|
Area: Meet
Us |
Topic: Homestead |
|
Article
: A Visit to
at Our Sanctuary
in Recent Years
Underwritten
by ______
(Would you like to have your company, organization
or your name listed here?) |
|
A few words from Anne &
Gary:
| Changing Our
Directions Again |
As the years passed, attendance at our workshops
lessened, and we found need to change
directions.
In 1980, Anne encouraged me to move out
on my own with a private counseling practice. She had a full-time job
with health insurance, and we joked about how I could sell vegetables from
the garden at a roadside stand if necessary.
|
|
| The entrance to our
sanctuary that would welcome many people during the years
of our counseling practice. |
|
|
I quit
my job at the mental health center and opened my practice,
using our home as my office. Within six months, I had
so many clients that Anne quit her position and joined me.
I suspect
our secluded setting probably had more of an effect on our
clients than we.
We both saw the
families that came for help. When their children were
included, Jenn, our daughter, joined the
sessions. |
|
All were comfortable and
non-threatened as we sat together in the living room warmed by the flames
in the fireplace, exploring new ways of relating and sharing.
A friend brought heavy
equipment in and dug us a pond on the edge of the swamp. Springs soon
filled the hole with 55 degree water, and we lived in it during the hot
summer days, feeling we had the best of all worlds.
We eventually built a wood
fired sauna on its banks and began our Saturday tradition of a sauna in the
afternoon following our garden work, walks in the woods or cross country
skiing during the winter.
During the early 1990's,
we began to do more and more with our music, and by 1995, we retired from
our counseling practice and became full-time road musicians.
1997 marked another change
as we remodeled the living room, turning it into studio with a digital
eight track control room. Two stories high with floor to ceiling
windows, this spacious new area, complete with its fireplace, was described
by one friend as a "musician's playroom"
|
|
|
Our "creation" room for
producing recordings, web sites. etc. |
|
|
|
Our outdoor "dining room"
where we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner (weather permitting) |
| The Land is Our
Sanctuary |
However, our real
"living room" has been our land. Through the years, we have
planted over 4,000 seedling trees and a wide variety of ground
covers.
|
|
|
Apple trees, now thirty years
old, also supply great climbing places for our grandkids. |
Rabbits, deer, and other wildlife have
moved in and share our sanctuary. A
wide variety of fruits and berries are produced by our plantings.
There seems to be an abundance of
produce, and we usually share our nourishment (with minor inconveniences)
with the four footed residents of our homestead.
All of this serves as a continual reminder
that choosing to take care of nature leads to nature taking care of us.
Our vegetable gardens, a source of beauty, also
supply us with fresh produce during the growing season. Potatoes,
carrots, and squash are stored in our root cellar to nurture us through the cold
of winter.
While our sanctuary requires
continual work and maintenance, the profits from our investment continue
to reward and provide food for our bodies and meaning for our lives.
SEND
this article to a friend!
|
This page is
underwritten by ___________
(Would you like to have your company, organization or your
name listed here?)
|
More history at HOMESTEAD,
EARLY YEARS
Top of page
Back to MEET
US
Index
|
