Mr.Dohetty-Builds-His-Dream-Life原文和翻譯.docx

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 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.Mr.Doherty Build His Dream LifeJim Doherty1、 There are two things I have always want to do write and live on a farm. Today Im doing both. Im not in E.B. whites class as a writer or in my neighbors league as a farmer, but Im 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. 2、 Its a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of 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.3、 Its a satisfying life too. In the summer, we canoe on the river, go picking 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.4、 But the good life can get pretty tough. There month ago when it was 30 below, we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled. There 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 makes some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working in the outside. Later in this month, well spary the o, clean the bar, plant the garden, and clean the hens house before the new chick arrive. 5、 In between such chores, I manage to spent 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewrite 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 class, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, dose research and typing for me, write 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.6、 None of us will ever forget our first winter, we were buried under five feet of snow from the December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warming inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it.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.8、 The next year, we grow 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 employers blessings and half years pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket off I went.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, Ive crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lack Champlain “monster” for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.10、 Im not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we dont 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 mens major-medical policy. We have to pay the first 500 dollars 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 dollars 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 $2000 a year in an IRA.11、 Weve been an able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments.12、 I suspect not every who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we dont entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home. 13、 The other requirement is energy - a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw.14、 How much longer well have enough energy to stay on here is anybodys guess - perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we will leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what weve been able to accomplish. We should make a fire profit on the sale of the place, too. Weve invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again.15、 We didnt move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family, I know weve found just what we were looking for.在美國，不少人對鄉(xiāng)村生活懷有浪漫的情感。許多居住在城鎮(zhèn)的人夢想著自己辦個農(nóng)莊，夢想著靠土地為生。很少有人真去把夢想變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)實?；蛟S，這也沒什么不好，因為，正如吉姆多爾蒂當初開始其寫作和農(nóng)場經(jīng)營雙重生涯時所體驗到的那樣，農(nóng)耕生活遠非輕松自在。但他寫到，自己并不后悔，對自己做出的改變生活方式的決定仍熱情不減。多爾蒂先生創(chuàng)建自己的理想生活。Jim Doherty1、 有兩件事情是我一直想做的寫作與務農(nóng)。如今，我同時做著兩件事情。作為作家，我和E.B. White不屬同一等級，作為農(nóng)場主，我和鄉(xiāng)鄰也不是同一類人，不過我應付的還行。在城市以及郊區(qū)歷經(jīng)多年的悵惘失望之后，我和妻子桑迪終于在這里的鄉(xiāng)村尋覓到心靈的滿足。2、 這是一種自力更生的生活。我們食用的果蔬幾乎都是自己種的。自家飼養(yǎng)的提供雞蛋，每星期還能剩余幾十個出售。自己養(yǎng)殖的蜜蜂提供蜂蜜，我們還自己動手砍柴，足以供過冬取暖之用。3、 這也是一種令人滿足的生活。夏日里我們在河上蕩舟，在林子里野餐，騎著自行車長時間漫游。冬日里我們滑雪溜冰。我們?yōu)槁淙盏挠鄷煻印Ｎ覀儛勐劥蟮鼗嘏臍庀?，愛聽牛群哞叫。我們守著看鷹飛過上空，看玉米田間鹿群嬉躍。4、 但是如此美妙的生活有時會變得相當艱苦。就在3個月前，氣溫降到華氏零下30度，我們辛苦勞作了整整兩天，用一個雪橇沿著河邊托運木材。再過3個月，氣溫會升到95度，我們就要給玉米松土，在草莓地除草，還要宰殺家禽。前一陣子，我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋頂。過些時候，四個孩子中的兩個小的，16歲的吉米和13歲的艾米麗，會幫著我把拖了很久沒修的室外廁所修葺一下，那是專為室外干活修建的。這個月晚些時候，我們要給果樹噴灑藥水，要油漆谷倉，要給菜園播種，要趕在新的小雞運到之前清掃雞舍。5、 在這些活計之間，我每周要抽空花五、六十個小時，不是打字撰文，就是為作為自由撰稿人投給報刊的文章進行采訪。桑迪則有她自己 的工作日程。除了日常的家務，她還照管菜園和蜂蜜，烘烤面包，將食品裝罐，冷藏，開車送孩子學音樂，和他們一起練習，自己還要上風琴課，為我做些研究工作，并打字，自己有時也寫寫文章，還要侍弄花圃，堆摞木材、運送雞蛋。正如老話說的那樣，在這種情形下，壞人不得閑賢德之人也歇不了。6、 我們誰也不會忘記第一年的冬天。從12月一直到3月底，我們都被深達5英尺的積雪困著。暴風雪肆虐，一場接著一場，積雪厚厚地覆蓋著屋子和谷倉，而室內(nèi)，我們用自己砍伐的木材取暖，吃著自家中種植的蘋果，溫馨快樂每一分鐘。7、 開春后，有過兩次泛濫。一次是河水外溢，我們不少田地被淹了幾個星期。接著一次是生長季節(jié)到了，一波接一波的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品潮涌而來，弄得我們應接不暇。我們的冰箱里塞滿了、藍莓、蘆筍、豌豆、青豆和玉米。接著我們存放食品罐的架子上、柜櫥里也開始堆滿一罐罐的腌漬食品，有番茄汁、汁、李子、果醬和果凍。最后，地窖遍地是大堆大堆的土豆、西葫蘆、南瓜，谷倉里也儲滿了蘋果和梨。真是太美妙了。8、 第二年我們種了更多的作物，差不多就靠著從自家樹林砍的木柴以及100加侖的燃油過了冬。當時，我開始認真起了辭了職去從事自由撰稿的事來。時機選的太差。當時，兩個大女兒肖恩和艾米正在費用很高的常春藤學校上學，而我們只有幾千美金的銀行存款。但我們一再回到一個老問題上來：真的會有更好的時機嗎？答案無疑是否定的。于是，帶著老板的祝福，口袋里揣著作為累積津貼的半年薪水，我走了。9、 那以后有過一些焦慮的時刻，但總的來說，情況比我們料想的要好得多。為了寫那些內(nèi)容各不相同的文章，我為體育畫報爬進過黑熊洞；為史密森期刊替參賽的一組組狗套上過雪橇；為科學文摘調(diào)查過尚普蘭湖水怪的真相；為終點雜志在明尼蘇達劃著小舟穿越美、加邊界水域內(nèi)的公共荒野保護區(qū)。10、 我掙的錢遠比不上擔任全職工作時的收入，可如今我們需要的錢也沒有過去的多。我掙的錢足以應付每月$600美金的房屋貸款按揭以及一家人的日常開銷。那些開銷包括了所有支出，如音樂課學費、牙醫(yī)賬單、汽車維修以及大學費用等等。至于保險，我們買了一份低收入者的主要醫(yī)療項目保險。我們需要為每一位家庭成員的任何一項醫(yī)療費用支付最初的500。醫(yī)療保險則支付超出部分的80%。雖然我們?nèi)砸Ц缎〔糠轴t(yī)療費用，但我們的保險費也低每年只要560美金而我們給自己生大病保了險。除了這一保險項目，以及兩輛汽車每年400美金的保險，我們就沒有其他保險了。不過我們每年留出2000美元入個人退休金賬戶。11、 我們通過節(jié)約開支但又不明顯降低生活標準的方式來彌補收入差額。我們每個月仍出去一兩次飯，不過現(xiàn)在我們光顧的是當?shù)夭宛^，而不是城里的高級飯店。我們?nèi)匀ッ軤栁只牳鑴】窗爬傺莩觯贿^一年才幾次。我們?nèi)獬缘纳倭?，酒喝得便宜了，電影看得少了。鋪張的圣誕節(jié)成為一種回憶，我們把完成稿約作為度假的一部分。12、 我想，不是所有熱愛鄉(xiāng)村的人都會樂意過我們這種生活的。這種生活需要一種特殊的素質(zhì)。其一是耐得住寂寞。由于我們生活如此忙碌，手頭又緊，我們很少請客。在作物生長季節(jié)，根本就沒工夫參加各種社交活動。吉米和艾米麗雖然參加學校的各種活動，但他倆大多數(shù)時間也待在家里。13、 另一項要求是體力 - 相當大的體力。小范圍里實現(xiàn)自給自足的途徑是抵制誘惑，不去購置拖拉機和其他昂貴的節(jié)省勞力的機械。相反，你要自己動手。我們僅有的機器（不包括割草機）是一臺3馬力的小型旋轉(zhuǎn)式耕耘機以及一架16英寸的鏈鋸。14、 沒人知道我們還能有精力在待多久 也許待很長一陣子，也許不是。到走的時候，我們會愴然離去，但也會為自己所做的一切深感自豪。我們把農(nóng)場出售也會賺相當大一筆錢。我們自己在農(nóng)場投入了約35,000美金的資金，要是現(xiàn)在出售的話價格差不多可以翻一倍。不過現(xiàn)在不是出售的好時機。但是一旦經(jīng)濟形勢好轉(zhuǎn)，對我們這種農(nóng)場的需求又會增多。15、 但我們主要不是為了賺錢而移居至此的。我們來此居住是因為想提高生活質(zhì)量。當我看著艾米麗傍晚去收雞蛋，跟吉米一起在河上釣魚，或和全家人一起在果園里享用老式的野餐，我知道，我們找到了自己一直在尋求的生活方式。1、 get by be good enough but not very good2、 frustration n. the state or an instance of being frustrated3、 suburban a.4、 contentment n.5、 honey n.6、 just about almost7、 canoe vi. Go or travel in a canoe n.8、 ski vi. Move over snow on skis9、 low vi.10、 hawk n.11、 cornfield n.12、 below ad. (of a temperature) lower than zero13、 Miserable a. very unhappy or uncomfortable14、 Haul vt. Transport, as with a truck, cart, ect.15、 Firewood n. wood used as fuel16、 Sled n.17、 Above18、 Cultivate v. to prepare and use land for growing plants or crops19、 Corn n. (British English) U any plant that is grown for its grain, such as wheat; the grain of these plants20、 Weed v. to take out weeds from the ground21、 Strawberry n. 22、 Retile vt. Cover with tiles again 23、 Long-overdue a. 24、 Overdue a. being sth. That should have occurred earlier25、 Improvement n. the act or an instance of improving or being improved26、 Supplement vt.27、 Indoor a. situated or used inside a building28、 Plumbing n. the system of pipes, etc. that supply water to a building or the work of a plumber29、 Spray to cover sb. / sth. With very small drops of a liquid that are forced out of a container or sent through the air30、 Orchard a piece of land, normally separated from the surrounding area, in which fruit trees are grown31、 Paint to covera surface or object with paint32、 Barn 33、 Plant to cover or supply a garden/yard, area of land, etc. with plants34、 Hen n. a female chicken, often kept for its eggs of meat35、 Chick n. a young chicken36、 Chore n. a task that you do regularly37、 Typewriter n. 38、 Freelance n. a. vi.39、 Pursue vt. Strive to gain or accomplish40、 Demanding a. (of a piece of work) needing a lot of skill, patience, effort, etc.41、 Household n. all the people living together in a house42、 Oversee vt. Watch over or supervise43、 Beehive n. 44、 Bake v. to cook food in an oven without extra fat or liquid; to be cooked in this way45、 Organ n.46、 Now and then47、 Tend v. to care for sb/sth48、 Stack to arrange objects neatly in a pile; to be arranged in this way 49、 Wicked a. evil or bad50、 Virtuous a. (formal) behaving in a very good and moral way51、 Blast v. (of air, etc.) blow up of move with great force; destroy by using explosives52、 Drift a large pile of sth, especially snow, made by the wind53、 Overflow vi. Flow or run over the top or banks54、 Swamp vt. Flood, overwhelm by an excess of sth.55、 Freezer n. 56、 Cupboard n. a piece of furniture with doors and shelves used for storing dishes, food, clothes, ect.57、 Preserve (especially British English) a type of pickle made by cooking vegetables with salt or vinegar58、 Gallon n. 59、 At that point at that very moment, right then60、 The Ivy League a group of traditional universities in the eastern US with high traditional universities in the eastern US with high academic standards and a high social status 61、 Decidedly ad. Definitely, undoubtedly62、 Employer n.63、 Blessing n. 64、 Bless vt. Invoke divine favor upon65、 Accumulated v. to gradually get more and more of sth over a period of time66、 On balance with all things considered67、 Crawled68、 Den n. the home of a wild animal69、 Hitch vt. Harness (a draft animal or team)70、 Dogsled n. a sled pulled by one or more dogs71、 Digest n. a short account of written materials or data; vt.72、 Boundary n. sth. That indicates of fixes a limit or extent73、 Wilderness n.74、 wilderness area 75、 destination76、 generate vt. Bring into existence, produce77、 mortgage ( also informal home loan ) a legal agreement by which a bank or similar organization lends you money to buy a house, etc., and you pay the money back over a particular number of years; the sum of money that you borrow78、 expense n. the money that you spend on sth79、 dental a. of, relating to, or for the teeth80、 insurance n.81、 policy n.82、 pick up (informal ) to pay for sth83、 stuck in an unpleasant situation of place that you cannot escape from84、 minor lesser of smaller in amount or importance, etc.85、 premium n.86、 catastrophe n. a sudden event that causes many people to suffer87、 IRA = Individual Retirement Account88、 Appr