Hey folks! Sorry for the silence on my end…I’ve been taking the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of freedom for the past week and it’s been needed. I’ve got a big move on my hands and I’ve been using this time to regroup and plan so that the migration from Brooklyn to shorefront New Jersey feels more like a smooth transition than a chaotic upheaval. I’m feeling pretty good about it so far.
It’s been strange going through all of my things, thinning them out. I haven’t really acquired much in my 7 years in NYC, mostly because of spacial constraints….as I go through boxes I haven’t opened in years it’s occurred to me that I have a lot of JUNK that I don’t need. Most of it is stuff that other people wouldn’t really want either, because it’s random and I only held onto it because of sentimental reasons..like old beaten up CDs that probably don’t even play without skipping (besides, I don’t have a cd player!). I’ve been lucky in that I’ve lived in the same apartment building for the entire time I’ve been a New York resident, avoiding the stressful bouncing from apartment to apartment that many of my friends here have experienced. Those frequent moves would have provided the impetus to free myself of some boxes of detritus. This is one of the few side effects of being settled in one place. Lazy accumulation. This sort of forgetful hoarding stops now. I won’t have things without purpose clogging up our space in the future. While our new home will be bigger, it’s not so big that we can justify needless having. We’re trimming the fat this month, for certain!
On a different note, progress with the Homestead at Seven Arrows is running smoothly. A couple days ago I finally got to meet the patriarch of the family, Mr. Knipscher and his gentle, soft spoken wife. They live in a house on the far east side of the property and I was feeling really anxious about moving there and tearing up their land, putting a bunch of noisy animals all within earshot of their home. He has lived there a long time and I couldn’t imagine he’d be keen on suffering some punk kids coming down and farming up the place.
On the contrary, Mr. Knipscher put my mind at ease when he told me that he had always envisioned a farm on the property once again. He told story of an old dairy barn that used to be attached to his home where some milking cows once lived and the sadness he felt when he returned after a stint upstate to find it torn down. When I told him that a kind farmer was setting us up with livestock guardian dogs to look after the chickens, goats and rabbits (there are lots of foxes and very “friendly” raccoons), he said that it sounded like a good idea. That was my biggest fear, and it was met with no resistance, only openness. What a wonderful quality for a person to have, openness. It makes the world seem like a bigger place, full of possibility!
(Frogs in the fountain at Seven Arrows, photo courtesy of Domestic Construction’s Instagram)
Up until that point, this move did not feel very real. I couldn’t quite picture myself there yet. Now I can say that I know someone there. I have a neighbor and I know them. This was all the situation required to make it feel like something I could hold onto. It’s clicked into place now. On mild days I’ll have my coffee outside amongst the brackish air after all the animals are fed. We can cook outside on the old hearth and perhaps have Mr. Knipsher and his wife over for a beer and supper. Who knows what will happen, but for now I know someone kind in Locust, NJ and that means that plenty of good things are possible.
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