The New Pioneers
(Page 3 of 8)
September/October 1971
By David Gumpert
Using books and manuals as guides, the Colemans constructed an 18-by-22-foot cabin, using cedar posts for a foundation and planks of rough-cut wood he bought from a lumberyard for the floor and walls. Eliot's tools: a hammer, saw, level and carpenter's square. Total cost: about $700 for materials.
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"We would have built it out of logs, but it was October and we thought it would be good to get out of the camper with winter approaching," says Eliot, almost apologetically. Logs would have had to be cut and would have taken longer.
The next spring was marked by the birth of Melissa, by natural childbirth and in the home—but with a doctor in attendance. It went without a hitch.
35 VARIETIES OF VEGETABLES
Since building the house, Eliot has concentrated on clearing more land of trees, using axes and other hand tools, and has so far cleared four acres. A half-acre has been planted with vegetables and fruit trees.
Today it's hard for a visitor from the city to imagine that the Colemans' house and garden and orchard were once part of the thick forest of fir and spruce that surrounds them. The homestead, named "The Greenwood Farm" and set about a quarter of a mile off a dirt road, is striking with its carefully arranged rows of vegetable plants and small apple and pear trees that make up the half-acre front yard.
The Colemans grow 35 varieties of vegetables, including parsnips, asparagus, spinach, kale and lettuce, as well as strawberries and cantaloupe. A few rows of plants are covered with sheets of thin glass held together by wires and known as "cloches." They are, in effect, portable greenhouses. The Colemans also have a small greenhouse built into the front of their house. All this allows them to get a jump on the short Maine growing season, about 140 days, by planting vegetables while snow is still on the ground.
"By the beginning of March, we were eating radishes and lettuce," says Eliot proudly.
UP AT 5:45 A.M.
Watching the Colemans at work on a typical day provides some insight into just how they have accomplished as much as they have. Eliot and Sue arise at 5:45 a.m. After dressing in his customary brown corduroy pants, green short-sleeved work shirt; red pullover sweater and brown rubber boots (because of the moist Maine weather that keeps the ground damp and muddy), Eliot heads out to a one-acre field behind the house to remove tree stumps.
Eliot chopped the trees down a year ago, but the 150 or so stumps must still be cleared before the field can be plowed for planting. With a full overhead swing he chops at the largest roots of a stump's base with an axe and then switches to a pick and hoe to further loosen the stump. Finally, wearing gray work gloves, he wraps his hands around the foot-thick stump and pulls it out with a heave.
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