Early Autumn Report

Schools are back in session and the early fall heat is rolling over the northeast. Our inseparable pair of wayward turkeys are gone, “turk” and “menistan,” as Mark named them, most likely a late-night dinner for the bobcat that has been hanging around the farm.

Most days Nathaniel is working on a house or at New Dawn Farm (this week he was indoors hanging drywall and outdoors pulling spent tomato plants); Ellinore is spiking volleyballs in the gym, balancing honors chemistry and algebra, and just yesterday asking her dad to read aloud Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” that she is reading for her junior-level government class. She has been riding the horses as best she can, but with school underway her schedule has tightened.

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Mark clearing brush and vines, and sweating profusely, at the edge of the orchard on a ninety degree day before a swim in the cool waters of the pond

Rebecca and Mark are going about their respective professional duties and finding time to work around the house. (Mark’s theory is that without the farm chores and the garden, there would be no time for the farm chores and garden.) We are clearing brush again, picking up where Mark left off last summer, and gathering firewood. There is also a movement afoot–sparked by a visit from the landscape designer Gordon Hayward–to do some work on the yard. So there is lots of visioning and talking and visioning again: trees and stones and walls and garden beds and so on. More on this project when the project gets underway.

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A suitable rig for a suitable boy: Nathaniel at the end of the day at New Dawn Farm

And so there you have it in a nutshell: in brief, life is full of challenges and rewards, things to improve, things to be thankful for.

Rebecca preparing the mint and lime for a favorite fall afternoon preparation: mojitos!
Rebecca preparing the mint and lime for a favorite fall afternoon preparation: mojitos!
Winter preparations: one of the new registers for the heating duct openings in the floor
Winter preparations: one of the new registers for the heating duct openings in the floor

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