John Updike may be trembling in his grave, my inspiration and mentor for creative discipline would probably not care to write his wonderful books with Ed Atkins singing up on the roof as he paints the farmhouse. Fate howled a bit and Red went under the dining room table. Maria fled to her studio and turned up her Indian meditation music. I have nowhere to run.

Still, for all that, our farmhouse is finally getting some of the loving attention it deserves.

The back porch is looking pretty sharp.

The house badly needed some painting and a bit of patching up on parts of the roof. The winter of 2015 was nasty.

Ed Watkins gave us a great price on the paint job and he and his crew are well underway. They are nice people and fun to have around, but I wasn’t ready for Ed singing.

We are re-painting the farmhouse white. For all the color Maria has brought inside, we want to respect the nature of an old farmhouse – this one built between 1800 and 1840 – and that means painting the house white, the barns Red.

I’m happy to get this done before the June Open House, the exterior was looking a big ratty. We are throwing away the broken shutters and only leaving them out front. The house doesn’t really need them. Last year at this time, we thought we might be losing the farm, this year it is ours and we are working hard to make it our own.

Painting the exterior is about the only thing we will be able to do this year, maybe in the fall Ed can clear a path for us from the pasture out into our woods, which we would like to spend more time hiking and walking in. I’ve got orders in for hay and firewood, this is the earliest we have ever gotten ready for winter. It feels good. I have a book proposal into my publisher and if they accept it, who knows?, we might even be able to heat the upstairs bedroom.