Vermont
11/1/2026 | 3m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Raised in a military family across 12 states, Kelly put down roots on a Vermont hilltop.
Growing up in a military family, Kelly lived in twelve different states as a child. After college, she was eager to put down roots and chose a rural community in Vermont to start a new life. A husband and two sons later, she built a house on a remote hilltop, hoping to give her family the connection to place she never had. Filmed in 2010.
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Distributed nationally by American Public Television
Vermont
11/1/2026 | 3m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Growing up in a military family, Kelly lived in twelve different states as a child. After college, she was eager to put down roots and chose a rural community in Vermont to start a new life. A husband and two sons later, she built a house on a remote hilltop, hoping to give her family the connection to place she never had. Filmed in 2010.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(soft mandolin music) - I've lived 12 places before I moved to Vermont.
My dad was in the military.
I enjoyed moving around in that I got to see a lot of new places and have cultural experiences.
But definitely during certain periods of time I found it really fragmenting to pick up roots and move every two years.
And I felt like I was looking for a place to anchor myself and to establish my identity as a young adult.
I was drawn to the mountains and the landscape just to mountain bike and swim in wild waters and rivers.
I had been living in the city for two years.
I think Vermont to me was this retreat from all of that.
(soft music) It takes a while to feel connected to a place, to find the right space that makes you feel inspired, to connect with people.
It does take time, but it also takes a resourceful person.
About 10 years ago, my husband and I bought this piece of land and we ended up putting an offer in within a day.
We knew it just was the place we wanted to be.
When we were building our house we first built the garage and put a wood stove upstairs and lived there for six months while we built the house, using the Portalet, using a little George Foreman Grill for food and a dorm refrigerator.
It's pretty tight quarters, but it was very warm for the Vermont winter.
Six and a half years ago, my husband and I had twin boys.
The birth of our boys was a big turning point for us.
And it has made me more connected to Vermont.
It's just been a great place to raise kids.
One, two, three, go!
(soft music) Living here is hard.
To make a living in Vermont, a lot of people work three or four jobs.
There sometimes is a cost to us having these things, and that's not always apparent to outsiders.
(soft music) Vermonters represent a lot of different things, a lot of different types of people.
But I think that we are all Vermonters because we have a sense of love for this place.
Finding myself in Vermont, I think has been the biggest gift because it's become a place that I love and I'm pretty rooted for the long haul.
(laughs) (kid laughs) (soft music) (kid laughs)
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