Here’s what’s up around Barefoot Farm. I spent Saturday harvesting wild grapes, apples and mushrooms and racking the dandelion wine with my good friend, Leni. I also scored a HUGE bag of red peppers that need to be preserved. I hoped to get that yesterday but we were scheduled to work in the Bee Booth at the Franklin County Fair. I was making candles with kids and Bruce answered bee questions and sold honey and honey products. This is a wonderful fair with gorgeous exhibits. I got inspired to pick up my quilting again after looking the amazing quilts on display. That won’t happen this month as I’m still preparing for my preservation classes. I am also getting ready to have Dimitry Orlov come to speak to our sustainability group. That means getting the press releases out, posters up and the space reserved as well getting the permit for parking. None of this is hard work but it’s time-consuming and I have som else to do. The garden is needing attention and it’s time to button up the house for winter.
In the midst of this, we found a farm! We have been dreaming about a place just a bit more private and with a barn and fireplaces and we found one. It’s only a couple of minutes from where we live now. The price is a bit high but not too bad really. The house has a real cooking fireplace int the kitchen with the beehive oven. There are fireplaces in each bedroom and in the living room. I really want to take a look but I’m afraid of falling in love. Moving would be such a hassle. Then there’s the greenhouse and perennial food plants and the to orchard and Phoebe’s play yard. But the farm has barn!!! And it’s on a quiet dirt road bordered by beautiful maple trees. The neighbors are lovely and we would still be just a few miles from the Creamery. The down side is that it is not walking distance. It’s up a couple of steep hills and three miles is not walking distance in the winter around here. I know I should just forget about it but I can’t,
Bruce has Men’s Group meeting at our house tonight and I need to get the house cleaned and the food ready. Even with both of us working, it’s a big job because of all the food preserving going on. Everything is sticky and there are bottles and jars and equipment everywhere. I have piles of cookbooks and preservation books on every flat surface as well as my notes for my workshops and we are definitely not quest ready. At least having a lot to do will keep my mind off a pretty little 200-year-old house, sitting snug under a canopy of golden maples with a well in the front yard and dear little red barn across the road. But really. It couldn’t hurt to just look, could it?
September 13, 2010 at 7:13 am
We think about moving many times also, it would be nice to find a little place in the country with a a bit of land and a barn would be over the top cool, but then I think about leaving our home where we brought up our girls, all the plants and garden we have worked so hard to build up, taking on a higher mortgage payment each month and sorting through every nook and cranny here to pack up…. Na, we end up staying put and maybe doing an improvement we have been putting off. Do you have a quilt stand? Where can you buy one nowdays? I so wanted my Grand Mothers but the famliy didn’t think anyone would use it so they let it go years ago, darn! I stick to making aprons over the winter, they are fast, easy and so cute, an apron and a jar of homemade jelly or pickles makes a great gift, wish the price of fabric wasn’t so high.
September 13, 2010 at 7:14 am
Good luck ignoring that farm! lol
Fall is such a bountiful time of the year, but sooo incredibly busy! It’s hard to fit in all the work, let alone leave time for the interesting and fun things being offered like county fairs.
September 13, 2010 at 9:55 am
Go see the house! Leap and the net will appear! Donna
September 13, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Even thinking about it is causing the universe to order itself and its resources to support your decision!! So, really, it would be a shame to waste all that ordering!!
September 13, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Oh, beware, Kathy! We started talking about moving 2 weeks ago, found a great place (near the high school we want and with passive solar and a woodstove, plus a woodlot) that weekend, and put in an offer today. If the house is right for you, the whole thing will have its own trajectory…
September 13, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Kathy, I grew up in a 250 yr old farmhouse, a classic Vermont red clapboard, and can attest to the beauty of it… there is nothing like those 8 x 8 beams, beautiful old window sills, fireplaces and wide plank floors… everything.
But I must warn you “O Beware!” as well, for a different reason: INSULATION. If you do happen to go looksee that house, make a point of noticing the walls, both inside and out. Houses that old very often have very little insulation, unless someone gutted and redid it – in which case the house is twice as expensive now to buy.
The house I grew up in still had old plaster walls, and since my dear old dad was one of those curmudgeons who believed that adversity “builds character,” we heated said house solely with wood heat – which kept the kitchen blazing hot, while at the same time I could see my breath in my bedroom…
September 14, 2010 at 1:09 am
It sounds lovely, but having lived in an 18th century farmhouse with six fireplaces and beehive oven, I can tell you that plenty of cold, fresh air will be sucked into your house as the heat exits up the central chimney. Quaint, but not at all sustainable!
September 15, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Go see it! If it has two fireplaces put a woodstove insert in one of them. My mom has one in her stone fireplace and it’s wonderful. A well sounds fantastic. I don’t think you are a hard crash believer, but a secure water source is always a priority and a blessing.