I’m almost all packed. I told my friend I was taking the chickens when I leave Spirit Hill on Sunday. I came to visit for a week because my friend Carolyn, the proprietress of Spirit Hill, wanted me to finally see the place she’d been telling me about for years, and I was going to […]
Spirit Hill is located by the intersection of three streets. Where the three streets connect, a pair of black sneakers dangle from the telephone wires. The sneakers have been there, seemingly, forever. They move in the breeze. They bug me. I have tried to think of how to get them down. Get a gun and […]
A year ago, I didn’t know I’d be living at Spirit Hill Farm. I was visiting from Boston because Carolyn had invited me to fly out and stay in the guest house for a week so I could finally see her beloved property after hearing about it for years. A week away from Boston winter […]
What Happens When Pulitzer-Prize Photographer Anthony Suau Stays at Spirit Hill Farm? First of all, he falls in love with the chicken coop. Who wouldn’t? (One day soon it might even have a chandelier inside. The chickens are going to have to learn to say please and thank you first or at least pretend to […]
I have a dream. I want to write a book called My Year at Spirit Hill Farm, and I want my friend Laura Foote to do the pictures. Why? Because just look Spirit Hill Farm. Just look at this chicken. My most favorite piece of writing is Annie Dillard’s essay Living Like Weasels. I like […]
I wrote and published a book last week. Actually, I wrote the book in less than an hour, and then it took me the next six days to figure out how to get it formatted the way I wanted and up for sale on Amazon. It all started when I pulled a turnip from one […]
Every Thursday I send Carolyn and Melissa my weekly report. I list what I did here at Spirit Hill, tell about things that happened, brag about the vegetables I planted and am now eating. Stuff like that. I keep a notebook and every night before bed I write in it all I did that day […]
I have found it’s impossible to be in a bad mood after going out into the morning at Spirit Hill Farm. I’ve tried. Even Jerry Seinfeld wakes up anxious, not feeling great. He said so. I forget where—maybe Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Anyway. He also said that as soon as he gets up, things […]
Why I put spinach in my coffee. And blueberries. And maybe a strawberry. Carolyn asked me to grow vegetables in the 17 planters between the main house and the chicken coop at Spirit Hill. I got both freaked out and excited. A garden! A whole bunch of gardens! Seventeen gardens! What a cool opportunity! But… […]
I came to visit Spirit Hill Farm for a week, and four months later, I’m still here with no plans in the foreseeable future to leave (keep this in mind when you book your visit: pack something you are willing to wear for the rest of your life!). Carolyn had invited me to stay here so […]