When we first started day dreaming about landscaping ideas for the new property, Houzz was one of the first places we turned to. Whenever I had a free moment I would scroll though landscaping images just for inspiration. One afternoon an image particularly captured my attention. I went to the profile of Elements Landscape because I wanted to see more of this work that I especially liked. I loved everything I saw! Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Elements Landscape was local to our area. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that the company also specializes in professional renderings of landscape plans (something we would need for HOA approval). It wasn’t long before we contacted Doug Bork of Elements Landscape to see what he could design for our property.
Doug was extremely personable, prompt, and thorough. For a summary of his qualifications click HERE. He took his time in understanding all of our wants and needs. Then he expertly crafted a master plan to accommodate them all. He included our requested plants along with suggestions of his own. He also kept in mind that our budget will likely require us to implement our design in stages. He ultimately designed an aesthetically pleasing plan while also considering our “homesteading” demands. We couldn’t be happier with the results! Continue reading Our Landscape Architect – Doug Bork with Elements Landscape LLC→
Our Saturday morning classes at Lady Slipper Rare Plant Nursery have been quite a joy, and this last Saturday was no exception! In the latest class we were privileged to learn from the owner of Merrilily Gardens. Merrilily Gardens is a local business that specializes in over 350 varieties of day lilies. The owner of Merrilily Gardens, Merrily McLaughlin (yes, you read that right), was especially helpful in explaining how to propagate daylilies. This is an inexpensive way to get your landscaping dollars to go further. Furthermore, splitting your day lilies is actually good for the plant. It is advantageous even if you do not want more day lilies (You can always give the cuttings to friends and family to share the pleasure of these beautiful plants). Continue reading Merrilily Gardens→
This Early Harvest Salad was a perfect addition to our Mother’s Day celebration. There’s nothing like eating a freshly picked salad 10 minutes after it was growing in the soil! This salad was kindly harvested from the garden by Anthony for an extra special Mother’s Day treat. Sometimes the best salads are the ones where you head to the garden and collect a little of this and a little of that – whatever looks fresh and appetizing. Such was the case with this salad. Continue reading Early Harvest Salad→
This Beet Juice Cocktail is surprisingly addictive. A Vitamix blender is all you need to be minutes away from a refreshing, nutrient-dense libation. Using fresh, organic ingredients is paramount to creating the healthiest version of this recipe. Also, the salt is a key ingredient. Do not omit it unless you must. It takes the whole experience from being merely palatable to absolutely delicious! When you are finished creating your cocktail, don’t discard the pulp. Instead, use it to make Beet Crisps in your dehydrator. Continue reading Beet Juice Cocktail→
These beet crisps are infinitely superior to the commonplace chips you find in the supermarket snack aisles. Packed with nutrition and fiber, these crisps have no evil ingredients to spoil the fun! Who needs MSG and preservatives when you have a chip with the depth of flavor that these have? This recipe starts with the pulp left over from the Beet Juice Cocktail recipe. Just a couple of minutes of effort followed by an overnight stay in the dehydrator, and you will be gnoshing these tasty snacks down. Try them out on your friends at your next get-together! Continue reading Beet Crisps→
I know there are no perfect people. One of the frustrating things about blogging is that there is a tendency to present yourself and your life in such a way that if people didn’t know better they would think you were living the perfect life. Our blog is no different. We celebrate the exciting events in our life and share interesting and educational posts, but the pictures and stories are usually edited so every imperfection is wiped away.
When I decided to draft this post as part of my Mother’s Day gift to my wife, I wanted to start by clarifying that our life is messy. We have 6 kids ranging in age from 5 months to 17 years. I have a demanding job that frequently has me traveling most of the week. We home school all six children. We have bills. We have moods. There are diapers to change and teenagers with attitudes. We get irritable. We are almost always tired. We have unfulfilled goals. We struggle with allergies, headaches, and illness. We sometimes resort to junk food even though we know better. Our house is in a roller coaster state of clean and dirty. The laundry piles up. The lawn needs mowing. The eight of us frequently let each other down. We lose our tempers. We fight. We are selfish. We drive each other nuts. Our life was not always this “messy” though. Continue reading Today’s Proverbs 31 Woman – A Mother’s Day Tribute→
A couple of weeks ago we wrote a post about a class we attended at Ladyslipper Rare Plant Nursery taught by Farmer’s Organic. Yesterday we had the privilege to attend another class, this time led by the renowned Hans Rueffert. Hans is the chef and owner of Woodbridge Inn in Jasper, GA. Hans comes with a list of credentials including appearing on Next Food Network Star, CNN, and The Doctors. The biggest reason this chef has my ear, however, is his triumph over aggressive cancer. This man was given a 2% chance of survival and was told on several occasions that he would not live beyond 24 more hours. Hans emphasizes food quality above food quantity and approaches his meals with a different twist on carpe diem – “Eat like there’s no tomorrow.” Something to think about! Continue reading Ladyslipper Saturday Morning Class – Hans Rueffert→
As we mentioned in our last post, we decided to start over from scratch with a new house design. There are lots of elements in the new plan that are similar to our old plan but, at the same time, it is truly a completely different layout. We owe a big thanks for this new design to Josh Hardy with CADD Drafting Services! We are so excited about the new layout and hope you like it too. As always, your comments and feedback are appreciated. We haven’t broken ground yet so there is still time to make corrections if you see something that you think we may have overlooked. Continue reading Final Elevations and Floor Plans (New Design)→
When we decided to start over from scratch with a new house design we were torn between which designer to hire. We ultimately decided to go with the designer our builder recommended – Josh Hardy, the owner of CADD Drafting Services. We reached out to Josh in early March. He had reservations about taking on our project as he was extremely busy at the time. He warned that he wouldn’t be able to start for a couple weeks but he also said that once he started he would able to complete the house in just a couple weeks. We were impressed with the example house he showed us that he designed in Buckhead and felt comfortable with the timeline so we agreed to move forward with him as our designer. Continue reading Our New Designer – Josh Hardy (CADD Drafting Services)→
For those of you that have been following the progress of our new home construction project on the “Building Our Dream” site, you have probably noticed that there has been a long pause since our last post. We have not broken ground on our home yet, but we were extremely close several months ago. We had finished our final plans and were trying to finish up the package for the HOA approval when we started questioning the direction we were heading and the house we were about to build. There were really three things that triggered us to re-assess going forward:
Our plan did not take the best advantage of the incredible backyard mountain views. Feedback from professionals and friends/family suggested that a backyard-centric floor plan would be more ideal for the property we have chosen.
“Sometimes youhave to know when you don’t know and then be wise and humble enough to ask those who do know“. This is a paraphrase of a principle preached by our pastor, Andy Stanley. Common feedback was that while our house was unique, it may be difficult to sell in the future (if that should ever be necessary). A more conventional layout was suggested by several sources. It seemed prudent to give weight to the opinions of those who know a lot more about building houses than we do!
Couldn’t justify the total cost. In the whole scheme of things, we want less of our money going to a house and more of our resources going to what we esteem most important in life – God, family, and friends. The final price tag was more than we felt was wise to spend on a house. Andy Stanley influenced our thinking with his sermon “The Best Question Ever“. In light of our past experiences, our current circumstances, and our future hopes and dreams…we did not want all of our money going to a house. Thanks, Andy, for reminding us of our priorities at just the right time!
Doug was extremely personable, prompt, and thorough. For a summary of his qualifications click HERE. He took his time in understanding all of our wants and needs. Then he expertly crafted a master plan to accommodate them all. He included our requested plants along with suggestions of his own. He also kept in mind that our budget will likely require us to implement our design in stages. He ultimately designed an aesthetically pleasing plan while also considering our “homesteading” demands. We couldn’t be happier with the results! Continue reading Our Landscape Architect – Doug Bork with Elements Landscape LLC 
is all you need to be minutes away from a refreshing, nutrient-dense libation. Using fresh, organic ingredients is paramount to creating the healthiest version of this recipe. Also, the salt is a key ingredient. Do not omit it unless you must. It takes the whole experience from being merely palatable to absolutely delicious! When you are finished creating your cocktail, don’t discard the pulp. Instead, use it to make 
