Travel & Nature

This lovely looking house is the starting point for an environmental and ecological journey. Megan Reynolds decided to give up her day job, move into her family's house in Woodstock, New York, and turn it into a one room eco Bed and Breakfast. She has kept an ongoing "memoir in progress" of her experiences, doubts, fears and mistakes. She undersells (typical female reaction) the extent of the project and her commitment by describing it as such: "The eco-friendly aspects of my bed and breakfast are as follows: I grow a lot of my own food; I have solar panels for electricity; I have an Airstream trailer renovated to include a composting toilet and gray water system." In fact she is very dedicated; interested in permaculture and local food systems and "moved by the idea of community, of neighborliness, of local solutions."

She worries about how she will get guests, whether they will be disappointed ("It’s not that I’ve misrepresented myself, I argue (to myself), but that the project, literally every part of it, is nascent"), what they will think of her as a single young woman proprietor. Then she discovers how nice everyone is and how appreciative of the beauty of her place and what she has done. She becomes involved in the Woodstock community and finds that she enjoys it. By the last part of the memoir, she is planning the creation of a farm stand to sell local farmers' goods. To be continued--with pleasure. :: Memoirville, Memoirs in Progress