A Lamentation for Summer…

Our farm is located geographically in an area of nearly unmatched beauty. We are surrounded by almost as much wilderness as it is possible to be without feeling disconnected from the outside world altogether. Things feel balanced here. Admittedly the advent of broadband internet access and satellite TV obviously play no small part in that feeling of connectedness to the world at large. That we have the best of both worlds is something which would not have been possible as recently as 20 years ago here in Vermont. We know this for a fact as we both grew up here. While still a glorious place to raise a family it is significantly less boondocky now than the VT of our childhood, to say nothing of the VT of our parents’ youth.

One reality of the life we have chosen to live though is that every September, immediately after Labor Day, our day to day schedule always takes a turn for the slightly crazy with the start of the school year and the related extracurricular activities. As anyone who lives a rural existence can tell you, living at a distance from civilization has a price: in our case we can measure it in miles, hours spent in the car, and gallons of fuel consumed. Instead of the mellow days of June, July, and August spent here with the boys mowing, working in the barns with the alpacas, weeding the garden, or even just reading a book (rare but possible), we are back to the grind of commuting some 20 miles each way to school alone (that’s 2 hours in the car per day) sandwiched around whatever it is that needs to happen here on the farm. Add to those hours an additional haul to the soccer field to be named later in the early evening and that’s a goodly chunk of the day right there. It requires a big mental adjustment, though one which 12+ years into parenthood (Sam has been going to the same private school since Nursery) we are more or less used to making. With someone’s soccer practice every weeknight, plus games on the weekend, I think I may finally break down and invest in a mobile 3G card for my laptop. Coming soon: CCNF Chronicles-The Pitchside Edition! Might as well embrace the insanity.

The photos below were taken about 10 days ago on a quite Sunday afternoon.  Though we don’t normally involve the boys in our haying operations (kids + haying equipment makes me nervous) we were short handed that day on the farm and they were insistent. As I chucked the hay off of the wagon (hence the camera angle) Sammy loaded the freshly cured bales onto the hay elevator and it was his little brother (photo #2) who passed them off to his mother and the rest of the crew waiting up in the loft.

Though we were sorry to have to move this year’s National Elite auction out of Virginia (the 2010 event will be in Oklahoma City the weekend of 11/6) the simple truth is that doing so kind of gave our little family its summer back. In addition to all the excellent time we spent together here on the farm enjoying our first full summer since completing our new house last year, we were also able to get away on a family trip to Kenya and Tanzania in June, the memories of which will stay with all of us forever.  None of that would have happened with a major event staring us down the first weekend of August. All in all it was just a really wonderful few months, now onward and upward we go….