Christine Buckingham

I am a no body here but I wonder why you are trying to grow a plant that needs a colder climate then you are in... one of the first things we learn in permaculture is to know your biome, if this plant requires more cold then your biome delivers why not try to find something that does the same thing that is more adapted to your biome.

Being where you are building check out any regulations associated with your county/city. There are some pretty weird regulations out there by some of the counties. Since you are close to a subdivision make sure that subdivision doesn't have some rules against anything you are doing also.
Make friends with the people in the houses that are close to your property.
I reiterate, make sure you know exactly what the other people that will be with you on the property are willing to do and even what they are willing to put up with, if you have chickens do they mind the rooster in the mornings? How much are they willing to help with, do they expect "their" part of the property to be used by you for farming activities or not, do they understand the need for earth works/plantings to capture water, change wind patterns, combat fire hazards?
It sounds like you are just starting your permaculture journey, the first step to understanding what is needed on a property is observation. It can be hard to rein ourselves in and just observe the land for a time, but it can also be very rewarding. If you don't yet have the Permaculture Manual by Bill Mollison I highly recommend it, and if you have the time and funds attending a permaculture course would help you. Cliff Davis at Spiral Ridge Permaculture in Summertown, TN has one scheduled for this spring. Info at http://www.spiralridgepermaculture.com/permaculture-design-course/ check it out.

What Eugene said.
We have a chamber vac sealer and I love it. Can do liquids in it unlike the counter top suck the air out of the bag sealers. These things are not cheap but are worth the price if you are doing a lot of sealing.
One thing though, this is not an item you move around in your kitchen, ours weighs 85 lbs so once it is in a place that is where it stays, you won't be pulling it out and putting it away to do the job, at least not very easily.

Since you do have more then just one family involved in this project one of the most important part of your design will be finding out exactly what each person involved expects from the project. Do they expect to live communally or does one family want their own home space away from the rest, who likes the idea of taking care of the chickens more then doing work in the kitchen garden. Be sure to write down all the skills each person can bring to the project and the things they are interested in doing/learning.
Good luck, we are also starting our permaculture farm in Mid-TN and are about 50 miles west of Henderson on Hwy 100, just outside of Linden. Would love to keep up with how things are going for you and offer help when we can.

There is actually a decent diversity of trees in this area oak, maple, sweet gum, sycamore, cedar and at least two others I have yet to identify.
It's at least second growth if not third. It seems to me there is no part of Tennessee that hasn't been logged at some point in the past. The last operation was select cut so there are still some good sized trees. And the canopy in this section is closed.
We have a good amount of land, the plan is to let this section be zone 5 due to it's distance from the plate were the house will be, and the steepness of the area.
Will check out the book you suggested, thanks.

Hi y'all, This is Christine Buckingham in western middle TN, just a few mile east of the Tennessee river.
So I'm standing at the south end of our newly acquired property thinking "look at all those trees, there must be so much great soil underneath all that"...
Wow, was I wrong. The first thing I noticed was the lack of bird songs, since then I have seen a couple wood peckers and heard one blue jay, but otherwise very few birds in this part of the property.
Next I look at the soil, lots of old leaves and downed tree parts from the select cut logging operation 5 years ago, but when that stuff is moved there is no life, dig down a couple inches and still no life. Now it hasn't rained in 2 months here, but I would have expected this area to have collected a decent amount of water from before the drought due to the amount of humus being created, but it didn't. The only thing growing in this area is a few scraggly thorn vines and lots of very small seedlings, and enough big trees to make a complete canopy cover.
Then, after visiting this spot many times I note the lack of squirrels, this place is a squirrels dream, lots of white and red oak dropping lots of acorns, but not a squirrel in site. Also, no snakes, been trekking  up and down many draws and yet to see one snake.
Last, just last week we identified fire ants on the property, fun fun.
Could all this be just from the drought?
Are the fire ants really running off all the small animals in the area?
Will our efforts to catch more water and cycle animals through these areas be as helpful as I hope?

Any insights or suggestions are greatly appreciated.