Category: Green Mountain Blog

Oh boy…..it’s TIME!

“A good traveler has no fixed plans….and is not intent upon arriving” ………………………………………………………………………………………..Lao-Tzu

“Children, one earthly THING, truly experienced, even once, in ENOUGH for a lifetime”…………………………………………………………….Rainer Marie Rilke

“ Splish, Splash…I’m takin’ a bath”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Bobby Darin

Are you missing me, yet? Maybe you should be…as this is likely the last communique for a while….mountain time is coming to an end this week….and the heartland has not traditionally been Blog- inspirational…so what will your Sunday be like now?

Now that you made yourself love me, do you think I can change it in a day?

And…I’m late, I’m late, I’m late…countdown is in earnest- leaving on Wednesday…and SOOO much to do….bad start today-wiped out my entire file on Bunty Station Band memories on the computer…and then had to go DEEP in the bowels of my hard drive to re-crate it somewhat…..who knew?

Vee-Yis-Ga-Dahl….Vee- Yis-Ga Dash…….

And….how about them Sox….too good to be true (TGTBT)…..MAJIC………

Did you set clocks back this morning…..nice at the moment but will suck around 5 pm….who thinks this is a good idea…DARKER…….DARKER…..Uughh……

And Ba-bee Sloane is growing like a week- over nine pounds already (did that come out of me, says Tessala?)…Papi and Nana coming home soon to do some major holding….

Had our first of a number of Last Suppers last Sunday…Thanksgiving in October…with our A-list of cooking friends….was a wild soiree with lots of imbibing and laughing…had to throw people out the door late in the night…which only worked when I told them it was the night for our once monthly sexual event…that got ‘em going…

Are we ready for election day…is it safe to say all people running for office are nuts?…..will there be a De-Donalding movement on Tuesday? In Vermont , where there seems to be an effort at returning to some measure of civility…check out the video of two candidates running for state reps…who after their debate sat down and played a duet on guitar and cello….I’m trying to imagine The Donald and Hillary doing such…
http://river967.com/rival-political-candidates-end-debate-in-very-strange-way-video/

The leaves are gone, the leaves are gone….today is first day cracking 35 degrees in weeks and it’s been rainy and dreary to boot….the inevitable stick season that follows the wonder and glory of foliage…the roads are pretty empty as mountain folk hibernate until the first snow and ski season…good time to go out to eat….but a tad depressing….

Last night we had a celebration for the 10th anniversary of our beloved Folk Club in Mt. Holly…decked out the iconic local (circa 1825) library stage and filled it with current and past FC members…..played two sets of our catalog…it was a tossup whether there were more of us on stage or more audience folks show up to cheer us on…the Queen of all things mountain entertained the kids with hearty snacks and good cheer..

Speaking of whom….The Queen has been quite active all week…packing up a storm, hiding the spools of bedding she stores for a rainy day, plotting next year’s home renovation projects, trimming and more trimming of all the gardens…and making the rounds of her social network for fond so-longs….while the much more reclusive self-went off to Minneapolis for a work jaunt, complete with Marriott cribbing and fine French dining…I’m trying to say my own good byes through psychic mediums…

But tonight we have one last Last supper with the Jewish Fish Monger and the French Master Chef and his wife, the Princess of Strange Health Tools…..heading down the mountain to the beloved East for one last Fine Asian dining experience…

But first….miles to go…the yard machines are beckoning to be cleaned and stored, the house packed, and the property sanctified for the assault of winter….go a lot to do…SOOOOO…gotta go get at it…

Be too well, my friends and readers and such….stay healthy, eat good, make love not war….and….. stay …in…touch…

The Earthly Blogger….Estuardo

Greetings Fellow Travelers:

“Take one step away from yourself…and Behold…the Path!!……………………………………………………………………………………………………..Abu Sa’id

“Life, for eternal us… is….. Now”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………EE Cummings

“The point is to perform every activity, from playing ball to taking out the garbage, with precise attention, moment by moment”………………….Zen Master Phil Jackson

“Act the way you’d like to be…and soon you’ll be the way you act”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Leonard Cohen

So, did you miss me last week? What did you do on Sunday with no blog? Such a loss, no?

Stretch run now…..got back to the mountains on Tuesday for last two weeks…now at 12 days and counting…and it hasn’t cracked 35 degrees since we returned….. WINTER is in the hills….snow on the mountain tops all week…and then it SNOWED all day Saturday….Uughh….

But…this was a baby week in the flatlands. Spent six days back in the heartland with Tess, Jake and Baby Sloane…..what an experience…..Got there just in time for the new nuclear family to come hone from the hospital….spent six days cooking, cleaning, organizing, shopping and taking care of the three crazy dogs….and…holding Bebe….what a little darlin’…Bonus was a weekend visit from Ry and Lauren with our other little darlin’, Baby Quinn(now 17 months)…two precious granddaughters for one Papi….how can this be? ….You can see the complete extravaganza show in the abundance of enclosed pix. Every picture tells a story…

And Queen Jennifah spent six days commandeering the kitchen and preparing deluxe meals to be frozen for the next millennium…what a good Nana is emerging…….…

Which brought us to face the dread reality of the whole living-in –two- places thing….when you live in the mountain remoteness, a trip back to the heartland and the boom that is Central Ohio is quite the shock to the central nervous system….Oy, the traffic, the noise, the sheer number of people, the incessant development….some form of shell shock…and so a quick trip Monday out to the ancestral home to check on the order of things for our imminent return…which is predictably chaos…had us running back to the safety of the kids’ new Westerville house to hold Bebe and try to get our heads around the imminent changes…

And…how about them Sox??????? How are the Yankees feeling about this? Apparently The Donald is now a Dodgers fan and tweeting to the manger to tell him what an asshole he is…..

Speaking of The Donald…I don’t know about you…but I am considering heading down to the Wall and keep the evil hordes of Central American refugees from coming in and taking jobs away from Mexicans…

But…I seriously digress……so, back in the mountains for our last fling….flushing away a storm and trying to find a patch of sunshine to finish getting the property shut down for the winter……hard to be motivated to deal with things when wind and snow are blowing and the trees are losing all their luster….but push on we must……..did get in The Halloween festivities…where the Queen of Mt. Holly got dressed up and spent two frigid hours putting kids on hayrides (came home complaining of a bad back)…and we spent a very cold half hour at the dump on Saturday, receiving last minute instructions from the Walrus Dumpmaster….also made out first trip back to newly reopened (in its original location -eight minutes down the Mount) to the beloved local institution, Harry’s Café, where everybody knows your name….

Well truth be told…I am distracted ..and don’t really have much to say (now he says that, you are thinking)…..but some good visuals may be the saving grace …so take it or leave it…back traveling this week to the warmth of Minneapolis and then return in time for day and days of packing up…tonight we are hosting The Last Supper, an early thanksgiving dinner at the manse for our potluck supper group…so gotta go, cook, clean, chop wood, do some packing (or at least cheer the Queen on while she dos this stuff)….and get in my Sunday afternoon nap with Lucy ….

Be well, do good work and stay in touch……and…Go Sox!

Papi

Bon Jour Mes Amis:

“Squash Gossip….Lettuce Be Kind….Turnip to Church”………………………………………………………………………………Sign at the Belmont Village Church

“Looking into the old well, I see my own face….then another behind it”…………………………………………………..W.S. Merwin

“If I could define enlightenment briefly, I would say it is the quiet acceptance of what is”………………………Wayne Dyer

“The white bush clovers
Drop the dewdrops
Frequently”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Autumn Haiku

Big doins’ in the mountains his week…and afar……….foliage hit PEAK in all its glory….and is now turning downward towards the inevitable stick season hereabouts…….we have continued to be inundated with rain (see the POND brimming with clean water)…and bounced around from summer like weather to lows in the high 20s at night….and the baby no name is very likely arriving this week one way or another…..but…I get ahead of myself, no?…….

Sunday last saw The Queen once again presiding over the last of Cider Daze, while yours truly piddled round the house on a rainy day, flushing toilets and ruining water to his heart’s content….when she eventually arrived home, we headed out to find some supper on the busiest weekend of the year in the mounts….eventually finding sustenance at little Sal’s red gravy Italian joint down the mountain in Wallingford…..where we joined every other local in the area trying to avoid the leaf pepper crush happening at the more urbane hot spots……

After days of rain and cold, Monday dawned weirdly hot and humid….back to shorts and flip flops, for a last gasp…………..

We took great mountain pride in the moment of the vote for the absurdly twisted Kavanaugh confirmation …when our man, Bernie, had his turn and hurtled out of his seat…. shouting “No” at the top of his lungs….fightin’ the fight…

Monday night we were treated to a surprise video chat with The Prodigal Son, as he rode the rails from Tokyo to Kyoto, adventuring in Japan for three weeks…we watched as the entirely non-English speaking train attendant repeatedly tried to collect the train ticket that Max did not have. He had tried to use his railway pass to get his ticket but the office was closed at the station,….so each time the ticket man approached, Max would wave some kind of paper and yell ”Office, Office”….which seemed to work- at least on that segment of a five train journey he was taking , due to scheduling morass…..

And….The Sox down the demon spawn Yankees…making the sports year complete for New Englanders……

Overnightus-interuptus….we had planned on a tentative two night fall foliage outing this week if no-name’s arrival had not called us to the heartland…but it kept raining, so we stayed home flushing toilets…until the sun came out on Wednesday….which eventually became a legendary 85 and sunny day….so we rose early and took off for parts unknown…bags packed for an overnight adventure…..twelve hours of driving around, three wonderful hikes, seven crossings of the Connecticut River, three meals and two thousand peek foliage photo ops later…we wound up back home at nine pm….which is reflective of most of our Vermont driving trips…usually involving our commitment to either all right turns or all left turns…which seems to have predictable results…..

We arrived home after averting potential life altering trauma , when Lucy disappeared on a very remote dirt lane in New Hampshire- at the site of the Bedel Bridge State Park (really just a boat access point currently).. The property is the site of the former Bedell Covered Bridge, that was the second-longest covered bridge in the United States until its destruction by wind in 1979. The bridge had been the brainchild of an industrious Mr. Bedell, who ran a ferry across the Connecticut River from NH to Vermont, until he came up with the idea of the bridge in the mid-1800s. The bridge was closed in 1956…but after twenty years of fund raising and six years of repairs, it reopened in 1979….only to be destroyed three months later (for good)….but…I certainly digress….so we are in the middle of nowhere with dark descending and chasing the suddenly missing Lucy through woods and cornfields for a half hour or more…..eventually we wandered towards where we had left the car, not knowing what else to do…only to come upon her exhausted and laying down next to the car….don’t know where she went , but she proceeded to sleep through our car ride home, while we had Indian food in Dartmouth and until the next morning…truly, disaster averted….

Saturday provided another in a long line of rainy mornings, and we embarked for town and chore day, starting with the weekly trip to the town dump…where the lecherous, walrus Dumpmaster pulled me aside to wink at Jenn and inquire as to how many nights I had stayed warm this week…I will say that the nature of this relationship has provided us with free garbage disposal for the last two years…..then off to Rutland, where we had the once in a lifetime experience of finding the Walmart shut down (water line break)…so picture Saturday morning at the only Walmart within three hours….and a line of desperate shoppers being turned way and staring longingly through the windows at the shiny merchandise inside….

Riddle of the week………if you ever read Tom Robbins’ seminal “Another Roadside Attraction”….there is a story in the novel that ends with the line “Rudolph the Red knows rain dear”….I won’t try and give you the back story context of this…but I always thought that Robbins had come up with that line and then wrote the whole novel around it….so(where is this going?)……this morning I wake up with my own novel- creating line going through my head over and over …..”Chat in Uber, Tutu”…………so, can you figure out the reference, what question this answers and how to make a whole book out of it?

This whole obsession came about when we were suddenly awakened by the shattering- of- silence boom of the Jamaicans showing up and firing up their generator next door…which faces our bedroom windew….….it is quite cold this morning but the sun is coming out and Lucy is staring fixedly out the front door window trying to figure out how she can escape down to access some goat…..and we are destined for a day of battling yard machines in preparation for our exodus in four weeks…and..…waiting got for the no name arrival call….will see what the coming week brings and possibly (or not) sending out the update missive next Sunday……until then…….Darling, je vous aime beaucoup, Je ne sais pas what to do.

Papi

Bonjourno:

“I will walk by myself and cure myself in the sunshine and the wind”………………………………………………………………………………..Charles Reznikoff

“”A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner”……………………………………………………………Thomas Carlyle

“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world”……………………………………………………………Leonard Cohen

“I’m the president of the United States. I’m not he emperor of the United States”……………………………………………………………Barack Obama

“She was all dressed up in costume, and wearing one of those little Jew things on her head”……………………………………………My eldest niece, raised in a very Jewish home, about her daughter’s wardrobe in her role in a college production of Cabaret

The Autumn leaves…………..abounding in the occasional bright sunshine of early October in the mountains….this is the full glory of Vermont…which leads to many, many absurdly similar photo ops…I did my best to cut the volume down….but still………………………..

It has continued to be a pretty wet autumn in the mountains….and now we have the added pleasure of nights in the 30s….but the shit system is fully functioning, THE POND is full, and fall activities are persistent. We had a rare sunny day last Sunday, and ventured a dirt road meander up to Wallingford Pond, where we had not previously been…took a long walk through the colors and sweeping mountain views of the season…which led to long naps for Lucy and I and more digging and rooting in the yard for the Queen…

Speaking of whom….she has given up the two year long treasure hunt for a pickup truck….and we have agreed to purchase Ryan and Laurens’ Jeep Renegade….which is currently residing in Cleveland…and will someday, somehow, make its way back to us..

And how about the Sox….in mortal post season combat with the demon spawn Yankees….

With a mostly rainy week, we have taken to even more serial TV watching at night….after years of avoidance we are taking on the full monte of Breaking Bad…which might be the strangest character transformation in big or little screen history…Walter, what-up?

With your faithful blogger bent over with a back tweak this week (can you put my shoes on for me, please)….not a lot happened, aside from counting rain drops, trying to deter Jenn from even more house projects, writing up a storm and watching baseball….but, Thursday, dawned with the promise of dry and sunny somewhere or other…so we took off in the early rain for points unknown ….more precisely consulting the Ouija board for the most likely place within a three hour drive for the sun to peak through……………

This led us west to the shores of Lake Champlain, and the rolling farm country…a moon like landscape surrounded by mountains every which way…and…sure enough, by midafternoon, we had a glorious fall day….for some dirt road hiking and views of the great lake…with Lucy in tow, we explored some old lakeside communities (called “camps” here in the mountains- home to the “Woodchuck Mafia” )…and generally trespassed all over the place….Jen communed with the various animals in the various pastures….. while Lucy steadfastly chased small critters through the woods..…and I limped along…

All the walking and driving led us to our destination for Jenn’s second (of five) birthday dinners…to the lovely Cafe Provence in Brandon…anther place we have be around for 20 years and never dined in…Can you say Cassoulet?……nothing hits the stomach and the wallet like a fine French repast…and after a mandatory cruise to Walmart in Rutland (we had not been in over two weeks and feeling a little jittery from the cold turkey of it)…we arrived safely back at home for baseball and carry out French chocolate decadence…….

And, now…we are in the midst of Columbus Day weekend…the holy grail holiday in New England…and that means the annual Cider Daze extravaganza in our lovely hamlet of Belmont/Mt. Holly….this is where two thousand tourists descend on our tiny village green (population 400) for a weekend of music, cider, shopping for tchotchkes and ooh-aahing at the changing leaves..…I spent the afternoon there yesterday playing a set of music and walking around with Lucy (who I regret to say is not really a chick magnet…but a very good old lady magnet)…came home briefly to greet our weekend Airbnb guests and then headed back to town for the infamous Oddfellows Hall to serve the annual roast beef community supper (two seatings, 200 belligerent eaters)…..luckily , my hobbling has receded…..meanwhile, have not seen hide nor hare of the Queen for two days, as she cavorts in her role at the Empress of Mt. Holly….she is undoubtedly out there somewhere making new friends, extolling the virtues of mountain living and generally helping people to appreciate Vermont life……I expect we will have a half dozen new dinner companions by the end of today………………………………..

And, that my friends….is as much (or little) as I have to say today (did he really say anything?) …still on baby watch…none yet…next scheduled flight to the heartland is on Tuesday……smoke ‘em if you got ‘em…

Happy , happy, happy…….. falling leaves……

Stubert

Gotten dag meine Freunde:

“Without a rope, people bind themselves”………………………………………………………………………………………………Zen Saying

“Perfectionism is slow death” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Hugh Prather

“If on earth there be a Paradise,
It is this, It is this, It is this.”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Amir Khusrow

“amidst swollen moon
face of wicked witch smiling
bats fly in frenzy”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Halloween

Been a busy week here in the mountains….leaves are beginning to sparkle and alternating between warm, sunny days and cold overcast or rainy, with nights sometimes down in the 30s….we had expected to do a two night getaway to peep at leaves this week, but it turned out to be rainy and cold…..and then there is the issue of going places that have no phone service (half of Vermont) while on the baby watch…..speaking of which …still on hold and waiting, though the oven is bursting as apparent in the prego selfie. We have now cancelled two of our ridiculously scheduled eight flights in a row (every four days or so, booked on points with Southwest and therefore easily cancelled)..…next scheduled flight is this Wednesday the 3rd.

Sunday last turned out to be day long adventure of mountain cleanup…mostly from the shit hole excavating…but no complaints…we are now flushing fools- often flushing the toilets just because we can….the Queen of the Mount was in her glory…digging and planting….your chronicler schlepped all day and is still bent over from the weight of it all…and little Lucy found at least five piles of assorted aromatic matter to role in….she is often spending her full days banished to the outdoors now, until she is provided the icy hose bath ….Jen has some pretty strict standards about what can come in the house, though I rather enjoy the varied aromas….she also managed to get into my book bag this week while we were away….and consumed the contents of a gallon size Ziploc bag of airline snacks (sha has mastered how to open the zipper of the ancient vessel)…..when I came home and found the little pretzel bags all over the living room floor and Lucy in a carb/sugar induced coma… I yelled at her “just wait until your mother gets home”…….

Since we did not do the planned getaway this week, we settled on a couple of day adventures…so on Tuesday, in a full day downpour, we spent the day in Rutland going to a movie (see my review,-better left unmentioned) and dinner at the Victorian Inn in Wallingford, where we had been meaning to go for six years and proved worth the wait. The owners are from Switzerland and have run the place for almost 30 years….so, of course, Schnitzel was the order of the day. We were the only people there and wound up getting a personal tour of the bowels of the 10,000 square foot Inn.

Thursday turned out to be a beauty….70 degrees, blue skies, sunshine….so we headed out early for a day of wandering… we had planned to hit a couple of art exhibits in Central Vermont, but had failed to read the fine print and none of them was open…nor was the legendary Worthy Burger in South Royalton….so the day did not go quite as planned. But, we did a nice circuit through South Strafford, Chelsea, Tunbridge and South Royalton (four of Vermont’s most quaint villages), sat on every lovely town green, had lunch on the ground, looked for the brightest red maples and took a dirt road stroll. Really…..not much happened but it was a good day away anyway….and Lucy managed no rolling in her first day of roll-recovery….. Mid-morning we stopped in the tiny hamlet of South Strafford as there was an assemblage on the town green of what looked like most of the town. Turned out they were all out to watch a 150 foot crane and the accompanying ascent of two men in a lift to replace the weathervane on the 250 year old town meeting house up on the hill (one of the prettiest in Vermont)…watched for an hour at a snail’s pace….so we gave up craning our head’s once they got the old weathervane off…but no one else was budging from this riveting spectacle. Late in the day , on our dirt road walk, we came across this massive gathering of off raid vehicles coming together for an annual off- road bird watching safari (their word not mine)..which I can only describe as surreal……quite a boost to the camouflage gear market…

Theft in the mountains…..turns out our local General store in Belmont (which has recently had a shift to its sixth owner in last 15 years)…..has been robbed twice in last year…which was relayed to us by one of the local yentas, our on-site hair stylist from England)….the first guy was caught selling the cigarettes he boosted the next day on E-bay…the second guy was caught when he interrupted his pilfering to make himself a fried egg sandwich on the grill…..these guys are not keeping up with modern crime techniques apparently…

I received a DVD in the mail this week from good friend in Ohio, The Naven, who had taken a collection of super eight films of mine- dating from 1966 through 1974 to Costco to have them modernized….wow…is all I can say….the short film vignettes are Chaplinesque, whirring around at lightning speed…..and classic little glimpses of the times…..am hoping to put them up on line the near future for those of you who have been around that long…those were the days, my friends…

We had two overnight Airbnb guests this weekend….each unusual in their own way…..the first was a woman who had stayed with us before, who is here to spend a parents’ weekend with her son who is a nearby recovery center…he is with all the meth heads and heroin addicts, but he, himself, is a computer addict (Tess wants to know if that means he cannot have a phone)…..our guests last night were here for a wedding nearby with some people we know…and told us the wedding was “complicated”, as it as the joining of two women who had both become men…..figure that one out……..only in Vermont…

Yesterday was a brisk fall day, as the colors continue to bloom around us….so after our weekly dump visit (the Dumpmaster was advising me to catch and grill a up a few trout from our pond, which will make the little lady more frisky….this, an example of the weekly advice the sage provides) we took an afternoon hike up a nearby hill and got some good images…..then went down to Rutland to a German mecca for an under the big tent Oktoberfest….full German buffet and schooners of beer…..they had a nice three piece acoustic band who played folksy music…to the chagrin of the celebrants who came in their Tyrolean hats and lederhosen….and were wondering where the hell the polkas were…….

And that, my friends, is all she wrote…may or may not be a Blog edition next week…depending on the potential arrival of baby what’s’- her-name….but we’ll be back sooner or later…..Eat well and enjoy the autumn shift…………………

Papi

Many salutations ya’ll:

“Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately”……………………………………………………………………………………………Michel de Montaigne

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud!”………………………………………………………………………………………….Coco Chanel

“I’m so proud of beeeeeing……. loved by you” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Curtis Mayfield

“After the warm rain,
the sweet scent of camellias.
Did you wipe your feet?”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

Sunday morning…..bright blue skies, steam coming off the roofs, after 35 degree frost last night………………heating the house up for the first time….leaves just beginning to pop in earnest….and the Shit Storm is over….but more on that later…

Was a busy week, mostly away for the mountains….made the trip last Sunday down the Route 7 mountain corridor –to the first municipal airport in America at Albany International (one flight a day to Canada)- for a surreal mid-summer trip back to Cowtown….how weird is to be a tourist in your hometown?……did the whole taxi, downtown hotel, exploring the city streets thing in Columbus for three days….two days of training at the majestic Ohio Supreme Court…… Caught dinner with the expecting couple…..my very ripe, busting- at-the- seems baby-bearer of a daughter and son-in –law, Jake, picked me up for dinner on Monday…with a trip to familiar and beloved Aab India in Grandview for an eventful taste of ethnic dining (see the photo of the feast)….Tess is day to day to drop and we are in on -call mode to scoot back to the heartland for a short week once L’Enfant arrives…she is in the late summer, overly pregnant heat doldrums of waiting for the blessed event…it was a major bonus to hang with the kids…

Headed back to the Mount on Tuesday night late for a quick night at home…had one flush and a dripping of precious water and repacked my bags…and headed off on Wednesday (with my grocery bag full of car lunch…Hi ho, Hi ho…off to work I go)) for my monthly overnight up in Waterbury for the Governor’s Council meeting…..having the good timing and privilege of involvement in a major renaissance in Vermont in work with kids and families (passed this year the most liberating juvenile justice legislation in the nation)….so the ersatz church lady (former Vermont s Chief Justice) and I are spearheading a committee on jurisdictional changes (you may have to google that one)..…a trip to Waterbury always means a reprieve from the rigors of mountain living (read: SEPTIC ISSUES) and includes a really nice stay at the presidential suite at the local Marriott, a jog through the lovely Vermont village and my favorite little out of the way Thai joint accessed by a life- in- your-hands sprint across the street on busy Route 100 (through the crazy Waterbury to Stowe traffic)…..

And, whilst the cat was away….the TRUE shit diggers came and dug up most of the back yard. After eight hours of occasional digging, five loads of gravel, two really bored mountain boys sitting around in between Dad’s rock loads, Jenn romping around in her shit kicker boots and a bunch of illegal piping…..we have launched…and have a restored septic system (Stu showed back up from the Marriott for the end of the festivities)…who knew what a privilege it is to be able to flush the toilet after a satisfying BM?….may never again take that for granted after six weeks of primeval living..…so now the yard is a total mess from schlepping the earth mover and gravel truck through it….but…. we can now wash dishes like normal people, and take an occasional shower…this is truly a revelation….We love the Shit-Men….though will see if we feel the same way once the invoices arrive….

And…have I mentioned, we are now on the very special all Carb- all the time diet?

Saturday was a chilly overcast day- so we bagged all our yard restoring, chore catch up, gutter cleaning plans…and after a semi-quick trip to the Dump, and requisite weekly consultation with The Dumpmaster, drove up to Dartmouth for a bit of culture and diversity……hard not to like Hanover, NH on an early autumn Saturday afternoon, which seems like a scene from Love Story..…speaking of which, we got to see Spike Lee’s new one …BlacKkKlansmen (check out my review)…which is mandatory viewing in The Age of The Donald…Mandatory!!!……..and were also rewarded with a Harry Belafonte sighting in the film (talk about an American treasure)……we had a lovely crepe brunch at Vermont’s iconic Skinny Pancake and après movie chocolate decadence from the local rich, kid-care package purveyor of kitty crack….a wonderful day away….and….came home to a guilt free BM…..what’s not to like?

So….the clock is running…and the avoided chore list awaits….so…. Hi ho, Hi ho……hoping to catch a two night getaway- fall outing this week if the creek don’t rise and the baby don’t come….so…… will wait and see…learn to be….free to pee….watch the colors on the tree, la-da-da and la-dee-dee……love to you from me……

Ferlin’/Papi/Stu, Chuck/Skippy

Bonjourno:

“ To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”………………………………………………………………………………………..Oscar Wilde

“Moonlight through high branches, Is being nothing else…But moonlight through high branches”……………………………………………………..Fernando Pessoa

“ A stereotype is a stereotype for a reason”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Stu B. on the next door Jamaicans indeed roasting Goat in the yard

“Hey! Get back indoors!
Whatever you were doing
could put an eye out”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

Autumn has stalled in the mountains……after another startling heat wave (high 80s in September), there has been little foliage boom, but all the Green is getting a lot less Green…The Queen say it is looking like spoiling heads of broccoli……

And speaking of Autumnal changes…Brother Al of the Bunties has unearthed a pre-Bunty- Steaks and Chops photo taken at the legendary Blue Danube in Columbus in 1979….check out the PDF attachment to see the boys with lots of hair and erect posture………….

And, The shit has indeed reached the fan……the septic-shit man finally showed up this week and dug up the pipes …and…no go….no easy fix at this point…having to investigate other forms of leaching our precious stools….so we continue on our water minimization effort to avoid back-up (none yet)….since the water level has gone down some, I have reverted to quick showers and once a day flush….but The Queen of the Mount steadfastly continues to pee in a cup and bathe in The Pond…..is this life in the mountains?

Though…up side is…THE POND… remains in a state of grace from all the rain we’ve had…despite a failed pump and no water movement for a week, it has remained full and pristine clean, as evidenced in the pix of The Queen and The Circus Dog at float….The floating and plunging took place last Sunday after we spent four hours staining the deck in 90 degree heat, and then sprinted for the brown water immersion…

Have you ever noticed that no one works on Labor Day?….even people who are supposed to be working?…and is this an oxymoron?…….maybe it’s just a mountain thing…

Last weekend we had two quite contrasting Airbnb guests….after the Queen accepted two last minute reservations despite our shit storm state…the Saturday night woman showed up at 10 pm and left at 8 am- taking our conservation to heart and not using a drop of water or anything else….she is now the record holder for least impact for an overnight…then we had our Sunday night cute couple with dog, escaping Harvard move in day in Cambridge…who in 12 hours managed to utilize every room in the house (potential multiple sex acts??) and every recreational space on the property…..though they did not take showers out of deference to the shit show…may have left a bit on the musty side…

On Tuesday, I made the drive down to lovely Hartford to catch a flight to St. Louie for a few days of conferencing with the Casey peeps…..Ah….St. Louie in early September… the Cardinals, Bar-B-Que, historic rail station hotel…and HEAT….a cross between a humidor and schvitz bath….almost did not make the trip as majordomo Deer sprinted in front of me across crazy I-91 in Springfield ,Mass on my way to airport. I somehow jerked every which way around the big boy, but the guy in the Maserati who was passing on my left at about 100 mph smacked him sideways and then got clipped by four cars trying to stop or get around….this happened all around me, while I continued to chat with The Nave on the speaker phone…so right now, decidedly better on avoiding highway accidents than on shit flow…

And then there is the Jewish Fish Monger (Trademark ©)…who has begun an all-out assault on internet dating with a number of crazed outings in the last few weeks…apparently the action has picked up since he switched from Match.com to a new site called “Plenty of Fish”….I could not make this up……

After getting back from my travels quite late on Friday night, we made the trek down to Brattleboro yesterday to meet up with Ry, Lauren and the one and only Quinn -baby…..returning Olaf The Circus Dog to them after his stay at summer camp…..in our one week with him, Olaf totaled 1743 fetches of the lamb – chop squeeze toy, fourteen miles of scooting around the house standing on his back legs, 19 lost skirmishes with Grace the Cat and managed to gently bite six people in the ass…all while leaving adoring masses everywhere we took him….Lucy seems content to have reverted to being an only child…

And Brattleboro…well, let’s just say the 60s are alive and well in southern Vermont….a climate change march, an LBGQ (did I miss something?)bicycle rally, at least 65 patchouli -scented woman in caftans and paintings of stoned cows at every corner…in the spirit of the whole thing, we made a detour to the Hemporium on the way home to pick up a bit of medicinal oils…Brattleboro is a bit far-fetched even for Vermont…..

So…..overcast and quite cool Sunday morning….time to move on to weekly water dumping outside, and researching places to take our laundry…and it looks like a major nap day, before meeting up with the Java Baba royalty couple for dinner……………….so keep on shaking it………………………………..until we meet gain….

Papi (five weeks and counting)

Steaks & Chops 1979

Happy Labor day weekend fellow workers:

“Until you forget everything, You will never live in your heart”……………………………………………………………………………..Ashtavakra Gita

“When you have to make a choice and you don’t’ make it, that in itself is a choice”……………………………………………William James

“Be THE Ball”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
.Caddyshack

“Hey! Get back indoors!
Whatever you were doing
could put an eye out.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

One day in August you wake up and drive down the mountain and suddenly the Green Mountains are a bit less eye-popping green…..and a few trees are turning light brown or yellow…and behold, a red maple starts to pop with its luminosity….and then you are up on another morning and the ground has a light glaze on it….and the full moon is surrounded by bulbous , puffy clouds, and its maybe a harvest moon of sorts….and you think maybe it’s time to close a window at night…AND…this is summer turning into Autumn in the mountains.

So- its suddenly Labor Day and that used to be the official end of summer when we were kids….before the ice cap stared melting from climate change (yes, Donald , we have climate change)..….but now, we are expecting to be back in the 90s some this week, before going back to dipping into the 30s at night. Change is in the air…and on the ground…….

We continue to wait for the shit-solver to show up in shinola….almost three weeks and counting with our clogged Septic system and hoping he may deign to cross the ancient bridge this week…..meanwhile, back at the ranch, we continue (under the watchful eye of the Mountain Queen) our vigilance in being shower- less, laundry-less, dishwasher-less….one flush a day, dishwashing in a pan. Had our last guests of August this week, with a two night visit from our kids, Ryan and Lauren and cutest baby in the world….little first granddaughter, the mighty Quinn ( see the photo gallery for Quinn adventures)….and I think they snuck in a few extra flushes when the Mountain Queen was not looking, but no showering to speak of…..and now, we have Airbnb guests for two nights…whom we lecture as part of the arrival tour, on the ecology of water savings for our dehydrating planet….and then require to sign a blood oath to limit themselves to four minute showers and no flushing until the bowl is near the top, regardless of what sort of matter is in the bowl….this is, apparently , another facet of mountain life……

Since this is the dominant matter clogging up our life…I’ll make short shrift of the rest of the week in review (well, short for me …and shrift for you)………………….

We continue to escape the hotter days and no AC with drives up to the mountain dirt roads for walks in the shade (all improbably seem to be uphill) and a little mountain viewing….the surrounding mountain dirt roads are endless, with the quaint and lovely old Vermont houses surrounded by trashy trailers with snarling dogs….

Jenn continue to embrace becoming a true Vermonter…this week she worked her organic garden volunteering, participated in some shyster lawyer focus group ($70 and pizza), cleaned the house of the local piano-man, cleaned our house four times for various guests, and presided in her role as the Empress of the community association…..she also schlepped me out last night to volunteer at the community supper benefiting our local historical museum (“gimma more ham, gimma more bread”….)

While she was off at some meeting or other, I spent an evening at the home of the Jewish Fish Monger, who made homemade pizza and we sat on the flea infested couches with the big old drooling dog watching reruns of the latest Sox victory…did get a load of required laundry in there, which Jenn felt required a second laundering due to sanitary conditions….

The kids arrived on Thursday night (and got the ecology lecture) while I was playing the last of this summer’s Belmont Music on the Green with the Folk Club. Friday we spent the day driving up to Middlebury for a brewery tour (I was the designated driver and Quinn escorter, though I cheated a wee bit at the add- on distillery stop)…..stopping for lunch at Mama Corleone’s don’t-miss Italian Deli….arrived back at home to try and get a nap for the exhausted little one, before hoofing into Ludlow for dinner at Mojos café…..All in all, a really nice visit and we got left the door prize of the week (while they are in Maine with Laurens’ family) of having little Mr. Olaf, the amazing circus dog, who tries to ride Lucy around and sleeps on your face…check him out coming on to Gracie the cat…

And, by the way, what are your thoughts on Cable companies??? Let’s vote……….Bomb them___ Annihilate them ___ Gas them___ Never allow them to flush again___

And-just as the kids were getting ready to leave, The Matron of The Inn at Scum Pond, decided to accept two last minute different guests for holiday weekend lodging…ergo…more cleaning, more ecology talks, more smiling…luckily she rejected the request with three toddlers in our water challenged environment…..

So- off to prepare for guests arriving soon, get a new pump into THE POND before the Algae have a joyous reunion….. and take a ride up to the Plymouth Blues Fest…then start three straight weeks of the joy of travel….Yippee, more TSA, more friendly skies, more driving to and fro……..Feh…..Be back soon….Love ya- each and every one…

Papi

Happy Sunday my friends:

“All is one, one is none, none is all”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Zen Algorithm

“You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget”………………………………………………………….Idries Shah

“This is America. We don’t share land here”………………………………………………………………………………………………………….John Dutton (Kevin Costner) in TV Series Yellowstone

“Wet moss on the old
stone path – flat on my back, I
ponder whom to sue.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

Well….we are officially running on fumes after a month of travel, music, festivals and guests. Our August social calendar concludes this week with a visit from Ryan, Lauren and our grandbaby, sweet little Quinn..…then , perhaps we can get back to some sort of normalcy…but I doubt it…with a busy work travel schedule for the Fall along with a scourge of Airbnb guests and Baby No-Name due in October….and then the necessary time to stand around and watch the leaves change….

Speaking of which…..began to see the first blooming of reds in the maples this week…..early August in the mountains means foliage…..it won’t be long until we are inundated with color….last night we saw the first really Autumn night sky….ominous clouds shrouding the full moon, the air crisp, burning off in the distance…hot damn…

Had our annual five day visit this week with Sister Jane, who is inclined to mostly sit around it the quiet of the mountains and catch up on her rest…..which was slightly disturbed by the water rationing and minor stench around the house…..as the “our life is water” theme has continued. No pond issues, no rain roof leaks, no broken water lines ….but now….The Shit has almost hit the fan (though not that high yet)…..had our septic tank cleaned out six weeks ago, and it was quite over filled, so were instructed to keep an eye on it (and a nose)……discovered last week that after only six weeks it was back to way over full and close to the proverbial back-up. So we are waiting for the sewer gods to come this week and excavate…if we are lucky they will find an obstruction…. if not, we may be calling some of you about taking us in –given the cost of new septic systems, leach fields, mounds for shit…..who thought all of this stuff? ….can’t we just dump our crap into the stream down the hill?

So, all of this has meant the Mountain Queen had us on strict water rations…..no showers…..pee-ing in a cup….once a day flush (if its yellow, just be mellow/if it is brown, it can go down- Vermont folk wisdom)……washing dishes and selves in a plastic tub…..we relented and let sister Jane take a shower after five days….but only because we don’t need additional smells in the house…….

Speaking of Jane, we picked her on Tuesday at airport down in Manchester, NH…..and came very close to running out of gas on our trip home after a visit to NH beaches (Stu- “I’m not paying $3.00 a gallon, we’ll just go to next exit……is this familiar?)..…..my newest learning is that there are a lot more liquor outlets in NH than there are gas stations….but the late August lonesome beaches were quite nice and the drive home through the Lake Sunapee region in late afternoon, sun drenched, mountain faded green…was…well, fill it in yourself……. we made the requisite stop for Maple Creamees at the joint in Downers…which may be our fifth Creamee stop in two weeks…flaunting ourselves to the lo-carb gods…

More water….we have had record rains for the past month, which is, generally speaking: BAD for the Septic, GOOD for the gardens…and GREAT for THE POND…see its full glory…highest levels of the whole summer…not too late to join us for a murky swim……

And….more Goat….though the Jamaicans are once again gone…apparently the Goat residue is not….and we keep catching Lucy wandering down the hill and returning with goatish bones in her month…she loves Rasta……

And, speaking of Lucy….we went out with Jane for a celebratory dinner in Rutland at Table 24 on Friday night….and arrived back home to find Lucy had devoured most of Jane’s giant bag of Trail mix…..internet research advised us that raisins are apparently quite toxic for dogs…so began an overnight vigil to see if she turned into a coyote or something….but eight teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide (welcomed advice from Vet- daughter-in-law Lauren) resulted in immediate Exorcist-like vomiting…and possibly due to the fact that she has Lab size kidneys and liver in a dachshund body…..resulted in no apparent damage…except to our sleep cycle…..

We dropped Jane back off in Manchester on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day meandering back…a classic late summer -early fall New England afternoon providing impetus for a dirt road walk along Lake Sunapee and a stop in Claremont, NH for dry goods (maybe some wet) at the tax free Walmart (Live Free or Die)….and we are in our recovery mode once again…thinking about laundry down at the steam…..

For those of you interested in such, here is the link to the Bunty Station show from the Belmont Music on the Green last week. Rough sound and mix, but still full of that Flatlander fervor…hope to have the studio session available to post by next week… http://okemovalley.tv/bunty-station-belmont-green

Insha Allah,

Papi

Greetings fellow travelers:

“Let’s have coffee when you’re’ not bloated”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Personal ad from Seven Days newspaper in Burlington

“It is very hard to be simple enough to be good”………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Here is my secret: I don’t mind what happens”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Krishnamurti

“Scrabble anarchy
after ‘putzhead’ is placed on
a triple-word score”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews

And…there were zillions more this week, but you can’t eat all your chickens unhatched (!!??!!)…so some we have to save for bit later and some for another Blog day……….We have lived an absolute whirlwind for the last two weeks, and…at our advanced ages (mine more than hers)…are just about out of breath (could mean literally!) …so despite the extraordinary rich amount of material that has been generated here at The Inn at Scum Pond……survival dictates this will be a “moderately” BRIEF (and mostly clean) recounting…………………….

The Jersey Thing…………………No sooner had we gotten back to the mountains, when I took off for parts and Marriotts unknown, completing a three day blitz to Minneapolis (a lot nicer than in January) and Baltimore (a lot hotter than in May)….returned from this, to take off again Saturday morning for an overnight trip to western New Jersey (there is such a thing)…for the second annual reunion of my Bronx childhood posse…..an ethnic extravaganza of eating, drinking, cigars and stories that probably should not be told again in this lifetime…these are guys I have known since we were around six, which amounts to more years than should be written down…five plus hour each way got us back Sunday afternoon in time for the start of their arrival of The Bunty Band boys

The Greasin’ Thing………………not to drift away from the structure of the story….but you may recall the narrative from a few weeks ago about Jenn’s proclivity to get things done thru sweet talk with our local artisans and townspeople (see “Greasin’ the Bowbee from Blog post # 4567). Well, her newest conquest has been with the farmer who provides our unpasteurized milk product- getting him to meet her time demands for overnight milk delivery….this is Farmer Johnson….so now we have graduated to Jenn Greasin’ the Johnson……..

The Naven Thing…………..like clockwork, our dear friend and band member, the Naven, arrived Sunday evening with Lucy’s BFF, Rosie – both taking up residence for the week. Nave is really easy to hang with ..with the possible exception of having to listen to Cubs games on the radio each and every day…but we had a nice dinner on Sunday night, a little hiking and the first of six straight days of BLTs for lunch (Nave brought a shipment of home grown heartland tomatoes)on Monday and then Nave joined for the weekly folk club, which got a little nuts since our founder and leader (a calming influence) has been gone for six weeks. Tuesday we began prepping for the week’s music activities and the Festival, but found time to head down to the Weston Playhouse for a performance of “The Million Dollar Quartet”, featuring an over the top, amazing portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis, which highlighted the night along with crazy thunderstorms and wiping out a massive eagle in flight on the drive home in the rain

The Johnny 99 thing…….We arrived home to find our second band member, Lloyd (who likes to call himself Johnny 99) passed out on the couch. We had made dinner for him, expecting him by 5, but he apparently rolled in at 9….after an unimaginable 17 hours on the road getting here (he somehow went through most of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with a quick side trip to Schenectady)……apparently Johnny eschews both GPS and Maps of any kind. We hauled him off to bed for the night. The Johnnie 99 experience is woefully hard to capture in any coherent way that does it justice. He tends to disappear with his beloved pipe for hours at a time and speaks in something approaching tongues……so I’m not going to really try too much to explain…so if you know the legend, no explanation required…for the rest, well, consider coming to the Fest next year to see for yourself. I will say that J-99 did leave us with a string of indelible quotes for the week (some of which even I could not comfortably reproduce), but highlighted by: “Who the F___ cares what a three eyed raven does”…….and……..”F___-off, I’m in Vermont”

The Sound and Electric Waves thing…..Our Music on the Green gig was a big hit….except for the fact that we blew out two sound boards just trying to set up and at one point were forced to play acoustically to a sizable crowd. We eventually got rolling and since we got a late start played well into the dark with the throngs (ok- maybe a little less than throngs) calling for more, until we weren’t sure if there were five or fifty people left…..Johnny 99 got fed up and left the stage to find beer at one point but we soldered on…joined by some gifted percussion player who appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared back into the night…then we had a car that would not start after that…the Grid in the mountains can sometimes s be a bit mysterious…….

The Rock Star Thing….And then we got to go to the local cable access TV station in Ludlow on Thursday and drank bourbon at 10 in the morning…and recorded 12 songs in their very cool studio with both video and audio(we’re like MTV guys now)….we played live to tape acoustic living room music with boom mikes for the instruments…..which produced some manor ranting behavior on our blues number…which you will no doubt be waiting with baited breath to hear…12 songs…four hours… and on to the next endeavor… (tired yet reading this?)

The Fest Thing…….finally arriving at Saturday, after mowing and trimming and prepping and setting up endless chairs, tables and tents…and somehow avoiding a line of major thunderstorms that threatened to bowl over the whole thing…..turned into an amazing day with lots of musicians, food, much drink and tie-dying……we were on stage for most of five hours with various people joining us…..discovered an incredible local talent, Tim, who played with us (where do these people materialize from?)…and then the leftovers/diehards adjourned to a roaring campfire (thanks to the Queen of all things Vermont) and mystical Tim then played for a couple more hours while the peace pipe made its way around…the day was generally a who’s who of Blogville, with (among many): the Jewish Pig Farmers, The Jewish Fish Monger, both the German and Russian spies the ONE Gay Black Man in Vermont, The Massage in the Trailer lady, The Solar Queen. The Organic Mr. Smith and the extended family of 20 Jamaicans from next door who came up from the urban quagmire for the event.…no one wanted to miss being seen the Fest it seems……

The Goat Thing……and, this, I cannot resist. The lovely Vermont Queen often harasses me about what she suggests is some degree of exaggeration in my reporting. One, for instance, is that she feels I tend to stereotyping of the Jamaican clan next door by often inferring that they are out in the yard roasting up goat. I have reluctantly apologized for this in the past….BUT…during the Fest, the clan came up for a while to tie-dye and I asked them if they wanted to have a bite to eat…..to which they replied that they had to go back down the hill to the encampment to finish BAR-B-Q-ING THE GOAT…..Faith has been restored ….and I can now continue stereotyping in with some degree of immunity…..

The Recovery- Please go home now thing…….so the boys all left today, except for The Nave who kindly stayed to drool with us and clean up the mess…..the weather turned overnight and it dawned sunny and very temperate with a hint of leaf change all around……FALL is coming….we are somewhere on the long and winding road to recovery…waiting for the next set of events and visitors…and of course, already planning next year’s magical mystery tour…

And that, my friends, is it in a nutshell….too many Pix, I know…but, who cares….This pasts weeks show and studio recording will be on line and available this coming week and I will post links for those of you so inclined….given the sound issues, not sure how the Green show will sound or look, but I have high hopes for the studio sessions…

Be well and talk back, Ferlin’