December 2007
Dear Family & Friends,
Happy holidays, warm wishes and friendly greetings from our cozy living room in the Adirondacks, where the woodstove is glowing rosy with wood we hove, and the holiday cards are stacked up like cedar shakes. As we write each card & address each envelope we think of you, and thinking of you brings back happy memories. Please enjoy this holiday newsletter from John & Martha, and stay in touch.
F
ARM – the literally biggest news is that John and friends built a 30 by 60 foot log barn by hand with local wood. The new barn is home to a 600-pound heritage breed boar, five sows, and assorted younger pigs, around 40 right now. In another outbuilding we have 40 egg-laying hens and one rooster named Teach after the David Mamet character. I have dusted off the gardening skills my parents taught me and learned how to can from my sister Liza. Yellow House Farm sells and barters pork, chicken & eggs. You can look us up on the internet. Our little cold-climate farm is growing. Next year we hope to – gasp – turn a profit of at least $1.JOBS – we are both employed at the Lake Placid boarding schools that hired us from NYC. John is Assistant Head of School at
National Sports Academy where he teaches English, does college counseling, and leads the faculty & administration. He is helping the organization go through a strategic planning process. I am director of development at
North Country School & Camp Treetops where I am helping that institution get on a firm financial footing in its 80-somethingth year. We very much like our niche in independent schools.
HOUSE & HOME – We painted our
big old farmhouse house yellow, to the disapproval of some old timers who said, “It’s been white for near on 200 years.” We have also been told our house has never flooded, which is believable as it is the oldest structure in our town and sits just 50 feet from the Ausable River, which does flood in a most terrifying way in the spring thaws. We love our house and enjoy it being a local landmark. In this part of the Adirondacks there are always athletes on the road bicycling, roller-skiing, running, and we have heard them say, “Here we are at the yellow house.”
We have also heard passersby say, “Holy crap, that’s a real pig pen!”On another note, much to our mutual surprise, John and I have tumbled into a protestant
church community, and we like it a lot. John has been appointed to the board and I have started playing with the hand bell choir. We are still dyed-in-the-wool liberals, and, providentially, so is this faith community that decries homophobia, racism, sexism, classism and other forms of oppression. That said, we love to go to church on Sundays. Afterwards John likes to socialize and network, while I prefer to go right home and have a Sunday snooze…we are different that way.
VOLUNTEERING – John is a firefighter and treasurer of our hamlet’s fire department. I am trustee and secretary to the town library and volunteer for two local arts groups. This year I started a
writers’ collective (a la Takoma Park, Northampton, Williamsburg Bklyn & other groups) in our town. I will have mailed your holiday card by the time our group has its culminating performance on December 15th at the Upper Jay Recovery Lounge.
FUN – We have a big elderly yellow lab named Cruiser and three adopted stray cats who keep the house mouse-free. John has developed a passion for crossword puzzles. I am still a voracious reader. We both devour the weekly New Yorker magazine. We have made many
good friends up here in the wilderness and are never lonely. The scenery is always gorgeous and ever-changing and keeps us enthralled.
And yes, the pigs consume our attention.
Best wishes for you & yours in 2008 and beyond.
Warm regards from Martha, John & many animals!
more barn chores. Our back field did flood, right up to the bonfire mound, which is at the edge of the pigs’ paddock. The river did rise to nearly road-level, but only stayed that high for half an hour or so before some ice jam broke somewhere, and it left ice cakes behind. Today I learned that ice jams grow and crack up, they form on the river here and there, and in between are long stretches of normal-looking water.
