Author: stumberry

Happy autumn to all: Go SOX!!!!!!!!!

Been a busy week plus in the Green Mountains. We’ve been out viewing the leaves, getting out on water in the unusual warmth, checking out starving artist studios, going to church suppers and having visitors. Took a lot of pix- so have provided two options to not bore everyone. You can check out the twenty or so highlights via the attached photos, or go to the Shutterfly link below to see the full 69 pix extravaganza (recommended). Lots of autumn shots, pix of friends visits, boating shots and the quest for the ultimate Vermont dirt road are included.

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=470074ef354b9e39&sid=2CauG7RyxZMly

Art in Vermont and Suppers: Artists in Vermont are an interesting clan. Almost all do a variety of things from raising animals to organic gardening, to cutting firewood/carpentry and working in restaurants. Everyone has a studio (I am going to have to set one up here- though not sure yet what will be in it). No sooner had we come back from our visit to the Islands, than our friend Nancy arrived for last weekend. We had our first Chinese takeout of Vermont with Nancy and our neighbors last Friday night with a massive display of little white boxes. We spent the weekend driving around for the autumn artists’ studio tour. Since it rained most of the time, we were the only people at all the studios we went to, and got to have personal tours of the artist’ work and space…which led to a bunch of new friends and dinner invitations. We met a Yiddish speaking New Yorker who raises and slaughters turkeys (just like on 59th St, he said), a Joe Pesci look/sound alike who turns wood, and a 78 year old water and oil color landscape artist, Robert Smyotovich, who is somewhat of a legend in these parts. We came away with several soggy objects d’art, visited a 60 year old Finnish sauna (pronounced around here as sow-nah), saw baby piglets just born and had Mexican food made by lily white Vermonters. Oh- and we saw a lot of leaves. After our day of labors, we went to the Southern Baptist church in nearby Proctorsville for the Harvest church supper, where we wound up sitting with the Minister and his family. He was a wildly intellectual character , who when I asked him how he found his calling said, “ at my bar-mitzvah”. For real..a lot of interesting people wind up in Vermont…

Chasing Leaves: Chasing leaves is a full time vocation, and we take it seriously. After our trips to the Adirondacks and the Lake Champlain Islands, we headed out this past week to follow “the peak” wherever it could lead us. Spent a couple of nights with our old friends Connie and Georgie at their B&B in Brookfield – the home of the world famous floating bridge (you can look it up). After a day of heavy rain, the sun came out and the leaves sparkled as we made our way over Roxbury Mountain to the quaint villages of Warren and Waitsfield to see leaves, ruminate on the condition of the world (Connie is a world class ruminator) and visit all manner of art and Chotchkies shops. We snuck in a picture perfect picnic lunch (with wine) in the shade of the Pitcher Inn in Warren and went on a rabid hunt for brownies in Waitsfield. The road was closed at the pass- so we had to detour which is the best way to catch a great view in Vermont. From there, we headed north to the remote town of Averill one our favorite haunts- the 125 year old Quinby Country. QC is a hidden jewel in sight of the Canadian border. Run by the Quinby family for over a 100 years, originally as a hunting camp- it became a family summer vacation place in the 1940’s. When Hortense, the 100 year old last survivor of the Quinby clan, was passing, she set up a land trust for the place with a Board and shareholders of folks who had been going there all their lives. They hired a guide from Alaska to run the place and now it is thriving both as a summer family place and a hunter’s haven in the fall. We get a little cottage heated by wood stove on a lake filled with loons and hang out with two dozen bird hunters (and their dogs) at meals (they seem to be a little more effeminate than your traditional hunters and drink a lot of red wine from France). We have been there many times before and it is usually pretty cold this time of year, but this week it was in the 70s and gorgeous- so we got out hiking and on the water for both a row and paddle. Not much better than sitting in the middle of a crystal clear lake on a brilliant fall day and reading a book (you can tell we are pretty serious boaters). Nights are crisp and dinner in the lodge is simple and family style…and we had WIFI in our cabin in the middle of nowhere- though about 50 miles from any cell service. More leaves below….

Columbus Day weekend- is this an important holiday to you? Well- it’s about on a par with July 4th or Rosh Hashanah. New Englanders and New Jerseyites flee their urban/suburban ghettos for this last dose of fall color- often arriving in quaint villages in Vermont (if not too far from the freeway) with massive photo lenses, haphazard parking and rolls of bills in their hands- to take in a little of the sanctity of the fall (Though it’s a pretty loud sanctity). They are like divining rods for pumpkins, antiques and maple syrup. So we try and go to places they can’t find ( we even did this when we were tourists, since we did not see ourselves as one of “them” ). Saturday we went to the event of the year in our local Belmont green- Cider Daze, featuring a 100 year old cider press and a lot of local schmoozing. From there it was down to Proctorsville for Singleton’s general store annual soup cook- off (really, a lot of bad soups with some nice grilled cheese sandwiches in a parking lot- but a really pretty parking lot). After a recuperation back at the ranch, we went to the monthly supper at the Oddfellows Hall (really!). Roast beef and lots of Vermont humor (yep, yep, nope, nope).Sunday rose magnificently in the mountains- so Jenn got her haircut and learned all the local news at some English woman’s house on Route 103 (her mum was visiting). We then headed off on a trek to see the migrating snow geese up in Addison at the Dead Creek wildlife refuge (bad photos attached). We stopped on the way (can never get anywhere in a straight line here) at an art show in the park in Rutland, a pick your own pumpkin farm- for Hog Heaven’s food truck bar-b-q lunch in Adirondack chairs staring at the mountains, and at a maze of odd shops based on everything purple. We arrived at the windy plain of the refuge to see a horde of both Snow and Canadian geese (a 1000 a day) flying over the field. Hung out for an hour while they re-positioned themselves over and over in a very segregated manner – blacks on one side –whites on the other

I believe this is the origin of the term “wild goose chase”….

So it’s now Monday of the holiday weekend- and we are trying to catch up with chores around the house- including burning some of the beautifully fallen eaves (we like them much better on the trees). Off to Boston this week for our last trek of the fall, then settling in for a month before heading west.

We hope this finds everyone well, just because…

Stu

Happy October:

It’s been a great couple of weeks in the green mountains. The leaves are popping, days in the 70s, nights in the 40s and the Vermonters are rightly bragging about this being the best place to be in this season. The pictures show the leaves, the guests, and the adventures we are having in the north woods. So…a few thematic highlights:

Flying in Vermont: this is not an easy task, often requiring a two hour drive to Albany and then multiple flights. So- I finally made the plunge to take the commuter flight on Cape Air to Boston out of the Rutland airport five minutes from our house. So Jenn drives me in her bathrobe and curlers and drops me off an hour ahead of time. The building is the size of our living room and no one is there yet since it is apparently WAY to early too early. They have to call in the TSA who are home eating maple syrup. I check in and they say they have to weigh my bag since they have to decide where it goes on the plane due to weight restrictions..THEN they weigh me! I’m thinking at this point that a Xanex and several bourbons are in order, and THEN they pull up the plane and it is several sizes smaller than the FedEx plane and holds eight people if they are not too big. We get in and the ground guy winds up the propellers (Really!) and the co-pilot turns around to shout out the safety instructions over the drone of the propellers, and then we take off for twenty minutes of death rattle shaking. I turn Catholic and recite fifty three Hail Marys and Our Fathers..but once we get up in the air it is magnificent; flying at 7000 feet over the mountains and foliage, until we get to Boston and then they go out over the ocean and we commence to shake and rattle until we land at Logan…and this is how we fly in Vermont.

Visitors: we have become popular in the last month (or maybe it is the leaves?) and had a variety of visitors stay with us. We get to show them the Vermont highlights, which has included seven trips to the Vermont Country Store in Weston; a place we would never set foot in on our own…bit it is VERY Vermont -so we go. They all wonder if we have heat and what the peculiar sound is when Larry sings glory, glory at sunset…and they all have to be retsrained from jumping in the pond with the kitchen strainer….We took Jenn’s son Ryan and fiancé Lauren to our favorite hike on the property of the old fella who built these magnificent trails for people to enjoy. His name is Carson Davidson (Kit) and it turns out he is a pretty famous short documentary filmmaker from NYC who retired to the woods and is now 89 (you can see his photo if you pay attention). The Japanese Gardens there are not to be missed and the hike up to Moot Point is to die for, so when you come we can go see him and see if he is wearing his Speedo and hanging upside down.

Living in an Electricians’ former house: Our benefactor Karin’s husband Walter was an electrician and the house has all the wonderful touches of someone who knows electricity and knows everyone else does not. Walter was really good in his installations but they are inscrutable to the average Midwestern dunce. So we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what light switches control what lights (still searching for 5 or 6 after three months) we have a number of timed lights which come on and go off as they (or Walter) desired…but which we are humbled by…and then there are the circuit breakers. Walter installed four breaker boxes at two ends of the house, and we are certain he knew why and what they controlled. But every time a light goes off we go down to the basement, try to avoid whacking our head going through the secret tunnel that connects the two sides, and then start throwing breakers. We usually hit something that works by the 25th or 30th breaker (there are around 45)…and then we just wait for the next one to not work. Karin and her daughter Christine send us periodic e-mail pep talks from Las Vegas (where they apparently have neither timers nor basements)about the wiring and then we just figure everyone is Vermont has light trauma.

Sunsets in Vermont and elsewhere: It is safe to say we are becoming connoisseurs of the magic of sunsets. We find them everywhere we go and have watched the beauties in the last month in the Adirondacks and Green mountains, over the Pacific and the San Bernardino mountains in CA, at our little house up on the hill and this week on Lake Champlain. I have taken 1900 sunset photos in the last month, but only share a select few so my son Max does not take my camera away from me. Like men hanging naked upside down, some people think they all look alike- but we think each one is a Michelangelo painting.. While chasing various sunsets, I like to take a plunge in a nearby body of water, even if no bathing suit is handy. In the last week, I have jumped into the pond, Lake Bomoseen and Lake Champlain…needless to say there is lot of shriveling that go with this in the autumn in Vt.…but It’s quite invigorating and creates fond memories once defrosted.

Music in Vermont- today we went to a little store down the road called “Junque”..which is applicable. We ran into an old Vermont woman who plays fiddle all over the place and she has invited me to come and pick with her and her friends. While I am working up the nerve to do that (what if they turn to me and nod??? What would they mean?), I have been playing on Monday nights at our local folk club and this week we had our annual performance in the town library basement. The club members have embraced my arrival with open arms- except for one woman (who may have issues)who once a night says she hates me. There were around 15 of us and twenty of them (fans with lighters) and we went through a good set of songs that each person had brought to the table. I drank a bunch of bourbon from a honey bottle (the squeeze kind) and had a really good time. One woman sang “That’ll be the Day” in honor of Linda Ronstadt (they both have Parkinson’s) and a little man from across the border (NY that is) sang Rick Danko’s “The Shape I’m In” which made me wet my pants . Music is quirky in Vermont- but very lovable.

Chasing Leaves: Just because we have moved to Vermont, we have not given up our fascination with finding peak fall color- so we drive around and take walks every day in search of the perfect red maple. We were up at the Lake Champlain islands for two nights this week- but it is still fairly green up three though the orchards and wineries were popping. Last week we saw magnificence at the Brandon Pass and in the Adirondacks on our trip there for a few days. Our drive into the town on Belmont is particularly scenic, though every five minutes that I stop to take a photo, Jenn reminds me that my version of rose colored glasses may make it seem a little better than it is (talk about bubble bursting). I’ve included a few leaf shots in the attached montage- though Max will take my camera again if I start really posting these . Next week we are heading up to see our friends in quaint Brookfield and then to a remote fishing camp on the Canuck border ( we may even fish…)It’s a good way to while away an afternoon and my Subaru has mysteriously increased its mileage from around 24 mpg to over 30 mpg as we drive up and down mountains….go figure. In other fall happenings- we decided that our little front door autumn display really lacked some corn stalks- so you can see the pix of Jenn stealing them from a remote cornfield and the resulting splendor at our front door.

Has anyone been watching the new series “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix or “Masters of Sex” on ShowTime…..Hmmm…..

Miss you all,

Stu

Good Monday to all:

Fall has sprung in the Green mountains; it is a blustery high 40s this morning. The leaves are turning all kinds of hues and we are trying to figure out how to keep the house warm without using the furnace (huddled around the electric heater as we speak). Been on a bit of a photo ramp-up last two weeks- so as a change of pace, I am attaching below a small slide show of our doings (small compared to the usual vacation shot behemoths). So…in “blogging” about last couple of weeks- let’s go through the photos…..

Go to link to see slide show (only 62 fabulous photos- I’m becoming a minimalist, no?) http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=51a175f6e734a4716276141d224b0f78&sid=2CauG7RyxZMjq

Jenn celebrated her 50th birthday last weekend- and I flew up her sister Jane and good friends Jane and Karen as a surprise. Jenn almost collapsed at the surprise. We had a great weekend together and then sister Jane stayed an additional three days. We did an eight hour driving tour of north- central Vermont (was supposed to be 3-4 hours) that led us to the Sunday farmer’s market in Stowe, up scenic Route 100, over Smuggler’s Notch, to the wonderfully secret Bryant gallery/museum in Jeffersonville and finally to an exploration of the Italian dead at the extraordinary Hope Cemetery in Barre. We had a magnificent birthday dinner at the Castle Inn in nearby Proctorsville and talked for 48 hours about going over to see Lake Bomoseen (Bomoseen or bust) but never quite made it. The neighbors came up for desert on Saturday night and Elizabeth had made Jenn a whopping German chocolate Cake (nine sticks of butter, 10 pounds of sugar). She had also found out that I hailed from Jewish stock- so made a Challah (see photo) that was pretty dam Jewish- although she and her mom called at a “hal- oh”

On the update side- the pictures will show the tree outside out bedroom window is turning shades of colors each day, the pond is de-sliming itself, we have built a fire pit and had our roof leak fixed by the newest Daryl and Daryl…and we now have peace flags strung up by our barn…a great hit with the four wheelers that go by to head up the logging road. We have also discovered two new outside lights that we have no idea how to turn on and off- but are waiting for Karen to illuminate us and them.

Stu spent a few torrid days in Chicago this week and got back to three straight days of almost 80 degree weather- so we got out and picnicked, hiked and went to the beach at Lake Bomoseen- where Stu went in the icy waters (think Titanic). See photos of him catching dinner the old fashioned manly way. We went over to Hubbardston, where there is this eccentric hiking spot on private property; 500 pristine acres owned by and 89 year old gent originally from Ohio, that he maintains for public use. There is wonderful Japanese rock garden and then a series of trails that lead you to magnificent vistas in about a half hour. We went to Moot Point and ate lunch overlooking the Mad River valley. The last time we were there was 7-8 years ago and we knocked on his door for directions (he now has a caretaker and great signage) and he opened it up hanging upside down on a gravity pole in his Speedo (he was a much younger 82 then)…so it was a bit of a risk going aback, but we are adventurous. After the hike we went to the beach and then to the Lake House Grill where sat nursing two dollar beers at the end of their pier and watched the sunset…stopping in Rutland on the way home to buy mums, crab cakes and investigate more bedding.

Saturday night we went to the community supper at the Belmont Odd Fellows Hall (lots of odd fellows) and pigged out, and then on Sunday we drove up to Montpelier for the 251 Club annual luncheon. We were honored as “plus” members with 10-15 other pairs who had completed the quest of going to all 251 towns and villages in Vermont. As usual, we were the youngest people there by 10 years (maybe 20 for Jenn). We did a detour drive on way there- crossing over the Brandon Gap for the colors-which were pretty cool. While at the luncheon- we had our 10th and 12th desert of the weekend. We then rushed home to have our first dinner party with Tante Helen and Haldor and their neighbors John and Lydia . For the occasion , we opened up our living room for the first time (we treat it like a hidden sanctuary covered in plastic), and then ate in the formal dining room. Stu served soup from the 1890’s sideboard..a first for kid from the Bronx. Helen made her Austrian strudel and linzer tart cookies- so we had our 13th- 17th deserts of the weekend. You can see pictures of all of this splendor in the slide show.

Stu is off to Indianapolis this week (via the shuttle plane to Boston from our local airport for the first time) and then he is off from work travel for about a month- while we seriously pursue chasing the leaves. We have decided that just because we live in Vermont- that is no reason not to do our annual fall journeys- so we are doing 2-3 day trips for next four weeks to Adirondacks, down to visit George and Connie in sunny Brookfield, then up to the Islands (yes- we have islands) and finishing up in the remote part of Vermont along the Canadian border. We have discussed fishing- but will need to figure out how to bait the hook and get any possible caught fish off of it. We are searching for lessons and/or someone to go with us and do these tasks.

I hope you are all well and enjoying the autumn wherever you are…Garrison Keillor says we all think more clearly in the cold weather (and should move the government to Maine) so happy thinking.

Stu

Happy Friday to all:

Well-it’s been a busy week in the Green Mountains. The weather has been nuts- alternating between cold and rain and southern- like heat…all making the leaves begin to change in earnest. We got back late Saturday night from our week’s family vacation sojourn to Paradise (Max’s palace in San Diego) and it’s quite an adjustment to be back on Mt. Holly. More attached pictures than usual this installment: a few from Paradise, then the African drummers come to Vermont, the adventures of Stu and Jenn taking an unplanned hike and finally the surreal Tunbridge World’s Fair (yep- that’s right- you can look it up). So…the week in review:

Saturday- got back to Albany International (you can look that up too!) after 8 hours of flying- highlighted by a layover in Vegas that resulted in a quick four aces on the video poker and a $200 bonanza. This was good-because after we landed we stopped at the diner in Troy on the way home and Jenn snuck two orders of rice pudding to go while I was in the bathroom (apparently rice pudding is similar to bedding for her..which by the way, when we spent the night in Albany before our flight to SD, we were compelled to buy more sheets since there was a TJ Max there..I believe we now have 36 new sets of sheets for our lovely bedrooms when you come to visit). We finally got home about midnight and were totally wired with the time difference- so stayed up for hours watching our shows on HBO (anyone catch the season opener of Boardwalk Empire? Masterful). Good family trip with a quick two day side trip to Big Bear Lake, in the San Bernadinos- which is one giant picture postcard.

Sunday- slept really late; tried to get the house and our lives re-organized, admired the new slime in the Pond, found lots that needed done and went off to Proctorsville to hear a group of African drummers in bright fall afternoon sunshine on the town green. Sayon Camara is quite a character from Guinea- now living in Woodstock and paired with a group of new- age white kids from New Hampshire…needless to say he stands out. There were no black people in the audience but I upped our count for our time in Vermont by four just because of his sheer Africaness. It got cold- we left for shopping and dinner in Ludlow- which got us home late enough not to do any chores.

Monday- uggh…lots to do and hot sunshine…no excuses. The lawn had mysteriously grown in epic proportions while we were gone- so we spent the afternoon on it, cleaned the house and went down to visit Podge the organic gardener- lots of good stuff at this time of year- some of which we have never heard of and don’t know what to do with- but bought anyway since it seemed the right thing to do. We then drove around aimlessly looking for something we could not quite find. Stu went to the folk club and we were in our fist heavy rehearsals for the annual show we will do the last Monday in September in the library basement. Two of my songs are being featured and I have a dobro backing me, which is a life peak moment.

Tuesday- it rained- a lot- and it leaked- a lot…so we spent most of the day pondering solutions to this new event. I put a posting on the local town e-serve for someone to patch our little roof over the living room bay window-and got a ton of responses- employment is not all that good in these parts. I only noticed it because Jenn decided that I needed to clean out all the window sills, which were pretty dirty, and I went in the living room for the first time in over a month and saw parts of the ceiling on the floor, which led me to surmise there might be a water problem of some kind. So – I sent Jenn up on the roof to check it out, and…voila.

Wednesday- we woke early to 90 degree heat and major humidity and so spent the morning splitting wood and sweating a lot. Our neighbors lent us their state of the art log -splitter and we decided to get the three big piles of wood left  from old downed trees, cut up (while it was nice and hot)for the impending use of the aforementioned living room and its fireplace. We spent half the day and got through one pile…but did not kill each other…so good morning it was. Stu then felt restless and that we had no plans to speak of- so we headed out for late afternoon hike in advance of hail filled thunderstorms. We went down to Ludlow and up to the base on Okemo Mountain ski area and found that there are apparently no trails there…so we walked up the giant slalom ski slope. You can follow Jenn’s progress from my advanced position in the photo spread. It’s my opinion that they could benefit from mowing the ski slopes in the off season- as they were awfully hard to walk up…and what’s with the lifts just sitting there unused? What about all the homeless people who do not have a lift while these sit there empty?

Thursday- woke early so Jenn could play at Skiping (is that a verb yet). Stu went to the barn to work out and then continued his assault on the window sills. Daryl and Daryl came out to look at the leak and told us it was probably just a result of the storm window being left open for months of driving rainstorms. We were so embarrassed we asked them to come fix the roof anyway. We set out at mid morning for our big travel and event day, heading first for the legendary Tunbridge World’s Fair. Now, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, since the population of Tunbridge is about 350- but it sure was a good fair anyway, though the harness racing highlight was put off because the track was so wet. We decided to not wait when we found out about the delay and after Stu spent a half hour walking around the grandstand trying to find the betting booths that don’t exist, though a slightly disabled man told me he would bet me on the races if I wanted. We left there in advance of the latest hailstorms to go down to Hanover NH (home of Dartmouth) and have a real sophisticated kind of night out. We went to Dan and Whits general store-which is really exciting in this part of the country, then to King Arthur massive bakery operation and then to a giant farm stand. Wow…what a coup this was (unfortunately, no bedding). We then had dinner after walking around for an hour in the pouring rain, at the local Thai place, which is actually one flight up (a good sign when choosing any kind of Asian and left us with a great window table overlooking charming downtown and the pouring rain.) This worked really well once we moved the table far enough away from the window to not get soaked by a worse roof leak than ours. All of that was more than made up for by great food and our server, Darcy of Dartmouth , who squealed with excitement when we finished our soup and were ready for our tofu. We then proceeded to the highlight of our night out, a real movie theater, to see Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen’s latest (see my review forthcoming for more on this). We had been wanting to see this film and going about two hours away was the closest we could find- plus it was good balance to the world’s fair. We ended our evening with an hour and a half drive through pouring rain and fog on Vermont route 131 which has been tore completely apart all summer. Jen kept asking me if I wanted her to drive- which is generally not a good romance builder.

Friday: well, we made it through our first week back home. Wet and cold all day today- Stu decided he was in SD and walked round in shorts and flip flops. Discovered this morning that some guy we called for a tree estimate came down and cut down the tree- which left a mess for us to ponder. I borrowed Larry’s chainsaw and his son josh to follow me around- but the chain was so dull it just quit running. So, josh took me to see Barry the hermit chainsaw sharpener who lives in a trailer in the woods in East Wallingford- who would only talk to me through Josh (until I told him my last name was Barry, too…only a slight lie in the interest of community relationships) ; but he was still done for the day and finding a space in the trailer to go to sleep (around 4:30 pm)- but said he would have it done before daybreak- so that is tomorrow’s plan. Jenn has spent the day cleaning and making friends with the City of Columbus water division which has run up hundreds of dollars of bills at her house while no one was living there. That is why we love Vermont. Got to go get ready for dinner next door. Rachel is making chicken chow mein- which might be pretty interesting.

Till next time,

Stu

Happy Sunday afternoon:

It’s been an eventful week in the great north woods as we inch into Autumn. More leaves turn each day and we have seen a few full blown red maples- we have our October leaf peeping sojourns planned but not sure there will be any leaves left…

Here are the highlights of the last week (notice I did not say “blog entry” even though I have been accused of keeping a blog):

Travel- It seems like every time I leave Vermont it really sucks. Spent a few days in Chicago and this week. the work was good, got to see a bunch of old colleagues and had dinner with Jesse…but the trip sucked. Stayed in the Elmhurst area which is a war zone for hotels. Wound up getting badly bit up in the middle of the night- luckily not bed bugs- but something bad and changed hotel the next day. Last morning there- woke up with a really sore ankle which got worse after getting home (return to tip to Albany and the hated drive, blah, blah, blah). Went to walk in clinic in Ludlow on Saturday (there is no urgent care in Vermont it seems, and we were heeding for ER in Springfield when we found clinic and faux Dr. Jack)) and at least it is not thrombosis from flying- but may be a spider bite. Still hobbling around with a big ankle and not sure what to think (no blood clot, though). Plus- everywhere else I go is both hot and over air conditioned. It ii a fact that we have not AC in Vermont- it’s already in the low 40s at night so we need some heat more than AC

Chickens and Eggs: So, as you know- we have a flock of chickens living next door- ostensibly to provide our neighbors , and by proxy, us, with fresh brown eggs daily. Expect they have been having trouble figuring out where the eggs are being laid. Yesterday- we found the big red one nestled up next to our barn, with eggs dropped everywhere (see photos). She is a Rhode Island Red, and apparently Red likes our house better (she tends to follow me around when I am working out in the barn-gym facility)and has decided to lay her eggs here daily. So we now have a bunch of cardboard egg boxes to take a dozen eggs daily back to the neighbors (we keep three or four as a handling charge more or less)

Dinner with the neighbors- Larry and Rachel and the kids came to dinner right after I got home. Jen and Elizabeth spent around 15 hours cooking and baking and then we were invaded. Quite a mess was made bit the food was really good (Lisbeth wants to go to culinary school, and wants to practice on us; seems we have adopted our new neighbor teens, so we are trying to be conscious of having our clothes on when they show up). After dinner Larry tried to convert me to come to his Holiday Inn church in Rutland- but we had a Jesus vs. Buddha (or Moses) standoff. Josh, our 16 year old neighbor, has taken to wearing camouflage daily in anticipation of hunting season in November. I’m hoping he has more than one outfit.

Sunning- we like to lay out in our yard after we have done our chores, gone to the Farmers’ Market and gotten ice cream from the soft serve in the lady’s kitchen down the road. Karin was not a lawn furniture person- so we have tried to find some. Jenn found some nice ones for $150- but we got two chaises lounges from Rite Aid on clearance that collapse every time we lay on them. Guess you get what you pay for (see photo)

Projects: we had two major home projects this week. the first was an impromptu decision that our rocks were dirty and needed to be cleaned. Apparently when you have a rock garden you have to sweep the rocks- which we had not and they were really dirty- so we spent about four hours trying to make clean rocks (see before and after pix). The we spent a lot of the weekend cleaning and staining the deck. Karin had put on really nice new railings for us but the deck floor is pretty weathered and Jenn said we had to make it right. So we bought some kind of acid to clean the decks and had to wear spacesuits to do it or we would melt down from the acid like on True Blood. We worked well together and after I finish this I will untie her form where I have her stored in the barn. See the before and after pix of this project as well. While we were finishing cleaning the deck a magnificent Blue Herron showed up at the Pond; she looked around abut decided not to go in until I get a bigger strainer to clean the toxic smudge. (see photos of her turning her nose up at the pond). As a small side project I decided to fix the chair we found in the barn and have out outside our front door. While we were gone last week- someone sat in it and it fell to pieces. So I have now attached six pieces of plywood underneath it and you can mostly sit on one side. In Vermont- you have to be handy! (see that photo too)

Speaking of the Pond: Daryl and Daryl never showed up to clean it (I guess they could not find a big enough strainer) and so we ordered six grass carp on line to swim in the muck and eat all the algae. Got an e-mail the next day that the company was not allowed to deliver to Vermont- so I guess we have to eat our own algae. It’s very pretty though in the late afternoon sun when the glare is too great to really see the smudge.

Interesting sights to see: when you come to visit us we will surely take you down to Ludlow where a full-size WW2 tank sites in the front of the high school. I guess they have been attacked a time or two and are now taking precautions. See Stu and the tank photo.

Karin’s flowers- Karin was by all accounts a master gardener- and we are not- so we just trying to stop them from committing suicide over being left with us. A lot of them appear to now have gone south for the winter- but some new ones showed up this week that may be confused about geography. See the picture of the pretty flowers in the chair that we have managed to keep alive so far. And the ones that showed up this week and we picked for our table before they get wise and go somewhere else.

Bedding- it seem that bedding a real priority here in Vermont. we have a lot of beds- but still Jennifer buys bedding of some type every time we go to sale or a store and even brought back a bunch of it that she bought back in Ohio. I’m trying to figure out where all this bedding is going to go, as we already have quite a pile in one closet. But, I think we are trying to make sure and get it right.

THE Theater: We went to our latest show at the Weston Playhouse last night, and extravaganza production of 42nd St. If you like musical theater –you would have loved this. I could not imagine how they were going to do those big production numbers on a pretty small stage- but they pulled it off and it was a packed house for the last night of the run. We sat in the balcony for a broader view of the spectacle- which amazingly fit on the stage with lots of extraordinary tap dancing, full cast production numbers and even a Can- Can line (I have to admit I slept trough some of the tap dancing extraordinaire- but definitely watched the Can-Can). And the orchestra- which they keep in the basement (not a pit, the basement) was amazing. Sounded like a 40 piece though I doubt there is room in the basement for that. The crowd also included three very gay African- Americans. We see a lot of gay people in Vermont, naturally, but this increased the number of people of color we have seen in two months by a full 20%.. At the start of the show, the Director comes out and makes very witty remarks and reminds you to not use camera or video…but says you can leave your cell phones on because there is no service for miles around. We went to Harry’s for our weekly dinner before the show and left with only 20 mutes to make it- but zipped down Route 100 and pulled up right in front of the theater with two minutes to spare. Since it as a packed house- we had unusually heavy traffic coming home..three other cars on route 155 until the Ludlow turnoff- the it got dark again.

Coming up: May be awhile before my next dispatch as we head to San Diego next weekend for a week of family vacation. Tess and Jake are meeting us there and we are all staying at Max’s hacienda (rent free, I believe). Jenn and Jake are joining us on our annual family vacation for the first time- in attempt to help us survive a week with each other. But, as we usually say, it could be worse.

Tomorrow, I am off to Indianapolis for some Casey work; it will take me about as long to get there from here as to fly to Europe. Enjoy the end of summer

STU

Good morning friends and family:

It’s been a quiet week in Mt. Holly, our home town, on the edge of the mountains. Especially, since we have not been here for the last ten days or so. Made a mid- summer hiatus visit back to the Ohio homestead, which was amazingly disorienting. The place looks great thanks to my now favorite child , and yard maestro, Marcus..and in some ways it was nice to be back in the ancestral home….but honestly it mostly sucked. It seemed like traffic jams everywhere we went, too many people, no mountains, and it did not smell good. And…since we are not living there- we had no phone, cable or internet. No big deal on the cable, the phones are a hassle since cell service is awful there…but the internet access-oh my…can you say DEPENDENCY? Had to make twice daily trips to Starbucks to use Wi-Fi, and sit with the coffee- dungeons and dragons type geeks (only joking if you are one of them ). And what is with the menu…can I get a small decaf please (what exactly is a Grande? And how come a tall is a small?). Overwhelming. Got to see our friends and kids which was nice, and Marcus and I did yeomen work on the property to get ready for fall, but the pace…hmmm, a bit different on the pace. So- on Sunday we headed back to snail land, and were so eager to get back –we drove straight for 13 hours (well we did have two diner stops to keep our Greek friends in business) and got back to the new homestead 10 pm Sunday night.

It is good to be back. It smells really nice, the cats were alive (though our beloved Tripod remains missing in action) and the yard was mowed (well, maybe more like scalped) from our young friends next door. Woke up on Monday morning to the birds and bullfrogs greeting us and looked out the bedroom window to see color in the tree (see picture). Fall is coming early it appears.

We immediately got back into Vermont mode by heading out to nearby quaint Shrewsbury to the Pierce General store/ Co-op to get lunch and maybe find something for dinner. It’s about six miles from here and after driving for about 45 minutes we stumbled on it- only to find that they were all out of lunch sandwiches. We bought whatever they had left and sat on the front porch in the sunshine and ate our lunch. It took us eight minutes to get home. We did stop on the way at the little bakery/ice cream shop on Route 103 that is in a woman’s house. She actually does have  a soft serve machine (maple flavor today) in her kitchen. Another roadside attraction.

Thanks to Christine ‘s advice (she is our benefactor and former house occupant, Karin’s, daughter and our new e-mail buddy in Vegas)- we took our next door kid, Elizabeth on a walk to Belmont via the tracks (see picture). Nice walk but then we got more ambitious and hiked all the way up the hill (quite deceiving in grade) to the other side of Gates road and then to the end – past the town dump- to the logging road and back to our house. Another one of those lost afternoons that seems to happen here a lot.

So- the Pond…I have more or less given up on it – as you can see from photo- it seems to take revenge on me and come back with more algae and scum after I spend time on the raft straining it. I may go to Wal-Mart and see what the biggest strainer they have is. We have also talked to two local guys who say they will come in a rowboat and rake it out (Daryl and Daryl?). Karin’s beautiful gardens are beginning to fade with the colder weather, and we’re not sure if there is something we are supposed to do to make them keep growing…I guess maybe it is just what nature does (see photo). Maybe new things will grow soon?

We continue to feel like we have simply assumed Karin’s identity. We live in her house, we sleep on her bed with her sheets, we use her toilet paper and are still eating food she left behind (wondering where to get those sugar free chocolate coated cookies?). We find new treasures each day that she has left for us and we love her art and her crafts. She even left all her craft materials in the barn for Jenn to get started on, which she seems to be avoiding. And now- we have been taken in by Tante Helen and Haldor (Jenn thinks his name is Halidol) who are Karin’s in laws from Austria and Norway and live on the next road. We drink wine with them and get silly. The few people who visit us may think we have simply moved in and are keeping Karin in the basement.

Oh well- I like her identity and as my kids and I say after every family vacation together “it could be worse”.

Come up and visit—the leaves are coming and we are blocking of three weeks to chase them around the state. Hope all is well with everyone. Did you catch the season finale for True Blood? Wow….

Stu