This weekend the clocks will spring ahead (that’s how I remember which way to turn them) and we will begin to gain daylight into the evening hours. The mercury has climbed out of the negative digits and I can feel the increased warmth from the sun. We have had evenings of rain instead of snow…
Author: Melissa Perley
Finding Your Farm
We climbed into the truck yesterday morning and headed north to Shelburne farms, one of my favorite places on earth. Before leaving we checked temperatures for the day and, knowing that we were going to be in a barn for about three hours, began layering up. There are odd little things that Vermonters take pride…
Leaning In
Tuesday I pulled on mud boots to head to run errands. The temperature had climbed into the fifties and the warmer sun began to melt the skim off the top of the road, enough so that there were deep ruts to navigate. As I drove through downtown I noticed a few people wearing shorts, they…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Cold
In the summer months, heading out to do morning or evening chores means sliding on some barn boots. In just a few minutes we can be up to our knees in straw, hay or poop. In the winter months it takes time to prepare ourselves to greet the cold: it is all about the layers;…
C is for Cello, Chocolate & Comparison
My studio has two recitals a year, without fail. We have our winter recital after the holiday-hoopla and then spring recital in late May. Last year our two recitals were both virtual. This year, as did most people, we zoomed into the new in-person fall semester full of hope for a “normal” season. I don’t…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Losing A Farm Hand
The year is brand new and, as we turn the page of the calendar, the cold arrives. There are two kinds of cold; December cold which is moist: you can smell the possibility of snow but that can, just as easily, foretell rain, The weekend before Christmas we had a rainstorm that, because the temperature…
Bending Perspective
The wind began to pick up in the early evening: I went out, like I do every evening, to check animals: chickens were contentedly clucking on their nighttime roosts, slightly disgruntled at my turning on the light. The sheep, repeatedly chewing dinner, looked up at me, hope in their eyes that I might have come…
Auditioning: For What & What For
‘Tis the season: Latkes and applesauce, caroling, Christmas trees, winter boots, Poinsettias and… auditions. As an instructor, it can be challenging to convince kids, who are looking forward to some time off from the pressures of school, that it is a good thing to work twice as hard at their instruments this time of year….
Gratitude
Driving home last evening we noticed several houses with holiday lights strung. It surprised me because most years we are one of the earliest to decorate, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Paul chuckled as I swore competitively each time we saw a sparkling house. I admit there was a temptation to get home and begin…
Musicians Farming Sheep: The Nature of Change
Two weeks ago, as we watched the squirrels outside busily gathering nuts, we were casually beginning the preparations for the upcoming cold season. As I walked by the bar in the kitchen I would jot down a task or two that I remembered needed doing in the near future. With Muir watching from a window…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Yes, It Is My Favorite
When you live in a state that celebrates five seasons (I live on a dirt road: mud season is real) it is difficult to choose a favorite. We start the seasonal calendar in the spring which in VT means June. We sugar in March so some call that spring, but in reality if you gather…
Musicians Farming Sheep: The Need For Rest… And Balance
I received an email yesterday from a student/friend. She mentioned that the man who delivers her hay was looking to re-home a five year old sow named Tea Cup. Apparently Tea Cup could actually fit into one, at some point, but that time has long passed. It seems a fairly common story that people see…
Bounty
Driving down our dirt road I am beginning to see the first signs of leaves turning. At first one puts it down to only the weakened maples beginning to change, but then I started noticing tinges of orange and yellow dotting entire hillsides. At home and on the farm it is the busy season. We…
What Does It Take?
My summer teaching schedule is lighter… by design. Summers in VT are short. We burn off the morning chill with our wood stove in the early days of June and will begin lighting small, poplar fires in the late days of August. That kind of short. We know that our warm days are limited so…