Author: stumberry

Happy Stick Season from the Green Mountains:

“ Zen IS your life, Appreciate YOUR Life”- Taizan Maezumi

So- now it’s time to say goodbye to all our family (MIC-KEY………..). A magnificent autumn has turned into the grey of stick season here in the mountains as we prepare to head back to Ohio in a week…a very bittersweet time of year for us. We have decided not to come back this winter with the ongoing drama and burden of the house of horrors in Groton, which we will be maintaining (and praying for no disasters) this winter…as I’ve said , we have TOO many houses. So, away we go…should be an interesting trip home-packed to the gills with two cats and Lucy aboard.

But today, we are still here…light snow is falling along with the last of the leaves and pine trimmings. We are in the 20s at night and looking at low 40s high this week. We had our first snow on Halloween and many dustings since then, with the mountain peaks covered and the snow machines working at night at Okemo and Killington.

Jenn is in Cleveland for Ry and Lauren’s wedding shower and sent me an emergency e-mail this morning to make sure to water the Wheat Grass- a process that involves bending each plant aside to gently spray each root (no shit!). Wheat grass is one of the staples of our life in Vermont. We start every morning with a shot glass of the sickly sweet nectar to correct whatever we have eaten in the previous 24 hours and make us whole. Jen is heavily engaged in learning the art of growing and studies at the foot of our local master, Peter, who is a Communist who claims to be hiding from the state department and is the bearer of all things wheat grass. We broke into his house one night while he was gone to retrieve an unclaimed container of peek ready wheat grass that would have apparently gone to waste had we not rescued it. Such is life in the organic , no “GMO” state.

We have spent a lot of time in Groton lately; overseeing the preparations for winter- including the erection of a new room; a 6×10 shanty to cover and insulate the basement water pump that provides water for the apartment- so that after we drain the house system and shut it down there will still be water for the apartment in winter…please make it stop! So now we  can list the house on MLS as 24 rooms instead of 23- which should really jack up our showings.

One benefit of stick season is that all the algae in THE POND is now dead , and it looks great…reborn in fact. I’m thinking we just need a refrigeration unit out there all summer and it will be crystal clear…really, see the pictures.

We got up to the Northeast Kingdom the week before last for our final leaves trek of the year. It was grey and wet but we saw 3 or 4 trees with nice leaves on them. Lucy got to stay in her first Country Inn and made lots of new friends everywhere she went. We went to some of our favorite Vermont remote classics- like Brownington and Craftsbury Common to play in the fallen leaves and we found a diner in Coventry that a Boston paper said has the best southern fried chicken north of the Mason-Dixon line (well, not really, but good anyway). We kept seeing sunshine in the distance- so our trip was based on trying to catch up with it-we caught it several times- for about 5 minutes. All in all, we had a great leaf chasing Fall-the locals say it was the best foliage in 20 years, and I think we caught almost every tree in the state(and some in NY and NH)- before they shed. But now….gone….and…STICKS!!!

Out trips also led us to a bunch of wildlife sightings including mountain rams, lots of wild turkeys and chickens, exotic birds heading south (like us, but further) and maybe even a Beefalo, though it may have been a developmentally disabled cow.

We have continued to walk up our two road hills to catch the diminishing view- which Lucy really likes and she and I did a bit on the Appalachian Trail yesterday; I suppose stick season has its own kind of beauty…but not all that much.

So, I’m sad to say, this will be my last missive until the Spring. Some of you have asked me to continue when back in the flatland, but who wants to know about life in the Midwest, anyway? But, I’m glad to have shared with you every few weeks and hope you continue to find this amusing.

If you did not hear the Car Talk tribute to brother Tom (by brother Ray), who died this week- it is one for the ages. I laughed and cried for an hour. I’m including a link you can access it with.

http://www.cartalk.com/content/1445-tommy-riposa-pace

Be well, do good work and stay in touch.

Love, STU

Happy Autumn from the Green Mountains:

“ This Autumn, why do I get old? In clouds a bird.” BASHO

I have been SO delinquent in my composing- it has gotten behind me and is now overwhelming. Lots of visitors, lots of leaves, lots of Lucy…all keeping me from my assigned duties. So- this version will be a Zen of happenings- with lots of pictures because they tell a story, no? Visits from all our kids plus my niece and family from Florida left me with ridiculous amount of once in a lifetime photo ops- so I have included a substantial tasting here. If you want to see more of the photos from the two family visit- you can go to Shutterfly links below:

Kids visit- http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=a6343aa70ae3a880&sid=2CauG7RyxZMok
Florida Juban visit- http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=f0dba6dd3f463006&sid=2CauG7RyxZMpC

THE ZEN……………………………………………..

The Kids come to Vermont- how many 20-30 somethings does it take to screw in a light bulb? They came, they conquered, they went. Theme of the week established when we picked them up at Manchester airport and as they came out of terminal and I greeted them with a booming “Welcome to New England” a fellow passenger walking out with them commented “they don’t look too enthusiastic?” There was a lot of smart phone bonding, we learned Ryan wants to kill wild turkeys with his bare hands, we dragged them all over Vermont to see the foliage, Jake found out he is bigger than he thought in our low ceilinged kitchen and is the master of “selfies”, the boys are not afraid of diving into an icy Fall quarry of water, and we found that the family that Yogas together….”

The Pond- has defeated me; I am turning in my strainer and filling it with dirt…

Lucy- is growing in leaps and bounds, is a mighty traveler who goes everywhere with us, hikes for miles with her short little legs, hates water but likes Kayaks, had her first ham bone and then shit for four days straight all over the house, and cannot go anywhere without the paparazzi chasing her (and me!) . We were on a fall outing and waiting outside Singletons’ wonderful store in Proctorville for Jenn to bring us breakfast sandwiches- when a truck full of deer hunters pulled up with carcasses on the roof and deer blood all over them….Lucy thought this might be a sign from Heaven and behaved accordingly- trying to get the deer off the roof and the clothes off the hunters….

The Jubans visit from Florida…if you don’t know what a Juban is-you’ll have to look it up. Likes: shopping, the Vermont Country Store (we had to drag them out), fried food and sugar (Lena), unlimited pictures of my great niece- 17 year old Lena, who dresses for the part multiple times daily, being out of Florida, autumn leaves, any place that looks like Asheville.

Dislikes: interrupted shopping, wheat grass and outdoors (except Omelio), cold houses, my driving. They were here on Columbus Day weekend- so activities were boundless and they got to go to our local Cider Days Festival , in Belmont, see the 200 year old Cider press in action, shop and watch me play a set of music on the green in frigid morning temps. We made our first ever trip to a Mickey D drive through to get Lena the requisite chicken tenders and fries (I believe this is a misdemeanor in Vermont)…a whirlwind of three days.

Autumn is HERE- we have been chasing THE PEAK for over three weeks- as it shifts around the state- a tradition amongst the mountain folk. We are way past foliage peak here- but still looking. Spent a couple of nights in the Islands two weeks ago (yes- there are Islands in Vermont- see the sunsets) and last week in the Adirondacks (we found Frank Zappa to be alive). Lucy likes staying in strange places with strange eating to be had. This week will be our last ditch effort as we head up to the Northeast Kingdom. We’re trying to figure out where there may be foliage still (what hemisphere?) to keep the dream alive.

Plans afoot to head back to the Heartland mid-November

More Blog to come….maybe…. STU

Hello to all from the Green Mountains:

“ Renunciation is not giving up the things of the world, but accepting that they go away” Shunryu Suzuki

Music in Vermont- our local folk club did the last Music on the Green performance in Belmont of the season last week- 15 of us on and around a little gazebo stage as the late day sunshine turned into autumn chill. Got to lead on a few songs –while Lucy ran around like a bat out of hell chasing dogs and kids. There is little crazy video of the proceedings on You Tube you can take a gander at – http://youtu.be/AFqN8XXtueA. We’ve been getting out some to the local outdoor music scene and made a visit to Weston last Sunday to see Gypsy Reel- the local legends (one of whom plays with the folk club). Fair to say- we were the poorest people in attendance at this ritzy little town- but lots of big dogs for the pup to engage with. We also went to annual Pittsfield picnic (about 45 mites away up route 100) and were welcomed to a very small town event with local potluck extravaganza; old timey music, horseshoes, politicos stumping before the primary election and an African family (a jackpot to our count on people of color in Vermont). The little girls had braided hair- which Lucy latched on to  and would not let go of- luckily they were good humored about it. I also had to find a music store to put a pick-up in my new mandolin (Max birthday gift)- which turned out to require an hour’s drive to New Hampshire (surreptitiously crossing the border at night)- when I went back to retrieve it they had mysteriously closed for the day with no notice- so had to go aback a second time- all told six hours of trips to amplify the sound…….. not everything is so close in Vermont.

Saw the last play of the season at Weston Playhouse- a rendering of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya- set in modern day Vermont- not really sure the Russian satire fits that well in the Green mountains- but it was entertaining. Sad to see the end of the season

Energy in Vermont- costs a damn lot…our electric bills are twice that of Ohio (further from the sun??)- so we are considering becoming part of a solar family (don’t ask) and owning a bunch of panels to undermine the super conglomerate utility collective (like the Russians in Uncle Vanya) and also doing a bunch of energy updates around the house to make the wind go around rather than through our 150 year old structure. So- Vermont (as you might imagine) really supports and subsidizes these improvement (GREEN Mountains!) and we get a number of incentives for doing this ( a bag of pot, I think) and on top of that they had a “find the flock” contest- where you had to spot a moving group of wooden geese on the road somewhere…and Jenn won the contest for a $1000 in improvement ; who knew wooden geese were worth that much…

The Pond…what a mess. I clean it for hours (up to 6000 now) and the scum comes back in a week. I really need a bigger strainer, and Lucy is not much help when she is out staring at me (see photo). We need to rob a bank or something (maybe find another flock?)so we can pay the pond guy to come and start over. We did decide that when we start doing our bed and breakfast the obvious name for it would be The Inn at Scum Pond. On the matter of  waters- we have continued our weekly kayaking-exploring the long and winding sections of Echo Lake for our water lunches.

Hiking and Indian food – we found a really nice trail that was recently finished that goes from downtown Rutland over the Library Pass to nearby Proctor (the marble capitol of the world-all buildings are made of marble)- so last Sunday we packed up Lucy and did the Reynolds Reservoir trail from Proctor- a really nice walk around 3 miles round trip up to the waters. Beautiful day on way up- got soaked from thunderstorm on way back- but found what might be the worlds’ first Indian restaurant in a gas station….better than you might think- so had our lunch while soaked in the car….Lucy didn’t even notice we were eating as she had passed out after her arduous walk on those tiny legs. (bonus- two more people of color- up to 49 now since May)..to top it off- they had cheap gas to go along with the Indian food.

Church- to conserve funds- Larry and Rachel have closed down the weekly services at the Quality Inn in Rutland and moved them to their house (next door)-so every Sunday we now have the Vermont Southern Baptists singing and praying down the driveway….and they have put up their signage on the way to our house(see pix). The evangelical pull is beginning to ferment our minds while we sleep.

That’s it for now- off to pack for the flatlands.

Be well and happy coming of autumn.

Stu