Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Mid-Atlantic Roll Call, 1 by Hineni

Hineni wrote:
Just dropping in to introduce myself - two days before I officially 'belong' here :)

Name: Sunny

Location: Damascus, VA (as of 6/13)

Family: Joseph, three daughters (1 - College, Lynchburg VA, 1- getting married Jan 09 (in FL), 1- Junior in HS in 09 (in FL))
My Jack Russell, and an old blind, deaf, lazy bladder challenged outdoor cat; we are inheriting a rescue draft horse and Vietnamese pot-bellied pig with farm

Employment: Remote worker for the telco industry, Project Management

Gardening Level: 2nd year neophyte and lovin' it!

Gardening Focus: Sustainability - self-sufficiecy - growing our food and our livestock's food

Dreams and aspirations:

Goats, rabbits (for fertilizer), Chickens, Cow/calf pair (hoping for a Galloway)

Projects on the horizon:
Moving
Amending the soil
Grading driveway
Developing the springhead
Fence repair/upgrade
Chicken coop
Summer kitchen
Outdoor bread oven
Root cellar
Wind/Hydro/Solar power composite system

Bringing with us from GA:
Eight blooming blueberries
Red Raspberries
Blackberries
Half of my garden that survived the recent tornado on 5/21
Seedlings from a fellow GA DGer
Forsythia - gift from a fellow KY DGer
Raw Milk
And as many of my other plants as I can stuff in the multiple trips we'll be making!

Our goal is to be a self-sufficient as possible, but we are extreme newbies to this line of thinking. Been dreaming of it since 2005 and only are now beginning to see our way to implementing what I've gleaned from scads of books. Oh, I am a biblioholic - I LOVE books, the older the better. My stronger half is a city boy with great gardening intuition and a very adept handyman.

I am a tad sad to leave the soil where I learned to struggle over slugs and cabbageworms, but ectstatic to be gaining acreage, and I think that is even a mild word for what I feel :) We will be living in a remodeled 1930's farmhouse, saltbox style. We have various sized barns in differing stages of delapidation :) We will first lay eyes on our new home on Friday, as we accepted this position strictly via E-mail and telephone discussions. Can you say ADVENTURE? LOL!

I look forward to gleaning knowledge of the area regarding soil, climate and general 'HELP' topics as we proceed down this exciting and challenging life road.

Nice to meet ya....~Sunny