I met Carl Blaisdell back in 2018, while I was working on a story for Brave Little State, about what it’s like to live in the Northeast Kingdom. I was at Caplan's Army Store in St. Johnsbury, where I used to buy all my socks and which sadly now is closed, and I asked them who they thought I should talk with, and the collective response was, "Carl." I asked how to find him, and they said, "Go about seven miles down this road then there’s a road that kind of goes up to a Jersey farm on the left and then there’s a pond. But there's no sign to the pond. So after the pond, drive past the pull-off and Carl's trailer sits way up in a field at the top of that hill. There’s a lot of pipes. And a lot of cars and trucks. And a lot of hounds."
Carl’s trailer looks out over the farm he ran for most of his life, then sold. After farming, Carl seemed to make a smooth transition to mountain man, which is how he described himself, and the name pretty much fits. He’s private. He only goes to town to get something he needs. His life is close to the ground, to his dogs, and to the outside.
Music for this show by Emily Kueppers.
Rumble Strip is a podcast produced by Erica Heilman and distributed on the radio by Vermont Public. Learn more about the show here.
