september 11

first off, the basics: the family i am staying with is amazing. the couple lived in manhattan for twenty years or so, but lack the typical new yorker edge. they are very welcoming, very friendly, and, in short, very much the image i have of vermonters, minus the hippie-ness. their son is a hyper-active ten year old who is bringing out all of the child that i've suppressed in me. he also wants me to go shoot his potato cannon with him later tonight--so obviously i love the dude. their dog, apple, is a beautiful golden retriever who fits every farm-dog stereotype you can imagine. she runs next to you, is never fenced in or on a leash and yet never runs away, she'll never snap at anyone, and she doesn't really even beg.


and the farm is the most picturesque place i have ever seen (minus maybe that bend in the road right  near maple view farms when the corn is fully grown and the sun is setting). it's on a mountainside looking into the valley before all of the good skiing mountains. in addition to all the animals, the apple orchard, the vegetable gardens, and the bee hives, there's a swimming hole and blueberry and raspberry bushes. it's amazing. i was actually woken up by a rooster, staring out of my window across the mountains as the sun was rising. it's so much different than being woken up by eighteen wheelers revving their engines and laying on their horns.


the work today was interesting as well. i went around and fed the animals, let them out, gathered eggs, and, yes, shoveled some shit. but then i spent most of the time helping robert find the pipe that leads from their spring to the house, because it's leaking somewhere and the house is low on water. and by "helping find," i mean i helped drive a backhoe to dig an eight foot deep hole in his front yard. i went from a coffee shop in brooklyn to driving a backhoe in a day.


but, i have to say, i do miss brooklyn a bit already. it's great having so much to do and to not have to spend any money, but i was becoming accustom to the brooklyn way of life. nevertheless, this place is ridiculously beautiful. it's been in the low seventies all day and it was in the forties last night, in addition to all the sights. i could definitely be happy staying here for a month or so.


there's a dinner party in the makings right now, though, so i'm go join in. but, i do want erryone to know that my phone has no service to speak of here, so i'm limited to email until tuesday when i go back to brooklyn.


addendum: this dinner party included boxed wine, that potato gun, chicken mushrooms--which are amazing--spaghetti squash, and, more or less, the best meal i've had in years. the guests included me, eric--the guy who drove me up here--and a gay couple who run a gay-only bed and breakfast and who, i think, are friends with the rockefellers. this place is crazy.