ECHO VALLEY FARM, ZIONSVILLE, NC

Sandy and I and Zoey are farm sitting a beautiful old farmstead in the far western mountains of North Carolina for nearly a month.  We arrived at Echo Valley Farm on Wednesday and leave in early September.

One of our few duties is to feed the chickens and collect their eggs -- something Sandy enjoys doing.  And for that I am grateful.

Nothing beats farm-fresh eggs for breakfast.

Farm owners Merrill and Gabby Lynch and their almost four-year-old daughter, Dovie, live on 60 acres of mostly wooded and rolling mountainside land.  It is peaceful and charming.  For weeks they have been telling Dovie that they are going on a Wild, Wild West Adventure.  Here they are just before taking off in their ParkLiner fiberglass camper.

The Lynch's also have a sweet senior dog named Hayduke, with whom our dog, Zoey, is having a blast.  They love to wander the farm.

Today I took both dogs on a 25 minute hike on the property.  Merrill has created a beautiful hiking trail and the dogs were so much fun. For an older dog, Hayduke moves remarkably fast.   As soon as we got past the farmhouse old Hayduke perked up and began a nice fast trot and soon lost us both.   Then Zoey decided she would rather be with another dog instead of me and disappeared. About every five minutes she would come racing back at full speed to me to be sure I was still on the trail.  They both were like puppies and had so much fun chasing each other in the meadow.  It was heartwarming to see. 

We came back down the shady side of the trail (where tin man is hanging) and Hayduke disappeared for about five minutes.   When he finally reappeared Zoey really gave him the business for deserting her.  It was really funny.

I spotted this "sculpture" hanging from a tree alongside the Echo Valley Farm trail.  I am not sure what the story behind it is, but I will have to ask. 

A view from the trail.

A view of a portion of the trail.  By the way, the farm elevation is approximately 3400 feet.

Our front porch from which we can watch birds and listen to the nearby spring-fed creek.

What we see from the front porch. The creek is hidden at the edge of the woods.

It has been unusually rainy in this part of the Southeast and so everything is really lush and green.

Flowers along the trail. 

A beautiful butterfly landed on the drive way.

A Luna moth on the front porch.

It is believed that the lumber to build this tobacco barn was cut and milled from old growth trees on the property.

So this is where we are at and will be our home base for the next 3+weeks.

Stay tuned.