I will today begin a written adventure, hopefully based on my paths thru the “vines of life”. This site is called “In the Vines”, named after our new home in Westfield, New York. In 1999 I was led to a parcel of land on the Chautauqa Gorge in Chautauqua County, NY. Peter and I had dreamed of finding a piece of land in that area, where we both grew up and met, dreaming that one day we would live there again. Saying that I was led there means that one day I just decided to drive on the “backest most remotest” roads I could find in the area. As I traveled thru one area with dense woods I stopped and said to myself, “…now this is where I’d like to be, here in the woods…” and lo and behold I turned my head and saw a “for sale” sign staring me in the face! These 30 acres of woods on the gorge became ours as we promised to be stewards of the land and coughed up the bucks! Since then, we put in a road, place two Amish built cabins to camp in (one a storage shed and the other complete with wood stove and kerosene lamps), had bonfires, picnics, cross country skiied and snow shoed, hosted the wedding for Riley and Erin on July 3,2004, hunted mushrooms, walked dogs, watched the deer and turkey, read, wrote and loved each other and our place, “the vines”. And now, we are finishing building a new home having relocated here for good! I would like to chronicle the adventure, dipping into the past a bit to connect with the directions the past led us and appreciating the past for the positives it brought to our life. Hopefully, I’ll be able to discard the negatives along the way for good. I need to. The reason we called our place “the Vines” is that the woods were enmeshed and covered by wild grape vines that were pulling down the trees and obscuring much. We started cutting the vines and burning the vines and fighting the vines (they do fight back). We still have some, but nothing like when we started. They need constant attention for sure. We discovered whole trees we didn’t know were there! Also, we live in the middle of grape country along Lake Erie, the home of Welches grapejuice, and now many wineries. Thus, “the Vines seems apt. This will prove to be an allegory I’m sure, but we’ll see where it leads……
