A Few Steps Closer

Jun 24

I can’t believe we are already approaching July; what a busy and eventful month it has been!

We kicked June off by witnessing the wedding of Taylor Schaf and Dakota Walck on June 2nd. It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony followed by their wedding reception at our home on June 3rd. What a blessed weekend we had with friends and family members who traveled in from Montana, Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey and Connecticut to help us celebrate the newly weds!

The week following all the festivities we cleaned house, mowed the yard, weeded and watered the gardens, packed our bags, and loaded two trailers; one with supplies and one with motorcycles for our “working vacation” in Tennessee.

Taylor and Dakota rented an RV for the week and headed down with their dogs (Remington & Silo) and one of the trailers in tow. David’s best friend Raymond and his son, Austin, brought their RV down as well. Thank the good Lord we had extra helping hands. Not to mention, the electric and plumbing isn’t hooked up yet, so it was a real treat to have a toilet and shower close by. Far better than shitting in the woods and bathing in the creek!

We brought our four year old Vizsla (Zeus) along with us for this trip. He did quite well considering it’s about a 10-hour ride each way. One smelly puke between two potty breaks on the way down to Tennessee, but the ride back to Pennsylvania was much easier for him!
All of the dogs were well behaved and had a blast playing and exploring the property together.
Zeus only experienced one run-in with the electric fence, and one not-so-pleasant bath in the creek after a roll in cow poop!
Overall,
I think it was a nice bonding experience for the pack. They’re a lot like brothers.

Remington, Silo, and Zeus exploring Poor Valley Creek!

Work was well underway early Sunday morning as the guys pried the old tin roof off of the west facing side of the house and replaced it with new roof and shingles. Despite an afternoon rain delay, they managed to finish the job before supper time.

Meals were superb and mostly cooked on the grill. We had a nice selection of Poor Valley Creek wine (and bourbon), a majestic view, and great company all around the table.
In the evenings, while the sun set behind the mountains and fireflies lit up the field, we made some fond memories playing cornhole, hillbilly horseshoes, quoits, and chatting round’ the fire.

Monday was filled with tedious, time-consuming, angled cuts of 26-gauge tin for the hip roof over the porch.
While the guys worked on the new tin roof, Dakota and I put on our “Darth Vader” masks and scraped the old paint off of the porch ceiling.

Tuesday afforded us a nice break and a bike ride out to Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. At 6,684 feet, it’s peak is the highest point east of the Mississippi River, and the views were spectacular!

On the way home we stopped in Black Mountain, NC, “the little town that rocks”. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner on the patio at Black Mountain Bistro; it’s locally owned, and offers great service, fresh food, local brews, and craft cocktails. A real gem of a place.

We left Poor Valley Creek Vineyard at 8AM, covered 350 miles, and returned just before sunset at 8PM feeling grateful for gorgeous weather and traveling mercies.

Mount Mitchell, NC

Wednesday morning, Dakota and I started painting the porch ceiling while the guys worked on hanging soffit, fascia, and J-channel. By end of day they had begun siding the gable end of the house above the porch roof.

Raymond and Austin headed back to Pennsylvania early Thursday morning.
David and Taylor started the day replacing the old porch posts with new cedar columns and Dakota and I headed into town for a coffee treat at The Kyle.
Instead of cooking on the grill, we splurged and picked up some breakfast to-go at Bull Babies; their sausage gravy and biscuits were a big hit, mmm-mmmmm-good!
The remainder of the afternoon was spent hanging facia around the porch and finishing the rest of the siding.

Friday was our last working day. Two more exterior lights were hung and the PEX for hot and cold water was run throughout the house.
We cleaned up all of the scrap and trash, loaded the tools and bikes, and packed up everything minus what we needed for our last night, kicked off the evening with a champagne toast, and shared a bottle of wine on top of the mountain to take in the views where our future home will sit once we open the winery/tasting room.
Then we headed into town to enjoy some dinner and live music at the Hollywood Hillbilly before calling it a night.

Champagne Toast!

The ride home was eventful (I didn’t mention what occurred earlier in the week). Long story short, the RV rental, Taylor called it “the disaster wagon”, had a few mechanical issues on the ride down to Tennessee. Then, to top the week off, it blew a tire on the ride home!
Taylor and Dakota paid RVshare’s insurance fee to ensure they would receive roadside assistance in case of emergencies like this. That said, RVshare turned out to be incompetent when it came to delivering on their promises!
David and Taylor ended up borrowing some equipment from a Love’s Truck Care and Speedco and changed the tire themselves.
Thankfully, the remainder of the drive went smoothly.

As we head into the month of July, we are counting our blessings! So grateful for traveling mercies this week, for helping hands, for shared memories, and for the accomplished work. While we know the road ahead is long and we have so much more to do, it sure is a pleasure to look back at how far we have come!

Until next time…