Naming of the Farm

Finally!! Sunday, October 11th 2015 - early morning, we finally all agreed on the name of the farm with help from Jim, a family friend.

Welcome to HEARTWOOD FARM

Heartwood Farm - in the heart of an 800 acre pine forest, heart wood pine flooring throughout the house, a farm designed around the heart of relationships - connections existing and developing on multiple levels.  WOW!   A momentous day for us all!  We also have to thank Rebecca & Josh.  They are currently building a house made of sandbags on top of a mountain.  They shared the idea of designing a life around a central concept.  And from that idea, we were able to design the name of the farm around the main reason Zac & Rachel bought a farm and changed their lives - So thank you to all those relationships that helped us arrive at our naming day!

Moving on... lots of exciting new things.  

First, with Jim's help, we built a rocket stove out of the clay of the farm!!  a type of efficient wood-burning stove.  We mixed the clay with water that was setup on a large plastic sheet.  Then we all took turns jumping on the mixture to blend the clay and water.  Then...we took handfulls of clay to form the unique chamber.  As you can see, it is shaped like a shoe. Wood is gravity fed into a "J-shaped" combustion chamber, from where the hot gases enter vertical secondary combustion chamber creating an extremely high temperature.  

Next....Building a tree house

Alyce and Zac working it!  Sometimes it is hard to watch them balancing on precarious ladders

Now for the bounty of what is left in the garden as the cold weather arrives...

Biggest sweet potatoes I have ever seen

I made sweet potato fries that night sprinkled with the sage from the garden.  Later in the week, Zac made several sweet potato pies!  

Which bring us to our first fire in the wood stove.

Fall has arrive with sweet potato pies, wood burning stoves and beautiful colors.

Heartwood Farm Pond

I have been surprised by the number of couples, Zac & Rachel's age, that we have met making the tough decision to change their lives to a more sustainable, meaningful experience.  They have left behind the known, for the unknown of something different.  They share stories of physical and emotional challenges - from the land, from their extended families, and from financial security.  They are designing new lives around authentic relationship.  I am so glad to be a part of this journey....