Spotted Acres Farm is a wonderful and lively place to live. We moved to the farm so that our horses could be stabled at home, so that we could work with rescued animals, and so that we could be closer to nature. Since neither Frank nor I came from a farming

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background, we didn’t plan to do much real farming. We actually do grow—and even sell—hay. Beyond that, we are more

gardeners than farmers, doing ornamental plantings around the house to make the place more attractive and growing summer vegetables.

The farm is at the end of a one-lane road, but it is only a dozen miles or so from Clarksburg. The lack of suburban conveniences is more than compensated for by the starlit nights, with their frog and cricket serenades; the ducks and blue heron in the big pond;

and the serenity that hills and trees and streams seem to foster better than cars and trucks and office parks. Our neighbors are not too close, and we can’t see their houses from ours, but we know each other well.