Greetings to all and happy Father’s Day:
Well- it happened again- spring has fully come, albeit late to the mountains, and all of a sudden Karen’s wonderful gardens are starting to bloom with color- along with everyone else’s. It’s a good time to get out and about the mountains…and so we have.
We visited the Jewish pig farmer and his wife Robyn and few weeks ago on the way back from an excursion- so Jenn could make her weekly visit to see the new puppies that they have bred from their beloved Trudy and Malcolm. Five really cute herding babies- which Lucy had to stay in the car and drool over- since Trudy would have eaten her if she came out. But, Stu got to hold the babies- see the photo, it really happened. Since then, Jenn drops me a slight hint every day: “there’s only one left”, “look how cute you looked with the puppy”, “poor Lucy is so lonely around the house”. I’m thus far playing deaf.
One of the few things I have struggled with in our life here is not having the Y close by- sort of to exercise, more to use the hot tub and schvitz. But, this year, I discovered the marvelous “spring house” at the Jackson Gore ski report. Booming in winter, it is a ghost town in summer, and, catch this, offers midweek daily passes to “seniors” for 3.00/day. Oh my, what’s not o like- so I schlep down there a few days a week to ride the elliptical and stare out the window at the ski hill, so I can then go take a soak. Such a deal……
So, this year we have decided to do one weekly outing to discover a new farm to table restaurant each week. Since we can get anywhere in the state in 2 ½ hours or less- it leaves lot of options. Last week-, we took a rambling drive with several walks along the way, up to Bristol where we dined at Mary’s Inn at Baldwin Creek. Beautiful place we had only seen previously in the dark- set back off a small road in nowheresville. . It also allowed us to make most of our way there on and off our beloved dirt roads. When we can’t easily find a hiking trail- we just park and start hiking up a dirt road- which exposes us to all forms of Vermont life. Check out the 1920s truck from a farm on top of such a dirt road that may have record for views and acres. We are considering a trip in which we go as far as we can taking only dirt roads- which would likely result in our driving for 8 or 9 hours and finding ourselves the traditional 40 miles away.
Check out he emerging garden pictures and our little wren box –which had a group of babies squeaking daily outside our front door…which Lucy feels she should be able to play with, and Gracie stares out the window forlornly at. THE POND is also still looking pretty good, at least in certain light, but there is definitely some foreshadowing of doom in the works.
We had our fist dinner of the year… an apparent Yiddish affair with the Jewish pig farmer and the Jewish fish monger telling horseradish jokes and howling at the moon. They kept talking about the corner store run by “the Cohens”, which I took to be metaphorically representative of “the Smiths” with a Yid bias. It was actually very nice; we cooked out on the grill and ate on the sun room big table…so far we seem to have stanched the leak in there- along with the one in the basement, so more water is currently going out of the house then coming in, which is a good thing here in Vermont.
We had our first kayak with Lucy in her new snappy life vest- which she spent all afternoon shaking Jenn’s boat trying to get out of and then rolling around the grass every time we let her out on land to run laps. Magnificent day as we continue to explore the series of lakes up nearby scenic Route 100. Surrounded by mountains ,and century old lake houses, they are a thing of beauty to glide along in. see the too many photos of Jenn and Lucy in all their glory. We also made our monthly trip this week up to the house of horrors- since we seem to be the only people that ever visit there- certainly no potential buyers make the trek. It is as good as ever, just waiting for some love. We did some fixin’ and cleanin’ and brought Spencer some doughnuts and watched him eat them and rev up many engines….a usual day in the Northeast Kingdom. Form there we went to Vermont’s only Lowes to make an exchange of an Ohio purchase- 2.5 hours one way to get to Lowes- which I really don’t even like…but such is life in the mountains.
We’ve had quite few rainy days this early summer in the mountains, and its’ a pretty good place to spend a rainy day and night-which we had one full day/night of this week…though the POND overfloweth. I spent an entire day reading books on the couch- Jen claims I napped most of the day but I caught her upstairs measuring the rooms for new bedding options. She also is sprucing up the spare master for our anticipated horde of Airbnb guests. I, and Lucy, on the other hand, share some level of dread at the prospect of waking up to little Belgian boys cavorting in my bathroom. I’ve actually read about seven books in the last month-plus during the rainy nights we have marathon sessions with our newest obsession- Downton Abbey, while we wait to see how much water come in the house through various orifices.
Last night we went to very cool birthday party, at Robin the trailer masseuses’ place, where my chums and I from the folk club held forth. there was music, croquet and a woman from NY doing endless Tarot readings in the trailer. She was actually quite exotic resembling the woman from Big Fat Greek Wedding (according to Steve the fish monger)…and a guitar player to boot. But best of all (bow down now)- she lives in the carriage house of Big Pink, in Saugerties, NY, the home of THE BAND, during the seminal late 60s recordings. If Jen were not there, I may have been drooling….Birthdays are fun in the mountains.
Today we spent Father’s day driving 125 miles to go to a strawberry festival in Middletown Springs and food cart festival in Middlebury (obviously both geographically in the center of the state). We drove around in pouring rain- but it was sunny and warm in both places. We ordered some kind of organic tacos at the food truck fest (five food trucks on the town green) and it took 35 minutes to get them….the taco makers were very organic kinds of folks it seems, but they were pretty good and the lobster role form the New England Culinary institute truck war to die for. Lucy found many friends to roll around with and many small children to knock on the ground and mount.
This past week was a defining time as our neighbors, the Manuals, made their exodus for North Carolina. It was pretty weird to send them on their way and now have no one on our road but us. We did do a scavenger hunt after they left through their devastated house and found some moderate treasures….and then cleaned up their junk strewn yard…it actually looks the best it has since we have been here. Their estranged uncles have showed up this week and surprisingly shown some motivation to genuinely clean the place up, which is not what we had expected from the family’s descriptions….but would be nice.
And lastly, snack bars/ice cream stands in Vermont…are often organic and filled with home cooking…think lobster roles and homemade brisket…an call it The Whippi- Dip in Fairlee…wow……
So-another few weeks go by in the Green Mountains…and now you know the story
Be well and stay in touch.
Love,
Ferlin’/Stu, Dad, Uncle, CUZ
This is an exhaustive account of the American violent underground movement of the 60s and 70s …which actually lasted well into the 80s. An extremely well researched and vivid portrait of the Weathermen, The Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army and more (see Patty run!)- it is a fascinating look at a truly unbelievable period in our history (45 bombs were set off in one month in the early 70s in New York city alone). It’s a really long book and you have to really want to know this stuff to get through it . Very detailed with good portraits of some of the famous players: Bernadine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Mark Rudd) but pretty dry and probably too much for most casual readers. Fascinating though.
