the greenbrier estate

(inspiration only, so far)

I'm going to end up combining both of these barn styles in the end, but it's at least a start for what we'll need. We'll never have more than 2 horses so I'd originally wanted to keep the footprint small, but the  more I've thought it through, and gotten the advice of others, we've decided to build a 36'x36', giving us 4 12'x12' stalls, a wash rack, and a feed/tack room. This means I can use the other two stalls as hay storage in the winter, and always have the room to park a 4wheeler when we get one.

I'd like to wait a good while before pulling the trigger on this, just so we can at least see what our potential build sites look like in different seasons... the last thing I want is to build in a spot that stays muddy 6 months a year!

At the moment, the shaded regions on the map will be pastures 1 (2 acres) and 2 (1 acre). Phase 1 is fencing in and pasturing these two areas, with phase 2 being fencing in the acreage below pasture 1.
Later on, I plan to excavate a
track all the way down to the
creek and alongside it, then
all the way around the 
property to pasture 2, with it
looping by the vineyard and 
reconnecting with pasture 1.

The property already had nearly 2 acres of pasture (thank God, that gives me time to establish the rest while the horses trash this one). We spent the majority of this first year of ownership current step is opening up an additional acre (pushing that tree line back), installing the feature fencing along the road, and creating pasture out of what was woods. We've already seeded orchard/rye/bluegrass and crabgrass, so we're well on our way! I plan to overseed in the Fall and Spring until everything looks dense & lush, and when we bring Sterling home, we'll rotate pastures each week.

What a journey this step has been already!

In October & November, we cleared the build pad for this project and bought the blueprints. This will be a 2 story, 2 bedroom/2 bath house situated towards the front of our property.

I'm so excited that eventually, I'll be able to move my little cottage industry business into this cottage, and it can also go by another name, 'home', if we need it to while we're building our dream home. Living onsite will help us keep a close eye on our forever-home build, as well as cut costs.

We've already got our builder lined up for this. Summertown Metals has been infinitely wonderful to work with so far, and I'm excited for us to break ground in September 2024 and hopefully be in by New Year's.

I've wanted to grow fruit trees since forever, and now that we have enough space to do whatever we want, we are in fact doing whatever we want. TN Nursery sent us 2 pink lady apple trees, 2 Methley plum trees, 2 peach trees, and 2 moonglow pear trees.

But first, I had to battle with the thickest part of the overgrowth on the entire property - the part right next to the pasture. Putting our little orchard here ensures it won't be in the way later on, since there's a driveway going in right next to it, and a little ravine cutting down the middle of it.  

After fighting with so many blackberry briars and catsclaw, along an abundance of oak trees, we finally gained a clear open space to lime and plant (aside from some tiny brush here & there). It feels silly that opening up these two little areas took more time than clearing an entire acre in the northeast corner, but, here we are.

We had a soil test done and amended our soil, installed our fencing, and planted our sweet little dormant trees. We put the pear and apple trees on this side of the ravine, and the stone fruit trees on the other side (just beyond that little fringe of trees).

So far, this growth has been very slow, but aside from one pear only producing suckers, all of these trees have taken! I'm ok with very little growth, since these trees usually sleep for their first year, but it was important to us to simply get them in the ground, and move on to making progress in other areas while they do their thing.

In February, we planted 8 grape vines! Grow Organic provided us 4 merlot grape vines, 2 pinot noir, and 2 seedless white table grape vines. We get to grow a vineyard. That sounds absolutely ridiculous to say, but hey, we are very extra people.

There's a bit of an ongoing joke though about what exactly we're growing... see, Natalyn (my assistant) 'helped' us organize the vines by putting them on different 'sides' of a round bucket, therefore, we really don't know which vine is which, or which ones were planted where 🤣 

After liming in the winter, I planted these vines in 2 rows along the edge of the same ravine the orchard is staggered between - that way they get natural water rolling downhill, and, they'll be pretty to look at out the cottage's kitchen window.

*Trust the process*

Our vines haven't made much progress this year thanks to the deer, but again, I'm just glad we got them started. The way I see it, is each time they get nibbled, the roots get stronger, and in the long run, we'll have eight super strong vines off to a solid start for next year, when we'll be on the property 24/7 and able to keep the deer away better.

Since then, I've also planted 3 David Austin rosebushes and 4 chinese snowballs. All the rosebushes took, but it seems none of the snowballs felt our ground was good enough for 'em. Oh well! I've been pretty resolute that I will not baby a single plant on this property- not even the rose bushes!

I want our plants to grow super deep roots and although all the advice says water light & frequently, I've ready that this doesn't create deep healthy root growth long term, so I've allowed some things to suffer for the sake of long term hardiness.

october 2023

january 2024

August 2024

november 2023

June 2024

August 2024