"A little bit about me before you go... " This phrase has been floating around in my brain... song lyrics, I think. Each of us has a story... a song. Here's mine.
Hello. My name is Adrienne Cahoon (a.k.a. "queen of the meadow blooms"). I grew up in a family of fourteen on a 160-acre farm ten miles southeast of Brainerd. I attended first grade in a one-room schoolhouse 1-1/2 miles from my childhood home. The following year, schools were consolidated and we were bused into Brainerd. Throughout my childhood, I helped tend gardens and fields on the acreage that my father farmed in addition to his full-time job with the Minnesota State Highway Department. I had an apron-clad stay-at-home mom who baked made-from-scratch fresh from the oven bread and cookies for when I got off the school bus. It is from this background that I developed a love for all facets of homekeeping, gardening, land stewardship, and related environmental issues. During my eleven years as a full-time classroom teacher (six years in Minnesota and five years in Florida), I was selected 1996 Conservation Education Teacher of the Year for the state of Florida and recipient of Disney's 1996 Teacherrific $3000.00 Top Program Award for a school-wide waste management system utilizing composting. In 1993, I earned a Master of Science Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and completed my Master Gardener certification through the University of Minnesota in March 2000. In 1999, I opened Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed and Breakfast on the property where my husband Dick and I have lived since our marriage in 1974. I am presently earning a Bachelors Degree in Holistic Nutrition. I have three daughters. My eldest daughter lives in New York with her husband, two daughters and a son and is a freelance graphic designer and author and illustrator of children's books. My middle daughter lives in New Jersey with her husband, son, and daughter and is a freelance graphic designer in NYC. My youngest daughter has a degree in psychology and lives in Florida working as an assistant merchant at Chicos FAS, Inc.
