unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream Life
In America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life. 在美国， 不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。 许多居住在城镇的人梦想着自己办个农 场，梦想着靠土地为生。很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。或许这也没有什么不好，因为，正 如吉姆?多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时所体验到的那样，
农耕生活远非轻松
自在。但他写道，自己并不后悔，对自己作出的改变生活方式的决定仍热情不减。
Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream Life
Jim Doherty
1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm
doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.
有两件事是我一直想做的――写作与务农。 如今我同时做着这两件事。 作为作家， 我 和E ? B
?怀特不属同一等级，作为农场主，我和乡邻也不是同一类人，不过我应付得还行。 在城市以及郊区历经多年的怅惘失望之后， 我和妻子桑迪终于在这里的乡村寻觅到心灵的满 足。 2
It's a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of our fruits and vegetables. Our
hens keep
us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season.
这是一种自力更生的生活。 我们食用的果蔬几乎都是自己种的。 自家饲养的鸡提供鸡 蛋，每
星期还能剩余几十个出售。自家养殖的蜜蜂提供蜂蜜， 过冬取暖之用。
我们还自己动手砍柴，足可供
3 It's a satisfying life too. In the summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the
woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields.
这也是一种令人满足的生活。 夏日里我们在河上荡舟， 在林子里野餐， 骑着自行车长 时间漫
游。 冬日里我们滑雪溜冰。我们为落日的余辉而激动。 我们爱闻大地回暖的气息，爱 听牛群哞叫。我们守着看鹰儿飞过上空，看玉米田间鹿群嬉跃。
4 But the good life can get pretty tough. Three months ago when it was 30 below, we spent
two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled. Three months from now, it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, we'll spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive.
但如此美妙的生活有时会变得相当艰苦。就在三个月前，气温降到华氏零下 30 度， 我们辛苦
劳作了整整两天， 用一个雪橇沿着河边拖运木柴。 再过三个月， 气温会升到 95 度， 我们就要给玉米松土， 在草莓地除草， 还要宰杀家禽。 前一阵子我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋顶。 过些时候，四个孩子中的两个小的， 16岁的吉米和 13 岁的埃米莉，会帮着我一起把拖了很 久没修的室外厕所修葺一下， 那是专为室外干活修建的。 这个月晚些时候， 我们要给果树喷 洒药水，要油漆谷仓，要给菜园播种，要赶在新的小鸡运到之前清扫鸡舍。 5
In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewriter or doing
reporting for the freelance articles I sell to magazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this -- and not much for the virtuous either.
在
这些活计之间， 我每周要抽空花五、 六十个小时， 不是打字撰文， 就是为作为自由撰稿人投 给报刊的文章进行采访。 桑迪则有她自己繁忙的工作日程。 除了日常的家务， 她还照管菜园 和蜂房，烘烤面包，将食品装罐、冷藏，开车送孩子学音乐，和他们一起练习，自己还要上 风琴课，为我做些研究工作并打字，自己有时也写写文章，还要侍弄花圃，堆摞木柴、运送 鸡蛋。正如老话说的那样，在这种情形之下，坏人不得闲一一贤德之人也歇不了。 6
None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from
December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it.
我们谁也不会忘记第一年的冬天。从 12 月一直到 3月底，我们都被深达 5英尺的积 雪困着。
暴风雪肆虐，一场接着一场，积雪厚厚地覆盖着屋子和谷仓，而室内，我们用自己 砍伐的木柴烧火取暖，吃着自家种植的苹果，温馨快乐每一分钟。 7
When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overflowed, covering much of our
land for weeks. Then the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce. Our freezer filled up with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato juice, grape
juice, plums, jams and jellies. Eventually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing.
开春后， 有过两次泛滥。 一次是河水外溢， 我们不少田地被淹了几个星期。 接着一次 是生
长季节到了， 一波又一波的农产品潮涌而来， 弄得我们应接不暇。 我们的冰箱里塞满了 樱桃、蓝莓、草莓、芦笋、豌豆、青豆和玉米。接着我们存放食品罐的架子上、柜橱里也开 始堆满一罐罐的腌渍食品，有番茄汁、葡萄汁、李子、果酱和果冻。最后，地窖里遍地是大 堆大堆的土豆、西葫芦、南瓜，谷仓里也储满了苹果和梨。真是太美妙了。 8
The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood
that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so -- with my employer's blessings and half a year's pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket -- off I went.
第二年我们种了更多的作物， 差不多就靠着从自家树林砍斫的木柴以及仅仅
100 加仑
的燃油过了冬。 其时，我开始认真考虑起辞了职去从事自由撰稿的事来。 时机选得实在太差。 当时，两个大的女儿肖恩和埃米正在费用很高的常春藤学校上学， 而我们只有几千美金的银 行存款。 但我们一再回到一个老问题上来： 真的会有更好的时机吗？答案无疑是否定的。 于 是，带着老板的祝福，口袋里揣着作为累积津贴的半年薪水，我走了。 9
There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much
better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, I've crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake Champlain \wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.
那以后有过一些焦虑的时刻， 但总的来说， 情况比我们料想的要好得多。 为了写那些 内容各
不相同的文章，我为《体育画报》爬进过黑熊窝；为《史密森期刊》替参赛的一组组 狗套上过雪橇；为《科学文摘》调查过尚普兰湖水怪的真相；为《终点》杂志在明尼苏达划 着小舟穿越美、加边界水域内的公共荒野保护区。 10
I'm not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but
now we don't need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor man's major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low -- only $560 a year -- and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA.
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