Author: stumberry

Subject: More Rambles on Living in Vermont
Good evening all:

It has been an interesting week in our hometown, Mt. Holly Vermont. We just got home from our first venture to the famous Weston Playhouse where we saw a great musical drama called “Next to Normal”- a Pulitzer Prize winning play- in one of the country’s most prestigious summer stock venues. These performers are certainly headed to Broadway, and the music was incredible- even though they keep the musicians in the basement and out of sight (I thought it was just a good recording for most of the night). We get the Vermont resident discount which makes it incredibly affordable and it takes us about 15 minutes to get there. Coming back the traffic was a bit slow- we passed two cars coming in the opposite direction. We will be regulars for the rest of the summer season.

On Saturday we spent a pretty typical Vermont weekend day- headed to Rutland in the morning for bull goose Looney of all farm markets and made arrangements to participate in a community farm share program. We stopped at Charlie’s Treasures on Route 7- where Charlie appears to have many treasures but is never there. Then we headed to Ludlow for some thrift store diving and found the beautiful Buttermilk Falls near the Okemo ski resort- a series of three beautiful walls a short walk from the car- each with its own little swimming dam. We wound up the day with a dinner at the local town hall- family style with all the locals (who are the dam flatlanders with the Ohio plates?)- we met our local state rep who immediately hit us up for votes. On Sunday we headed out to White Rocks State Forrest to take a really nice two hour hike to the panorama view and the (duh!) white rocks-see pictures from the top. We came home and did our second mowing- down to 2 ½ hours this week as we may have discovered some of Karin’s’ secrets to the yard -whack and trim more than ride.

We have become good friends with the chicken flock next door who hang out at our house most days chasing Tripod around the yard. The two red mama chickens have taken a real liking to us- and appear to want to join us for dinner in the house (as guests, not main courses). One has discovered a mirror we have stood up in the barn for working out- and spends a lot of time primping in front of it. When I lay down on the lawn to do stretching- they both circle around me and cheer me on. I think they believe that Tripod is one of them –as he walks similarly with his missing leg.

We have received our first invite from June, a thrice divorced ingénue, who has invited us to her hacienda on Lake Nineveh for drinks, dinner and swimming. She will be our new best friend. I have advertised at the local store and on the local list serve to find a pond boy to help me (or better yet- replace me) with the formidable task of cleaning the pond out. We bought a floating raft to be able to clean the middle parts out- which are pretty deep- and very dirty…not much response yet, but we remain hopeful.  Several people saw my ad and told me to call them when we find a pond boy- as they want one too (perhaps a business opp. For me in my semi retirement?).

I went to the folk music club for the second time and have been signed up for a role in the fall performance. Jenn went to a monthly woman’s’ group dinner and met many European exotics. Tomorrow we head to Albany to fly down to Asheville, NC for a family reunion- and we are already missing being away for five days from our little house in the hills…will the chickens forget who we are? Will the pond get dirtier? Will our new best friends forget us? Stay tuned.

BTW- we have all the spare beds neatly made up- so if you can pond clean- please come soon. We’d love to have visitors.

Stu

Subject: First Rambles on Living in Vermont

Good morning all:

We have been here a week today and are getting pretty settled in- it helps when you move into a house that is already fully settled. We have tried not to mess it up too much The weather has been a mix- some days it has rained ferociously in the afternoon and some have been pretty hot and humid; the nights are always blissfully north woods cool. I’m off today for my first trip “abroad”- an overnight to Baltimore out of Albany- which is a disconcerting two hour drive just to get on a plane

So –here are some first observations about living in what the neighbor calls “ the most socialist state in the country”:

• Larry is the neighbor and he is a preacher in Rutland. He raises chickens and mallards which hangout outside our door all day long and play with tripod. He calls us sir and m’am and very night at sunset he bellows out “Glory, glory, Hallelujah”. He and his family brought us a spaghetti and meatball cake for a welcome thought (yes- a real cake with spaghetti and meatballs on top- so you can have all your courses at once)
• There are apparently four miles of hiking trails per person living in Vermont. We have a an old logging road out back end of our property which is a boulder strewn trail that connects to the other side of our road a few miles up. We are about five miles from the Appalachian and Long trail entrance, which goes to a suspension bridge and gorge pretty quickly. We are also about five miles from White Rocks State Forrest area- which is a drop dead beauty of a hike down a hillside to a stream and wading pool sitting with huge white boulders.
• Mt. holly sits at 1824 feet elevation – which is pretty high on the East coast; when we leave our drive and turn on to SR 103 in either direction- we are immediately surrounded by the Green mountains and the Adirondacks. When we tell people in the surrounding area we live in Mt. Holly- they nod knowingly and say “ ah, the snow belt”. Hmmm..
• Vermont is all about local and organic. All restaurants have chefs trained at the New England Culinary Institute-even hole in the wall dives. Restaurants are part of the “fresh network “ of locally sourced food and everyone is “Organic” (except maybe us and Larry down the road). Every town around seems to have a farmer’s market. Ours is in our hub of Belmont- about four miles away- and is on Saturday morning. There are about five stalls and ten people- but we bought organic and free range chicken and buffalo there. They seemed to not know what I wanted when I put my fingers pointing over my head and asked for Ta-tonka”. About five miles down the road is a huge organic garden and roadside stand. We stopped yesterday and it was closed- but the spacey, Amish looking proprietor, Podge, was hanging out back and offered to pick us some fresh fixings from the garden. We got some stuff we’d never heard of and ate it. Turns out Podge is the great nephew of the eccentric founder of the local in-the-woods treatment center, spring Lake Ranch- which is also five mile down the road (getting the theme here?) and where Jenn aspires to be employed part time.
• Along the road to our houses- there are houses selling all manner of weird products; one has a soft serve sign outside- so we will stop by to see if someone really has soft serve machine buzzing away in their living room- and maybe keeping the house cool
• Tripod has found a home in eth barn where he sleeps in an old grain bin, an spends his days mostly hiding in the bushes outside our front door. He aspires to join Gracie and Nico inside and tries every chance he gets. He has befriended the flock of chickens and a wild red tabby cat- with whom he shares his daily feasts
• We live in a house that was occupied by and electricians’ widow- so we have tools hidden everywhere and the wiring is all done in an eccentric mad scientist fashion. There are three boxes of breakers spread out all throughout our four room basement. While Walter electrified, Karin apparently mowed, and she must have been a pioneer woman. It took Jenn and I together five hours to mow and trim the first time. We were exhausted, dehydrated and it looked like shit.
• On Monday nights- the local musicians come down from the hills to the library basement to jam on folk and bluesy music for three hours. I have joined them and been immediately labeled a rock and roll influence right off the bat; maybe because I had come from just hiking on the a trail- and had wild hair and stunk badly and stood up outside the music circle to roam and play.

Well- got to get ready to travel- so that is it for now. Hope all is well in your world. Love or like you all,

Stu

Good Sunday to all:

It has been a quiet week Mt. Holly Vermont, our hometown, on the edge of the mountains. We left the country estate in the mountains for a five day sojourn in Asheville, NC- for a 23 cousin family reunion- many of whom had never met before…an interesting experience. Asheville is beautiful and it was good to spend the time with family- but we could not wait to get back to the Green hills- where it has been an amazing 72 degrees with blue skies and white clouds and brilliant sunshine every day almost for the last two weeks. The really bad news was we returned to find our beloved wild outdoor three legged cat- Tripod- missing in action. He seemed to have adjusted to the move – but apparently took off while we were gone and has not returned as of one week later. We continue to hold out hope for his safe return.

The past week has been filled with chores and upgrades around the villa and various expeditions to the countryside. We went back to the Weston playhouse for another show- Loving Leo- a two person one act play about an aging hippie couple coming to grips with their lot in life while taking care of the step father in law, Leo, who we never see. This one was at the playhouse annex- which is the former Gun and Rod club just down the road from the mysterious Weston Priory. It is a bit like going to a Broadway play with no traffic; when we left for our 15 minute drive home- up Vt. Route 155- we did not see another vehicle for the entire ride.

We continue to work on cleaning out the slimy pond and are making progress; the frogs seem willing to go back into it now. Our 16 year old neighbor, Josh, has been helping me- since I cannot get Jenn into the slime. My new approach has been to float out on a rubber float and skim it out with a kitchen strainer- quite a site as you can see form the pictures. Another ten years and it will be an appealing swimming hole. When I am cleaning it- several big ass fogs just ride around on my legs looking up at me with unadorned affection.

We have been interested in some of the Vermont folk objects we find in everyone’s house; almost each home has a set of miniature irons which hold the front door open and cloth covered bricks to hold the other inside doors ajar…I mean EVERYBODY has them…pictures attached (order form enclosed in case you want to by some from our burgeoning Vermont kitsch business).

We were invited to our first dinner party last week- by our new best friend, June, who is the thrice divorcee who lives alone in a manse on beautiful Lake Nineveh. We drove around in the woods for an hour trying to find her house on a series of unmarked dirt roads…it is deep in the woods and gorgeous. We got to meet another couple and the conversation and dinner were enthralling- filled with inside info about the community. We have now made it to inclusion in the grapevine. Our diner companion, Carol, later took our photo at the community gild fair- to feature in the local newsletter (the Chit Chat). We have found that many places we seem to go- we are not only the newest people there- but appear to be the youngest by far (notice I said appear to be).

We have had quite a weekend on wandering. On Thursday- we drove over to Tinmouth to find a snack bar that serves fresh seafood that everyone raves about; it was not open- so we meandered over to West Rutland and found the Good Food traveling cart (fresh lobster on Saturday for $9.00 each)- another roadside attraction. We spent the rest of the day on our weekly shopping spree in Rutland which seems never ending. Rutland has a miracle mile to rival any other place I’ve been. Dinner at Harry’s capped the evening. We don’t watch TV per se- but we are staying up to date via internet and Netflix with True Blood, the Newsroom and Dexter as well as having watched the modern Sherlock Holmes miniseries on BBC. Someone told us about another BBC series- Foyle’s War- which we watched the first episode of on Netflix last night-check it out- it’s a keeper.

Friday we went to the Ludlow farm market in late afternoon and grazed, then bought a bunch of locally farm raised, organic lamb (it took the farmers and us ten minutes to calculate how much we owed for the products). All the markets always have live music and this one had a classic guy who played all Dead music and sounded more like Jerry Garcia than Jerry (picture attached). We stopped on the way home for a short hike in the Green Mountain National Forrest- the Glendale trail , which it seems fair to say may not have been walked by anyone in the last decade.

Saturday came bright and sunny and we headed out for a day of planned exploration (an oxymoron?). We headed into nearby Belmont for the Craft Guild Fair (birthday shopping) and had our picture taken, dropped off our garbage at the transfer station (open Saturdays only) and hit the post office/ general store. We then headed down Rt. 103 and circumvented Rutland (stopping at the Good Food Cart for a breakfast sandwich- they have a drive through!!!). Up rt. 3 to Proctor- a town built on marble and back over to our main road – route 7, to Brandon, for the community yard sale (bought a workout bench for $5 and two chaise lounges at the local Rite Aid). Ate surprisingly good Thai food from one of the yard sale houses and then up Route 7 to Middlebury to the college’s museum to check out their once in a lifetime show of Edward Hopper in Vermont (who knew the primal urban night life painter also loved the pastoral countryside?). From there back to Rutland to the only Home Depot in 100 miles to get deck- stain supplies and into downtown for the summer fest which turned out to wrapping up (this foreshadows theme of showing up a day late and a dollar short- events in Vermont tend to start earlier than what is listed and end abruptly when everyone goes home). We stopped for a quick beer at a shady bar named “Two Sheas” (get it?). We then set off to Pawlet- south on Route 30- for the highlight of the day- a roast pork church supper. For 25 miles down route 30-in the golden afternoon sunshine- we were tailgated by a state police trooper looking for something to do on a slow day (can anyone say out-of-state plates?). Finally got tired of it and pulled off into a farm market in Wells- where we would up shopping (again!) eating homemade ruggaleh (who knew!). The market also housed another of the ubiquitous lunch carts that specialized in homemade bar-b-q and southern comfort foods. We took note and headed down to Pawlet for the supper- arriving around 5:40 to find that the 5 pm supper was all gone. Turns out the town folk line up at 4 pm for the 5 pm supper and they just wind up starting early and being done in an hour. Dazed and disappointed we jumped back in car- and headed back to the comfort food cart. We wound up having a great dinner sitting with the farm family (including what appeared to be the 100 year old grandpa) at a picnic table and trading Vermont stories, while falcons, hawks and vultures circled around the mountains surrounding us on all sides in the sun drenched valley (is this poetry or what?). We finally headed home around 9 after a 12 hour day of adventure.

Last thoughts on “communication” companies: I have been caught in a Bermuda Triangle of craziness between Time Warner and EarthLink on my Ohio internet service. Spent eight hours this last week going around in circles between the two companies and prepping to get on a rooftop and start shooting. Most of the time has been spent conversing with people on the subcontinent who I cannot understand. Most of it has been really distressing- but laughs and irony can be found almost anywhere. In trying to resolve my issues- I am keeping track of who I speak with and when- so this week I spoke with Indian gentlemen respectively named Brian Miller, Rocky Smith (could not help saying to him “are you shitting me”) and my all time favorite, Johnson (yes- just Johnson, like Kareem, or Madonna, or Elvis)…I asked him if he played in the NBA…..

That’s’ all folks- off to Ohio for nine days this week to take care of everything we forgot to do before leaving.

Love many of you, really like most of you, and, well…..

Stu

Good morning all:

We have been here a week today and are getting pretty settled in- it helps when you move into a house that is already fully settled. We have tried not to mess it up too much The weather has been a mix- some days it has rained ferociously in the afternoon and some have been pretty hot and humid; the nights are always blissfully north woods cool. I’m off today for my first trip “abroad”- an overnight to Baltimore, out of Albany- which is a disconcerting two hour drive just to get on a plane

So –here are some first observations about living in what the neighbor calls “ the most socialist state in the country”:

• Larry is the neighbor and he is a preacher in Rutland. He raises chickens and mallards which hang out outside our door all day long and play with Tripod. He calls us sir and m’am and every night at sunset he bellows out “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” down the road . He and his family brought us a spaghetti and meatball cake for a welcome thought (yes- a real cake with spaghetti and meatballs on top- so you can have all your courses at once)
• There are apparently four miles of hiking trails per person living in Vermont. We have  an old logging road out back end of our property which is a boulder strewn trail that connects to the other side of our road a few miles up. We are about five miles from the Appalachian and Long trail entrance, which goes to a suspension bridge and gorge pretty quickly. We are also about five miles from White Rocks State Forrest area- which is a drop dead beauty of a hike down a hillside to a stream and wading pool sitting with huge white boulders.
• Mt. Holly sits at 1824 feet elevation – which is pretty high on the East coast; when we leave our drive and turn on to SR 103 in either direction- we are immediately surrounded by the Green mountains and the Adirondacks. When we tell people in the surrounding area we live in Mt. Holly- they nod knowingly and say “ ah, the snow belt”. Hmmm..
• Vermont is all about local and organic. All restaurants have chefs trained at the New England Culinary Institute-even hole in the wall dives. Restaurants are part of the “fresh network “ of locally sourced food and everyone is “Organic” (except maybe us and Larry down the road). Every town around seems to have a farmer’s market. Ours is in our hub of Belmont- about four miles away- and is on Saturday morning. There are about five stalls and ten people- but we bought organic and free range chicken and buffalo there. They seemed to not know what I wanted when I put my fingers pointing over my head and asked for “Ta-tonka”. About five miles down the road is a huge organic garden and roadside stand. We stopped yesterday and it was closed- but the spacey, Amish looking proprietor, Podge, was hanging out back and offered to pick us some fresh fixings from the garden. We got some stuff we’d never heard of and ate it. Turns out Podge is the great nephew of the eccentric founder of the local in-the-woods treatment center, spring Lake Ranch- which is also five miles down the road (getting the theme here?) and where Jenn aspires to be employed part time.
• Along the road to our house- there are houses selling all manner of weird products; one has a soft serve sign outside- so we will stop by to see if someone really has soft serve machine buzzing away in their living room- and maybe keeping the house cool
• Tripod has found a home in the barn where he sleeps in an old grain bin, and spends his days mostly hiding in the bushes outside our front door. He aspires to join Gracie and Nico inside and tries every chance he gets. He has befriended the flock of chickens and a wild red tabby cat- with whom he shares his daily feasts
• We live in a house that was occupied by and electricians’ widow- so we have tools hidden everywhere and the wiring is all done in an eccentric mad scientist fashion. There are three boxes of breakers spread out all throughout our four room basement. While Walter electrified, Karin apparently mowed, and she must have been a pioneer woman. It took Jenn and I together five hours to mow and trim the first time. We were exhausted, dehydrated and it looked like shit.
• On Monday nights- the local musicians come down from the hills to the library basement to jam on folk and bluesy music for three hours. I have joined them and been immediately labeled a rock and roll influence right off the bat; maybe because I had come from just hiking on the “A” trail- and had wild hair and stunk badly and stood up outside the seated music circle to roam and play.

Well- got to get ready to travel- so that is it for now. Hope all is well in your world. Love or like you all,

Stu

Subject: Finding Vermont

Just a quick update from the Green mountain state. After our harrowing last week of preparation (that included going down to the last day before we left to have our house closing in place and making 12 additional trips with loads of Jenn’s stuff AFTER we thought we were done, two broken down cars)- we were almost ready to leave at end of week when the three legged one, Tripod, disappeared for three days after Jenn tried to put a harness on him(he took off with the harness half on and flapping in the wind). By Friday night we had made plans to leave without him on Saturday- when he showed back up. We were able with Suzie’s help to get him into a carrier (much deceit) and actually get on the road only an hour late on Saturday morning. I have never seen two cars so full and with the car top carrier on the Jeep it could barely make it up the hills once we hit NY state. We did manage to have a beautiful day for driving- but it took forever with three cats in cages crying all the way – and one (Tripod) pooping all the way- which made it like driving for hours in a dairy cow field. By the time we got to Ryan and Lauren’s new place in Unadilla, NY we had gotten separated and my cell phone was dead –and my car charger broke. As an added amusement, the map quest I had was wrong- so I spent about a hour after Jenn arrived driving randomly through the Catskills trying to find their place- with the crying cat and shit filled car. Once there –we got Tripod into their contained garage and were able to have a nice dinner that Ry had prepared and fought to keep warm and fresh for us. On Sunday morning we got up to repack the Beverly Hillbillies caravan and hit the road- but Tripod was not planning on getting back in the car carrier and scratched the shit out of several of us with his overcompensated talons when we tried. Thus began an hour long chase by the four of us to trap him in the garage, force him into a blanket and then get him shove into the carrier….we left late. Once we hit the road we had another beautiful day and hit Vermont by noon – with only more crying and Tripod shit to deal with. I actually made it to the walk – through to meet the realtor only ten minutes late (after getting separated and a little lost again)- and then we waited for Jenn- who had gotten snared in a speed trap on fourth of July weekend (Welcome to Vermont!)

What a journey.. made us really wonder if we should be doing this- but then we walked through the house and WOW…it was like something out of a fable. Immaculate throughout, every detail attended to, and twice as much stuff left as we expected . Karin took no furniture at all- not even the antique cedar chests. She left shelve of books and music, big screen TV, stereo, her late husband’s antique clocks, closets of freshly pressed sheets and towels, cabinets of really nice dishes. We were amazed and really wondered why we brought anything besides our clothes. We could really have just moved in and done nothing. And the grounds…perennial gardens in bloom everywhere, the whole place beautifully landscaped, the pond gurgling, the house looking like it emerged new from the 1860’s. It was actually overwhelming (Did I mention that every bed in the place was tightly made with all new bedding Karin went out and bought?)

The walk through itself was uneventful. We wound up leaving the Jeep there- car top carrier and all – and got Tripod from the carrier into a dog cage we had schlepped all the way on Jenn’s roof (after we decided the harness was not much of an idea for containing him en route until we moved in). So we left him in the cage in the barn with all his supplies for two days and headed down to our friends Connie and Georges’ B&B up in Brookfield- about an hour and a half away. It felt like coming home after the last few weeks. Spent a nice night being wined and dined and in our own little apartment we have stayed in for 13 years in the middle of this village that time left behind. Today- we recover a bit and tomorrow morning we head up for the closing at 11 and the move in. Then …we start the next phase of the adventure.

Beverly hillbillies pictures are attached. Tomorrow we are going to take pix of all of the house before we move our stuff in- to capture it in its pristine moment. Will send a Shutterfly with these in a few days.

Love,

Dad, Cousin/Uncle, Stu