Greetings from Triple R Oasis!
It's hard to believe we've been official residents of our little holler in Green Mountain, North Carolina for nearly 10 months! Even harder to believe it's taken me this long to update you on our progress. But, as we are discovering, things always seem to take a little (okay, sometimes a lot) longer than we planned.
Hmmmm..... Where to start. I think I'll start at the beginning- for those who might not know the story.
We started out with an idea. We wanted to find a way to turn favorite things into our careers- our lifestyles, really. These things include our love of connecting with others, finding adventure and peace in nature, pursuing art and craft in various forms, and living in a more sustainable manner. After a long search, we found and purchased the perfect (for us) 30 acres in the mountains of western North Carolina in January 2016. Here, we decided, we would build our RETREAT.
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| The "front" of the house (as pictured online when we found it). |
Here's a shot from above the house, looking down the valley. Can you see why we like it?
The next year and a half were spent in Florida plotting, planning, and visiting our home away from home as much as possible.
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| Views like this one pop up in several spots around the property. |
Each visit found us hiking, clearing, and-yes, plotting some more. Where would our "BUILDING" be? We wanted space to gather for weddings, reunions, art classes, yoga classes... Anything that brought people a more meaningful connection and/or growth.
I can't tell you how many times we stopped, gasped, pointed, and said... "This is THE spot," only to find another dazzler moments later.
Finally, the summer of 2017 arrived- the move could begin. We 4 Shimers started first, arriving July 1st- with lots of help from the McLeods, who followed at the end of August. The Shimers started getting settled at school and into a work routine. Once we were unpacked and school started, Rick focused on making adjustments to the house and closer acreage. A wood shop was built beside the house as a project home base and storage facility.
By mid Fall we'd contacted a landscape architect, Joel. We wanted his help shaping our vision into the curves and valleys of the land. We knew we wanted a large main building, roads, tiny homes, tiny earthships, and an earthship for the Shimers all planned (to be built in phases, of course). We just wanted to be sure they were fit in harmony with the natural landscape as much as possible.
Joel's interpretation of our vision astounded us. It felt like a theme park map. This gave us an astounding point of reference to share with the myriad of contractors, excavators, county officials and other countless professionals we'd encounter trying to see this project through. Energy ran high as we pored over several maps- some showing the seasonal path of the sun, others the elevation changes, and, of course the theme park map.
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| Giddy with excitement photographer leads to blurry photos |
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The "Disney" Map
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Armed with our maps, more meetings with officials and companies were scheduled held. Decisions about clearing hills were made, and Rick and Barry got to work. These spaces they felt safe working on their own. It felt good to be working toward progress on the plan.
I had no idea how much was involved before the first road could be cleared. And then. It was suddenly winter. And the intermittent snow began. Those who told us we'd only get a couple good snows.... Lied. And forgot about the "little" snows that would show up just to slow down progress. Luckily, we enjoyed our snow days and soaked it up like the good snow amateurs we are.
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| We never ran out of new hills to try |
While the snow was a lot of fun, our winter wonderland has definitely slowed down progress. First, it delayed meetings with officials to determine road requirements and if we could put in septics where we wanted them. Nothing major could start without these decisions.
Finally, by the beginning of February, we had hired an excavator and could get started on (20 foot wide) roads and septic in earnest. With a target of early May completion, we were ready.
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| Equipment starts to arrive |
And then more snow and rain visited. Excessive mud, slush, and water kept our work crews away. Slowly....Oh so slowly.... Wider roads started up the hill.
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| Hiking up to check out progress |
Trees (sadly) came down. Enormous rocks were shifted. The pad for the main building began to emerge.
This area was once a steep incline full of trees. Suddenly, there was major equipment up there. Slowly (around the rain/snow) more and more gave way to the platform we need.
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| The view was getting clearer by the work day. |
A good weather week led to more progress than we'd seen in a few weeks. The pad was done. The view, incredible.
Yeah. This view was worth the wait. I can already imagine sitting up here in the building with amazing people. Celebrating. Connecting.
Work has now moved on to continuing the road widening/clearing. The path now goes in front of the house, headed south for our eventually tiny home rental village, forest bathing area and natural pool.
Sadly, more rain this week has slowed the progress again. But I'm learning. Once this mud dries up enough for the crew to get in there, paths will appear as if by magic. And I'll be back here.... Ready to update you with pics and stories.
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