Give It A Year, Day 30

The daylilies grow like wild flowers by the side of the road. I planted some in this water trough near the rock garden and they are very happy there. You just don’t know what will take and what won’t. Isn’t that the fun of gardening? The unknown? It’s always a surprise. I’m always surprised that the leaves remember to come back after a horendous winter. It looks so desolate and lonesome with barren trees, cold white snow, gray sky and frozen water. But on that one warm spring day a bud decides to adventure out of it’s safe little branch and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, the gardens are lush and green and mother nature remembers to do this every year. I find that amazing, especially after you’ve experienced the Siberia like winters that can occur. I love to downhill and cross country ski so I’m ok till it gets below zero!

Give It A Year, Day 29

I love the wild flowers that grow where ever they want. We have no control over this. Every year it’s different. Some years the plants grow as tall as you are. It’s like a jungle. It’s always fun to take a walk and check out what’s new, what’s old and all the things that change from year to year. It’s probably best to keep a journal but none of us have. The colors are vibrant and ever changing. If you were a painter, you’d love to study the land and paint it over and over. Monet’s gardens in Giverny remind be of the farm. Ever changing but consistently the same. When I go home nothing really changes but everything does. The changes are subtle. Not like in Los Angeles when a building is torn down and the whole look of the neighborhood changes. Don’t get me wrong, that’s fun, too. But there is comfort in going home and having most things be the same.

Give It A Year, Day 28

I like this photo of Liz because it’s a similar angle as the photo of Mikey with the Picnic Shelter in the background but this is a Yoga Retreat event. It’s a bit more serene. Maryjean is Liz’s mom and we grew up across the street from each other. Maryjean would come to the farm often when we were kids and it’s a natural progression for our kids to hang out at the farm. Liz, Peter and Andrew would spend summers here with my son, Rick. They would pick blueberries in the rain trying to get them before the birds would eat them all. I think that was the first thing they would do and the second was swim in the pond! It’s very humid in NY in the summer so the best place to be would be in the pond.

Give It A Year, Day 27

More fun in the pond! Mikey is like a little fish. I remember the relatives would watch us play and swim in the pond for hours. They would sit in the Picnic Shelter laughing, cooking, eating and enjoying themselves and we were oblivious to them. Cousins, friends- we’d all just hang out, swim, go on a hay ride, and the adults were having as much fun as we were. I’m going to find some old photos of them. What an incredible place! We were and are so fortunate to be able to enjoy nature and share our good fortune. Our dad set it up to be a wonderful escape from reality and we’re continuing the tradition. I hope our kids are having as much fun on the farm as we did growing up so they will want to keep it in the family. I said to Joe recently, tell us a project you want to do and we’ll help you get it done. We’ve been telling the kids what to do as we put on the addition and expanded to fit our family. We added the great room, decks, fixed up the tenant house so we could rent it and they saw and heard us plan, argue and complete. Hopefully, we’ve been good role models so they know how to complete their projects.

Give It A Year, Day 26

There’s always work to do at the farm and the goats like to help. Here’s Paul building the dock. Joe, Chee’s son, is helping. We love spending time in the pond and we’re always trying to find the best way to enjoy it. John Fitzgerald, one of the first farmers to rent the farm, along with our dad made the first raft out of drums and a wooden deck. They used to rock it back and forth till they tipped it over. It was so fun seeing these two grown men act like teenagers. We cheered them on. Luckily, no one ever got hurt. John also gave us hay rides during family picnics. Eventually, John bought his own farm down in Cattaraugus on Lovers Lane. Our dad was proud that he could help him get on his feet and afford to start his own business. Farming is difficult and our dad referred to himself as a gentleman farmer.

Give It a Year, Day 25

This is another angle of the east side. See how soft and misty it looks across the valley? It looks like a Ralph Lauren photo advertisement without the horse and the beautiful model in Lauren riding jacket, jodhpers, riding boots, crop, Hermes saddle and a picnic basket. That’s what I see. Or a plane landing on a well manicured runway. You decide on the make and color of the plane. It’s fun to walk around the property and let your imagination run wild. Remember the Harry Chapin song, “she was going to be an actress, I was going to learn to fly, she took off to find the footlights, I took off to find the sky”? That’s what happened to me. I think of that when I go home. We talked about a landing strip at the farm and flying in from exotic places. It’s fun to dream.

Give It A Year, Day 24

There are some wonderful jogging paths on the east side. It’s more difficult to get to this area but well worth it! We had the east side logged a few years ago which was the impitus to keep the trails clear. It’s another little magic spot on this earth that few know about. It would be wonderful to ride a horse here, one of my goals in life. Sometimes Idon’t know whether I’m getting futher away or closer to my goals, but I keep moving forward wondering where forward is taking me. Anyway, we used to prune Christmas trees nearby and this is where our property borders Smith’s line. When we were very young, Chee used to think it was Smith’s lion and she was a little nervous about coming this far away from the farm house. The imagination of children is fascinating, isn’t it?