(my mom, my dog, me)
I don't consider myself a country person at all, I don't like bugs! I don't like MUD!
Like Lou Reed said
"When you're growing up in a small town
You know you'll grow down in a small town
There is only one good use for a small town
You hate it and you know you'll have to leave."
I remember kids riding snowmobiles to my school, and kids with cowsh!t on their boots (dairy farm families, they had to milk cows first thing in the morning THEN go to school). There were 30 some kids in the graduating HS class: the whole school district, every single student, fit into one k-12 building.
Sure, I live only an hour away from there, but I got out to the first city I could, living in Miami, Boston, NY and eventually Chicago for several years in my 20s. What I LOVE about Ithaca is that we are the 6th borough of NY city :)
(which means we ignore the miles of countryside between here and there, drink a lot of dark roast coffee and read the NY Times;)
I absolutely love pretty countryside, trees, hills, etc, and like to hike in it but would go crazy if I had to live in it.
My parents have a small farm just 42 miles from us. It is surrounded by thousands of acres of woods.
They don't farm anything, and my dad uses the barn as a converted painting studio (see below!) upstairs, their tractor downstairs. They have a river (see below!) and a pond (impossible to see...deep snows and ice covering it) but there are old apple orchards and you can see that a neighboring farmer cuts their 33 acres of hay and that the Christmas tree farm of the 1970s has become the PINE FOREST of now....
Anyway, it is a total treat to visit there and see the deer and bunnies and feel rugged in snow not quite up to your nose...
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10 comments:
It looks so beautiful there!
It is a balance living out. Our kids are now city people. When their friends come here they just shake their heads. I love both the farm and the city.
Hi Gary's mom...and Penny. Lovely farm...what a great place to grow up...so glad you did big cities too.
Penny appears to love the outdoors everywhere--lots to explore on the farm. Love the barn and the scenery.
We often talk about the whole city versus small town set of tradeoffs. Something to be said for an excellent coffeeshop and place to read and just hang around. Miss that where we are now.
Beautiful country! What type of painting does your Dad do?
What town did you grow up in? I think it's a bit funny that you consider your place a "city". I mean,of course I know it is, but after living most of my life in Houston, I consider Ithaca, Elmira, and all the places in between as still being more "in the country".
Beautiful barn. Is it the subject of any of your father's paintings?
Wow... that is some place your parents have. I wish we had that kind of isolation.
That is perhaps the most beautiful barn I've ever seen. Love this post Gary....you come from good people!
Grew up in a similar rural setting. Graduated with 51 others! Husband a city boy. Would consider Ithica a lovely compromise! Hope to visit there again someday. Thanks for sharing your parents' place - awesome!
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