Post #2: Climbing and Turtle Island

My girl not lovin' Sweet and Low.

Mmm, horse manure (and Mike from Idaho).

Our home on Turtle Island. A simple and efficient structure with two beds, a desk, and a wood stove.

We put the roof on the lower portion of this barn.

This is the horse drawn mower with some of the Turtle Island horses in the background.

Car camping off the Blue Ridge.

Climbing at Table Rock, in Linville Gorge, NC.

Winston after the first pitch of "Boardwalk" (5.8) at Shiprock, NC.

Check out those handmade shingles!

Thursday May 15th:

"The first full day of work is done on Turtle Island. It was a long day. Started at seven a.m. and ended with supper at eight p.m. We put the whole roof on a barn/carriage house and did a number of other random jobs. There are chores to be done both morning and evening that include moving the goats, feeding the animals, letting the horses to pasture and mucking the horse stalls."

We spent the first part of this week camping and climbing up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It felt great to get back on some rock. The first route we climbed (my first route since last May) was super exposed and sent adrenaline pumping through my body. For a few seconds I wondered why I even liked climbing. Once I pulled through the crux roof and stood on the top all those thoughts got swept away and I couldn't wait to do the next route.

The latter part of the week was spent transported back into the 1800's at Turtle Island Preserve. Working from sun-up to sun-down, cutting firewood, roofing a barn, and shoveling thousands of pounds of horse manure. It was an inspiring experience to work beside Eustace Conway, the "modern Daniel Boone" and also a really solid guy from Idaho named Mike Preston.

Made it to Kentucky this morning where I will be working for the next couple of weeks before heading to Alaska on June 3rd.

Experiences make life rich. People make life rich. You make my life rich. Thanks for caring enough to read this.

Much Love,
Eric T.

Post #1: Turtle Island Preserve

So, I'm gonna try and keep everyone posted with where I am at and what is going on with this thing. We've been on the road for about 5 days now. Here is what I wrote in my journal last night:

"Well, right now I am at Turtle Island Preserve, the 1000 acre spread of Mr. Eustace Conway himself. Winston called today to see if we could come out. They called back a couple hours later and said it was cool, but be ready to work. We finally made it after about six turns on backcountry roads southeast of Boone, NC. You can't drive onto the land, you have to park and walk up. We crossed a covered bridge over a little mountain creek, walked through some woods, then started to see rustic wooden buildings with homemade shingles pop up. Some guys were working on a barn nearby so we walked over that way. A man put his hammer down and introduced himself to us as Eustace in a very soft, slow, Appalachian accent. His hair was in long, grey, Willy Nelson braids, and he was wearing dirty jeans, an old flannel, and a toolbelt. Winson and I jumped right in and went to work for the next three hours until dark. Moving logs for the sawmill was the best. After the work was done, the animals fed (horses, mules, goats, chickens, turkies, trout), and the horses let out to pasture, it was time for supper.

A bunch of cast iron pots sat over a fire in the "dining hall". Eustace said grace and we chowed down on fresh greens picked from the garden that day, bar-b-que chicken from the farm, homemade bread, and corn pudding from corn they grew. We sat around the fire eating and talking with Eustace, Desere, Mike (who rode his bike to the preserve from Idaho), and Woodward from Nashville. It was refreshing. They invited us to stay the night and gave us directions to a little cabin right on a creek. I am listening to that creek as I write to the light of a gas lamp.

Everything here get used, there is no waste. Mike's job for an hour today was to hammer bent nails straight so they could be reused. So far, I am very impressed with Mr. Conway."

At Turtle Island they work Thursday-Sunday, then take three days off. When they work, they work from about seven a.m. to eight p.m. Since it is their weekend no one was really doing anything, so we are going to do some climbing around Boone for a few days and go back to work/learn on Thursday. If everything stays cool with Winston's Grandma, we will work/learn Thursday to Sunday then head to Kentucky.

I had leave Erika yesterday as well. It was sad, but we are going to do just fine.