27 Years Caretaking - and still loving it!

Early in his life Ken Hauser developed a love and appreciation for the great outdoors when he spent his summer vacations at his grandmother’s house in the Catskill Mountains of New York. As a child, Ken and his family moved to New Hampshire, where he joined the local 4-H garden club. There, Ken learned gardening and crafts and exhibited his crafts and produce at the state 4-H fair. He was also a Boy Scout and went on to become a Life Scout and a Brotherhood member of the prestigious Order of the Arrow. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire’s Thompson School with a degree in forest technology, Ken worked seasonally as a grounds-keeper at a resort hotel on the coast of Maine and as a ski patroller at a New Hampshire ski resort. In early 1979 Ken moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and began working seasonally with the U.S. Forest Service. He worked with the Gros Ventre Ranger district as part of a compartmental exam crew and the Kemerer Ranger District on a timber crew. In Kemerer he received an award and certificate of merit for his exceptional work performance.

  

In 1982, when Ken moved back to New Hampshire to be with his girlfriend Martha, who is now his wife of 27 years, he accepted a position as a full time caretaker and property manager on an 800+ acre estate. The property consists of mostly forested rolling hills with predominantly red oak, white pine and hemlock. Ken explains, "There is about a 120 acre grassy, marshy meadow through which flows the Piscataquog River. Wildlife abounds. We regularly see deer and have seen moose, bear, coyote and even bobcat. The river and pond are constantly host to many species of migrating ducks and mergansers and we have often watched two or three otters playing on the snowy banks in the winter or eating all of our bass in the summer. And the beavers are always at work."

Ken says, "I have been working on this estate for past 27 years. I do everything that comes with managing an 800 acre estate, from marking timber, administrating timber sales, timber stand improvement, weeding, thinning, pruning, building repair and maintenance." Ken also manicures a country landscape that he helped to create, with over four acres of lawn, multiple perennial gardens, a small vegetable garden, and annual plantings in boxes and beds around the house and swimming pool area. In addition, he cares for the pool and tennis court so that they are ready for use when the owner arrives.

When asked about a typical day, Ken says, "It's really more what a typical week is for me as I work on a weekly rotation, so that everything is finished by end of day on Friday... a finished product! This has been a very atypical spring-summer as we got nailed in December with an ice storm unlike anything ever seen here. I have been cutting trees, tree tops, limbs, and hauling brush continuously. Each day typically starts with starting the swimming pool filter and balancing the chemicals. I then do some weeding and dead heading of the rock garden and tennis court garden. I might weed the vegetable garden, grade the driveways, spray the orchard, blow off the tennis court, clean trails, fertilize lawns, water annuals, paint, rake, work on rebuilding walls etc. It's a never-ending list. I weed whack at least six hours a week and the mowing takes two complete days, about 20 hours.”

 
Ken continues, "It would take a lot more than this one page to describe all that I do and have done, but I think you can get the general idea. Today I started the pool, fertilized my annual pots and beds, weed whacked for three hours. Got a flat tire on my tractor repaired. Mowed the orchard, the back side of the pond, a one acre field, and around the vegetable garden and swimming pool."  In the years that Ken and Melissa have been on the estate, there have been many changes and additions to the property and Ken has been responsible for most of them. These include adding a new 2 ½ acre lawn, perennial rock garden, shade area garden, tennis court border garden, daylily garden, 1,500 square foot vegetable garden, and fruit tree orchard with 33 acres of apples, peaches, pears, cherries, plums, raspberries and blueberries.


 
Ken has also put his woodworking and landscaping skills to good use, building small additions on the main house and maintenance shed. He has built large beautiful entrance gates for the estate and for the cottages on the property, a large deck for one of the cottages, a picket fence with arbor way for the vegetable garden, and an arching wooden bridge with curved stone ramps that crosses a small river below the house. He just recently rebuilt several stone walls, transforming one from a massive 300’ long pile of rock to a beautiful finished wall running through a newly created field. Ken explains, “I like doing all the finishing touches that make the place look just so. It is always a work in progress and an ever-increasing challenge to keep up with the constantly expanding landscape. I have always loved a challenge."  

Ken and Martha enjoy skiing and bicycling together. Martha competes in running races and Ken races cross country skiing and participates in occasional bicycle hill climb races. According to Ken, “I’m not the fastest by any means, but I give it all that I’ve got and have a great time doing it. This, along with my work, helps to keep me young.” Ken concludes, "My wife Martha and I are best friends who cherish our time together and we are each other’s biggest supporters. We live a very healthy lifestyle with our beautiful three-year-old black lab, Jazzy. The past 27 years have been a wonderful experience and an exciting challenge.