Standing on the shoulders of giants

There were four Shaw children who grew up here during the heyday of this farm. Henry and I were lucky enough to meet two of them today - Agnes Shaw and Kay Johnston. That is Kay up above, and Agnes below, kindly holding Henry while he wails.

The excuse for going was that Terry Hoffer from the North Star newspaper is considering writing a piece about them. But article or no, it was really great to meet and talk with them.

From what I can tell from their stories and the photos, the farm was thriving and beautiful when they lived here. Hollyhocks growing by the front door stairs. The farmstand was their garage. The spring line splits before it gets to the barn and had enough water for all the farm and all the farm guests and enough pressure to get up to the second floor. All the Shaw children went to college and had successful careers -- a chemist who went to South America with a rubber company, a nurse, a teacher, and one who worked for National Life. Their mother never when to high school, instead she cared for her ailing mother. Yet she did the books for the farm (something I am struggling to learn now), raised four very successful kids, tutored them in algebra and physics, ran a guesthouse including raising hundreds of chickens and feeding up to 40 for Sunday dinner, and has the happiest looking smile around, at least in all her photos. You can see a bit of it in Kay's smile above.

When the Shaws went to sell the farm in the 1970s, they made a conscious decision to try to not sell it to someone who would develop it. Land prices were low then and property wasn't selling. And they had an offer from someone who wanted to buy the land to put houses up top on the farm field. But the Shaws knew that the soil, especially up top, was excellent agricultural soil, and they really wanted to keep the land in agriculture. So even though they sold to the Seidens, who didn't want to farm it, the Seidens did intend to keep the land together and open, which they did, in fact taking it one step further and conserving the land with the Vermont Land Trust.

This farm is a wonderful place, and I'm glad to be a part of it.