The Next Leg

Two significant events in our life are underway. First, my work life. The photo at left was taken last week at Bondville, VT. The barn-like structure houses electrical utility equipment we are in the process of commissioning. For the electrical types in the audience, the equipment is called a "synchronous condenser". The purpose of an "SC" is to improve transmission line efficiency and reliability. This $11 million job is my first major project with Casco Systems and my first real venture into the electric power/utility world so there's some definite tension! We will spend the majority of the next two weeks testing and gradually bringing the machines online. As you can see from the photo, this is beautiful country. It's in the heart of southwest Vermont ski country. I'm not a skier and there isn't the time anyway. But it's still a nice place to be. There also looks to be some nice opportunities to take in live music in the area. I should have time during the evening for some of that.

Ah, the title for this posting . . . Well we are embarking on the next leg of our journey in Maine. This coming Friday, we will be moving to a new home. After careful evaluation, we determined the farm-sitting situation we are in is not meshing well with our needs. Basically it has been absorbing too much of our time and energy. The situation has an instability that drains mental energy in worrying about future problems. We are also too cramped for the mixture of personalities in our house.

So we found a 200+ year old colonial house for rent about an hour south of here. In the future I will post pictures. Suffice to say it is larger, and more importantly, there is no farm & horse responsibility with it. It is located in area of mixed woodlands and fields, on a rise near the Saco River. The landlords live across the road and are very nice people. Although old, this house is very well maintained and will not present the maintenance problems we've encountered here.

A few months ago we were focused on an area about 2 hours northeast of here. But we revised our search to the area we ultimately settled on because we've determined it is probably a better fit. We've met a wonderful couple who live in the area that we share a common vision with. The new location is also considerably closer to Portland which will benefit Jayne. Living in our new rental house will give us the opportunity to really check out this area. Since the house is close to our new friends, we will also have ready opportunity to spend time with them. And we can easily scout the area for land to buy.

I included a couple horse care pictures to close out our time at Carousel Horse Farm. The first one is of Sadie eating grain. She's wearing a blanket to help fend off the cold. The second pic is of Cheryl practicing the ancient art of "hay heaving". Twice a day we toss 1-1/2 bales into the paddock, spread over 7 piles. The hay has to be spread around so that horses don't fight (much!) over eating it. Although horses are a fair amount of work, we feel a definite spiritual connection and will miss them.

Who knows what will happen next on this journey? It sure seems like we are positioned for some cool things. We are really excited about the next leg!

Over and out from Tranquility Base.