In the Spring of your life the living was free.
In the Summer you slept like a mountain.
In the Fall you hurried to gather your wood.
In the Winter you searched for the Fountain.
An end to a lovely Summer seems only a few short weeks away but with the record-breaking temperatures raging high for the past week or so, you’d think it was here to stay.
But the sun is rising later and later each morning.
That oh so familiar chill is in the air and the morning dew is thick and heavy.
The leaves are just starting to change colors and Fall will be the next guest to arrive at the farm.
Gather Your Wood
In the past few days I’ve been busy gathering firewood, not for our tiny farm cabin but for the garage/future farm store.
Rather than receive half of the hay that my friend cut, we decided to barter for firewood instead.
I’m getting just under 4 full cords for about 35 round bales which is a good deal.
Winter Accommodations
Work on our tiny agricultural winter home is proceeding.
The deck was completed and we had a little work party this Labor Day Weekend.
A few buddies of mine helped me out and things went up fairly quickly.
I love living in a town where folks take turns helping each other out and I’m thankful to have made some good friends in a short space of time.
We now have four walls and all the roof rafters are in place thanks to their efforts!
Although I’ve been totally comfortable in the popup camper (maybe too comfortable), I’m sure when it’s 40 degrees and dropping outside, it won’t be as pleasant sleeping in a tent on wheels.
When next Spring rolls around though, we’ll have the popup setup for friends and family, since we’ll be moving on to other living accommodations.
Reflections
Looking back, it’s hard to believe I’ve been here since May.
It has been a pretty awesome Summer on our farm and over at Cornell’s.
I’ve lived (and worked) most of this Summer completely outdoors and I haven’t done that since my teens.
My farmer’s tan is envious to some (I’m happy to say) and my body and my bones feel rejuvenated.
No TV, but I still try to watch football (soccer) when possible at bars and when there is free WIFI.
My clock is sunrise to sunset and I sleep really well.
Not all of this living’s been easy though. There have been some hardships.
The popup gets pretty loud when it pours and there are a few leaks. I do miss some of the modern conveniences, like running water.
I know we need to co-exist with mice but I’m not too fond of sharing my garage with them.
Bats, snakes and spiders are totally cool though.
Juggling
With these blue bird days and temperatures in the 80’s, I’ve been juggling my thoughts and activities all around the farm between starting a home and starting a business.
I’m happy to report that the ever-evolving checklist has gotten a little bit shorter:
[list icon=”check”]- Got our hay cut and picked up
- Building up our firewood reserves
- Built a deck and tiny house foundation
- Getting electric hooked up to the barn
- Cleaning up the old meter on the barn so it can get inspected
- Registered our farm with the Farm Service Agency and the NRCS (they seemed to be pretty thrilled to hear we want to get the old dairy parlor up and running!)
- Verified our farm on Google Business
- Scored a 3-bay sink! (with a generous farm-warming gift and bartering my skills as a lumberjack)
- Canning tomatoes to preserve the harvest
- Researching materials and estimating costs for the wood-fired bread oven
Only one of the items above (maybe two) is primarily focused around the winter shelter and you don’t need to be a John Snow to tell me that “Winter is coming…”
By the way GOT fans, he’s not dead.
Getting in Focus
Juggling is fun most of the time, but at some point there needs to be more specific direction.
In order for us to still be on the farm when the snow is falling, I need to get more focused on the accommodations aspect.
And more to the point, “a happy wife makes a happy life.”
She’s dying to have a home of her own on the farm, even if it is only a 96 square foot one.
Yes, I’m a lucky guy.
I see that the tiny house movement has become quite popular in the mainstream as well.
All around Willsboro, and Scotland I suppose, everyone calls them “wee houses.”
It seems more and more people are taking a second look at them.
People go the wee house route for many reasons.
Some folks go for the ecological benefits and for others it’s about simplifying and living with less in order to get more out of life.
Going tiny for us is purely economical.
It will allow us to get our agri-preneurial endeavor up and running over a shorter period of time and bring this farm back to life for all to enjoy.
“Just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it’s impossible” as the saying goes.
More to come … in the journey!
