The Green Mountain Dream

This year we are going to try and build a new place in Vermont.

We have owned a piece of property in Vermont now for a number of years. On the wooded lot there is a sixty year old hunting cabin. We have used the cabin each summer and sometimes into the fall but there is no central heart, just a wood stove.

The cabin sits next to a 100 acre "pond" which is the second highest elevated lake in the state. It offers a wealth of opportunity to observe nature at her finest.

A couple of years back we installed a septic system. Last year we drilled a well. This year we are working with an architect to develop some plans.

We will remove our belongings from the old place and start building a new place this summer.

Eventually, we would like to move there. “Why?” you ask?

Vermont offers a slower pace of life. It offers release from the hustle and bustle of an already crowded world. The biggest traffic jam I have ever experienced in Vermont was when Mike Michaud was moving his cows across the road from one pasture to another. It lasted all of 3 minutes before Mike smiled and wave me on. The rhythms of life are just slower and because of that the opportunities to enjoy life are more apparent.

Vermont offers good food. Good food can be found everywhere but Vermont is a real “foodie” state. In particular there is a strong effort in VT to eat locally produced products in season. I am a firm believer in eating what is available and not relying on trucking in food from around the world and country. Trucking food uses tremendous amounts of energy, is expensive and spreads disease. Eating what has been grown locally supports local farmers just like they were supported and appreciated 75 years ago in this country.

For us, Vermont offers friendship. We have a number of good friends in New England and being closer to them and sharing our lives with them is important to us.

Vermont offers beauty. The entire state is lovely but the region that we have chosen (the Northeast Kingdom) has vistas everywhere. Rugged mountains and quiet farming valleys frame a countryside that is as natural and rural as any in the country.

It’s a dream, a vision of the future. And it is important to dream dreams and have visions to motivate us in this life.

Langston Hughes wrote: “Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”