Author: stumberry

Greetings from the Greens:

Summer is in full, bloom here- albeit somewhat short of duration; the gardens are blooming, the days and nights are mostly delightful (except it is almost 90 and humid today), local organic tomatoes are starting to make their short term appearance and music and festival is afoot. We have had some torrential rains without any leak from our various porous holes, which is good since we are still waiting for the contractor who was due three weeks ago to show up- ditto for the barn painters we had decided to have work on our old horse barn. Not sure if this is because of lots of business or more of a quite slow  “islands in the mountains” kind of work approach. I have been at the pond for the last two weeks and it has been remarkably good- though it may well be the slime is just waiting for hotter weather so it can come home. I’ve actually had a few swims, which I should say no one else will do- which may be wise since I seem to have developed quite a rash recently (less from swimming I’m guessing than from floating around on an inner tube with a mountain of lake weed that I pulled up laying on top of me).

You can check out pix of the pond in the attached as well as vote on Jen’s new pixie haircut.   ______ Yes, you go girl, that looks like fun and oh so easy  ____________ Are you kidding, you look like a recently released prisoner of war.  All votes will be kept strictly confidential.

The AIRBNB business has been quite brisk for the last two weeks , with quite the international flavor: a woman form Britain, by way of Westchester, a couple from the south of France, a family from Belgium (tomorrow) and a number of single woman picking up their kids at summer camp- one a “foreigner” from the outer reaches of the Bronx, the other a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader…all quite the stimulating range of conversations. Our favorites thus far have been “Jill- Bear” and “Ter- Raz” from France. Not a lot of English but a lot of spirit. We took them to the local music on the green series for “le musicque- heel- bill- lee” and a picnic. Gilbert queried about our now vacant neighbors’ house, left in utter shambles…”Ze house is Dead, non?” All this activity has required Jen to  make the purchase of much new bedding supplies

We have been out wandering around quite a bit. We made another trip to the great Fair Haven Inn to visit “the poets of fish” (honestly, on their card and website- you can look it up). We took our friend Steve, the Jewish Fish Monger-as he supplies the poets their muse- so got treated like royalty by the Greek family that owns the place. We are making a list of eateries Steve supplies so we can go with him and be treated like this regularly. Last Sunday, we made a day trip over to the Connecticut River Valley- first to explore bedding, then for nice hike along the river at Wilgus State Park and then down to the lovely and hip hamlet of Putney for their music on the green. Wow- talk about popular and lively…Lucy went nuts with the music loving dogs. The band- “The Mike and Ruthie Band” from THE Woodstock –was really, really good (even bought a CD). They have been regulars at Levon’s shows at the Ramble and are friends with his daughter Amy, a fine musician in her own right. This also appeared to be the mecca for all the lovely hippie woman who have disappeared to Vermont to become massage therapists…a lot of rubbing going on. The highlight was an original song called “The Ghost of Richard Manual” about the tragic and great singer from THE BAND…find it on the net and give a listen….all in all a wonderful experience.

We have also made the traditional visit to the local scum filled lake (worse than mine) for MT. Holly Daze with our neighbors, gotten in a couple of good kayaks and hikes and made it to our second community supper and play at Weston for this season. The Weston show was a traveling company of the Broadway hit, Peter and the Star catcher- quite a production for  small theater, with a lot of nod and wink British humor (I both nodded and winked). This last Wednesday, we took a drive down to Manchester for the famous Farm Night suppers at the once magnificent (still pretty damn nice) Wilburton Inn. All vegetarian- everything served at the supper is grown on their farm. An absolutely magnificent setting (see the pix) we made some new friends, wonderful shopkeepers from Manchester, who have now become members of this blog community (I sent him all 35 archival editions, and he actually is reading them all….are you?).

So- it’s pretty good to be in the mountains, non? We are off this week for ten days back to Ohio to visit family and friends and do the annul Pelatonia benefit gig, so will talk to you after that…gotta go treat my rash…

 

Love and Peace….go Bernie,

 

Stu/ Dad/ Uncle/Cuz/Ferlin’

 

 

Gr

Happy holiday to all:

It’s 4^th of July weekend in the GM and the tourists are roaming about. We have been entertaining our first Airbnb guest this weekend- a young couple from Rhode Island up to do some hiking, which has led Jen to a frenzy of baking and preparation  and Lucy to walk around all day with her pull toy in her mouth waiting for the guests to take up the challenge. Really nice kids and it seems like it has gone really well- so hopefully we will have our first positive on line review. The 4^th itself was a rainy day here which dampened the festivities. We geared up for the parade in our local town of Belmont; got everything together and our chores done to be in front of the general store at the 11 a.m. start. A lot of buzz, our local state rep announcing on the loudspeaker, the store doing mega business…and then the parade began and lasted for six and half minutes…five floats and the firetrucks. After the excitement of that, it poured- so went spent the day in search of more and better of the elusive perfect bedding, venturing into tax free New Hampshire, where we eventually wound up on a  secret trip to Walmart, where we got oil change and a bucket of chicken. Friday night, we went up to Jackson Gore with five hundred tourists visiting the ski resort to see the free concert featuring faux Beatles in faux Beatles suits and with faux Beatles’ accents. Lucy loves the Beatles (and the hundred or so dogs there who also love the Beatles apparently).

Leading up the weekend- we had our fist Weston Playhouse show of the season on Wednesday night- a folk musical called Pump Boys and Dinettes set in a rural southern gas station and diner. Well done, as usual. We did the pre theater dinner in the basement there- which has been taken over this year by the fine dining restaurant in our area, the Downtown Grocery. Quite the dinner, quite the price…next show we may have to go back to the early bird. Thursday we spent the day visiting with my cousin Joel who has been ill in hospital in Albany. It was a nice and easy 2 hour plus drive down and a good visit with my cousins and their two boys. On the way back, we hit the dreaded traffic snarl in Troy, that was so bad we had to stop at the Mart for a while to take a break. We then checked out the authentic British fish and chips place in Bennington (it is pretty authentic) and hit the Blue-Ben  diner for take-out desert, a massive dish of chocolate cream pie which we then left in the car while going to the grocery. When I came out, Lucy, who hates being left in the car, seemed unusually docile and content, snoring an amazing sugar snore in the backseat. I licked the remains from the container….

We have been out and about a fair amount lately- in between an unusual amount of rain and thunderstorms- so we have been continuing our season long informal surveys, and have concluded there are more self-storage places in Vermont (23 so far) to people of color (21)- though we had a big day yesterday at the Fletcher Farms annual art festival- spotting an amazing 8 people of some color in 15 minutes. Conclusion: Vermont is lily white and people here have a lot of shit they can’t quite get rid of or need to hide.

Last weekend on one of the really rainy days, we decided we were in dire need of a film- so made the requisite journey up to Hanover, NH to the art house there, to see Love and Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic (see my review). Very good film (see Paul Dano sing the Pet Smiles album parts, wow) and an amazing story of who I believe to be the pre-eminent popular music composer of our times. Genius and madness at its most poignant. Of course, there is a closer theater in Rutland, but I’m way to much of a movie snob to see Max, Ted or even Entourage (though tempted by that one); hence the two plus hour round trip. But we get to soak up the stuffy academic lure of Dartmouth and this time we found a wonderful Nepali eatery and discovered another in a long line of negro oriented art places , the Black Family Visual Arts Center (Jen stubbornly insists I am wrong and that this really is just the name of some family, but I prefer to think we are  finding more “brothers’ art).

Summer in the Greens, aside from all the rain we have had of late, is really pretty amazing , with days on the mid 70’s and nights in the 50s. We don’t have AC anywhere and I’ve used my car AC twice this year. So…let me tell you about culture and weather shock. I went to Chicago for three days last week and it was brutal sticky, in and out of 90 degree heat/humidity, and freezing air conditioning…please, please take me back to the mountains. On the way there, I flew out of Hartford (shitty trip to make) and wound up on phone with the Nave and sailed right by the airport exit (not really in Hartford)- winding up 20 miles later in downtown Hartford. I only made my flight by illegally taking the HOV lane back at 90 mph and being lucky enough to have TSA pre-screen. Though I got to have dinner in chi town burbs with my other son- Jesse- which I always look forward to, still….The moral of story is to stay in Vermont…

When you come to visit here- be wary of totally relying on the GPS in Vermont, often goes haywire and leads you up the wrong dirt road. As soon as I finished my last tales of the mountains a few weeks ago, which was around 11 on a very rainy Sunday night, I heard unusual noise in our drive and went out to find three sets of state police with lights flashing and guns drawn approaching our door. After absorbing a few minutes of absolute paranoia, I was able to help them realize they wanted an address on the other side of Gates road which is not accessible from here due to the logging road. They left pissed off and made ruts in my yard since there is nowhere for three vehicles to simultaneously turn around. We need to put up a no outlet sign I think!

It’s dawned a beautiful sun drenched day here this Sunday morning, so things to do , dogs to see. Be well, stay in touch and do good work.

Love,

Estuardo

 

 

 

America Embraces Gay Rights!!!

America Embraces Health coverage for all!!

America Rejects the Racist flag!!!!!

America begins to embrace Bernie!!!!

It’s been a good week- America is catching up to Vermont.

Go America, Go Bernie, Go Freedom. https://www.yahoo.com/politics/white-house-buildings-across-the-country-light-up-122601444526.html

http://reverbpress.com/discovery/living/entertainment/satire/joe-biden-wears-gay-pride-flag-cape-viral-parody/

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

Greetings to all and happy June:

Well, after a series of miracle days in the 80s- we returned to earth this week with several days of heavy rains and then last night it sunk down into the 20s- sending everyone scurrying to put in their tomato plants –the growing season is about three weeks as it is- so no time for re-starts. Life in the mountains is tricky…

We have been fully reintegrated into our mountain life- hitting the trails regularly, going for long explorations in the car, getting out on the kayaks, community suppers, reconnecting with our new- old friends…..and projects…lets’ just say having four houses leads to a lot of projects (we will be down to three in few weeks as Jenn has her closing mid-month…now if we could sell the house of horrors to you or your loved ones….)

So we got the new –rebuilt tractor working and then it quit…had to take carburetor apart and rebuild- but now it is like a new Frankenstein tractor- with all the parts I excavated from the one I blew up. So- Jen gets out to mow and comes in breathless to tell me she is out of gas. After a few choice words, we decide it has to get into barn as we are expecting rain- so we go out to push it about 50 yards uphill. Jen assures me the rear end lock is off- so we push for 20 minutes falling down repeatedly, when I ask her again…and it turns out that the lock was not off- which is designed to keep the tractor from moving. . ..Suffice it to say we pushed the last ten yards and into barn using two fingers after the uphill locked rear end battle was resolved…and then went searching for a hot tub and a massage. The next day she picks up gas and I go out to make sure it will start and to prime the pump….and voila…it’s half full of gas…fortunately Jen is off the premises and after several drinks and a long walk, I mange not to attack her when she returns (she just assumed it had run out of gas when it stopped running-did not feel the need to look). So, that led to carb repair and now….good as new (the tractor not my back)-after another trip back to Brandon to get parts…apparently an hour drive is the requisite in Vermont to get any car or mower parts. Upside is that it led us to lunch in Middlebury and a fine hike on the way home. Costello’s in Middlebury is a little hard to find take out Italian deli/prepared foods joint. It is a legend on Yelp- so we hit it up. Walk in and Mrs. Costello is the spitting image of Mama Corleone….. I am naturally dumbstruck and cannot help but to order the “Don Barzini” sub…are you kidding me? This is a true find- unreal Italian and fish at unreal prices… and Mama Corleone to boot!

We got out for our first kayak of the season last week on a gorgeous 75 degrees cloudless day. Lucy was much less enthusiastic than last year and cried for the first half hour, so we pulled up by a grass lawn and let her out while we ate lunch in the boats…as we drifted away she spotted us and came frantically swimming out and then managed to jump into Jen’s kayak- covering her with water and whatever fragrant substance Lucy had been rolling around in…so we now have a Lucy life vest-see the picture…

Yesterday we got out on another fine day for a drive over to Hubbardton (famous battlefield site- you can look it up) where a 90 year old gentleman from Antioch College- Kit Davidson- has built a series of magnificent hiking trails on is 500 acre mountainous home site. Open to the public with well-groomed and marked hikes- it’s a short 30 minute walk to a series of wonderful views (Moot Point is my favorite). He’s built a huge Zen rock garden and dogs don’t have to be leashed- so Lucy is in trail heaven. I’m attaching a link to the website – check out about Kit- he was very famous Avant garde filmmaker in the 60s and colleague of Warhol http://homes.ottcommunications.com/~dsonder/beebepond_files/Mount%20Zion%20Trails.pdf

From there we went over to the Fair Haven Inn for the early bird dinner (they call it the Prudential dinner specials- which sounds a lot more dignified). Great place run by a family of Greek transplants- table-side cart service and all the fixings for the early bird price- it’s now on our official list to take visitors-along with the hike to Moot Point.

On Saturday mornings- we always got to the “transfer station” (The DUMP), which is a hub of social activity in town. Kevin ,the dump-master knows everything about everyone and everything, and never fails to give me some choice advice about keeping my woman happy…..plus he seems to know everywhere we’ve been in the last week, which is a bit frightening. In addition to the garbage bin and the massive no-sort recycling tank (all that is free), Kevin collects everyone in towns’ throw away junk in a shed and a heap…so we periodically “shop” there (“the Belmont Mall”) . Last year , we picked up skis, boots and snow boards- yesterday I finally found an old junker bicycle to keep me busy trying to re-assemble for the next month. Dump shopping is good sport.

With our diminishing income, Jen has decided we need to try being a bed and breakfast and has posted us on Airbnb, so I guess we are open for business. I’m hoping for visitors from France. See the attached link for our listing. If you come, we will give you the friends and family rate. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6638465?checkin=06%2F24%2F2015&checkout=06%2F25%2F2015&guests=2&s=8DIF

So- back to the point, which is wet and musical. Water had dominated our lives since we returned. First we had leaks in the washer line and underneath the sink. Then, I started having rain drops fall in on me when working out in the barn. Now, we have a leaky roof over our sun porch (Jen is up there applying her handy-woman skills as we speak, doing a temporary fix until the cavalry arrives(see her workmanlike photo). As soon as we got it temporarily stanched, we found huge piles of mud slipping in to the basement, which is going to require us to dig out around the foundation and do some grading and internal repair- we knew this was an issue when we bought the house- but it had been patched over a bunch and had held up until now. So, Scott the Jewish pig farmer, has offered to come over wish his backhoe and help us overcome the water. Once that is done we have to deal with the basement mess and then deal with ripping out the wet drywall behind the washer, that is inviting black mold into our house. By the time, we get all this done, we can then go back to Ohio and wait for next set of leaks to occur.

Water is often offset by the great music we are around. I am back regularly at the folk club- trying to get them to emulate Bunty Station (where is the squeeze-box, Naven?) .Except for one woman there, who seems to think I may be sent from another planet to take her away, it’s a really nice group to play with. We’ve also started going to the Killarney Pub in Ludlow on Thursday nights for a Celtic music jam. Some really great fiddling and penny-whistle, and I get to channel my inner Van the Man. We went up last Sunday to the Silo Distillery (it’s in an old silo- you can look it up) in Windsor, with our friend ,Steve, the Jewish fish-monger, to see Gypsy Reel, our local favorites (their leader is the founder of the folk club). Great place, free food, idyllic setting, wonderful acoustics, and a good free show. We more or less hear music everywhere we go and are preparing for all the surrounding town’s “music on the green” series this summer ( we will play the finale at end of August for the Belmont series). And the farmer’s markets, all have good music while you spend a fortune of organic goods. The ghost of Jerry Garcia was back at the Ludlow market last Friday. I stepped out of the car to the sounds of Jerry singing Brokedown Palace and momentarily thought I was in the Haight in 1970….maybe something I ate? It will be a good music summer and fall. We are planning on a trip this week to the Burlington Jazz Festival, and I’m trying to figure a date to get over to the bluegrass jamboree which happens most Saturdays in nearby Shrewsbury.

Well- I should go see if Jen has fallen off the roof, so will shut it down for now.

Be well and stay in touch.

Love,

Ferlin’/Stu, Dad, Uncle, CUZ