As 2015 closes out, our “project” is coming to an end… or is it?

January will bring a run-in shed/tack room and a fence around the pasture for two horses and a miniature goat which Becky is transplanting here to add some liveliness to the farm. Not that the farm isn’t lively already with the deer, birds and whatever it is that climbs the tree, opens the suet cage and steals the suet at night.

I’m already thumbing through seed catalogs, planning my vegetable garden and eyeing up the perfect spot to plant some fruit trees, raspberry bushes and a strawberry patch.

The house feels complete; there isn’t one thing we would change about this house. It’s perfect for us.

And now it’s even more perfect because the shutters have been installed. I had gotten used to the way the house looked without the shutters.  It looked fine.  In fact, I was beginning to think the shutters were unnecessary… until they arrived.  They make the house look welcoming and lived in – and beautiful.

And then there is the “bow on the package,” the finishing touch that I see every day when I come home, and it reminds me of how far this house has come. It has come all the way from 1853.  It has lived through the Civil War and every war after that, it was supposedly a part of the Underground Railroad, it has raised families, watched the world change and has had good days and bad.  We found the house last January when it was having a “bad day” to say the least.  But as a tribute to where it has come from… our builder, John Smucker had a stencil made, and our painter John Gettle stenciled it high under the eaves of the house.  I see it every day…

 c. 1853

 I’d say this house is now having a very good day this New Year’s Eve as we welcome 2016. The house is 163 years old, beautifully restored and ready for another 163 years.  I wonder how it will be doing in 2179.  Maybe I’ll stop by to find out.

 Happy New Year!