We spent this weekend on the road – taking a quick trip to see my grandmother and then staying with some dear friends at their timber frame house in Pennsylvania. As we drove the quiet roads, we pointed out house after house – barn after barn – farmstead after farmstead – reminding each other of what we loved most. 
Big fields, houses surrounded by land, barns built for beauty and use.
There’s nothing like a road trip to help me dream and to define. We determined that we really like the board-and-batten siding that we’ve used on the outbuildings so far, and we may choose that as the siding for the barn, too, leaving it natural to weather off gray with year.
We appreciate the way that farmsteads are nestled against hills and tucked into hollows. While we’ll be building on the top a ridge line, we’re hoping to give it the sense of security and closeness that these houses had.
I studied clothes lines and looked at how the Amish farms positioned every outbuilding with the doors facing inward, as if each structure is speaking into the center of what that places means and breathes.
Evening is descending here at the edge of the Blue Ridge, and we are road-weary. But happy to be in the place we’ve claimed as home – ready to build and dream, carrying all the places we see with us . . . to share with you.
Come visit soon, and if you’re free, we’d love to see you at our Spring Bash on April 19th.
If you’d like to help make the dreams of our farm come true, please visit our Etsy store to see if we might have a handmade item that you’d like or that you might give to someone you love.