Our new northland

We bought land! Click the weeds to make them bigger. The open space is ours, plus the nearer of the trees. The hills beyond are not ours, but we do get to look at them. I intend to do that, a lot - when it rains, when it's sunny, when it's cloudily dramatic, when my eyelashes are weighed down with snow. I intend to do it with coffee, with whiskey, in my underwear, and while walking my ducks.

We've been making a lot of trips to Vermont. We've been looking at a lot of acres, talking and weighing and searching, and now, we've gone and done it. This ten acres of gently sloping, southern facing stumpy scraggly northland is to be our home! On Monday we picnicked there with my parents, and spilled a few drops of champagne on the soil. We heard a rooster crowing, and the wind in the pines, and not much else. I am already a little bit in love.

This is the beginning of a long haul for us. While there is already a lot on this land - chickadees, asters, balsam firs, bear poop - you might notice there is no house. So we have to put that there. I intend to document the process here, so if you'll stick with me for a couple years, you can see the "after" picture then. (We'll remain in Scranton, at least part time, until it no longer seems practical.)