It is a lovely day…not quite spring but not winter either. I am sitting on the front porch of my old house listening to the train come along the tracks. The whistle blows just at our property and I can’t get enough of it. It’s part of the soundtrack of this place and the rhythm of the clattering cars is reassuring somehow.
After a week away and then two days in Williamsburg to get caught up on laundry and life, I am back at the farm and ready to stay. The main house has a useable kitchen and bathroom that just need a really good scrubbing. We sleep and hang out in the cottage as it is easier to warm and have created a little living area amidst the clutter of tools and supplies. A little shuffling between the two houses, but it works and is certainly preferable to shuffling between the burg and the farm. I knew going into this adventure that I would not be good at living in two places as I’ve never quite been able to imagine people who have weekend homes.
I am a homebody and very much a creature of habit. I have a morning routine. I have an evening routine. And, I suppose I’m showing my aspberger’s when I say that, if those routines get disrupted for more than about a week, I get cranky. It’s been ten days since I left for Pennsylvania. I love my visits with stops at the farmer’s markets and favorite restaurants, but the already difficult reentry was more complex as I had to decide where to go–burg or farm–and ended up splitting the difference by moving between both places and back in the space of 24 hours. Add a client with a last minute programming project and I’ve been a little shaky.
But, as my car slid onto the noon time ferry today, and I saw the newly-arrived osprey land on a piling, I felt some calm returning. I packed to stay. Internet access is still a little wonky, but I think I can run the webinar from here. Mostly, I need to declare one residence rather than trying to live in two. And for now, the house needs the work. I’m loving puttering in my library! I’m going to experiment with scanning bar codes this afternoon as I clean shelves and stack books. Even cleaning the kitchen and bathroom seems downright fun as it makes so much difference in our quality of life.
The previous owner’s daughter stopped by with her husband and son and we chatted about the farm and books. He has offered to plow the field for our garden and will do soybeans on the bulk of the farm. Our realtor lives in the next county and has ideas for forming an informal coop. So, we seem to be settling right in. Now, if I could just find a drive-through ATM.
I knew I would fall in love with this place, but it’s happening sooner than I thought. There is something to do all the time, but there are also moments to savor. I am a bit less connected as I have to tether my phone, so I am better able to monitor my email and work in general. I find I do it in chunks and then put it away to concentrate on something else. We haven’t brought a television so I have lots more free time from the sometimes mindless surfing I do. We listen to a lot more music and stream NPR news and that seems to be enough media for right now.
I’ve been reading nonstop and I watched most of the HBO John Adams series yesterday as I wrote code and played with databases. There is much to report about how important it is for us to understand our current partisanship in light of our early history. I’m also going to commit a bit of heresy by suggesting that I didn’t really like Diana Galbadon. But that’s all for another post.
Bob just headed down the driveway in his pickup, Tina Turner the beagle riding shotgun. It is time for me to head inside and do some of my own work.
