Let me first get this straight.  I am not mean to animals.  I do all possible to not be cruel to them to the best of my knowledge and live somewhat in harmony with them.  They have their space, I have mine.  I do not feel like I have presented myself as someone that animals would choose to wage an all out war against.  And maybe that’s the thing.  They see me as easy prey. And it’s so not cool. At the beginning of my gardening season, I felt pretty good.  I had 3 different motion detector sprinklers going to

I promise this is the last part. For now at least. Because, chickens.But I felt this story needed to be told. As this chicken seems to have super powers. And a chicken with super powers needs its own story. At the moment, we were quite content with our number of chickens. Tyler was still in the “we have too many” phase, especially since, at that point we had 3 roosters to our 6 hens. Tyler was done getting more chickens. Or was he? You see, we have a Facebook group for our town that has become quite helpful at times. We learn the

As promised, this is a multiple part segment on chickens.  Because it’s been quite the summer as far as chickens go.   You see, in the spring, I got it in my head that we needed 3 more chickens.  The two breeds the boys had picked out last year had turned out to be roosters and they were kind of disappointed.  So clearly I needed to get one of each of those breeds in order to get a hen version.  Probability says I am more likely to get a hen this time, right?  Or not.  I was never very good

Last year, having chickens was a blast.     Last year, having chickens was EASY.   Last year, I GOT IT!   I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy having chickens anymore.  I love our chickens.  They are the best!   I’m just saying that this year has been a very different chicken experience.   So much so, that this story is divided into multiple parts.   Because, chickens.   You see, last year, our chickens had no problems staying in their chicken  run.  They were happy and content to just stay in their place, close to their food.  There was

If anyone has noticed I’ve been quiet lately, it’s been because I’ve been deep in the throws of home renovation. Well, actually kitchen renovation. And I’ve been in it for over 6 months.I would love to say we have a beautiful kitchen to show for it, but we aren’t even close.But I’m getting ahead of myself.Let’s back up to those gates of hell.Actually, no, that will have to wait. First, let me talk a bit about my house. In a history lesson.My house was built sometime in the 1700s.Which is understandably odd for a 1940s farm house.But really, it’s a

I have to say, I know nothing about growing and preparing grapes. They are a foreign fruit to me that I didn’t even realize was a common fruit to grow. I vaguely remember my neighbors growing up having grapes and I thought it was the most exotic thing. I even remember them making raisins with them. Again, blowing my mind. And I remember Lucy stomping on grapes in I Love Lucy. But that pretty much was my level of grape knowledge.At least until a moved into house once owned by a large Italian family that absolutely loved growing grapes.Watching the

As the days start to turn a bit colder and the leaves begin their shift into the infamous New England fall, the days of garden growing are quickly coming to an end. I’m sure you are wondering how my gardening adventure turned out this year. Or maybe you aren’t. I’m still going to tell you. Because I have great pride in how hard I fought for a few tomatoes. It will be a battle that goes down in the history books (although I hope they embellish things a bit and make me look like a brave hero instead of an anxiety

I have so much to be grateful for here in Vermont. One reason is I live about a quarter mile away from a significant body of water known as the White River. In fact, pretty much anywhere I drive is along the White River. And as the weather began to warm up, we began to notice that the White River was the place to be during the summer months and we were severely missing out. There were people fishing, kids swimming, couples sitting around and dipping their feet in the water, and entire families tubing down the river. Now, we weren’t about

As summer came to a close and the dreaded SCHOOL started, it occurred to us, we had really done NOTHING over the summer. With farmwork, and guests, and surgery, and weather, we really didn’t get a chance to do much of anything outside of the house. And that needed to be fixed. Each August, my little town hosts what they call “Old Homes Days”. I never did quite catch why they called it “Old Homes Days” There were no old homes involved. In fact, there really wasn’t much of a theme at all. Just a reason to get together and have fun.

One thing we have noticed about Vermont is the people are cut from a very different cloth. They are a surprisingly social people. Which, anywhere else, would make me feel out of place, but I find myself very drawn to social, extroverted people. They bring me out of my shell. Maybe it’s because I am craving conversation after pandemic isolation. Or maybe it’s because I don’t feel the anxiety over being judged by these people. They are laid back, happy people and I don’t worry about the fact that I’m a little odd. Because I fit right in. But, living in