Bensch Mountain Farm

Andy and Olivia just before the prom.

09:33, Saturday, May 16, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

April 2009

01:52, Tuesday, May 5, 2009 .. Posted in The Farm .. 0 comments .. Link

It is so nice to finally see in color! The leaves are starting to pop out everywhere. We might even have some apple blossoms in the next week or so. Spring continues to always catch us by surprise.

Terry has worked super hard on our wood for next year. He already has all but about three cords cut, split and stacked. There is nothing more warm and fuzzy than a huge pile of wood drying for the coming winter. Because we heat our house with only wood, he needs about 10 cords per year to keep us toasty through the winter.

I have been playing in the garden. I was able to cut the first little asparagus's this week, I am not sure the kids are as excited as I was. I have planted lettuce and spinach twice as the chickens seem to keep sneaking into the garden to munch on the seeds. Hopefully this time I can keep them away. Our raspberries look great this year; I had very little that needed to be pruned. The rhubarb on the other hand, well that is another story.

Miss Alex has a huge horse show coming up, the first of the season. Andy is working hard at the Dutton's Farm; he leaves for college in less than three months. Corey is playing baseball at the Newfane School, and Breanna is still at gymnastics a couple times a week. Corey and Breanna are very excited that there is only about three weeks left and we will be done with school.

Little seedlings

11:12, Monday, April 6, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

We are still dreaming about spring, and making all kinds of ambitious plans, while we wait for the soil to dry out a bit more, and warm up alot more. I have the layout for our garden all set and ready to go. Although I am I sure, once again this year, I have the plants way closer together than I should have.

Many years ago, I heard a testamony about how our children are like the litte tomato plants that I have started under grow the lights. We carefully tend to planting them in good soil, watering them often, but not to much, pinching off the tops, forcing the roots to go deep and wide. Then transplanting them to our garden, and protecting them from the elements that nature pours down on them. Covering them at night, and allowing them to stretch up to the sun during the day. Until one day we no longer have to protect them. They have nice strong roots that good deep into the nutrient rich soil, producing much fruit.

Spring work day

08:54, Monday, April 6, 2009 .. 3 comments .. Link

Good morning! We had a very full day yesterday, and for all of you that did not get to join us, we thought we would share how we spent our day.

It seems so nice to see signs of spring. We don't yet have any little flowers poking up, but we are hopeful! The apple trees badly needed pruning. We got out our trusty Encyclopedia of Country Living and started cutting! (Poor Trees) I know they have not been pruned for at least seven years, they were way past due. There seems to be much more that needs to be cut out, but we were afraid to cut to much. There is always next year.

The little hens are finally back to laying well, after what seems like a long winters nap. Terry scraped out the hen house and clipped the wings of the ladies, that always seems to be out. I am hoping they will stay out of the garden this spring.

We had a great day outside!

A Good Start

10:31, Saturday, April 4, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

My Brother in-law and next door neighbor has a small lot that he is having cleared so that he can use it for his business. All of the hard wood was dropped last fall and still needed to be limbed and cut to length. After asking two different people if they wanted the trees for firewood, neither showed up to cut them up. With only two weeks remaining before the lot was to be de-stumpped and leveled, I was offered the wood. After a hard few days of work, and dealing with a very muddy driveway, I was able to finish cutting, splitting and moving all of the wood. With a strong 4 cord and maybe more (I'll know better once I get it stacked) along with the almost two cord left over from last year, I have over half of my firewood for next year all done! I hope to be able to gather the rest of our required wood from our property so that for the 2009-2010 winter, I will heat for free!!!!!! Praise God!

April Fools Prank...

06:22, Friday, April 3, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

More Muck

08:21, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

With early spring in Vermont comes mud, and mud we have. Our driveway is long and dirt, so we have to deal with mud every year. The sun hits the driveway more in some spots, and less in others which means that the "muddy" spots move with the thaw. At the moment the most shaded area of the driveway (and the last to thaw) has gotten to the point that passage by vehicle is not possible. I blocked off the bottom, and we are having to park in the area across the main road.

I AM GOING TO LIBERTY UNIVERSITY!

09:40, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

Hey all,

So after literally months of looking at college’s, applying to colleges, being accepted at four out of the four and a half colleges I applied to, further reviewing the colleges, taking trips to some of the schools, narrowing down my option and praying about where God wanted me, I have finally come to my decision. Starting on August 12th 2009 I will be attending Liberty University, located in Lynchburg Virginia.

I have come to this conclusion for many reasons. First and foremost it was through much prayer and council that I made this decision. God opened many doors for me, as well as closed other ones. Some of those “doors” that played a role in my decision are; Financial Support, type of School, location of the school relative to other friends (and regrettably distancing me from the one’s I love the most), academic potential, school resources, alumni base, networking possibilities, extracurricular activities, as well as many more.

The two downsides that I have come up with are the schools large size, and more important distance from school to home. The school size I hope to get used to within a few weeks. As for the 650 miles between here and there, well I’ll be doing a lot of driving. I hope to come up at very least once a month on the weekends in addition to holidays. Also you all know me, I’m always online and I do not have any attention of dropping my relationships with any of my friends.

I say all this for one reason. To Thank You. Thank You for sticking with me as I stumbled my way through this once in a lifetime experience. Thank you to those who provided me with all the information, both about Liberty, as well as others. Thank you to those who counseled me and provided great advice. Thank you to those who stood through all my venting fumes when I got over stress. Thank you to those who prayed for me. And thank you to those who are still in the process of making their own life altering decision, I wish you specifically luck and I can’t wait to see your own outcomes.

So what next? Tomorrow (March 26, 2009), I am submitting my conformation fee to the school. After that I begin the process of “Financial Check In”. This includes everything from registering for classes, to financial aid, to room and board. Because of my dual enrolment at the Community college of Vermont I have already completed most of the “core” requirements so I hope to jump right into the fascinating classes of “communication” with an emphasis on Public Relations. Depending on where I fall in the housing lottery I plan on getting at room on Campus East, or in one of the quad living houses. (To my friends who currently attend Liberty: If you need any more people in your group to squat or reserve a place in either of these places please let me know as I would prefer this housing over the traditional “halls”).

In the near future I will be contacting the following departments about more information:
Honors Program
Varsity Soccer Team
Snowflex Facilities
Campus Police (to registrar my vehicle)

So that’s pretty much it I think. Just because I made up my mind please don’t stop praying. I am still in need of a summer job, a new car (to make the trip), A job once I am down there, a new cell phone plan, College dorm “stuff”, and continued support.
Have a great day everyone, and again…THANK YOU SO MUCH!
God Bless,
Sincerely,
~Andrew T. Glover

Tractor Blessings

06:20, Monday, March 30, 2009 .. 4 comments .. Link

Every farm should have at least one tractor! This said, I'll be honest and let you know that we don't have one. The blessing is that a good friend has five, and has allowed us to use one whenever we have a need.

Corey, who has been growing like a weed, is now able to reach the peddals, so we put him up on an old Farmall "H" and cut him loose. He loves to drive, and is keeping Alex's riding area well groomed with the drag harrows.

There Here!!!

05:47, Monday, March 30, 2009 .. Posted in Our Crafts and Hobbies .. 1 comments .. Link

After not winning three different auctions on e-bay, I finaly got a great deal on some chest waders. they were the last piece of gear I needed to be ready for fishing season. When I got home from NYC, they were waiting for me. I tryed them on, and they fit great! come on April 11th!

New York City Trip

04:38, Monday, March 30, 2009 .. Posted in The Team .. 0 comments .. Link

Well, I just got back from New York City. I went down with a friend and his van to bring some of my sister's stuff back to Vermont because she is moving out of her apartment. I have decided that hide-a-bed sofas should be outlawed, especially when they need to be moved from an 8th floor apartment in Manhattan to a finished basement in Vermont. All in all the trip went well. Traffic was light, and parking was, for the most part, easy. The good news is that my sister no longer lives in NYC, so I should have no reason to need to return. Awwwww

Fly Fishing

04:37, Monday, March 30, 2009 .. Posted in Our Crafts and Hobbies .. 0 comments .. Link

Fly fishing is something that I always wanted to learn, and this year I vowed to figure it out ( at least the basics ). I spent some time reading and even watched a video. After a couple of hours sitting in the recliner learning to tie the required knots, I took my 9' 6wt out to the driveway to practice. And practice I did! I find that I am casting fairly accurately at about 35 feet. Living in Southern Vermont, our Trout season will not open until April 11th, so I have continued to hit the driveway with great zeal. The other day, after tying on a small piece of yarn to the end of the leader, I started once again to pick spots to aim for and happily casted into the dirt. All the blissful casts and false casts soon attracted one of the many free range chickens we have around the farm. The little piece of red yarn was too much for one of the curious birds, and after landing my line not more then a foot from a RhodeIsland Red, the bug deprived bird took the bait. Much to my surprise, I found myself in a tug-o-war. It turns out that a hungry chicken isn't that willing to let go of we she believed to be good food. If this isn't a good enough reason for the season to open soon (12 days but who's counting) I don't know what is.

We're Back!!!!

08:14, Sunday, March 29, 2009 .. Posted in The Team .. 0 comments .. Link

At some point last fall, we decided that we didn't have enough time to fool with a blog, so we packed it in and deleted our blog page. It turns out that we had way more people looking at the blog then we thought, and many of them have missed it. That said, We're Back. The latest new from the farm is that we are waiting for all this snow to melt. We have some small bare spots, but still more snow then grass. We also have MUD! At this point, the driveway is almost impassable by car, and even a bit tough for a truck. Because we are impatient, we figured that it would be good to get out of town for a weekend, so we packed up and headed for Maine for a short get away. We had a great time, and enjoyed our short vacation very much. The sad but somewhat funny aspect of out trip is that the day we got home, it was snowing :(

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