January 24, 2026 in the wee hours of the morning, it began to snow. It pretty much snowed all day then turned to sleet and ended with freezing rain. Upwards of half an inch of ice covered the ground AND the trees in its frozen grip. Thousands of limbs succumbed to the weight of the ice and many trees had the tops snapped out of them.
We were safe and warm in our Hendersonville, TN home while many areas around us were without power. Then the temperatures dropped. You see, usually in Tennessee, and many places in the South, you will see a big storm followed by seasonable temperatures in the upper 40s. So the snow and ice doesn’t usually stick around too long. This time was different.
We wondered about the fate of Patriot’s Rest. How much snow fell on our little cabin in the woods? Did we lose trees? Did we have frozen pipes? Were the solar panels okay? Were there any damages to the house that is still very much under construction? So many questions. Fortunately one of the neighbors was able to get over there and sent us a report.
His message started with, “you’ve got a lot of clean up to do”. With a picture of trees down across the driveway.
So exactly one week later, we headed down to the property to assess the damages. All the main roads were clear by this time but being very rural, the back roads are still quite icy. But we safely made our way down early and arrived to start our cleanup efforts. We had to pull out the chainsaw to get the F350 fully out of the road into the driveway.
Tim had actually prepped well for this storm. He blew out the water lines and added some extra batts of insulation to the water shed. He also completely shut down the solar array, charge controller, and all the things electrical. He added some insulation board to the windows of the cabin and shut up everything on the house before coming home to be with Betty and me during the storm.
So we left the truck at the end of the drive and hiked in, just in awe of all the pines that had snapped and fell, some onto the drive, even more onto other trees in the woods. We got to the cabin and were astonished that structurally there was no damage.
This branch didn’t even rip the window screen.
Tim went to start the generator while I built a fire in the wood stove. He also started the tractor to get it warmed up. He used the tractor to push many of the downed trees off to the side of the driveway. Then we started cutting the one that fell towards/on the cabin. It’s pine so we’ll probably use the trunk sections to add to the log wall across the front of the property. One day we’ll get back to that project.
Well, we’ve had one of the coldest stretches in many years. Over 84 hours below freezing, with lows in the single digits for three consecutive nights. Being that cold for that long has different challenges when you are off-grid. While we had a few issues, we will give thanks to God the Father for the blessings He has provided.
First there are battery considerations. The cold can drain batteries down quickly. We ran the generator a part of every day to ensure the battery bank stayed fully charged.
Then there is the plumbing. We worked diligently to insulate the pipes and water fixtures, but we didn’t imagine the 500 gallon tank would freeze. While it didn’t freeze solid, the ice was several inches thick inside the tank. So we surrounded it with burn barrels and kept fires going until it thawed. After thawing, we went to the co-op to get straw bales to provide insulation for the tank.
Unfortunately, some damage was done to the pump through that whole process, lessons learned. We will be upgrading our water solutions, and replacing the pump as well as moving it to a more sheltered location.
1600 gallon water tank
We will be adding this 1600 gallon storage tank to the existing 1550 gallon tank that is in the watershed. Then move the 500 gallon tank from the side of the cabin into the watershed as well. Trenches will be dug and water lines will be buried.
We also worked on the firewood supply for next winter. Tim got about half of it split and we stacked it in the old woodshed. There is still a LOT of wood to split.
Being off-grid means freedom, self sufficiency means freedom. Freedom means a lot of hard work.
Yes we had damages, nothing like it could have been, tank had many blessings starting with the cost – story, thankful we had the generator and it started in such cold weather, found parts to fix existing issues and make it better….may be more I overlooked but God has watched over and protected us and given us so much to be thankful for despite the bumps in the road.
We made an enormus amount of progress over the summer and fall. We are now 90% complete and have started sleeping in the cabin when we are down there working on it.
At the end up April 2022, we upgraded the trailer to match the capacity of the F350. This will facilitate hauling larger logs for sure.
In May, we got windows installed, 99% of roof completed, installed cedar on ceiling of porch and deck, hung lights round the barn. We also upgraded the backstop on our firing range by using cutoffs from the sawmill. We also repurposed part of a metal shipping crate to hang a gong.
In June, we finally milled a couple of the logs we harvested in April. Turns out it was wild cherry. Very beautiful, smooth grain. These made some beautiful slabs, one of which will become a kitchen counter in the cabin. The saw mill went down during this operation. One of the standard blade guides had a bearing go out. Luckily we had the ceramic upgrade kit. We also stained the outside of the cabin a light gray, trying to get as close to old barn wood as we could.
During June-August we also got the front door framed out. We milled a poplar log that was down for about 18 months, this will be used to build the doors. It took through the month of July into early August to get them built out, hinges mounted, door knobs installed then hung on the frames. These are heavy doors and we had to use 16 inch barn door hinges with bolt on pivot. Back door is solid poplar, front door is poplar panel with walnut cross pieces. I thing sycle has gone above and beyond in creating beautiful doors to secure our little cabin in the woods. We also started installing the insulation and cedar ceiling in the cabin. It is slow going, this is not cedar that we milled, we purchased 1/4 inh tongue and groove and it is not easy to work with, very fragile.
September saw challenges in installing the wood flooring. Our order was shorted by two boxes so we had to be very careful and strategic with our cuts and placement. And just before we got to the halfway point, our 20 year old flooring stapler bit the dust. We lost 2 hours of work while we went in search of a replacement. Due to the remoteness of our property, it takes forever to make a trip “into town”. When we returned to finish the job, we found that a copperhead had taken up residence in the cabin, no telling actually how long he had been hidden there. But I’m sure he made a good dinner for the local possum when we tossed his broken carcus into the woods. We also purchased a woodstove for our heating source. Yay! no more kerosene. September was also a month of clean up, collecting oak and hickory from trees that were either dead or knocked over by storms. “Free” fireword is very labor intensive. Betty helped with so many projects at the farm as well. In just two 10 hour days, she and sycle accomplished so much: firewood gathered and split, kindling cut from scraps, shoe mold in cabin, weed eating, purchased a mattress and boxspring (YAY no more cots), covered spaire trailer tire to protect from dry rot, measurements for curtains. I’m sure I’m leaving somrthing off the list. Most weekends in September had some form of firewood work, gathering, splitting, stacking, etc. Not sure we’ll have enough for the winter. Not even sure we’ll have enough for deer season…
Wiring work and caulking began in October. Because the logs are flat stacked, there really aren’t large spaces that would require chinking but we do have small gaps that require caulk. October was also the beginning of Krav Maga Black Belt Bootcamp for sycle. This greatly limited his time at the farm through mid-December when he did earn his Black Belt, First Degree. So getting to the farm early Saturdays and working through the day, returning home early Sunday morning made for some exhausting weekends. This also cut into our deer hunting, but that is okay as the black belt was a priority. We got three circuits run in the cabin, wall plugs, ceiling lights, gfi for back porch. Nice progress but we also said farewell to our old girl Shadow and laid her to rest next to her brothr Hiro. We continued to split wood, pine scraps for the firepit, hardwoods for the woodstove. And the lights in the barn started acting like they have a connection loose. We killed the breaker and will have to troubleshoot at a later date.
November was about cleanup and organization. We needed to get the generator into the barn but it was so cluttered that we needed to cleanup first. We moved the wood stove into the cabin, staging it for install. Installed some shelving in the barn and picked up everything off the floor and organized it. We did manage to get a hunt in the weekend after Thanksgiving. In 3 days hunting we saw no whitetail, which is odd, but with clear nights and an opening day that sounded like the 4th of July, it was not surprising. We got the generator moved, that was a feat as it was tight quarters for the tractor with very little room for error. It took a bit but we got it patched into the soloar unit. We didn’t get the 2-wire auto start set up we have time. We were able to test it through and the inverter chargers work well. We also got a refrigerator for the cabin.
And we’re up to January. Between Black Belt and Christmas, not much was accomplished at the farm. We got the oak planed out for the window trim. The big windows are now wrapped in red oak and we built a sheft to start reducing clutter in the cabin. Finished install on the wood stove, works great! We have built a kitchen counter from some of the wild cherry slabs and planks. Also refilled the kindling bin.
That pretty much catches us up. I know I need to be better at updates but life is busy.
City Girl on the Farm 