Bought The Farmtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-12844202007-12-13T20:12:24-05:00Building a farm-based business in Vermont as a mid-life crisis project. Can we stay in love and not lose our shirts?TypePadA weekend togethertag:typepad.com,2003:post-428130402007-12-13T20:12:24-05:002007-12-13T20:12:24-05:00I've been going up to Eden (as I like to say) pretty much once a week. I write checks to the contractors, answer their questions, make decisions, and just make sure things are on track. This is what Albert is...Eleanor Leger
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I've been going up to Eden (as I like to say) pretty much once a week. I write checks to the contractors, answer their questions, make decisions, and just make sure things are on track. This is what Albert is missing.</p>
<p>But on one beautiful fall October weekend, he doesn't have Saturday classes, and we drive up together, two objectives in mind -<br />- See if we can dig holes for the fence posts that will surround the first tree planting we will make next spring<br />- Pack up the trailer to be picked up on Monday morning</p>
<p>Albert is delighted with the progress on the house. We are pretty much closed in. The steel roof is mostly on. The trim work on the dormers and the eaves is beautiful, classic New England moldings. We are very grateful for Dan our contractor.</p>
<p>My husband is sooooo excited to be using his cute orange tractor - and trying out one of the nifty attachments too! The post-hole digger ;) In the oil industry, this activity would be called 'Makin' Hole'. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>We spend breakfast in the trailer devising our plan. This is lots of fun because we figure things out together, puzzling through the dimensions of the task - how far apart should the holes be, how to keep the holes in a straight line, what to do when the terrain dips. We feel very smart for having a plan, but also very stupid. Anybody who grew up on a farm would know how to do this. We are guilty of over-engineering, and find great amusement in how reality alters our carefully crafted process in a heart-beat. Nonetheless, we get 38 holes drilled in a vaguely trapezoidal outline on the smaller field with the broken-down "witch" tree. This is where, next spring, we will plant our trees, our dreams, our dollars.</p>
<p>We pack up the trailer, putting things that we will use in the basement of the new house, and things to go home to New Hampshire in the car. It's been a very effective get-away home, office, and love-nest. I would definitely do it again :)</p>
<p>One interesting update - it turns out Amanda from the trailer rental place is no longer with the trailer rental place. In fact, it seems she left soon after she so deftly delivered our trailer back in June. I'm dying to know where she went - she was like a female McGuyver. Where is she now, and where is she headed - managing environmental clean-up projects? working as a test pilot for NASA? Anyone who can handle power and waste disposal mechanics like that young woman will do amazing things I'm sure of it.</p></div>