Often folks ask what I have been up to on the farm over the course of the year. I’m sure they want to know the highlights & big, more interesting things, not about how many holes I’ve dug. While the last couple of years have been big for me, it doesn’t really show on the farm. In some ways, it’s all I can do to just keep up with the chores. After all, we now have almost 7,000 trees on the farm, a far cry from the 2,000 we had when we started in 2013. That’s a lot more trees to shear and mow; a lot more time just doing the basics.
I’ve been busy nonetheless. Over the last couple of years, I have put a lot of energy into rehabbing my farmhouse barn to make it into my workshop, art studio, fabrication shop and office. It’s just down the road from the farm, so I have spent a lot of time going back and forth, working on both places. We bought the property in 2019 — and it is a dream. It’s a beautiful, spacious, antique farm house nicely situated on a small pond and tucked into the quiet woods of Barnstead. The original barn burned down in the 70’s (?), to be replaced with something with less history and aesthetic appeal. I have been working on making it into a great workspace for someone who works on just about everything. However, it is huge! Over 4,000 square feet over two floors. That means, every project is massive. For example, I put in over 50 windows. I can’t even guess how many 5 gallon buckets of paint — at least 20, but probably more.
One of the main things I was thinking about was insulation — with such a large space, I needed to keep it tight to manage heating the workspace. I added foam sheets to the exterior and spray foam to the interior. It took a new roof, window and doors. Interior partitions were made to minimize heat needs. Solar to power it all. Now, it’s finally close enough to finished to move my workshop and office in and begin using the space. I am quite thrilled, and I am eager to use my new workspace. Sure, there are a lot of extra tasks still to complete, but it has come a very long way.
What will I use it for? Who knows! Everything! But, really, my activities vary so much, everything is most accurate. I need some space to replace a tractor transmission this winter. I have some parts to weld for my truck. I make acoustic guitars. I make sculpture. I make furniture. I take photographs. I’ve got to store wood for all of it. I need practice and recording space for guitar. Hey, the list goes on. Come on by for a visit sometime to check out what I’m working on.
Yeah, but that’s not all. We have also managed to buy much of the surrounding forest around the house. It was a lot of work to figure all of it and manage the purchases, but we’ve low got all of the road frontage near the house on both sides that will help to maintain the quiet sanctuary of our place that makes it so special — over 50 acres now.
