We are Diana and Traylor Renfro, originally from Opelika, Alabama, where we grew up in the same church and schools. After college, we moved to Charlotte, NC, where I (Diana) worked as a Registered Dietitian and Traylor taught Economics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). Traylor soon changed to a career in Human Resources and I turned to artistic endeavors, primarily writing. We both always loved gardening and growing vegetables, flowers, and landscape plants. Our two daughters, raised in Charlotte, learned to love good food and beautiful gardens.
We found these 45 acres late in 1999, on a pilgrimage out of the city into the country to the highlands of Ashe County. It was love at first sight. Responding to an ad in the 'Second Hand News' on a drizzly November day, we walked the fence line trying to comprehend just how much land could be included in 45 acres. There was a large bowl of a meadow with a boggy bottom full of springs that drained into a winding branch. To one side, there were bare hardwoods with an under story of Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurel. A couple of hills were too steep and rocky to walk. Other areas were filled with brambles or “freeze-dried” wild-flowers. Spreading over a bluff in the sun, surrounded by barbed wire and locust fencing, was a wide flat hayfield, and, at the bottom, another flat field grew healthy green rye. The old farmhouse, unusable due to a fallen tree which exposed the interior to the elements, would have to come down, but there were two large barns and half a dozen other outbuildings. Everything needed attention. No one had lived on the property for fifteen years.
We just knew from the beginning that it was meant to be ours. It was calling to us, showing us its great potential, and we couldn’t wait to get started. Today, it’s the same place with amenities. And we believe as stewards of the land, it is meant to be shared. Come stay for a while and discover North Carolina's "coolest corner."