About Tessa Chenoa

My husband and I are empty-nesters who have a “Li’l Farm” in the Texas Hill Country, on which we have a wildlife exemption for insects, songbirds and neotropicals. I am the mama of 3 grown sons and 3 grown daughters (some say stepdaughters, but I have always disliked that word – I love all my kids the same, no matter how they came to me). I have 2 daughters-in-love, 3 sons-in-love, and 13 grandchildren! I homeschooled my boys (and sometimes other children) for 22 years – half of those as a stay-at-home mom, and half while working full time at the job from which I recently retired after 12 years: natural resources interpreter and Director of Education at a world-renowned wildlife center in Central Texas.  I am a certified Texas Master Naturalist, a certified Texas Master Gardener, a Texas Master Composter, an NAI Certified Interpretive Guide, and am NPSOT Certified in Native Landscape Maintenance. Contrarily, my degree is in English Literature. I have been playing electric guitar since I was 6 years old, and toured the United States and a few other countries with a gospel ensemble as a guitarist the summer after I turned 18. Thirteen years ago I set the guitar aside, but I will pick it up again one day. I love creation, hiking, writing, encouraging my grown kids as they begin their families, children, insects, (“…all creatures great and SMALL…”), needlework, homeschooling, wildscaping, upcycling, donkeys, and my dogs. I have a wicked sense of humor, and…I belong to Christ.