Why Hissing Possum?

Since purchasing our house and property in 2017, we’d struggled to find a name that seemed right. We often combine our last names, so for awhile we were calling it Jenhankinson Acres. That seemed like too much of a mouthful for people to remember, so we continued trying different names on for size, not arriving at anything that really seemed to fit. Creekside Meadows, Tiger Creek Farm, etc… Nothing seemed just right.

In February 2019 I decided to take a beginning sewing class. I had a sewing machine that had been sitting in the barn since we moved in. I hadn’t attempted to use it for years, so it had sat neglected. I’d sewed a *little*under my mom’s supervision, but had no confidence in my own ability to operate a sewing machine. This class for beginners seemed like just the opportunity I’d been looking for to reacquaint myself with my own machine and work on some very basic skills. 

So at 9:00 on a Friday night, my wonderful husband set off to the barn in the dark to retrieve the machine. We were and are in and out of the barn all the time, but not so much after dark. Apparently the normal residents were home from a long day of foraging and were not pleased to have an intruder poking about with a flashlight. Eric was greeted by a very surprised and alarmed opossum, who hissed his/her dismay and sent him packing!

Naturally I posted about this on Facebook: “Eric went to find my sewing machine in the barn tonight, but it was being guarded by a hissing possum, so we’ll just get it tomorrow.” Hilarity ensued, a friend suggested the name “Hissing Possum Retreat,” and we embraced it! There are many things I/we love about the name. First, possums are our friends. They eat ticks, for one thing, and we had a big tick problem when we first moved here. Second, Eric and I have a little bit of a “hissing possum” persona ourselves. We’re both likely to grumble and rant, and maybe occasionally hiss, but ultimately we’re harmless, and are most likely to lapse into a deep sleep before we do any damage. We just want to be left to ourselves to do our thing. The possums are welcome to use the barn at night. We try not to disturb them. :-)