The daily photoshoot. Frieda is an ever bigger ham than Izzy. Smelly dogs, three of them skunked, Lenore too busy eating to bother with a skunk.

  September 30, 2009 – Good realtors make a big difference in the moving process. I don’t know where I will be living, but Lee and Mark McChesney, who live in Vermont and practice in New York State and Vermont, took Maria and I around to see three houses today. Mark and Lee had listened carefully to what we wanted, and we liked all three houses. One was simple, and a bit exposed, the second was close to perfect – studio and writing space and 10 lovely acres for the dogs and us, and the third was lovely but a bit gloomy, buried deep in the woods.
 On these tours, realtors get that Maria is the one to talk to, not me. She scurries into the basement, looks at pipes, wires and moldings, and sees all kinds of things I don’t see. I imagine realtors used to want to talk to the men about these things, but everybody grasps that I know nothing about any of it, and Maria knows a lot. So they talk to her, and she fills me in.
  I appreciated the care Mark and Lee took to show us just what we wanted, and not drag us around to houses we couldn’t afford or didn’t want to look at. If the farm were sold, I would go after one of these houses tomorrow. But I’m wary of a bridge loan, and understand that the process just might take awhile.
  Initially, I get a bit restless when I look at houses, because I have no innate sense of patience or time, and want everything I do to happen immediately. The housing market doesn’t work that way these days. The houses I was looking at were very reasonable and although realtors say things are beginning to pick up, it seems a slow and gradual process. I love Washington County, but Vermont also appeals to Maria and I and we are looking in both places.
 It’s an educational process, I see. Each time you look at a house, you get a clearer sense of what you want, and what you don’t want. I see there are a lot of bargains out there.
  I have a very strong feeling about Bedlam Farm. It is beautiful, with great and buttoned-up barns and pastures, and it is also reasonably priced. And I like the challenge of learning to wait. It will sell when the right person comes along, and I do care who buys it. Somebody e-mailed me demanding that the farm go to become an animal sanctuary, preserve or historical site. Not likely. My idea of the buyer is someone who wants what I wanted – a life with animals in a beautiful spot with an old fixed-up farmhouse and some strong red barns. That kind of person will come along, and that’s who I want to buy it. I hope they have kids, and dogs, but that’s up to them.