How We Found Our Farm - Part 1

This is a long, long story with a very happy ending. It all started Memorial day weekend 1994 - nearly 6 months after Mark and I were married and we were finally settled in at Mark's first Army duty station at Ft. Monmouth, NJ.

I picked up the "Old House Journal" and saw a great ad for a house up in Pembroke, Maine that was listed as "museum quality - no renovations and alterations since the early 19th century. The house was really cheap and since Mark and I had never been to Maine - we decided to check the house and the area out.

The house was exactly as described. It was gorgeous and still had all the original milk paint throughout. There were brass eagle head coat hooks at the front entrance. I was so excited to find such a treasure.

Reality then set in. The house needed a new roof - immediately. The original upper two floors which had been preserved intact for all this time needed to be lowered onto new sills within the next year - it went on and on. We decided not to buy it due to all the work that needed to be done from a long distance in a very short time.

If the house although gorgeous was not practical - then the area was heaven. No big tourist traps. No large housing developments on the ocean. Pristine hiking right along the ocean with bald eagles flying overhead and whales surfacing right in front of us. The seafood - detailed descriptions will be in a future segment - the best in the world. The most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen (at Quoddy Head lighthouse). We fell in love but where would we work . . . . . .

Over the next 12 years every house we saw was compared to the house in Pembroke, Maine. Nothing was ever right. Little did we know - there was a reason for this.

Part 2 - Raising Chickens in the Blue Ridge and Selling Fruits and Vegetables to the Inn at Little Washington.