Not Full Timers

While Sarah and I truly enjoy the time we spend traveling and living in our Airstream, we have not severed our ties to the place we still call home. Though we spend many months each year living in our Airstream, we are not full timers. We respect and admire those who choose to live a much simpler life with fewer possessions but we find that we miss family, friends and neighbors with whom we have developed long standing relationships too much to cut the ties of home. We also miss the connection to one place where we have lived and have left the mark of our labors. A place where we return to and know so well, each plant, tree, flower and rock. Where to look each spring for every wildflower and when to listen for each species of frog that lives in our vernal pool. 

As I write this, I am sitting on the deck overlooking the yard. A hummingbird is quickly feeding on the flowering hostas, a pair of cardinals flit in the birch trees that ring the vernal pool. Dragonflies skitter and dart recklessly about. The house and yard have been a work in progress for all of the 27 years we have lived here. The small swimming pool was an early essential addition for the kids and now for Sarah and I on those few hot humid evenings that can be so oppressive in mid-July. Next came the herb and small kitchen garden enclosed by the fieldstone wall as well as the wall along the edge of the vernal pool that was just finished this past week. The two semi-dwarf apple trees I planted three years ago will bear fruit this year. 

Sarah and I tell eachother we like to spend the time between May and November in Massachusetts because it has the perfect climate. But that is not the only reason. We enjoy our gardens, both the work they require and the pleasures they provide. The flowers, fruits and vegetables give us satisfaction that cannot be purchased. Each of us has the need to create, whether it is Sarah working in her studio or redesigning a room or me finding another woodworking or building project.  I think I have too much Yankee and New England practicality and Sarah has too much Swedish work ethic for us to go long without seeing the results of the work of our own hands.

We also love the water. Living so close to the ocean, we have always spent some time each year on a boat. For many years we had just a small daysailer then for several more we had a small yacht. We lost that boat in a marina fire a few years ago and have satisfied our addiction to sailing by helping deliver other people's boats. Recently, we purchased a small motor yacht that will complete our need to be on the water when those sirens sing. It will require much less attention but still allow us to spend time cruising the beautiful coast of New England. 

While we respect and admire those that have cut the cord completely and are truly full timers, Sarah and I believe we have found another way, a compromise if you will. We have tried to find a balance that gives us the freedom to explore and discover while also providing the roots needed to feel connected to a place and community.