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Entries made in January, 2013

January 2013, in Photos

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

In The Wind

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

The wind came down from mountains cold, And like a tide it roared and rolled. The branches groaned, the forest moaned, And leaves were laid upon the mould. J.R.R. Tolkein The wind up here is intense. All day long it’s been roaring, ...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part Two

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

After our friends have gone home, I head out into the darkness to put our tools away. Outside, the cleanup operation is quickly cut short when I survey the back of our truck. We're just four little screws away from fresh mountain water—with so li...

Dinner in the Camper

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

While Tyler, Jeremy and Hercilia wrap up the last of our Simple Pump installation, I'm inside our camper, cooking supper for everyone. With two frozen pizzas, and some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough I made earlier, there will be plenty for eve...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part One

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Today, with the help of our new friends Jeremy & Hercilia, we're going to install a hand-powered Simple Pump in our well. This will be the first time any of us has ever worked on a well, and it will also be the first time I've ever read and fo...

About Our Well

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Our property was one of the only potential sites we visited during our land hunt which already had a drilled well. Its standard 6" casing was a whopping 400ft deep, it had a static level of 80ft, and a measured recovery rate of 2 gallons per minut...

Birthday Sled Dog Surprise!

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

I've always been fascinated by the art of mushing. A few years ago, Tyler took me on a surprise Christmas outing to see his friend's sled dog team. After meeting all the pups and getting to ride across the snow, pulled by a team of happy, furry r...

29th Birthday

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Today is my 29th birthday. I wish I had something deep and important to say about life and the passing of years, but I don't. Today was simply a good day, filled with yummy food and great company. We even managed to check a few things off our to...

Heat

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

It's 4 AM and the camper is freezing. Tara and I are cuddled together under our down comforter, a minuscule bundle of tenuous warmth atop a freezing hill, flanked on either side by the frigid Green and Taconic Mountains. Our camper furnace is run...

Meeting the Neighbors

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

This afternoon, Tyler and I hiked down our driveway and walked the four hundred and eighty feet separating us from our closest neighbor. Holding another loaf of homemade, ribbon-bedecked banana bread as a friendship offering, we rang the doorbell,...

We Have a Mailbox!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

While we were in Vermont with my family this past October, we managed to complete one of our first goals in the creation of our homestead: obtaining an address. This turned out to be a simple matter of measuring the distance from the center of our...

Character Building

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

It's January in Vermont, and we're smack dab in the middle of a major learning curve. Once again, we're settling into a more rustic lifestyle, and once again, the transition is more intense than we anticipated. Emotions run high, silly little thi...

Adventure Mode

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

On our bicycle tour, Tyler and I were living in what we've now dubbed "Adventure Mode." That is to say, every day was an epic journey unto itself, containing within it the highest highs I've ever felt, along with the lowest lows (and enough cramme...

Clearing the Clearing

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

We had planned to spend the afternoon working at a coffeeshop in Bennington today, but we never made it off our land. Early in the morning, Tyler went outside to see if he could get a burn pile going to clear up some of the brush that's been litte...

Our Side of the Mountain

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Tyler: Last night, as we pulled into our drive after a day of running errands, the snowpack was too slippery for us to make it in. Half-way up the steepest portion of our driveway, we lost traction and began drifting slowly backwards. Unable to...

A Snow Day

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

As if to welcome us to our new home, Nature decorated our woods with a snowy white blanket last night. Fat, wet flakes continue to fall throughout this morning, filling us with childlike joy and excitement. We bundle up and head outside for a wal...

Up the Drive We Go!

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Now that Tim is gone, Tyler and I have a little chat to decide what we want to do next. Though we're touched by Rick's offer to let us park on his land, we're both eager to be settled, once and for all, in our very own woods. It was muddy here ye...

Home at Last

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

After last night's drama, we drove non-stop, straight into this morning. We're exhausted, but we have an appointment to make: Tim Schmalz of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture is coming to inspect our land, to make sure it won't be susceptible to ...

Border Crossing from Hell: Part Two

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Several hours later, we've made it through Canada, to the USA border. Half hoping for a warm welcome from our fellow countrymen, we receive anything but. We're greeted with a huge array of creepy, over-the-top surveillance cameras, followed by a ...

Border Crossing from Hell: Part One

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Stuck Truck Update: A cold front rolled in last night, answering Tara's silent plea to Mother Nature. As we slept soundly, the rain stopped, the temperature dropped, and the rutted, muddy ground where our camper was stranded froze solid. As a res...

Reed Collecting for Thatching with Deanne Bednar

Monday, January 14th, 2013

It's time for our reed-collecting workshop at last! With tools in hand, we enter a waving sea of phragmites reeds via a thin tunnel that Deanne has already cleared. As we make our way to the secluded collection area, I'm struck by how tall and be...

Stuck in the Mud

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

We're three days late, but we've finally made it to Deanne's place. Before we motor our lumbering circus down her sloping drive and onto the large clearing she uses for parking, we hop out of the truck to scout the safest route. After a bit of de...

Checking In

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

After a fantastic night's sleep in our cozy little camper, we're our way to Michigan for a yet-again-postponed reed-collecting workshop. With a grey sky ahead of us, and a sour mood beginning to foul the journey, I declare that "everything is grum...

Black Ice

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

We planned on driving through the night in order to reach Deanne's place in time for our postponed reed-collecting workshop tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, there is no way that is going to happen. Just a few hours into our road trip east, our me...

Unpassable

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

Last October, during a vacation in Vermont with Tara's family, we all stayed at a beautiful house in rural Bennington. When it came time to leave, we serendipitously crossed paths with its caretaker and builder, Rick Carroll. We hit it off immed...

Heading East

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

After our amazing-race-style marathon to leave for a winter of reed collecting in Vermont, we've finally hit the road. Armed with a gigantic ice-cream bucket of taco salad from Tyler's dad, an episode of Radiolab queued up for entertainment, and a...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Ten

Friday, January 11th, 2013

Mike was short and to the point: half of our camper's roof was suffering from wet rot. The only lasting solution was to replace it, at a cost no less than $5,000. The other option was to ignore the underlying problem, plug the hole, and fix a few...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Nine

Friday, January 11th, 2013

This morning, still awake from the day prior, just as we were depositing the very last box of our belongings into the camper, Tara turned to me, her face crumpled like a deflated balloon. I was confused until I saw what she was pointing at: a pie-...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Eight

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Tyler: While it would be nice to end the evening on such a celebratory note, our job is far from complete. We've committed to attending a reed-collecting workshop for our thatched roof in Michigan in two days time. All of our worldly possession...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Seven

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

The alarm goes off at the crack of dawn. As soon as the covers are flung off, it's game on, and there will be no stopping until tonight. "Are you ready for this?" I ask Tyler. He smiles and shakes his head, no. "Are you sure you don't just want ...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Six

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

The living room was a whirlwind of activity today; it looked as though a tornado had blasted through JoAnne fabrics, leaving spools of thread, tangled measuring tapes, and fraying scraps of cotton canvas in its wake. In the midst of the mess, Tyle...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Five

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

I'm having loads of fun with our HGTV-style camper makeover, but I'm also completely exhausted. For some reason, it always takes me by surprise when Tyler and I mobilize a spontaneous plan. It feels as though I've inadvertently stepped onto a hi...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Four

Monday, January 7th, 2013

It's pitch black when the alarm sounds at 2:30 AM, a mere three and a half hours since we fell into bed last night. I throw on a hoodie and the new down booties I got for Christmas (thanks, Jodi!) and make sure Tyler is groggily getting up as well...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Three

Sunday, January 6th, 2013

The ride home is going well, albeit very slowly. A few hours in, we decide to take a break. Just off the highway, we stop at a mattress store to see if we can find a replacement for our small, oddly-shaped camper bed. Before heading in, I walk b...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Two

Sunday, January 6th, 2013

It's 8AM and the camper is freezing. As we get up, shivering, I am filled with doubt. The reality that I don't know anything about travel trailers is rapidly sinking in. There is no way we're going to be able to live here if this thing can't make ...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part One

Saturday, January 5th, 2013

With winter upon us, we're feeling pressed for time—if we want to thatch the roof on our timber frame cottage this summer, we'll have to collect reeds for it soon. The harvest needs to happen sometime between December and Feburary, and we've made...

The Year in Review

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

With the new year upon us, I've been revisiting our journal, trying to remind myself of what we've been up to for the past three hundred and sixty five days. When I began writing this, I felt like most of our year had been filled with mundane rout...