From Urbanites to Country folk... in Just Eight Years

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The ponies yarded another 20 cords of pulp and 10 cords of firewood for our neighbor, who has been so impressed with their performance that he now says he may buy his own team! We've tried to discourage him, though. (Otherwise, Chub and Patch won't be able to earn their hay!)

1983

Although our vegetable seedlings continued to sell well, we didn't start the bedding plants early enough for the flower enterprise to be fully successful. We added a strawberry patch and an asparagus bed to the garden ...and the apple and cherry trees we planted years ago finally began to produce. There was no new construction in 1983, but we do plan to build a sugarhouse in the near future.

1984 UPDATE

Mike and Michelle are away in school now, but they both help us with various projects (such as splitting wood) when they're home. Since our nest is now empty most of the time, Claudia and I have become licensed foster parents and eagerly look forward to meeting our first "new" child.

As a result of last spring's experience, we sowed bedding plants in mid-January so we could have blooms for sale by Mother's Day. Since the unseasonably cold winter kept us from opening the greenhouse that early, we had wall-to-wall growing flats in our house.

The toy business is going so well (over $2,000 in sales in 1983) that I'm working overtime to produce enough stock for a series of summer craft shows, store outlets—including a Boston department store!—and the 1984 Christmas season.

Despite her new responsibilities as a nursing supervisor, Claudia finds time to sew all of Michelle's dresses, make butter and cottage cheese, and design Christmas tree ornaments to sell during the holidays. (By the way, the rug we started braiding in 1980 is still in progress. We should be able to finish it up as soon as we get some more wool discards this summer.)

Looking back, we have to agree that our rural homestead has been worth all the hard work and the sacrifices through the years. We now eat 75% off the land ... swim, backpack, and canoe in our spare time ... relax on our front porch in the quiet of the evening while listening to the haunting cry of the loon from a nearby lake ... and revel in the fulfilling, self-reliant lifestyle we have created for ourselves—in just eight years.

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