Welcome to the Field Notes: Start Where You Are

Mountain Midlife Madness began with a simple idea: start where you are, use what you have, and learn by doing.

I am building a practical life on a wooded mountain property in East Tennessee. That means working through real projects, unexpected problems, changing plans, limited resources, and plenty of lessons that only become clear after you begin.

Some projects work the first time. Others require research, mistakes, adjustments, and a second attempt. These Field Notes are where I will share that process, including what worked, what did not, what I would change, and what I learned along the way.

The current project is From Scraps to Soil: The Bucket Worm Farm Workbook. It began with a conversation about turning household scraps into compost, raising composting worms, supporting a garden, and giving children an opportunity to participate in hands-on science. That conversation grew into a complete four-layer bucket system, a workbook, and a new series of real-world experiments.

Future Field Notes will cover the worm farm as we build and operate it, along with gardening, land development, practical mountain living, equipment, animals, household projects, and whatever problem needs to be figured out next.

This is not a collection of perfect finished projects. It is a record of building something useful, one decision and one hard-won solution at a time.

Welcome to the madness.