Introducing Melissa...

This is Terri - part of the other half of Thistledew farm. As you've probably read, Melissa and I are married to brothers, and we all share one small farm. I have (jokingly) named my house Clay Hill, because we haven't finished all the landscaping and the back deck looks right smack into the middle of a mound of clay. This is what happens when you decide to quit working and go back to school - there's never enough money or time for anything! Still, we're very fortunate to have what we have and to be able to raise so much of our own food.

But, I digress - my purpose in posting here tonight was to give you an insider's view of Melissa. I remember my trepidation when my husband announced that we were going to visit his brother, whose wife was a Marine. Now, my husband's family has a strong history of serving in the Marines, but a female Marine? I am ashamed to tell you what I had pictured in my head.

So, we made the long trek to Northern Idaho, to the home of my in-laws, and the woman who answered the door was really pretty, and charming, and nothing at all like what I had pictured. She had prepared some wonderful little appetizers and we visited as she worked on some cross-stitching. Not quite what I had pictured!

It wasn't long after we met that I started nursing school, and Melissa would occasionally kidnap me from my studies and we'd go visit a tea house, or a bookstore, or just go for a hike. I didn't know how much I needed the break, but she did, and she is probably what saved my sanity during that time!

Some time later, when I decided that perhaps the Army would be a good place to start my nursing career, Melissa taught me how to run two miles, how to do a proper push-up, how to spit-shine boots and how to handle being a female in a very male world. In the meantime, she taught me to crochet, to cross-stitch, and to make killer chocolate-chip cookies (although I always make mine darker than she likes!).

If you took Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart and Laura Bush and rolled them into one person, you'd almost have Melissa, but you'd have to add an extra dollop of common sense and a great sense of fun and adventure to the mix to make her really complete. So, I would encourage all of you to follow Melissa in her latest adventure - building a house with her husband and her adorable daughter in the foothills of East Tennessee. She'll post about the house, but she'll also post about the farm, about her fiber arts, about self-reliance and about our crazy adventures, because between the two of us we come up with some truly crazy ideas and almost always manage to bring them to fruition! I'll chime in occasionally to give my perspective, but for the most part, this is Melissa's home on the web. Come on in, sit for awhile. Have a cup of tea. Welcome to Thistledew Farm!

Terri