Come to My Farm!!

The name of my farm is Innisfree.  You know the poem, right? Yeats. He was writing about a small island in a lake of Ireland, so not everything about the poem applies to my 25 acres in Kentucky's outer Bluegrass.. but the gist of it does:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

W.B. Yeats

We bought the farm (literally) exactly three years ago. Our dream is to have a small working/learning environment where people can visit, stay and reconnect with God , the Universe, and their own spirit.

I wish I could convey how restful and quiet it is! The place is about half a mile down a gravel lane, which is 2 miles down a side road, which is about three miles south of a tiny hamlet called Willisburg. You can NOT hear traffic at all! Sometimes, there is almost total silence. It is so healing, so restorative, so restful.

If you want to, you can just sit and look at the many birds of prey as they swoop over the hills and valleys. You can sit of the porch of the cabin and see bluebirds, hummingbirds, and even woodpeckers at their solitary craft. Or, you can walk the mile-long trail through the woods, and come upon deer, turtles, a startled family of wild turkeys, even a fox. At the pond, you'll startle thousands of tree frogs and toads when you approach. Water lilies bloom in spring. All along the hillside, wildflowers attract a multitude of butterflies and down at the back of the ridge top, we have bees!

There's a log cabin that was started by the former owner, and our goal is to finish restoring it and make it available, free of charge, to ministers and clergy, UU & otherwise, social activists & artists. The cabin has a loft and a bathroom and a huge stone fireplace. My husband built a covered porch that goes all the way around the cabin. Here you can spend the day from sunrise, which you'll view coming over the farmer's pasture next door, to sunset.

It's beautiful all year round. Just a fifteen minute drive from Central Kentucky's Bluegrass Parkway, a scenic, lightly traveled  road that stretches from Lexington all the way to Elizabethtown. Nearby is the place where Lincoln's parents were married, the monastery where Thomas Merton lived, and the distilleries that produce Kentucky's finest bourbon. Doesn't it sound delightful?

We hope to have the cabin finished within a year or so. We need either time to do it ourselves or money to pay someone to! Or.. someone who'd do the work in exchange for a place to stay. It still needs chinking, and the kitchen and bathroom need to be finished. Still, if you'd like to put in your reservation for Fall of 2010 or beyond (sabbatical coming?) we will pencil you in! UU Ministers get first choice! I would love for colleagues to avail themselves of the delights I have enjoyed for three years now... no Internet! no cable TV! Just the sound of silence and your heart's delight.

Notice the hammock!