I live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, near Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry. I keep a garden and a horse and some chickens and I like to hike and bike and kayak. My husband, who I will call Traveling Jeff, holds down a job making maps, while I putter about making pottery, sewing, building things and gardening.

We love to hike, sometimes with a couple of friends, usually just the two of us. I prefer to experience places in a loose kind of way, depending on the weather and whatever moves us that day. Jeff loves to plan ahead and spends a lot of time mapping out and researching the best destinations. We balance each other out pretty well.

When we travel to other countries we tend to avoid the cities and plan our trips during the slightly off seasons. We both prefer quiet, less trodden paths. Sometimes we rent a camper van (New Zealand and Iceland), sometimes we stay at B and B’s, sometimes at our cabin in the West Virginia mountains. Sometimes we hike in and camp in a tent, but not very often.

We tend to cheap it out on food and cook our own but restaurants are appreciated too. The further we travel the longer we stay since plane tickets cost so much. The minimum for Australia or New Zealand is 4 weeks for me. We did 12 days in Switzerland, and 16 days in Great Britain and would have liked longer but work at home beckoned.

We pay a person to care for our animals when we are away and that can get expensive. We also plan around the garden schedule. I would hate to miss our blueberry crop or not be around to put up all the food I grow. In the winter, we take only weekend or day trips so I don’t have to worry about my critters.

In a few years we plan on doing some long trips around the United States. There is so much I have not seen right here. We will probably live out of a van for those trips because it seems the most versatile way of both getting deep into the country and not having to over plan for places to stay.

I am starting this blog with all my travel posts from my first website and organizing them better. All my posts here will be hiking and traveling and all my homesteading info and stories will remain at Edgewise Woods, Gardens and Critters.
https://www.edgewisewoods.com

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy our travels as much as we do.