A Year at Skull Creek Ranch

Muddy boots, big plans, and a whole lot of “What if we…?”

It’s hard to believe how much can happen in a year. When we started this journey at Skull Creek Ranch, we had a beautiful piece of East Tennessee mountain country, a whole lot of ideas, a little of ambition, and a lot of conversations that started with, "What if we...?

Turns out, that's pretty much all you need to get started. Big ideas, one project, one animal, one fence post and one muddy boot at a time.

Building the Homestead

Before there could be a house, there had to be a homesite. Which meant clearing trees, battling brush, moving gravel, opening trails and discovering approximately a billion new ways to get dirty.

Last winter, that meant winterizing the camper. Framing for insulation boards, bubble-wrapping windows, stuffing pillows into vents and doing whatever else we could think of to keep the Tennessee cold outside.

Even using extra heat lamps from the chicken coup

It wasn't exactly luxury living, but it was ours.

The house site is beginning to take shape, tree clearing has started, and we're slowly working toward the day when we can finally look out across the valley from our front porch and say:

“Yep. This was worth all that.”

We also created the ranch logo, built our own ranch sign, and parcel box. Then we built a trash-can shed behind it. Together, they created a surprisingly respectable little building we now call "The Guest Cabin".

Amenities include a parcel box, a trash-can shed, zero plumbing and excellent mountain views.

We're still waiting on our first booking. 😂

Welcome to The Kitchen

Without a real kitchen, you improvise.

Our firepit, aka "The Kitchen", has become a gathering place for cooking, campfires, planning, solving problems and occasionally creating new ones. It's already becoming part of the ranch story.

The Girls Have Arrived

This year we started building our laying flock.

Gold Laced Wyandottes, Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers were the original girls, followed by our American Bresse chicks.

Then we attended the Nashville Fair 4-H poultry auction and came home with three championship Buff Orpington hens.

New sign and logo!

Supporting 4-H and FFA and the next generation of agriculture is important to us, so bringing those girls home meant more than just adding three chickens to the flock.

Our flock is still growing, and we're looking forward to seeing where our breeding and egg program takes us. Of course, the chickens have also made one thing very clear:

We may own the ranch, but they apparently run it.

Skull Creek Ranch to Market

All of this ties into a bigger vision: Skull Creek Ranch to Market.

We're building a place where products from our ranch can eventually sit alongside goods from local farmers, ranchers and makers.

Fresh products. Local goods. Ranch-made items. Gifts. Apparel. A little bit of Skull Creek to take home with you.

Skull Creek Ranch to Market

Raised Right. Grown Local.

It's about supporting local agriculture, making use of what our land provides and building something that supports our family and our community.

Letting the Mountain Do the Growing

Not everything on the ranch needs a planting schedule. Wild mountain blackberries and Autumn Berries grow all over the property, and this year we've started harvesting some of that natural bounty and finding ways to put it to good use.There have been pies, preserves, projects, experiments and plenty of conversations that started with:

“I wonder if we could…”

That's how a lot of this ranch has come together.

We're Bee-coming Beekeepers

We also decided that chickens weren't enough responsibility. So, naturally, we started planning an apiary. Because apparently the appropriate response to owning land covered in wildflowers is:

“We should probably keep bees.”

We attended Bee Bootcamp and are researching everything from hive placement to which bees will best handle our mountain climate.

The bees aren't here yet, but we're getting educated before we bee-come beekeepers.

And yes, the puns are already out of control.

We're currently looking into the tough little Caucasian Honey Bees. Tough enough to handle cold, unpredictable mountain weather, yet known for their gentle temperament around people. Basically, we're looking for a bee that's rugged enough for Skull Creek but polite enough to share the porch. 

Living Off the Land

One of the best parts of living on the Cumberland Plateau is the abundance of wildlife that calls these mountains home. Deer and turkey are plentiful here, and the land provides wild plenty of wild game for our table.

There’s something special about walking these woods, watching the seasons change, and knowing that the same mountain outside our door can provide both a place to live and food for the table.

Now we're getting ready for another fall hunting season.

The gear is coming out.

The woods are calling.

And the freezer is waiting.

Clearing Trails & Finding Our Way

A lot of this year has simply been about learning the land. We've cleared trails, opened areas that had been swallowed by brush, worked on pasture improvements and spent countless hours walking the property.

Every trail seems to reveal something new.

A creek.

A view.

A game trail.

A good place for a future pasture.

We're learning the land and trying our best to work with it rather than against it. That stewardship is an important part of what Skull Creek Ranch is becoming.

Building the Ranch, One Piece at a Time

There is something satisfying about seeing the little things start to add up.

The ranch sign went up.

The parcel box/Airbnb.

The road has been improved.

The property is being cleared.

The pastures are taking shape.

The barns are being planned.

The house is being planned.

The market is being planned.

The flocks are growing.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Skull Creek Ranch became more than an idea.

It became a place.

Looking Ahead

If this first year has taught us anything, it's that building a ranch doesn't happen overnight.

It happens one little piece at a time. It happens with muddy boots, it happens with chainsaws, gravel trucks, chicken feeders, bee suits, fence posts and campfires. It happens with projects that take longer than expected and budgets that mysteriously disappear.

It happens with a lot of hard work and most importantly a lot of love and laughter.

We're still a long way from where we ultimately want to be.

The house isn't finished.

The barns aren't standing.

The market is still growing.

The pastures still need work.

But when we look back at where we started, it's pretty incredible to see how far we've come.

We're building a home, a ranch, a business and a legacy while doing our best to take care of the land that brought us here in the first place.

So here's to another year of muddy boots, big ideas, stubborn chickens, buzzing bees, mountain views and whatever the heck we decide to tackle next.

Welcome to Skull Creek Ranch.

The best parts of the story are still being written.