The house has been a five year project, a little at a time:
gathering rock to build a massive fireplace in the center of the house;
cutting trees and skinning them by hand to make the beams and posts; getting
boards from the sawmill to build our walls; setting up a battery bank
and generator system to make our electricity off the grid; running a pipeline
from a natural spring 1600 feet above the house to a holding tank for fresh
water. We are still today adding and finishing our
home. Home it is: the home of our dreams.
Our greatest challenge and eye opener came
three years after we bought the property. The company who
owned the timber rights to our 600 acres of mountain arrived to exercise
their rights. Their logging methods were not good. After about 30 acres had been
devastated, we had to make a decision. We couldn’t sit and watch our
mountain be destroyed by people who didn’t care how it looked after they had
made their money and were gone forever, leaving our dream in shambles.
Gregg decided to become a master logger and
learn directional felling, a method of cutting and skidding timber that
preserves the small trees and integrity of the forest floor cover. We took
on the task of finishing the logging, our way, without destroying everything
else. From 1997 until 2001 we logged Alum Cove by ourselves. We have
harvested the useful timber without destroying everything else. Our
methods generated yields beyond the estimates of the original cruise.
Everybody ended up happy. Alum Cove is still beautiful and the paper
company got even more wood than they had estimated.
It CAN be done, and we proved it. During the last year of logging
Alum Cove, we decided it was time to start training a logging crew to use
directional felling techniques. We now have a trained and experienced crew
of four who have moved on to other places and continue this environmentally
friendly
way of logging. When you come to visit Alum Cove, you will be surprised
how good logging practices can harvest needed timber while preserving the
rest of the ecosystem. When man cooperates with Nature, all can
benefit.
We set up a commercial greenhouse to
raise organic herbs and vegetable plants. We leased a garden center in town,
and sold plants for a year, but both projects were taking us away from home
most of the time. This isn’t what we wanted.
How could we continue living this life we
worked so hard to build and help teach others what
we have learned and lived for the past nine years? The vision of
connecting youth with nature was born and for the Alum Cove Wilderness
Center. With the help The Tennessee Land Trust, Alum Cove will be
preserved as a natural area forever through a conservation easement.
We are developing a place to teach today's youth how to live WITH the land,
and provide a place for families to come and be together as a family, to
hike, camp, or enjoy any other outdoor experience that interests them.
We have peace of mind knowing that when our
days on Earth are done, we will leave behind a legacy of wilderness for
future generations to enjoy as we have. Alum Cove is your place.
We look forward to sharing this beautiful mountain and our vision for
helping the young people of today to create many sustainable tomorrows.
Some interesting things about Gregg:
- Regional Champion at
"The Game of
Logging" three out of the four years he competed. Has competed
at the Nationals three times.
- A self-taught stone mason and carpenter.
Has done stone masonry for the University of the South and St. Andrews
Academy in Sewanee
- An expert directional felling logger
- Avid and experienced hunter
- A modern day woodsman, experienced in
wildlife and plant identification and outdoor safety
- Would rather be outdoors than anywhere
else
Some interesting things about Roxanne:
- A self-retired nurse who specializes
in holistic medicine
- Experienced in animal husbandry -
raises dairy goats, turkeys, geese, ducks, chickens and rabbits and is
learning about wild game husbandry as part of the Alum Cove project
- An organic gardener, experienced in
produce and herbs
- An experienced woodswoman
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