Kate Potter and Bill Mahler
We met in March 2004, and married that August. (Why wait?) Both of us had corporate careers: Bill’s took him around the world; Kate’s took her to almost every airport town in Canada.
Having had enough of that, we “settled” in a lovely log home that Bill built on the New River in Ashe County, NC. Realizing that being “settled” wasn’t quite enough, we decided to build a “hobby farm” for our retirement. We acquired 43 acres of bare pasture and woods in an inholding in the middle of Jefferson National Forest, VA. The nearest town was Cripple Creek (I’m not making this up), and we traveled 40 minutes to Wytheville for supplies. We designed and built our house, garage, animal barn, hay barn, and several sheds; established eight pastures with water; got cattle, goats, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats. We planted a vegetable garden and fruit orchard. Bill installed a 6,000-watt solar panel system. Bill grew food; Kate canned it. Yup – we were basically off the grid. We lived our bliss there for eight fabulous years, but realized it was a pretty aggressive lifestyle. (We were not getting younger, darn!) It was time for a gentler form of retirement.
We discovered Hendersonville, bought a house, sold our beautiful animals, equipment, and farm, and moved. We miss the farm life, but do not regret the timing of our move.
Between us, we have four daughters, seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren (and a fourth on the way). We are enjoying Hendersonville as it affords us great hiking with our two dogs, time to read, garden, putter in the workshop, knit, and discover new and different things – UUFH being one of the larger aspects of our new and different things.
Beth Cain
My career began in journalism and documentary work and has continued into teaching: I currently work with autistic children at Hendersonville Elementary School.
I enjoy rambling in the Great Outdoors with my husband, David, and son, Sam; reading, writing, gardening, and having good conversations.