A Small Farm in Maine

I drop Garnet at jazz band rehearsal and pull up to a yard sale right next to the school. The women running it are avid stampers and I come away with a bag full of craft supplies and stamps and a book about Calligraphy for $1. I have bought many books over the years to teach myself calligraphy. The books stayed on the shelf . This time I bought the book telling myself it was for Sardius. He looked at it and said "hmmmmmmm".

On the way home I pulled into a nursery on the side of the road. I had no idea what I was walking into . Emerald would say that we walked into happiness and left with some of the happy on us. The greenhouses at this nursery were comfortably packed with the most gorgeous flowers...rows upon rows. Everywhere I turned I heard the whisper of potential. For the first time I allowed myself to buy a beautiful hanging basket of flowers and gorgeous red geraniums for the front planter. The day outside was swinging from sunny to blustery rain and back again.

I tell myself it will only be one yard sale for the weekend and yet as I pull into my neighborhood a small sign draws me down an alley and to the back of a garage. As I walk up to the sale, a mother and daughter greet me with "everything is 1/2 price!". Not much is left and as I turn to leave I see the bookshelves packed with books . A sign above reads "Paperbacks .25 Hardbacks .50".

I begin to go through the books and sigh with contentment as I see the possibilities in each one of them. I choose many knowing that the price is so low. I walk away with a box layered with books about nature and living off the land. The yard sale is held by a Biology professor from the university down the road and it is obvious by the books what her interests are...or were.

A Small Farm in Maine is a thin paperback with a pleasing cover. The book was originally 6.95. A sticker on the back has 3.48 + tax and another sticker on the front advertises 2.98. I have purchased it for 12.5 cents. I wonder at all the places this little book has traveled from the time it was first printed in 1988. Did everyone who had purchased it read it?

The subtitle on the front: How one couple built a self sustaining life in the country. I am intrigued and begin to read. The author, Terry Silber, draws me into the experiences that she and her family went through as they purchased this small farm and labored through the years. It is spring here in the north and Anonimo and I are excited to be out in the yard.

We bought our home 18 months ago. When we first saw the house it was June and the yard and flowerbeds were overgrown. We had never gardened and knew very little about caring for such a yard. I was a little overwhelmed at what it would take to bring the yard back to what it had been. That first spring , the weather kept us out of the yard on the weekends and we were already into June before we started weeding and trying to figure out what was growing everywhere.

Rose bushes lined the back yard on one side and large lilac bushes bloomed on the other side. Brick lined flower beds held flowers and weeds of every sort. I had no idea how to tell the difference between them. I am sure I pulled more flowers than weeds that spring. The only flowers I recognized were tulips.

That summer I learned that we had hostas. Lots and lots of beautiful hostas. I discovered that the beautiful little plant at the corner of the deck was a Bleeding heart. The front flowerbed unfolded flower after flower, many of which I still do not know what they are. It became obvious that the owner before us had loved to garden and had planted mainly perennials.

Fall came and the yard died down and was covered in a carpet of gorgeous yellow leaves. Winter arrived and covered everything in deep snow. Winter is long here, very long. I have anticipated the end of it for months now. After living through 2 winters here so far, nothing will keep me inside when the snow is gone. This year we were out into our yard and flower beds as soon as the last blizzard melted in late April.

A Small Farm in Maine was the perfect read for this time. I read of Silber's interest in growing things as I imagined what we could do in our yard. I looked at the few flowers we had purchased from the greenhouse and wondered if we even knew how to care for them. Silber wrote of hardening off her greenhouse plants by bringing them in at night and we went out into the night air to carry our precious purchases back into the kitchen.

We have been doing this every night this week....slowly getting the plants used to being outside. I look at the labels in each of the planters and wonder if it is possible that someday they will be familiar. I relate in a very small way to the story of the Silber's and their little farm and I am encouraged to enjoy the journey of getting to know our very small plot of ground that we call home.

As I am finishing the book, a folded newspaper article falls out of the back. It is dated Sunday December 13 1992. "They lived close to the land , beholden to no one" The article is about Helen Nearing, still living close to the land in Maine at 88 years of age. I had never heard of Scott and Helen Nearing. They had written over 50 books in their lifetime and I am sure to a certain set of people, their names are very well known. Scott Nearing lived with Helen in a small stone home they built together called the 70/90 house. She was 70 and he 90 when they built it. He was 100 when he died.

I have no desire to move to a rural farm. Or to become self sustaining. I am content in my suburban home with our little yard and a burgeoning interest in plants. I listen to the birds, I watch the trees change. I work the dirt and rake the leaves. It is our own. Our own small home.