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January 11

  • Posted on January 11, 2015 at 4:08 pm

IMG_0458So it’s not the greatest photo, it was taken through the screen on the door, but that was sunrise on the mountain this morning.

We had our first real visitors here this weekend! The Husband’s parents came up for Dad’s birthday. We had a lovely time, I think they did too. We did a couple of lovely dinners in town, and got a chance to show them some of the beauty of the area, and why we’re so enamored with living up here. They got lucky and we had a really nice clear night, so we all got a chance to look out at the stars which were amazing!

Next weekend we have our first friends visiting. My oldest friend, we’ve known each other since before we were born six weeks apart, truly, as our mothers have been friends since they were little girls and they were pregnant together.

It’s been mind-numbingly cold up here and across most of the east coast so I can’t really complain too much that it’s a whole 25 degrees out now, with a high of around 30 all week.

Some things I’m grateful for:

a wood stove and a Husband who doesn’t mind tending it

warm socks

a heated mattress pad so I can get into a toasty bed

a view out my windows that continues to enchant me and make me grateful we did this

the abundance and beauty of Nature, just outside my door.

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January 3

  • Posted on January 3, 2015 at 4:29 pm

Some days I’m grateful for the little things- like having my sleep meds prescription refilled so I can actually get some uninterrupted sleep at night! It’s such a lovely change of pace from getting up two, three, or four times a night after I finally manage to fall asleep.

Today was just another mundane day of errands- drop off recycling at the dump, pick up a package from the post office, then down into the city to go grocery shopping. On the way back we stopped at the HUGE general store in the area and got some things for the house and the Husband. I’ve determined that I don’t like their sandwiches as much as the ones from the Dorset Union Store. Then we stopped at the butcher to pick up the 10 pounds of chicken breasts we forgot yesterday. I put up a batch of ratatouille in the crock pot, this time with mushrooms and eggplant. Last time, my first time making it, was good. I’m hoping for better this time around.

Dinner tonight is just going to be tacos and maybe some roasted veggies. Keeping it simple after today’s energy expenditure. Because my sciatica hurts like a bear right now, has for the last couple of days.

It’s started to snow up here already. We weren’t expecting it for another couple of hours. We should get 3-4″ tonight, before it turns to rain, gets warm and washes away.

The picture is out of the front door just a few minutes ago after the snow had started.

IMG_0441

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January 2

  • Posted on January 2, 2015 at 2:29 pm

I took today off from work, since I have some vacation time still to burn. We ended up needed to get some emergency work done on the house and the access to the attic is in my office so I spent most of the day on the couch doing a whole lot of nothing. N0t necessarily a bad thing to do on a vacation day, but not what I had intended.

We had a brief snow squall come through in the morning, which dropped about an inch. It was lovely to look at but made me every grateful I was inside.

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The big adventure for the day was heading up the road to Bill the butcher to pick up my rather large order. Came home and vacuum sealed everything, at least till I ran out of bags. So now in addition to the ground meat and chicken breasts we had before, I’ve got a chicken and some wings to make soup, a boneless turkey breast, a brisket, and some short ribs. I got an upright freezer for my birthday and it is almost filled with yummy goodness- not to mention a stash of frozen pizza for the nights we don’t want to cook! Now all I have to do is start making recipes where I can freeze one portion or more for later! I’ve got no problem with leftovers- they usually make a great lunch the next day over some couscous or quinoa. But I’d be happy to forgo leftovers to get a food stash going.

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Welcome 2015!

  • Posted on January 1, 2015 at 4:40 pm

So the rest of 2014 whirred by in a head-spinning frenzy. We closed on the house and moved to Vermont. We rented the house in NJ and have, until just a few days ago, been dealing with remediating a house full of black mold. Nope, didn’t know it was there when we were; we only found out the day AFTER we moved, when the new renters were coming in to get the house ready to be painted. So that’s been three months of an unexpected and very expensive hell.

Vermont is all sorts of loveliness. The view from my front windows is enough to take my breath away on a nearly daily basis. Watching the changing faces of the mountains, every day is different. And stunning. And reminds me of why we did this.

It’s most definitely been an adjustment. There is nothing- NOTHING- within walking distance or even “close by.” There is nothing open 24 hours. The post office won’t deliver packages to the house and half the time neither will the other carriers, if they can’t get up the driveway, so we get deliveries to a shop down the road and go pick them up. No running out to the store for something you forgot. I forgot to buy heavy cream the last time I was out (sorry, Husband!). The supermarket was out of it and I forgot when I went into the local store. Nope, can’t just run back out and grab it; it’s 15 minutes away. But there’s peace and quiet like I have rarely experienced. And the beauty and wonder continues to enchant me. Despite everything I know unquestionably that this has been the right thing to do.

The big question is…..what does 2015 have in store for us?

For me, probably a new job- either with the same or a new employer. Better health- being out of the moldfest we didn’t even know about has to be helping, as does cooking more of our own meals (and better quality take-out when we do get from places!). Less financial stress would be nice. Selling the NJ house for a decent and fair price. Settling in and creating our life up here (which we’ve started on quite nicely!). Better contact with friends. And hopefully better and greater things that I can’t even imagine right now!

 

It’ll be an interesting year, that’s for sure!

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