Breakin' ground. House: Day 1

We have dirt! Four days with no rain meant our builder, Davey, could finally get started. Woo hoo! As of today they’ve cleared the driveway and the house site. Dirt down here is dark clay which is apparently not what you want under your house, so Davey also trucked in a bunch of red dirt to put on top of the dirt that was already there. Of course, it’s supposed to rain for the next 2 days, so who knows when the foundation will get poured…

This picture is from the middle of our driveway looking towards the "house."

That big tree on the left is a pecan tree!

This picture is from another spot.

Swamp'ssippi

This is not the farm. It's our place on Bulldog Circle, a few hours BEFORE they announced the flash flood warning, thunderstorm watch, and tornado warning. This picture captures why nothing has happened farm-wise or house building-wise in the last month-it's been raining! Everyone says this is unusual. Ya.

The two positives are that we now understand where all the flood risk areas on the farm are and why there are no basements in Mississippi. So, that's a bonus. However, what we still don't understand is why our neighbor seems to think his trash can (pictured) is supposed to stay out permanently. Baffling. We caught them yesterday walking out to the can to throw trash away, it was the day after collection! They left the can out there!?! Who does that? Can't blame Mississippi for this one, almost everyone on the street is from out of state. We'll investigate and let you know where these trash can miscreants are from, if you care.

Next time footage of Fire Antz-if it stops raining.

Meet the farm

Well, it’s raining down here and has been for the past month. It’s the most rain they’ve had since 1984, or something like that. Needless to say there are no house or farm updates.

So, we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce you to our farm. Pictures can be found here. Our apologies to those of you who have seen these already on Facebook—we’re just trying to bring everyone up to speed. Believe it or not there are some people out there who are not on Facebook…crazy…

The official address is 1819 Mt. Olive Rd, but if you google map it you won’t get the right spot. Here’s where it actually is. The house will be built just east of the clump of trees in the middle. The old well is at the base of the big tree just west of that clump.

The farm is still unnamed. We're searching for inspiration.

Introductions and what's in a name.

Welcome to our blog! When we told people we were moving to Mississippi the first reaction was "huh?" When we followed that up by saying that Phil was going to start a small, sustainable farm the reaction was "you should write a blog.” So, here we are.

The aim of this blog is to keep you, our family and friends, updated on our life and experiences during this adventure. That means it might get kind of boring at times. It also means that we’re going to post whatever we feel like posting. You’ll likely get pictures of the house and farm as they start to take shape, our musings on life in a small southern town, recaps of our athletic adventures, and probably a little complaining too (it is us after all). We hope to post at least once a week, probably more if there are big exciting things happening (like the homecoming parade this weekend!).

Why did we call this blog “Challahs From the Old Well?” If you don’t know what a challah is, use that new-fangled intra-web that you’re on and do the google to it. If you haven’t had Sarah’s mom’s challah, then your life isn’t complete. Challah, pronounced with a deep gurgled h and not like cheese, comes from grain. Grain is grown on farms. On our farm there is an old Civil War-era well. So, this blog is just us, hollering up from our farm every now and then with our insights and reflections and maybe even a little nourishment. So, would a blog by any other name smell as sweet? Probably, but we like this one so we’re stickin’ to it.