Windekind Farm and Country Inn: Vermont Country Lodging (2026)

28/10/2016

I never tire of the vista south from Windekind. The warm embrace of the vivid greens and the dancing cloud whites on a summer day that calls me to the gardens and the tress, the awe of the reds, greens, whites, blacks and golds of a full fall day that invite me into the mountains to explore a clear running brook while whispering the last of summer, the somber fog laden with moisture that chills and sends me into the house near the wood stove--the close embrace of winter.

I love them all, each needs the other and makes the magic that has been going on for 40 years.

Mark

23/10/2016

Good Morning Everybody,

Another Fall image, that I call indoor/outdoor.

Mark

22/10/2016

Hello Everybody,

I have had a great time out and about taking Fall pictures. There is some photo shopping going on which is a lot of creative fun, I feel arrogant messing around around with Nature's beauty, but my creative urges get the best of me.

I hope that you enjoy them--stay tuned for more.

Mark

02/09/2016

Hello Everybody:

One constant though-out my life is my love of the Steam Locomotive best demonstrated in the large Locomotive Models that I and others build and operate at Windekind and the 2,200 foot long 71/4” gauge railroad that they run on. The Railroad, called the Cold Creek, is a long and rich story with lots fantasy and fun that passes through our woodlands, gardens -- it crosses brooks on high trestles and follows the contour lines across the our meadow. You can pick apples from the moving train and almost, pat the nose,
of a Jersey cow.

I want it to evolve into a legacy here in the lovely hills of Huntington.
Please enjoy this little collection of images of the Railroad, its equipment and the people, who on a day-by-day basis are so much part of it. There is an exciting new image here, it is a photo of the farm taken by neighbor, Aaron Worthley’s high flying drone depicting the existing route of the Cold Creek including a projected 810 feet on the right side of the image that will eventually cross a high ravine and waterfall in the forrest - bring your parachute just in case.

If you would like to learn more about the Cold Creek and its equipment please E- mail me at [email protected] or call at 802-434-4455. A stalwart group of friends and volunteers make all this possible.

You can see more of the Railroad on our website: www.windekindfarms.com

All Aboard!

Mark

14/08/2016

The Meadow:

When Marijke and I first came to Windekind our attention focused on the 13 acre Meadow in front of and to the east of the old farm house. At that time young tree, were claiming the fertile Meadow as their own. The land cried out to me to be reestablished for agriculture honoring the hard work of the old farmers who cleared it in the fist place.

Since then we have had a long and happy love affair with the Meadow, first we grazed our cattle on it, then we seeded it and cut hay, grazed horses and finally, for the past 15 years, the Taft Family’s lovely Jersey heifers have been our bovine companions.

The Meadow is such a delight just to live in---our first soul satisfying views in the early morning and last in the evening, as we age the view engages and deepens, like great wine it gets better and better with age.

I mow it once a year, it makes me so happy to be out there is the cusp of it''s grasp, all that vast space, birds overhead, the mountains all around with our old and very trusted Massey Ferguson tractor growling beneath me.

Marijke and I are busy with a project at the farm called the Commons at Windekind; amongst many things the project integrates creating community principles with Permaculture principles. You can have a look at some of that at (http://windekindfarms.com/the-common/) or contact us and we can tell you a lot more about the Commons.

We are doing this for many reasons—sustaining the Meadow is a grand one.

Mark

03/08/2016

Gaia’s Garden, a guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway is, in my view, one of the most influential books on sustainable gardening and permaculture. If you want a broad understanding of what this movement is all about, Gaia’s Garden is an excellent place to start.

Over a year ago, I started to seriously read Permaculture literature and immediately discovered that the approach was a game changer for the way I think about and practice gardening.

Like many life long gardeners, I had a well-developed, yet very traditional understanding, of gardening, my study of permaculture invited me to look at the garden as a completely different canvas, one that can be summed as – “using the natural intelligence of the Earth’s symbiotic ecosystem, in which humans are partners, not a competitor. “ I began to understand that nature can do a thousand things at once because nearly everything (sun, rain, animals, plants, humans) that enters a natural landscape is captured and used, absorbed and reincarnated into a vibrant weave of biodiversity that feeds, shelters, stores and creates beauty.

Until we ask ourselves, what is nature doing and how can we emulate and enhance it, we're going to keep hitting the same walls, investing wasted time, energy and resources in our gardens homes and communities, trying to invent solutions, like increased pesticide use, that are extension of the problems that we created ourselves.

Gaia’s Garden is a happy fusion of the practical and the visionary written in a fun and non-preachy style. Yet, Hemenway never looses sight of where we must be heading for a sustainable future, the detailed reasoning behind that, while, in the realm of the practical, offering page after page of crisp and workable “how to do it” instructions.

The chapters on soil bringing soil to life and designing gardening guilds (guilds are plant communities where each member supports, enhances and benefits from the others) were the best of I have read on these topics.

This book brought me so much joy, interest and hope, inviting me again and again back to his pages for a re-read, re-think and re-enjoy.

03/08/2016

Gaia’s Garden, a guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway is, in my view, one of the most influential books on sustainable gardening and permaculture. If you want a broad understanding of what this movement is all about, Gaia’s Garden is an excellent place to start.

Over a year ago, I started to seriously read Permaculture literature and immediately discovered that the approach was a game changer for the way I think about and practice gardening.

Like many life long gardeners, I had a well-developed, yet very traditional understanding, of gardening, my study of permaculture invited me to look at the garden as a completely different canvas, one that can be summed as – “using the natural intelligence of the Earth’s symbiotic ecosystem, in which humans are partners, not a competitor. “ I began to understand that nature can do a thousand things at once because nearly everything (sun, rain, animals, plants, humans) that enters a natural landscape is captured and used, absorbed and reincarnated into a vibrant weave of biodiversity that feeds, shelters, stores and creates beauty.

Until we ask ourselves, what is nature doing and how can we emulate and enhance it, we're going to keep hitting the same walls, investing wasted time, energy and resources in our gardens homes and communities, trying to invent solutions, like increased pesticide use, that are extension of the problems that we created ourselves.

Gaia’s Garden is a happy fusion of the practical and the visionary written in a fun and non-preachy style. Yet, Hemenway never looses sight of where we must be heading for a sustainable future, the detailed reasoning behind that, while, in the realm of the practical, offering page after page of crisp and workable “how to do it” instructions.

The chapters on soil bringing soil to life and designing gardening guilds (guilds are plant communities where each member supports, enhances and benefits from the others) were the best of I have read on these topics.

This book brought me so much joy, interest and hope, inviting me again and again back to his pages for a re-read, re-think and re-enjoy.

Happy Gardening

Mark

02/08/2016

Beudry's Store-

When Marijke and I first landed in Huntington, 48 years ago, the place we first visited was Beudry’s Store. Located in Huntington Village, we had never been in a store like that before—everything was there plus a cheerful greeting from the owner, Stella Beudry and help from many as we asked for directions to what is now Windekind.

We go to the Beudry’s store to buy gas, bread and milk, the New York Times and some great local vegetables and Pizza. Most of all we go to the Store because of a deeper instinct that seeks to connect with people and our community. We seek, standing between the meat counter and the coffee station, to greet neighbors, to laugh and joke, to share a story or two and catch up on local news and politics. We seek a place where we can be with all diverse elements of the Huntington’s diverse population—the store, like our school, church, library and town office, is a place where we are all welcomed and equal.

Running Beudry’s store is like running a dairy farm with people versus cows, both jobs are seven long days per week, with well over-eight-hour days being jacks of many trades and doing what it takes to contribute to community well-being that sometimes requires some very good listening. This is why we appreciate so much the people who make this all possible.

Yesterday, I was out and about with my camera and snapped this picture of Linda Pecor, owner, and her brother Pat O’Brian, right, and Doug Lake, back, who has worked at Beudry’s for the past six years. It is one of my most prized photos of the summer.

Beudry’s store helps insure that Huntington does not become another faceless rural subdivision—Marijke and I, the entire community are so thankful.

26/07/2016

Hello Everybody,

Marijke, taken during a recent garden tour.

This September we will celebrate 52 years of marriage, so much shared history and events together. They are cumulative, each new day adding on the last, it gets better and better, I am blessed by her presence day by day, year by year.

Mark

25/07/2016

Hello Everybody,

Inspired!

Yesterday, Marijke and I were out and about on a garden tour sponsored by the Hardy Plant Club, a robust group of worthies devoted to growing and protecting hardy ornamental and native plants, including wet land plants in northern Vermont.
Amongst, other sites, we visited the Hollister Hill Farm In Marshfield Vermont, we were inspired by their beautiful, varied and productive gardens and the B&B that they run.

In particular, they have a mission statement that inspires us to do what we do with others as a community at a high green standard, have a look at their compelling web site at- (http://www.hollisterhillfarm.com)

The photos below are but a sample of their gardens and landscape.
You can also visit Windekind’s web site at- (http://windekindfarms.com) , perhaps it might inspire you as well.

Our Best

Mark and Marijke.

19/07/2016

Hello Everybody,

For about 14 years that Taft Family of Huntington have pastured their Jersey Heifer, young female cows about to calf, at Windekind. I like our agreement is we trade meadow pasture for manure, that way we have the company of the cows all summer while improving the soils of our beloved 12 acre meadow.

Jerseys around here are like big pets, they are curious and playful sometimes following us around like dogs poking us with their noses. But for the present we have kept them out of the kitchen.

As its name implies, the Jersey was bred on the British Channel Island of Jersey. It apparently descended from cattle stock brought over from the nearby Norman mainland around 1700.

Because the breed was isolated, imports of foreign cattle into Jersey is forbidden by law, the cattle on the Island is pure. Looks to us that the Taft family has done a pretty good job of maintaining that purity.

Mark

18/07/2016

I AM IN love with these Astilbes. Here are some lovely contrasting examples in Marijke's main perennial gardens. We are experimenting with their growth in partial shade because they add so much color.

Monday	08:00 - 21:00
Tuesday	08:00 - 21:00
Wednesday	08:00 - 21:00
Thursday	08:00 - 21:00
Friday	08:00 - 21:00
Saturday	08:00 - 21:00
Sunday	08:00 - 21:00

Windekind Farm and Country Inn: Vermont Country Lodging

28/10/2016

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