After a three day cross-country road-trip, we've finally arrived at our land! As we pull up the drive, I hop out of the passenger's seat to open the gate. There is a palpable gravity in the moment as part of me realizes, perhaps for the first time, that we've committed to care for this small slice of Earth. After making space for the car, I run up the grassy drive while Tara follows behind.

From our previous visits, we know there is a downed tree blocking the path that leads to the home-site clearing. Sure enough, a few hundred feet in, we come to it, a big scraggly tree, laying across the road. Tara parks, cranks up the radio, playing "our song" (Edward sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, "Home"), and leaps out of the car for some some celebratory whoops and hollers.

We're HERE! We're on OUR LAND! We did it!

I join her in fist pumping and hollering, and then we happily get down to business. Last fall, we purchased a chainsaw for this very moment. I unearth it from the trunk, don Tara's grandpa's old safety gear (which he never wore), and get to work. Meanwhile, Tara begins hauling wood out of the way, chucking it to the side of the drive.

We're excited to be getting ready for our very first visitors—Tara's family will be coming to see our land this week! After the drive is cleared and the path to the pond is walkable, we kick around, starry eyed and happy. Once more, we daydream out loud, planning all the things we're going to do with our new home. We'll put the cottage here! The gardens will be in that clearing, and the sheep will graze over here!

With the first job on our land complete, and the sun beginning its decent to the horizon, we hop in the car, sweaty and ravenous, bound for nearby Bennington. We're off to find a bite to eat.