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I thought I'd better introduce myself before I forget to. I'm new to the forum. I found this wonderful place googling around getting ideas for my spring garden.
My husband and I moved our family to Vermont last year. I have Multiple Sclerosis and was suffering in the heat of Florida. A little over a year ago, I was lamenting the heat and wished we could live someplace cooler. Out of the blue, my husband was offered a job in Vermont. We came out to see the area and in the 3 days we were here my walking improved. We took it as a sign and moved our family here.
We search for a place for over a year. I had seen a place on the internet but it was waaaayyyy too expensive and completely out of our budget. But it looked so wonderful on the net. *sigh*
I drove around town one day and lo and behold, I drove right past the farm that I had seen on the internet. I quickly backed up and got out. No one was around so I took a quick look. I fell in love. The place smelled just like my grandparent's farm that I had spent so many of my best summers on. I so wanted this place. I didn't care that it was overgrown, the barns looked like they were ready to fall down, and I hadn't even seen the inside of the house yet. I took my hubby there right away but he just said that it was still out of the budget.
A year goes by and we were still seaching ( I know now what I was waiting for). Nothing seemed like the perfect fit. I wanted to buy the home that we would be in for the rest of our lives. I didn't want to move again.
Just as we were finally going to put an offer on another home (yes, I was finally giving in to the family...they were tired of the rental) the agent told my husband that this home had dropped in price. We took another look and made the *gulp* leap.
There was not a rational thought in purchasing this home. The house was full of dry rot that needed to be taken care of right way. Most of the appliances are on their last legs, the barns need to be rebuilt...I could go on and on. But this is a home full of history. It was built in 1792 and we've been able through research to find a lot of information about the founding family. We are only the 3rd non-family to own this property. It was passed down for over 150 years.
Now for the particulars:
The farm has 3 barns, one of them being a 3000+ sq.ft. old dairy barn built in the late 1800's. The oldest barn is a gunstock English style post and beam built around 1780. The third is attached to the guest house and built in the early 1800's. Every building is currently on the National Historic Registry (I didn't know that when we bought the property).
There are 55 acres. Many of those acres still look like pasture. There are 6 acres around the house that are manicured. There is a pond with waterfall, wetlands with a beaver dam (with beaver) and just last weekend we discover the foundation of the old sugar house in the pine forest glade. It was truly magical. The light was streaming through the boughs of the pine trees as we were walking in the late morning. We heard the babbling of the the brook before we saw it. We followed it and came across the sugar house in this quiet pine glade. We had to cross the large brook to investigate. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything left but the old stone foundation. Someday, we'll rebuild it (another thing to add to the growing to-do list). But in the mean-time, we'll do a little at a time until we figure out what we want to do. This spring/summer is all about repairs. I hope to start my kitchen and herb gardens. I know that eventually we want to have a sustainable organic farm. It'll be a long journey and I'm so happy that I've discover a forum to share my love with others.
I'll get pictures posted soon.
Cheers,
Lin
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