
WWOOF usa tennessee
The Great Pyrenees guardian dogs
The old railroad tunnels

The farm also included a steep wooded mountainside and mountain springs, which provided pure and delicious drinking water. We also explored the nearby railroad tunnels, which had been dug out of the mountains years ago. Etched into the bricks were a few names and dates, one dating back to 6/24/17 when W.C. Torian was headed out to war with the 1st Tennessee A Company. Later we hiked up the ridge and saw a great view of the entire valley.
Extreme hiking

The day before Adam and Shelby got back, we went back to A Place of the Heart for their full moon sweat. We enjoyed getting to see everyone again, and had an excellent vegan meal to balance out all of our meat consumption.
When they got back we had fun hanging out with them and the kids. Holly enjoyed reading bedtime stories to the 3 and 5 year old girls, though she forgot what an ordeal storytime can be. Randy enjoyed revisiting video games with the 10 year old boy who was patient enough to give tutorials to the old fogey. Adam and Shelby brought fresh yummy fruit back from Florida, including a mamey, an odd oval fruit with a sweet-potato/avacadoesque orange interior and a large black seed. It was great hanging out with Adam and Shelby every day, and we had a blast. One day we went into town with Shelby, and she took us to this funny little candy store in a random small town that was wall-to-wall sweets, and one of the last remaining places you can still get candy for a penny.
Adam, Shelby, and Holly
On one of our days off we explored Knoxville. We started our day with a livestock auction, where we could have bought a male dairy cow for $7, but decided against it since it's hard to strap livestock to the roof of a convertible. Then we hit up a few thrift stores before heading to the library, where it took longer for us to find a parking spot than we were inside the building. Next we went Three Rivers Market, a really cool health food store that had a bike fixing station on one side, and plug-ins for electric cars on the other. We splurged on some Rice Dream and a few beers, and then walked around and found a used bookstore. Randy needed his game store fix, so we headed a little further down the street to Organized Play. After a failed attempt at finding live music, we concluded our big city adventure and headed back to the farm.
On our last day on the farm we went up the ridge again, this time in search of morel mushrooms. It was a little early, but the winter had been so mild we decided to try anyway. We found a good pound and a half of mostly blacks, but also some longnecks and some whites.
WWOOF usa tennessee
Cleaning them off
Holly finally felt like her morel-finding genes from her grandmother, uncle, mother, and father kicked in, and found more than she ever had before. Unfortunately, on the way back down the mountain the going was steep and some of the morels got squished as we slipped and slid down the hill, but since Shelby and Adam don't like morels, we got to eat all the unsellable ones. Yum yum!
WWOOF usa tennessee
Randy posing with his first morel! (after this picture was taken Holly pointed out another one at his feet that he'd missed)



Obligatory camera tricks

WWOOF usa tennessee
A foggy morning
WWOOF usa tennessee

Knoxville on a shoestring: A photographic guide

Stop 1: Buying nothing at a livestock auction
Stop 2: Spending $2 at a thrift store


Stop 3: Taking advantage of free internet at the library

Stop 4: One person's trash is another person's treasure (sometimes)




WWOOF usa tennessee
Our scenic backyard

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