Category Archives: Vermont

Summer Dreaming

So we have this beautiful kitchen stove for heating and cooking and love it! It’s like having a campfire in the kitchen, it’s the feeling of vacation every time we use it. It is VERY warm and heats the whole house without any problem and not a lot of fuel.

This works wonderfully for 3 seasons of the year – but now it is summer. I would like to eventually replace the gas stove in the basement with this stove.   Something smaller that we can easily use to have a quick fire to cook a meal, bake bread or pizza,  brew a pot of coffee (this comes to mind as another plug in coffee maker is about to die and need replacing)  Most importantly – it will not heat the whole house.

We do a little at a time and I find this blog useful for me to keep track of ideas and dreams, so I can go back and review how we did things, remember what worked and what didn’t and the direction we are always moving in.  There is still a dream of a vacation place in Vermont where the small cabin I have in mind would easily be heated by this smaller stove or something similar.  It’s a good reminder of why I work as hard as I do and why everything of value is worth saving for and waiting for. The 8-5 isn’t forever and when it’s done there will be a perfect retreat to enjoy and a mature garden to rest in.
Every day I stand in the garden and look around to see what is growing and what is new in the garden. I stop to observe the different insects, birds and animals that are around me. But what really matters is that I see the garden – at least the foundation of it – at maturity. With all of the fruit trees at 10-15 feet – the Paw Paw at 20 ft. The bushes grown in at 4-12 feet depending on the fruit or nut. I see the perimeter of the garden surrounded by a wall of grapes.
This is what keeps me going every day. This is the dream and vision – to have this place work into a state of abundance to share with people.