WALLINGFORD, Vt. (WCAX) – Lee Houghton is an outdoorsy kind of guy.
“I just like being outside and in the air and so on,” Houghton said.
And he’s got plenty of elbow room on his 300 acres in Wallingford, and numerous projects to keep him busy.
“This is my collection of farm wrenches,” he pointed out during our tour. “This is all the wood operation here… This is the sawmill.”
Reporter Joe Carroll: Where do you have the time to do all of this?
Lee Houghton: I don’t, that’s the problem, I really don’t.
The longtime home builder grew up on the property. His parents had a chicken farm. But the last of the poultry was plucked years ago and the landscape is now scenic woods and meadows. “We have a pretty good view here,” Houghton said.
His roots in the region run deep. “Great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. I remember him, I got pictures of him, I’ll give you a copy,” Houghton said.
Reporter Joe Carroll: You remember him? What was he… 105 when he died?
Lee Houghton: 101.
Inside his home he shares with his wife, Nancy, he’s building what what looks like a piece of art and might be his most ambitious project. “This is a marine steam engine,” he said. “It will run a 20 or 22-foot steamboat… It was a six-year project overall, probably longer than that.:
Reporter Joe Carroll: It seems like you take pride in your work.
Lee Houghton: Well, I guess so. I like to do a good job.
In his shop, there’s more machinery he’s made. The high school grad had no formal training, just a curious mind. “Perhaps, yes, I guess you could call it that — desire to figure things out,” he said.
While Houghton has vivid recollections of meeting his Civil War relative, there are memories from that time he’d rather forget. As a child, he had Guillain-Barre syndrome, a condition that attacks the nerves. His legs were paralyzed for a year when he was five.
Reporter Joe Carroll: It’s part of life, right?
Lee Houghton: I guess. I don’t even think much about it… All through adulthood there I was fine. I didn’t have any effects. But it catches up with you after a while.
The 86-year-old now wears leg braces that help keep him on the move.
“I’ve seen so many people in their 80s just sit in a chair and that isn’t his way. He has to be out in the woods,” Nancy said.
A Super Senior proving that Yankee ingenuity is ageless.