Life In Vermont

Some things I've learned about life in the country while living in Vermont.

1. There are people, mostly men, in Vermont who grow beards in winter and shave them off in Summer.These beards have confused me more than once. I moved here in the winter so most of my neighbors looked similar to this photo of the actor of Tom Welling. Scary if you ask me.

The WINTER Look

In the spring, I would run into the same neighbors and not have the foggiest idea who they were. Several times I would argue with Hus when he would try to convince me that the clean shaven fairly good looking man we were just talking with was our neighbor! "But that guy looked like a troll." I would protest. (below photo also of Tom Welling)

The SUMMER Look

No I don't have any neighbors as hot as Tom but since I don't find beards of any kind attractive, any clean shaven version of a person is better than the bearded one.

I met Hus in the summer and thank goodness he does not grow a beard for any reason!

2. There is no automatic trash pick up, cost covered in taxes, in Vermont. You need to either bring it to the dump yourself or pay a small fortune for a trash removal service. Or, you can do like I did in the beginning, and bring really small bags of trash to work with you and put them in the dumpster on your way in.

3. There are people who live in the boonies, like us, who have Septic Tanks. Gross.

4.Some people (my neighbor) walk their dog, cat and turkeys all at the same time.

5. If your neighbor owns a goat, sometimes it will come over for a visit and steal your child's sock. Of course it will be an accidental theft because the sock will stick to the goats beard when they smell your child's carelessly thrown on the porch shoe.

6. You can not hide in the country. My neighbors knew more about my husband before I did. My farmer neighbor noticed future Hus's red truck in my driveway when he picked me up for our first date, and before the date was over, my neighbor knew exactly who my Hus was. He knew where he came from, where he worked and whether he was an honorable man. Ha! (He was worried about me) Somehow via a crazy country neighbor grapevine, word had traveled an hour away to Killington, where my future BIL Dave, identified my future Hus to my farmer neighbors friend, who worked with Dave, just by his truck! I know, hard to follow, but true.

7. If you tell people you come from a family of pig farmers, they will believe you. Above BIL told my future FIL Chet, that I came from pig farmers. During our first meeting, Chet, with a straight face, asked me how it was coming from a family of pig farmers. I was just a little surprised and confused then noticed Dave cracking up in the corner. Dave had to explain to poor sweet Chet that it was a joke. OINK. We still laugh about that one.