Woodnotch Farm
Stop and enjoy the view
Farmers don’t have a lot of extra minutes to stop and smell the roses—or enjoy the view—but every so often Loren Wood makes time. From certain spots on the family’s farm, he explains, you can see Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks in one direction and the Green Mountains in the other. “You’ve just got to take a moment and look at it all. I’m the luckiest son of a gun in the world,” he reflects, “that view and seeing my boys every day and my grandkids, too.”
Brought to you by the letter “L”
Loren and his wife, Gail, raised four sons on the farm and all have joined the family dairy and custom cropping operations. Loren’s sister Sonya Barber and her son, Trevor, also work with the family. The Wood boys all have names starting with L, their dad explains with a grin, ticking them off from oldest to youngest: “Lee, Leslie, Lance and Loren Junior (we call him LJ). When they were kids, my wife used to mark their clothes I, II, III or IIII, adding another ‘I’ each time the shirts or pants were handed down.”
“Doing our part”
The boys have also produced a beautiful next-generation crop of grandchildren, who are lucky enough to go to grandma daycare. The older ones are already showing cows at the county fair but, in recognition that other kids are at least a step removed from farming, Loren has also participated in a farmer pen pal program. “Those kids ask the darndest questions about the animals and about the lake,” Loren says. “We’re all in this state looking to keep this lake clean. We’re going to do our part.”
