Patricia and Jeffrey
Ask for help when you need it
“That childhood that I was raised in made me who I am today, even though I tried to bypass it out of college and go to the big cities. But now there’s no place like having the trees, fields and creeks.”
When you grow up living close to the land, harvesting food from the woods and meadows while learning about the non-human animals who share this world, that sense of respect and knowing lives in your bones.
Patricia of Wartburg, Tennessee, recalls that kind of upbringing after growing up on a 100-acre farm that grew tobacco, corn and hay along with a herd of cattle, pigs and chickens.
Patricia’s connection to this land runs deep. “I've left a few times and lived in other places in the world, but I always get called right back to the mountain,” she says.
Patricia and her husband, Jeffrey, are close with their neighbors. They help each other. “I've always had a big heart for both of us in the community,” Patricia says. “If we've seen somebody in need on the road or anywhere we step up.”
Jeffrey used to do aerial construction and transmission line work. These days, he makes furniture and maintains a thriving garden. He’s always loved working outside with the land.
He takes care of his grandmother’s place, too. “I have to make sure the furnace stays running, the water, and do any maintenance … And I just ride the trails, pick up trash, work around the house and keep it clean.”
Patricia went from being a stockbroker to working with human and children’s services. After an accident left her with a disability, she started preparing taxes for her neighbors on the side. “I didn’t charge for my services,” she says. “I just always put everybody else first.”
Now Patricia and Jeffrey’s beloved homestead in Wartburg, is threatened by the Ridgeline Pipeline, a proposed methane gas project by operator Enbridge, Inc.
“When the Enbridge rep came to the door wanting signatures for a survey,” Patricia says, “that’s how we found out.”
The Enbridge representative referenced a small easement from 1949, back when land deeds were handwritten. Prior easements like these can give pipeline companies broad leeway to add new infrastructure, something about which landowners are not necessarily informed.
“We did not know it was going to be such a big pipe and that it was going to be [for] methane,” she says.
A view of the Patricia and Jeffrey’s beloved pond.
Enbridge’s approach has not inspired confidence with respect to the land or to Patricia and Jeffrey’s privacy. The couple is deeply concerned about impacts the pipeline could have on their well water and the diverse flora and fauna around them, among other threats the pipeline poses to their peace and security.
One of Patricia’s many concerns are the family’s trees: “We’ve got a couple of 70 to 80 year-old crepe myrtles out here along the driveway, and they’re just beautiful.”
When the Enbridge representative asked multiple times why she couldn’t just do away with them and plant new ones afterward, Patricia said she told them emphatically, “because we’ll never see a tree like that again in my lifetime!”
“But [the crepe myrtle is] just a weed to them,” she says.
Jeffrey adds, “Yeah, they act like our trees and our property ain’t nothing, you know? There's resources on the Earth to provide everything we need without having to destroy the Earth and ourselves for it,” he says, “but they can’t make money off of it.”
“This first [Enbridge representative] aggravated me to death,” Patricia says.
Patricia described Enbridge’s process of dealing with landowners as wearing people down. She says a company representative called one of her neighbors over 30 times at work, asking them invasive questions about Patricia’s personal medical issues. She says another neighbor eventually gave in to Enbridge out of exhaustion.
“The [representative] just shows up and wants to stand around … And they just got irritated with him and accepted his offer. It makes me sad, but I also can understand why you would, you know, get tired,” she adds.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity to smaller power companies and electric cooperatives, is behind Enbridge’s pipeline because TVA wants to use the gas for a new power plant at its Kingston site. When asked what kind of action they would rather see from TVA, Patricia and Jeffrey say they would support “alternative types of truly more environmentally friendly options.”
A snowy scene behind Patricia's home in winter.
In Wartburg and across the region, Patricia and her neighbors are doing what they can to make their voices heard in meaningful ways. The couple’s advice for people facing similar offers from companies like Enbridge, Kinder Morgan and others is: “If you don't understand [their offer], ask questions. Don't rush in. If you can't get your questions answered, ask for help.”
They implore the decision-makers at TVA and Enbridge to practice “open heartedness and good communication, and take a minute to stand in others’ shoes … And think about the generations to come.”
Patricia adds, “Lord made this planet for us to live on, you know, and it's alive itself. So, I mean, if we continue down this path, you're not only killing the planet, but you’re killing us, too … I mean, you know what's happening, and you're taking a paycheck for it.”
By Holley Evergreen Roberts, based on a 2024 interview with Patricia (she/her) & Jeffrey (he/him)