News from Western MA

[Glass_A_Day]

Well as you all may or may not know, GAD is tying the knot June 24th. Well, to add even more joy to this year, we should be signing a purchase and sales agreement on our new home this week. Kind of a fixer upper, but on 2.5 acres with a brook as the property line on two sides and surrounded by conservation land to add privacy. Looks like I'm going to be a country boy!

[hotwine]

Good on ya, GAD! And congrats to you both!

[winoweenie]

My heartirest! Know you two will have a long, happy, and productive life. Have fun and remeember "In Vino Veritas Est". WW

[wondersofwine]

What wine will you drink to celebrate the home purchase?

[TheEngineer]

Congrats on both accounts!!!!

[Innkeeper]

Welcome to the world of country bumpkinism.

[Kcwhippet]

Way to go, GAD.

[Glass_A_Day]

Thanks a bunch everyone. The excitment is really building around these parts. Good question on what to drink whence the papers are signed. I guess anything with dust on it from WW's cellar will do. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[Kcwhippet]

Dust - I guess that must mean a Napa Cab from Rutherford grapes.

[Thomas]

2.5 acres. When you are ready for gardening advice--just call...

[TheEngineer]

2.5 acres...when you are ready for a landscaper, just call [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

I got 1/2 acre and I can't even take care of that....my thumb is so not green..more like concrete....

[Glass_A_Day]

Well, I am kind of used to having some land. I grew up spending much of my time at my grandparent's right up the street from this house. They had 5 acres. My parents now live there and have since bought the lot next door and doubled the size to close to 10. My stepdad is a workaholic and since retirement, has worked harder than ever making their land into a park of sorts. I've been forced (it's actually pretty fun) to help over the years building trails and bridges. Now he is in the process of turning the whole place into a grove getting rid of all deadwood and brush. You can hear his wood chipper running from the next town. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img] I have been fortunate enough to be able to avoid this project. I fear this nonsense is now in my blood though as I look over my prospective land and make similar plans. My stepbrother likes to recall a story from our childhood when we used to bring our camping trailer to a nine acre wood lot a few towns away for a "working" vacation. We were asked to please pick up all sticks and either bring them to the dump or burn them. Pop wanted no sticks whatsoever on the ground. My poor stepbrother responded with, "But dad, this is the woods."

[Glass_A_Day]

PS Foodie, the lady of the possibe house may take you up on that offer as she is dying to turn her thumb green.

[Thomas]

GAD,

I grew up in Brooklyn, where we had a patch of land in the back that just barely grabbed some sun. Our next door neighbor was a fanatic gardener, and he used let me help him.

Until I moved onto 11 acres in the Finger Lakes, I had no idea that I even had a green thumb. But I've since found that my neighbor of so many years ago had planted more than vegetables in the ground--he planted a desire in a boy who didn't find it until he became a man (although my wife likely has an opinion on my adult status...)

I've been contemplating writing a book on that experience. One day I will.

[Glass_A_Day]

That post was so good it could be the book jacket Foodie. Sounds like inspiration worth writing about.