For any of you who have been following along on our adventures, you will have heard me referring to our home and farm as Rocinante. But I’m not sure I have shared the reason for this name.
When Beau and I were driving cross country, moving from LA to Deer Isle, we listened to several books on tape. One of them was John Steinbeck’s My Travels with Charley, as we knew that the book opened with an account of his own adventures traveling over the bridge and the causeway, to visit Deer Isle.
Somewhere between the Mississippi and the Missouri river, during our cross country trip, Beau and I looked at each other after hearing Steinbeck’s decision to name his van “Rocinante” after Don Quixote’s horse, agreeing that we too wanted to name our new home Rocinante, after our Quixotic fantasy — as we launched into this new adventure in an unknown land we had only imagined up til then. After we arrived, we even registered Rocinante as the name of our farm, at the town office, when we also registered our address with the Post Office so we could have an actual mailbox. And yes, in the collection of books that the previous occupants had left behind, was a very pleasing edition of the My Travels with Charley.
That summer, my daughter Lily came to visit, and kindly made us a sign to point visitors up our old road — as well as my deliveries to Narrative Food, before I moved into my space at the Connectivity Hub in Stonington.
Three years later, with the new road complete, we needed a new sign to point folks where to turn when visiting. It was time now, to formally and publicly Christen the place “Rocinante”.
This weekend, we got to work. First we transformed the lettering Lily had also drawn as the header for this Substack (see the letters above spelling out The Maine Chronicles — very similar in style to our old sign — luckily every single letter in Rocinante is also used to spell the words The Maine Chronicles!), and so with a little ai magic, I was able to lay out our new sign, enlarge the lettering to real size, and print it out on several sheets of paper! We taped the sheets of lettering together, and cut out a stencil to trace the letters onto a board we had identified in the barn, that conveniently already had a hinged piece on it which would be perfect for screwing into the signpost.
We opted for leftover house paint to paint the sign background (we figured it would match the house that way!), and some black paint we found in the art supplies for the lettering. Every single thing we used to make this sign was found in the barn.
Finally, it was time to figure out our signpost. First, Beau valiantly dug a hole at the bottom of the road, and was able to get down about a foot before hitting a mass of roots. With all the rocks we had to hand to steady the post, that would have to do.
Then, we used a weathered fence post left over from building the fencing around our veggie garden, and attached it to a lovely curved beam we found in the “scary room” — the wonky area in the back of the barn where the floor is literally laid on dirt, and all the wood scraps are stored along with an old blueberry winnower and a fireplace surround.
And finally, we leveled the sign post into position, sinking it into the hole, and wedging it with rocks. The final step was connecting the sign to the post. Like magic, the plan materialized.
Ta da, my heart bursts with pride:
Rocinante is a place of dreams that become reality. I love our sign. : )
Now the dream is 1009% reality and you have the sign to prove it! It's a beautiful sign. Well worth the effort.
I cant wait to see it in person!