House for Sale in Vermont

This is it.  The house is going up for sale, I think this weekend.  I signed off on the papers yesterday and Tara, from Beeman Reality is going up on Saturday to get the listing ready.  The views are incredible and there is a beaver pond, deer yard and baby sugar bush on the property.   Anybody want to buy a really great place in Vermont?

Fingers crossed that it will move and I can continue to move forward as well.  There are tons of houses that are being listed now, but we priced our house to move, sacrificing the actual investment value, hopefully for time.

If you know of anyone who would like to live in northern Vermont, smack between Stowe  and Smugglers,  please pass this along.

If you know of anyone who is looking for a home with nature trails on 20 acres and a beaver meadow where deer, moose and the occasional bear comes to visit, please pass this along.

If you know of anyone who would like to live where you can’t hear the highway, see a street light, and craves the sound of wind in the trees vs. humanity all around, pass this along.

If you know anyone who would like a home with hardwood floors in the Master bedroom from first growth timber hauled up from Moosehead lake in Maine and from the forests in Vermont, please pass this along.

If you are looking, we are selling!  Give Tara a shout out.

Farm Show

Yesterday was the last day of the Vermont Farm Show up at the Barre Civic Center.  Extension and UMV are all over it and I was stationed in two booths,  AgrAbility in the morning and Extensions in the afternoon.   I was not too psyched about the day, it just rubs my nose in the fact that I don’t have my sheep anymore.  And not having my sheep is a bit of a sore spot.   But I sucked it up and figured that I would have fun just talking with new people and finding out their stories and catch up with some Extension folks that I like a lot but don’t get to see too much.

So kinda at the end of the day, when I was just being a bit of myself,  I was yacking with Tony Kitos about what he does and thinking about a farm that could use his help, when this dude in a suit comes by and starts chatting with Tony.   I introduce myself, as we are all standing right there and ask him if he s a farmer, which we all know he isn’t ‘cus of the suit.  Plus he had really nice shoes, which told me that he was from away.   Turns out he is Andre Denis Wright, chair of the Department of Animal Science at Groovy U-vy and is a pretty down to earth, normal kind of guy with a sense of humor.

Then he mentions that he has been in Aussie land for the past 12 years, via Nova Scotia, and he has been studying SHEEP.  and and and better than that,  Merinos.  Yes Merinos and then he tells me that he wants to bring Meat Merinos to the Miller farm, now that the cows are gone.   Well…. now we are talking!    He talks a bit about working with a flock that had an 11 micron wool clip,  he talks about developing vaccines to reduce methane production in sheep…. and wants to do the same at UVM. And I want in.

He said that he was gonna check out the blog, I gave him this address….. we will see what his follow though is like.   This could be really exciting, imagine…..Merinos at UVM…..

leaving it up

Last weekend I went riding (as in snow mobile) with Zoe and Andy Skelton. Andy just so happens to be a Word Press dude and writes the code for the blogging program, so any opportunity to pick his brain about my little old blog was welcome.

He suggested that I keep the Black Ram Farm blog up.  Yes Chris Baumann, you are correct and I was wrong. Andy said that since I am still getting a  lot of traffic on this site, to keep it somewhat active and as I begin the publishing phase of writing, to keep most of the content up and then once the book is actually out there, to then leave snippets up.

Last night I was having pizza with Anne and Bill Hogan over in Shelburne.  Anne has edited several children’s books and Bob has a pretty good mind about business.  He liked the idea of the published version of Black Ram Farm (and Mr. Toes finds a Home) and thought it best to find a publisher rather than self publishing. Lesley Alexandra Jump Baumann, heads up, you are gonna have to get the Mr. Toes sketches going!

So now out to the universe:  I am looking for a publisher to publish and market my book.   Any help would be appreciated.

So now in a quandary about Owl Tavern. Maintaining one blog is enough and I do like the new name and new direction.  So for now I will be keeping farm and fiber related things on this blog and all other, not so relevant or potentially boring writings about my little life up on the other blog.

Blogging schedule:  2-3 posts per blog weekly, rotating from blog to blog depending on how interesting life is.   This should be fun

Owl Tavern

Here it is folks:   Owl Tavern New blog and new address.   You can find all the new posts at http://www.alexandrajump.wordpress.com

Owl

Yesterday on my way up to Bub’s place, I saw a beautiful owl land in a snow-covered tree.  I watched for a good 10 minutes until it floated off into the woods.  What a treat, an owl sighting in the middle of the day. What now it the message?

Owls are the bridge between death and rebirth, flying silently in the dark of night.  I have been moving through a death of sorts and am now feeling new life on the horizon as I settle in my new home.   The house has  been busy this past week and with Lulu’s departure, I am feeling a need to finish nesting.  My office and writing space is still in shambles, but most of the pictures are up and dishes are generally put away.

UVM gives us the week off between Christmas and New Years, however I am heading into the office today to tie up loose ends with work, which should have been completed before now.  I managed to get into work over the past few weeks, but the quality was certainly lacking with my mind on other things.

Other things like moving, getting my finances in order and getting ready for full-time work at Extension.  I hopefully will get a job description and a pay grade the first of the year and will be blogging 75% of my time and continuing farm safety stuff the remaining 25%.   No graduate classes this winter, I need to practice being still in my new space.

The business of the season and the change over at Solstice has me moved into a better direction.  The owl reminds me that when one part of our life dies off there is opportunity for new life to begin.