Welcome to Thistledew Farm

To acquaint you with our site will take some imagination on your part - which is apropos because that is the only thing that holds this farm together. Well that's not exactly true - there is a lot of hope, some prayers, those salty trails in front of your ears that sweat leaves and the glue in the corner of your eyes from a good cry. That is really what Thistledew is all about.

The name came about because of the hopes and dreams that we'd one day have a "gentleman's" farm but really run by girls (which is really the way of things isn't it?....behind every good man is an awesome woman). So we started out with 16 or so unkempt acres at the base of a clay foot hill with a creek running through it.

There are two families on the farm; Ron and Terri who have three sons (more about them later) and Dan and Melissa who have one daughter - who believes she is a princess. Ron and Dan are brothers which makes Melissa and Terri much more than sisters.

I am Melissa. Terri will blog on this site also. She is an amazing woman who is balancing going to UT to be a Nurse Anesthetist, managing a household, raising three boys (and a husband), killing naughty roosters for supper, raising a garden, and saving the world from stupidity. This is not easy, I can tell you that! There are a lot of naughty roosters in this world and if they knew how good they had it, they'd straighten up - but this is a hard lesson to learn. The majority of naughty roosters do not learn the lesson until a fraction of a second after the axe falls and they are running around with their head cut off. This is much to late to be committed to change!

Anyway this portion of the blog will be dedicated to the House that Lowe's built. It is dedicated to Lowe's because without them, there would be no house! We practically live there, my daughter will probably have one of those brass plaques on a cart dedicated to her name . We generally go to the one in Alcoa, Tennessee, they know my husband by name! But we have been known to travel within a 50 mile radius to pick up items absolutely necessary prior to tomorrow morning or something dreadful will happen like the house would fall apart! Which as you will hear later, actually did happen. So if my husband says at 8:58 p.m. that he needs to go to Lowe's for some obscure doogamaflopper, I no longer even bat an eye. My standard response now is "Yes Dear, what ever you think is best." For those who have built a house with your spouse, you know that you must undergo great tribulations and plagues prior to reaching this point.

If you are interested in reducing your reliance on others by becoming self-sustaining especially of food and basic necessities, herbs, recycling, going green, crafts, building a house, horseback riding, nursing, fairies, books, butterflies, princesses, hiking, yoga, drinking wine (and then doing all of the above)... then this is the place for you.