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I think, given a choice, I would not like to come back in my next life as an earthworm. Worms have a lot of fine qualities and a truly amazing work ethic, but their ability to survive New England winters depends on encasing themselves in a blanket of slime and not eating for several months. I’d quit immediately.
Perhaps, I could learn to migrate to avoid the cold, but I’d have to figure out an alternate means of transportation and honestly, leaving isn’t really in my nature. After spending all

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Seeing the holidays in the rear-view mirror is not unlike getting over a virulent stomach bug. The relief of simply getting back to normal is so satisfying as to be positively transformative in nature. The gratitude, the deep contentment, the blissful solitude – it’s possible that I have just gained a whole new lease on life.
Our dogs have come out of hiding and are sound asleep - sprawled across the living room floor. Happiness for them is found in the simple things as well. Like being able t

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When we were kids, we were fortunate enough to be able to cut our own Christmas trees, and of all our holiday traditions, getting the tree was definitely my favorite.
We’d head out the back door and climb up the quarter mile path through the ravine to a grove of spruce trees that my grandmother had tasked my uncles with planting years before.
Our Christmas tree lot was deeply magical. The trees, by then, were magnificently tall, perfectly formed, and densely packed. We'd wander about and look

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Years ago, we built two stone cairns on our ridge that mark where the sun sets on the summer solstice to the north, and the winter solstice to the south. The distance between them represents the span the sun travels on the horizon as it sets each night throughout the year. The change in location from one night to the next is imperceptible, but in aggregate it becomes substantial. On the summer solstice, the sun sets in the center of our dining room window, and 6 months later it’s just shy of the

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I often refer to spring as our busy season, but really, we don’t have a non-busy season. Our life fluctuates between busy and extremely busy as we try to keep up with whatever each season has to offer - or throws at us. I’ve begrudgingly come to accept the fact that schedules are like closets – they just magically fill themselves up.
Wintertime, as marked by the first snow and consistently freezing temperatures, is always a bit of a relief as our life calms down to simply “less busy” and that

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If it were up to me, the first snow of the winter would be a national holiday. I’d be quite content to spend the whole day just wandering. A fresh pallet of snow which fell last night provided an instant story board of every animal that’s come along. It’s as if someone turned on the lights and we can finally see what’s been going on all around us.
The trail cameras we set up near our pastures are wonderful, but they only provide a tiny glimpse of the whole picture. We put the cameras up where I

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Oh, this rain!
It's barely made a dent in the drought we’ve had, but it’s still been good for this farmer’s parched soul. Our little brook is barely running, and the pond is still way too low, but it’s been enough to quench the fire hazard around us and for that I am deeply grateful.
Anne and I, and our nephew Dave, built a bridge this week on the old Clatter Valley Road which the Farmington Land Trust now owns. The previous bridge rotted away decades ago, and as our new bridge began to take

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Try explaining Daylight Saving Time to a dog - the fact that their dinner is suddenly delayed by an hour is a punishment they’ll never comprehend. I would think that of all the bewildering things that their human companions do - having clocks and changing them every 6 months must just about top the list.
Most people think Daylight Saving Time was implemented to help farmers, but don’t blame us, we are way too practical for that. Farmers plan their day around the sun- not the clock. It doesn’t

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When I head out to the barn each morning, I can’t help but take in the view from our ridgetop home. Farmington is blessed with so many trees that most of its houses are hidden under a canopy of leaves, so when I scan the valley, there is very little evidence of human “civilization.” That suits me just fine! The view is timeless, the feeling is tranquil, and I cherish the early morning solitude.
Once the weather turns cold though, there is always one sign of life that never fails to make me

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When we were kids, we were surrounded by aunts and uncles and 150 acres of pastures, old growth forest and a pond. The massive 200-year-old hemlock trees that dwelled in the forest, created a closed canopy and very little light ever reached the ground. There wasn’t much underbrush except for spring ephemerals, ferns and the occasional grape vine which somehow found its way up and through to the daylight above. The vines were as thick as a horse’s mane and if we held on

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