Halifax

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Clockwise from top: Moonlight brightens the sky and East Monponsett Pond; a carved bear stands on the lawn of a Thompson Street home; the shadow of a tree is cast on the side of Halifax Congregational Church at night; Sam waits in a stall at Elizabeth Robinson’s home on Thompson Street; and Marc Valentine stands in his yard next to the 12-foot-high statue of Myles Standish. (Lightning destroyed the top half in 1922, except for the head, which is believed to be in an Ipswich garden.)DIBONA (community photos by John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

By Jon Mael

Globe Correspondent

Jessica DiBona didn’t anticipate living a farmer’s life while growing up in Holbrook. With a career as a reading specialist and an electrician husband who works in the city, you wouldn’t expect her to live on 36 acres with chickens, guinea hens, and a pumpkin patch. When DiBona moved to Halifax seven years ago, however, that’s the life she was destined for.

“It’s kind of a rural, small town,’’ DiBona said. “There are a lot of farms, everybody has chickens, everybody grows their own pumpkins, but I don’t feel like it’s that small where it’s one of those towns where everybody knows your business. Most of the houses have some acreage; you have some space.’’

In towns like Halifax, the community members lean on one another. DiBona mentioned how parents have banded together to raise money to rebuild a playground. In addition to the strong sense of community, Halifax is known for its natural appeal, with Silver Lake and East and West Monponsett ponds figuring prominently into the town’s layout.

DiBona’s father-in-law, a lifelong resident and retired firefighter who goes by “Farmer Bob,’’ runs Good Neighbor Farm, which, in addition to hosting the family’s home, sells hay and grows a wide variety of vegetables. She fondly recalls a class project a few years ago in which her third-grader had to grow a cabbage and produced one of the largest in the class.

Halifax belongs to the Silver Lake Regional School District; the middle and high schools are in Kingston. DiBona, the mother of a sixth-grader now, is preparing for the change to middle school next year and the greater distance from her farm to the school.

While she laments the distance she has to travel to get to a major highway, DiBona wouldn’t trade the Halifax life for anything.

“Halifax is just a good, safe family community,’’ DiBona said. “Good schools, everybody’s looking out for everybody else’s kids, everybody’s supportive of the Fire Department, police, and teachers, and it really hasn’t changed since I first moved [here] seven years ago.’’

Jon Mael is a freelance writer based in Sharon. He can be reached at jmael2014@gmail.com.