Vermont Off the Beaten Path Tips by traveldave

Many ponds and lakes dot the Northeast Kingdom, including Keiser Pond. Up on the hill in the distance is the house and barn that make up Hill House, which is where I lived from 1968 to 1973.

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Hill House is at the end of a quarter-mile (0.40-kilometer) dirt road, which served as our driveway. In the summer it was dusty, and during the "mud season" in March when the snows were melting, it was deep in gooey mud. In fact, it was so muddy that our car frequently became stuck. Sometimes in the winter, the snow drifted so deep that it would take an entire day for the town crew to plow the road.

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Hill House was once a dairy farm. The typical long, red barn had many purposes. The milk cows were housed on the main floor; hay was stored on the upper floor; and manure, used to fertilize the fields in the spring, was stored in the cellar.

Unfortunately, many Vermont family farms are not able to survive and go bankrupt and fall into disrepair. Many barns around the state eventually collapse. I am afraid that is something that will happen to Hill House's barn one of these days.

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The rolling countryside of Vermont is characterized by dairy farms and their red barns, white farmhouses, and black-and-white Holstein cows. Vermont is known as a state dedicated to dairy farming. However, the numbers of farms are dwindling. Forty years ago, there were 10,000 dairy farms in Vermont; today, there are only about 1,500.

Even though Hill House is no longer a working dairy farm, a neighboring farmer has leased the land so his dairy cattle can graze in the pastures.

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This is the view we had every day from our front door. On a clear day (which it was not when I took this picture), the White Mountains of New Hampshire are visible in the distance. At the bottom of the hill is Keiser Pond.

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The Haskell Free Library is the most unique library in the world. Located in Derby Line, Vermont and Beebe Plain, Quebec, the border between the two countries runs right through the building.

The black line painted on the floor marks the border between the United States (left) and Canada (right). When I took this picture, I was straddling the border, with one foot in the United States, and the other foot in Canada.

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Outside the Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, Vermont and Beebe Plain, Quebec, there is a stone border marker which marks the border between the United States and Canada.

There are no border formalities here. Visitors can freely cross between the two countries to take pictures of the border marker, and to stand with one foot in each country.

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