Author: stumberry

Greetings Friends, Family and others:

So, we have come to the end of the line…Stick Season is upon us, the leaves are gone and winter has set in here in the Greens. Two week ago we hit highs of low 40s and lows in low 20s. Last week, we had a reprieve with a soaring sixties- like few days but now back to early winter…gray limbs blowing in the breeze. So, it appears to be time for us to regrettably head for the heartland which we will do this Thursday. Naturally, we are frantic and overwhelmed, but thought one more blog post was in order, so this is it…the au revoir to Bernie and all things good and green for the time being. We prepare to leave with a heavy heart…and a lot of shit. Daunting re-entry tasks await. So… this will be the last post for a while…unless I think people would like to get posts from the heartland ruminating about far away life in the mountains…I doubt it, but we will see.

This is going to be a return-to Zen post, as time is short and I have had some lamenting from some of my readership (you know who you are) about posts being to lengthy…so back to the basics:

Solar Farmers- we are you know! Had our grand celebration of the first year of solar farming at our own little solar farm array. We had ribbon cutting, the appearance of the only black man in Rutland county , donuts and a drone…really-see the pictures. We did not pay a single dollar to the electric company in 2015 until this month, so I guess this sun shit actually works.

The last supper- we crammed fifteen friends and enemies, and one famous brownie-baking teen ager- all of whom we more or less like- into house for one last pot luck. We had the Jewish pig farmer, the Yid fish monger, the shop girl’s boss, the trailer park massage therapist…it was a who’s-who of mountain living… and a great meal (love the kosher – pig stuff)

House of horrors- is sealed up for the winter with our post Norman Rockwell young uns’ ensconced in the apartment. Welcomed them to the house, collected some money, put some holy water on the house itself to maybe draw a potential Catholic or Republican buyer and then went to dinner with Shaky Dave (our prodigal neighbor who has returned form the wilds unknown) at the truck stop. David delivered a fine monologue on the virtues of chauvinism…not bad and mean chauvinism, but noble and kind chauvinism (his words). Of course, he was carrying weapons so we listened politely and made good eye contact.

Traveling life- as you know, travel from here is somewhat of a challenge…it’s hard to get out of the mountains. I made consecutive week trips to Richmond and New Orleans. I secretly broke my allegiance to Southwest air to fly to Richmond on the heathen competitors, which took me four hours instead of 11 (on beloved Southwest I fly to Orlando to commune with the Mickey-heads in order to get to Richmond)…but not as much fun. Have you ever thought about the business acumen of travel loyalty programs. I often fly three times as long to stay on my beloved Southwest where I have many perks. After this recent “third of the time” experience, I thought “no mas”…but then my beloved Southwest sent me my lifetime membership in “TSA pre-screen” and I am again hooked. It’s like dating a really bad for you, but irresistible lover. Did also get to go down to N’Awlins for few days of work, food, and music. I met my friend Rachel for a drink late one night at the Bywater area, which MapQuest said was about a mile from the Quarter , but turned out to be closer to five, walking through dark warehouse neighborhoods which apparently only really crazy people and criminals generally walk through. It was pretty entertaining until I got to the dark and foreboding part, first passing a group of naked Halloween partiers and then a group of transvestite partiers…all of which were far preferable to the dark hooded gang-looking members I came upon just at Rachel showed up cruising in search of me to take me to the gentrified part at the other end. Good exercise I might add.

Machines and Halloween- in the mountains, we take care of our own equipment…so on a nice day, I went out to clean up, winterize and store all our yard machinery, which resulted in a slight hernia, many bruised knuckles, a hoarse voice from cursing and several jump starts from the car battery…the joys of country living…but all is now put away for the winter. So, then Jenn set out for the annual Halloween party at the Library in Belmont in her leather array, while I retreated to the couch to watch the Mets get whipped and lick my wounds. Her last words were I’ll be back in a couple of hours, from which she showed up at 1 a.m. with quite a buzz on. Apparently, the party was quite the fun.

Celebrity sightings- even in the mountains, we get our fair share of paparazzi-have I mentioned that the “most interesting man in the world” lives in nearby Chester? (he’s actually a 75 year old retired Jewish actor- hopefully that does not spoil the image for you). So Friday , we went to the hamlet of Saxton’s River to see Jimmie Dale Gilmore and his some Colin in this very cool little local art center. About 50 people in all, with great acoustics…very intimate. Jimmie Dale is a national treasure- one of the original alt-country boys from Austin and did not disappoint with a great show of his musical influences and his long rambling stoned, Zen-mystic, Texas faux cowboy rants and rambles. Each song is mixed in with half hour reveries that go in circles. He says “digression is my profession” which is no lie. Then, yesterday we went down to Cavendish to the library to hear Archer Mayor read from his latest (26th in the series ) Joe Gunther novel. Turned out to be three Vermont authors reading and Archer was last. We sat through the first who read excerpts from is futuristic fantasy novels (ugghh) and then I went out and took a nap in the back of the car for the second reading until Archer and his wide, Margot, showed up. Archer is a master storyteller and had the audience ins stitches. We then reconvened at a local coffee house to catch up. We used to see Archer every fall on our annual forays to the mountains, but had not seen him since we settled here, so it was good to meet his new wife and catch up on years of stories. We’re hoping to lure him to our house next spring, despite his obvious anti-social nature…he likes Jenn though and still refers to us in public as his favorite stalkers. .

So, here we go. The bedding and laundry baskets are all stored for the winter, the fake cameras and security signs are up and ready to go, the plants have been moved to assisted living and we are busy having many last hurrahs with our friends. By the way, the POND is looking very full and really good….for now. So, until the leaves return to the trees and we once again become ex-flatlanders, be well and stay in touch.

Love to most,

Stu

Greetings fellow travelers- from the Snow-Belt:

“Why Should it Cost Ya”?   Phil Unetic and Maux McCormick

Nu (So)? We’ve seemed to come to the end of the spectacular fall foliage season in the mountains and have begun a rapid descent towards winter. Last Saturday, we were at the Townshend Pumpkin Fest in the afternoon, and it was a gorgeous day. We left around 2 to drive home ….52 degrees, sunny, blue skies, brilliant colored leaves…and got home 40 minutes later where it was 35 and snowing (two inches). A little early, no?
We have pretty much ended our lodging season with a number of guests for fall foliage. After the great Danes, we had two woman form Germany and California…elite softball playing pen pals who travel together once a year. They had been traveling for three weeks together and may have turned the corner on their time together…so came here for four days. They were a lot of fun, but stayed up very late watching the baseball playoffs. So, we went them down to Cooperstown when they left here, to feed the jones. As soon as they left, we went from international chic to Midwestern kitsch with couple from Kansas who showed up at the door, with him yelling “is this the place that advertised free beer?” They claimed to be official members of the NRA (Never refuse anything). They also stopped on way here at the Ocean State Job Lot (think Big Lots) to buy and bring their own pillows to our house. …….This was quite the adjustment for us.
We did get out in between for a brilliant fall sunshine drive. The colors were at absolute peak and shimmering in the mid-day sun. We stopped at a recently plowed corn field to run around yanking up corn stalks for our front door decoration (see the featured photo) – in between hiding from cars going by (this was a desolate road, where the hell were they going?). On the way back we stopped at Sal’s Italian joint in Wallingford to sit on the sun drenched patio and have some pizza, while Lucy sang love songs to the little pup ignoring her across the road. Wallingford has the last traffic light you can find before you head up the mountain to our house. Usually, you get one car every three or four light changes-…but fall foliage…we watched them backed up on Route 7 for a mile or so, while no doubt thinking how charming Vermont life is. I told Jen we should carry some maps and planned routes printed out with us to sell for five bucks a hit to the beleaguered leaf peepers.
This past weekend we had our last friends for the season, when Phil et Maux came up from Jersey. We had a great couple of days with vast rambling conversations touching on estrogen deprivation, various penal issues, the true meaning of the word ersatz, and our uncle Bernie. Entertaining, to say the least. Maux is recovering from shoulder surgery, so was limited in exercise to lifting variously filled glasses and knitting…but we schlepped them around any way hitting the “early bear” dinner at our beloved Sams, doing the Vermont Classic Charming Village tour (a must when you come, and we give a great discount… plus all the dirt roads you can handle and and unlimited ponds and stone walls). We took them up in the woods to see Maya, the legendary potter with the kiln bigger than several of our bedrooms. Luckily it is warm in her studio, because it hit a low of 18 that night. We once again decided to name our bed and breakfast The Inn at Scum Pond, if we can find someone to make up that sign. These people never stop laughing, nu? Phil joined the ranks of my band mates to come to play at folk club on Monday nights. I had to keep him reeled in as his fingers clearly wanted to move rapidly out of the folk vein into some bluegrass or such. All my band mates have been very well received by the music group, and add much needed jolt to the proceedings.
By the way, since Maux was here, Jenn has now taken up knitting in earnest in between house remodeling projects and planning more remodeling projects, winter gardening, buying up bedding and laundry baskets, organic farming, shop girling a b-and-b hosting.
We made another trip this week down to the Bronx to see how people live on another planet….and to visit my old fiend Bob who is still imprisoned at a place very generously called a “rehab center”. We are trying to battle with the enormous NYC bureaucracy to get him some advocacy and a decent place to live. This has been an important reunification for me and will miss seeing him once we return to the heartland. See the photo of him and I cavorting on the institutional patio. From the “home”, we found a shockingly hold- over Italian neighborhood in the Bronx for some mojo pizza eating and people watching, and a sneak trip to the bakery for cannoli’s. What a bustling place and way of life …more people on one city street than we see in a month in the mountains……..but less moose, ponds, stone walls and woodchucks. From the city we headed north in the manic traffic (have you ever drove the Taconic at rush hour) to visit Joel and Sherry up at their manse at pretty High Falls. Had a good overnight visit. My cousin Sherry, who is my oldest living family (take that, girl) has determined that she is my “Jewish alter-ego”…which I clearly need to make amends for my many lapses and to avoid purgatory, even if most Jews don’t think it exists.
We also made one more (maybe not the last) trip up to the house of horrors, where to our own amazement, we have managed to re-rent the apartment (you didn’t really think I was going to say we had sold the house, did you?). We found this uber-cute young couple on Craig’s List, who are SOOO excited to have their first apartment. They are 20 but look 15 and resemble post Norman Rockwell Vermont counter culture poster children. Of course, we want to adopt them and make them our newest refugee children. It is good to have someone there and we managed to get heat on before the pipes froze (in mid-October mind you).
So we are home approaching the home stretch with but three weeks before we make the trek back to the heartland….oh, it’s gonna be flat. I will be traveling much of next two weeks in between getting house closed up and vast arrangements made, but will get in one more post before retiring the mountains for winter.
Love to the masses, Estuardo

 

Happy Autumn to all:

“The TRUTH has few moving parts” Joshu Sasaki Roshi

Autumn is in full glory here in the mountains and has produced an extra busy few weeks with a variety of B&B leaf peeper guests, several fall outing trips for us, community suppers, festivals and long hikes with the Lucy. Our international roll of guests continues with lodgers from Denmark and Germany ..I think we have now hit all the EU countries and practicing our own form of détente. Our favorites have been the family of six very large Danish people (the Great Danes) who took over the house for three nights. They were all surgeons and such and a very warm and fun family…occupying every inch of bed and floor space we have. They all banged their heads regularly coming down the stairs and ate massive amounts of breakfasts- we had to go to the store daily to replenish the morning loaf of bread consumed. Did I mention they all had blond hair and blue eyes? The prep for their coming was interesting as we had to go find air mattresses to accommodate all the big children (20 somethings all). I went out to get the air inflator from the garage, but Jenn had decided to blow them up by mouth…so I came back to find her passed out with an air nozzle in her mouth on the floor next to the Singer sewing machine in our small bedroom. It is good to have an inflator. When not passing out from inflating, Jenn has been busy gobbling up every laundry basket in the tristate area from garage sales , flea markets, thrift stores and peoples’ unattended basements….this has now semi-replaced bedding as her newest passion. Our house is filled with laundry baskets, which the cats adore.

We have been out watching the leaves do their thing for the last three weeks: making trips up to the Islands (Champlain, not Jamaica), the White Mountains (not the Greens…we have to cross the border surreptitiously at night to go over to the hated New Hampshire for the Whites) and all around Central Vermont. The fall colors have been late, but brilliant. I hate to say it but the Live Free or Die (what kind of motto is that for children) state leaf colors have surpassed our own beloved red maples this year. We came upon the Saint Gaudens National Historic site over in the LFOD state. What a find….an artist colony of Cornish folks in the 19th century with lots of Game Hens, amazing grounds, gardens, manses, and studios. It was just us and four hundred blue hairs on very large busses. Luckily, we were able to outpace them and stay ahead of the pack, though Lucy saw some major treat getting opps there. We then headed up to do the White mountain circuit doing the infamous Kankamancus Highway- a scenic loop around and through the majestic Whites…who knew the mountains were so much bigger there. Got in a series of short hikes….one of which led us to some sort of bear trapping cage deep in the woods and the remains of a Moose carcass. We brought home a giant moose femur bone for decoration, but Lucy is slowly reducing it to rubble with no appreciation of the archeological significance.

Our annual trip to the Islands was primo laid back, as usual. Kind of rainy but nice drive round weather with almost no one in sight, and our annual cottage right on the shore of the great lake. We headed over to the Adirondacks to follow the sun one day and wound up back in Plattsburg, NY….a truly remote outpost with great ethnic dining (go figure) where we went back to our favorite Himalayan restaurant. I guess remote NY state has some similarities for the Sherpas. We also have done some nice hikes in our Central Vermont region discovering the Sand Hill trail in N. Springfield and the Healdsville trail- practically in our back yard, which eventually leads to the top of Okemo Ski Area…we gave up halfway and went to have Maple Creamees (the best we have yet found in Vermont).

In between pleasure trips, we jetted up to the house of horrors to reboot the ‘apartment upon Spencer’s leaving, but he truly had done an amazing job and somehow managed to remove the most extraordinary pile of stuff (ok- really it was shit, but this a family blog) out of the garages and barn. He really left it “broom clean”, bless his heart. We have had a series of absolute morons we have dealt with trying to rent out the apartment- a bunch of no shows (one at lease signing!) and several who have sent us dirty e-mails…have I mentioned how much I hate being a landlord….and what a deal we will give you on this magnificent property in the fabled northeast kingdom of Vermont? We wound up in Groton very late that night (painting, caulking)and came back to find all the Great Danes having entertained themselves, cleaned up , answered our phone for us and gone to bed. I tried to get them to come to Groton with us…thought they could use a 4500 square foot vacation home in the states. I thought I might have Dad interested after the fourth time he hit his head coming down the stairs that morning.

We had the opening reception for the Mt. Holly photo contest last weekend and I was disturbed to find my entry badly placed on a very dark wall. I wanted to switch it with one I did not like but Jenn said I couldn’t (I hate having a conscience) speaking of which: is it appropriate to vote for your ow photo entry? And if so, how many times?

Last week we did a belated trip for Jenn’s birthday to see the Arlo Guthrie 50th anniversary Alice’s’ Restaurant tour at the magnificent restored Paramount Theater in Rutland. Great show….Arlo is a one of kind story teller and brought alone 50 years of home movies and a myriad of stories about his father (Woody), Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack and many great American bluesman. His offspring Sara Lee (really) and Abe play with him and are quite the menschs in their own right.

So- it’s Columbus Day weekend here… a holy day in the northeast, somehow associated with Jesus’ rebirth, though I’m not clear how…so the population of Vermont has gone form 400,00 to 12 million… we are laying low. We have our annual Cider Daze festival in our home town of Belmont which has been named to the state’s top ten fall attractions (bringing in an additional 10,000 people) and I got to play a set there yesterday morning. It was 39 degrees and my fingers froze to the mandolin, but otherwise went well. Last night we volunteered to serve at the annual roast beef dinner fundraiser at the Odd Fellows hall (look it up) and Jenn worked in the kitchen with an eastern European schmatta over her head(see the pix)

So- it’s been a busy and very fun time in the mountains and it’s now time to go find some red maples and some laundry baskets.

Sorry about so many photos this week- but , well, I really have no excuse…

Be well, eat maple syrup , drink cider, have fun. Love to most of you.

Stu

Good Autumn Sunday to all:

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks (and month) here in the mountains. We had a month full of friends and family visiting interspersed with a number of Airbnb guests….keeping us hopping. While we were running around changing bedding and making our day trip itineraries, autumn began descending in full regalia. Heavy early September rains ( much needed) have turned into brilliant sunshine filled days and very cool nights…the Vermont standard for this time of year. Jenn, the shop girl, has been plying her trade more frequently at the “Treasures” shop and Stu has been busy trying to create an entry to win the annual Mt. Holly photo contest (see the featured photo for this weeks’ blog).

After Steve and Sue left, we immediately hosted another contingent from the Bunty Station boys, with Mitch and Cindy’s arrival for a two night stay. Mitch got to go to Monday night folk club and fit right in. We decided to perform the Bill Monroe classic, “Wicked Path of Sin”, with the group… which was a real stretch , since it’s a true four part harmony, call and response number. But, in a quirky gift from the tower of song, we had two other visiting guests at the folk club that night and this couple had total mastery of the remaining two parts…turning us into a 1940s hillbilly ensemble with lead bass singing….it was A moment.. The following day we set out for a classic central Vermont tour, heading up Brandon and Middlebury way for a day of Italian feast picnicking, a trip up the amazing Bread Loaf ski area and then over the Middlebury Pass, a walk on the eccentric Native Spirit hiking Trail (sayings from Dr. King, Moses and Jerry Springer posted on trees along the trail) and back down magnificent route 100 with a stop at our favorite Maple Creamee place (when you come we will build one for you). By the time we left, we swore no more visitors (even though we loved all our visits) until spring…but then more Airbnb guests arrived. So, back to changing bedding, sweeping floors, making scones and creating trip – tiks for people.

The guest register has continued to be a quite interesting phenomenon, with recent guests including a couple from Harlem, who arrived in the middle of the night, spent two days running the Spartan races at nearby Killington, and left like pleasant ghosts in the night. Then we have had a young couple from Italy, seeking the full power of foliage season…so that has resulted in us flexing our 251 club muscles to try and create the perfect itinerary days for them…even in running the guest house we have performance anxiety (and trying to keep our string of five star reviews intact). Next up , we have a family of five (yes, count
‘em…five) coming from Denmark (probably, not directly) for next weekend…so I guess we will be moving out to the barn for three nights, which makes me grateful for all that extra bedding we have been purchasing. Before that, though, we are heading up on our own first fall outing, with our annual trip up to the Champlain Islands for three days this early week. This is always an interesting adventure, as we don’t make any reservations any more for our fall outings, and with Lucy, that becomes even more of challenge, but it always work out…and if push comes to shove, we have blankets and roof rack to sleep away from the moose.

We celebrated Jenn’s birthday last week with a dinner at the Inn at Weathersfield, a romantic getaway we had stayed at years ago during our fall adventure trips. Hard to find, tucked away with quaint Vermont Inn type dining area, it was beautiful dinner, until a group of loud drunken golfers showed up and started telling everyone about their successful investments….we prefer the local woodchuck mafia types here in Vermont. Jen worked at the shop, selling people boutiques last weekend for four straight days, so Lucy and I wandered around chasing leaves of various colors, which included a day at the Chester Fall festival. Chester does it in mid- September to beat everyone else’s’ gig, and it does not hurt that the village was voted one of the loveliest in New England (go ahead- ask me who voted). The place was packed with noshing, buying, picture taking flatlanders on a perfect 75 degree fall day. Needless to say, Lucy had many admirers, both canine and upright.

After three weeks of looking the other way, it was clearly time to get THE POND cleaned up. Still scum- less, but filled with pond weeds, I had my young helper, Seamus, come over (as we like to say, Marcus he is not, but a good kid nonetheless), and I actually set he and Lucy to the job…but after an hour, felt compelled to dust off my strainer and join them. Two men and a dog playing bumper-kayak in our little pond. But, see the pictures…we have had to beat away the local munchkins now wanting to swim in it’s purity.

This past week, we made an overnight trip down to the Bronx. My childhood friend, Bob, who was my first mentor in life, is confined to a city run nursing home there and thanks to the endearing HIPPA laws, we cannot find out anything about what is going on. So, we loaded up Lucy on a fine fall day and headed down the Taconic Parkway. Being a totally lapsed Jew, I did not realize it was the eve of Yom Kippur, which resulted in a frenzy of escaping Jews from the Bronx….all trying to get home to a massive meal before thy ostensibly begin a day long fast (my experience of that is it is a periodic fast with surreptitious trips to the local deli in between prayers) We had a moving and pretty upsetting visit with Bob- the place is classic example of what none of us wants to have happen in our old age. But, we came away with a plan to try and get involved with his appointed guardian to try and find him a better place to live. When we left we blitzed into crosstown traffic to find the place the Jews still roam (Riverdale) and a remaining archetypal traditional Jewish Deli. We got there 20 minutes before they closed to go to Schul (though I was suspect, since the only people left to work there were Puerto Rican), had a great nosh and hit the road with pounds of heart stooping smoked meats. We took a detour on way home to stay with my cousins Sherry and Joel, up around Woodstock, where we actually benched licht (lit candles –refer to your Jew dictionary) and spent a pleasant night and morning with them before heading back to the safety of the mountains. Did I mention it was Yom Kippur?… but luckily they were not too committed to not feed us a little something for dinner… thus we did not have to sneak out after they went to bed, as it would be a long way to find a deli. On the way home, we took a long meandering drive along the Hudson river and went through the quaint and clearly progressive little town of Catskill NY, which is apparently so open minded it has a bowling alley called the “Hoe- Bowl”…we should consider moving there..

So…back at the mountain paradise and getting ready to head out for another day of wandering, hiking and stooping to have people ooh and aah over Lucy. Hope your day is a good one!

Be well to all my loved and semi-loved ones.

Estuardo (Stu in Yiddish)