The Highest Compliment

Moving to Middle Tennessee provided us with opportunities I had long imagined were out of reach during this lifetime. In my youth I enjoyed animals and the outdoors, but did not foresee returning to the land at Massachusetts prices. When the opportunity to move to a warmer climate arose, a place where greenery is the norm and city dwellers live in houses with yards (as opposed to high-rise apartment buildings), a place close to my in-laws I came looking for a home in Tennessee. That we landed in Wilson County, outside of Nashville in Middle Tennessee was a blessing, one whose gifts have continued to shower upon us every day we're here.

We chose a small farmstead on a hillside, perched high above any possible flood waters and situated such that we envisioned ourselves remaining ambulatory well into our golden years. If nothing else, the quarter-mile stroll down to the mailbox and back each day ought to help keep us moving. The additions of free ranging hens and farm-fresh eggs, and later of dairy goats and fresh milk, plus not only space to grow our own food but a plethora of farmer's markets scattered around to provide fresh food were the proverbial icing on the cake.

A schoolteacher without a classroom and having friends who wanted to know how we were faring, I took a former student's parent's suggestion and started this blog. She said it would be a good way for former students to keep up with me, and while I was not sure any of my former students would want to be tracking their middle school English teacher, I understood a blog would provide me opportunity to document our changing lives.

Early on I learned that blogs require illustration and I started taking pictures to post. Somewhere along the line the photos moved from the blog and onto various items courtesy of Vistaprint. Now we're entering the next phase by taking some of those products to market. We've joined forces with the Fiddler's Grove Historical Village in Lebanon, located at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center and on the Wilson County Fairgrounds in time for their Founders' Day celebration this coming weekend. Folks who stop into the General Store on Founders' Day can find two of our regular postcards, two oversize postcards, and a half-dozen note cards sporting images either of our farm or views from it, and tailored to acknowledge Fiddler's Grove and Wilson County along with our farm. Soon there will be a couple of our mugs on their shelves as well.

Now, to get to the point of this diatribe, in the process of teaming up with Fiddler's Grove I was paid the highest compliment. When the Fiddler's Grove curator was showing samples of our products to her board members in a meeting, I'm told that one of the viewers exclaimed, "I want her life!"

Thank you, ma'am. I cannot imagine a higher compliment.