Moving to the farm...

Moving day finally came. It was right after Labor Day Weekend 1976. When we got back from being away for the weekend, school would start. The children would go to their new school from our old house and come home to the farm. We rehearsed how that would happen several times.

Meanwhile, while they were at school, we would load up the last of our belongings and drive the truck HOME! By the time they got to their new house, we would have everything pretty much unloaded.

The children (VJ 10, Margo 8, Fritz 6) had in the previous year lived 4 months in Wellesley, nearly 6 months in Switzerland, and nearly 3 more months in Wellesley. In Wellesley they had lived almost across the street from the school; in South Natick they had to go on the bus about 5 miles. In Wellesley their best friends had moved away soon after we returned from Switzerland; in South Natick they didn't know anyone.

Moving is never easy. But they were excited by the promise of having a garden and animals, and they had already met the goats and had taken home their puppies. Life was full of promise!

The house itself was not particularly of interest to us at first. It was large, with high ceilings and generous rooms. The kitchen was designed for people who actually cooked, which I loved to do! And it had enough room for a large table. The living and dining rooms were not often used. A family room shut off from the kitchen by walls and a door was uninsulated, as we learned that winter. A bedroom plus its own bath completed the downstairs. Opposite the big front door and the hall connecting it to the rest of the house was a door to the beloved backyard and all the potential we could envision for it.

Upstairs were three bedrooms, plus an unfinished area over the family room and part of the kitchen.

It was spacious. Not necessarily well-designed in that it didn't use the space efficiently, but it was big!

So in we moved. We spent our time together mostly in the kitchen, and outdoors of course. Things were in pretty good shape. It was a lot to take care of, but that didn't seem it would be a problem... We hadn't bought the property for the house, anyway, though today it is considered to be a beautiful home on a prime piece of real estate. But a lot happened in between.