Category: Green Mountain Blog

Good Monday to all:

Fall has sprung in the Green mountains; it is a blustery high 40s this morning. The leaves are turning all kinds of hues and we are trying to figure out how to keep the house warm without using the furnace (huddled around the electric heater as we speak). Been on a bit of a photo ramp-up last two weeks- so as a change of pace, I am attaching below a small slide show of our doings (small compared to the usual vacation shot behemoths). So…in “blogging” about last couple of weeks- let’s go through the photos…..

Go to link to see slide show (only 62 fabulous photos- I’m becoming a minimalist, no?) http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=51a175f6e734a4716276141d224b0f78&sid=2CauG7RyxZMjq

Jenn celebrated her 50th birthday last weekend- and I flew up her sister Jane and good friends Jane and Karen as a surprise. Jenn almost collapsed at the surprise. We had a great weekend together and then sister Jane stayed an additional three days. We did an eight hour driving tour of north- central Vermont (was supposed to be 3-4 hours) that led us to the Sunday farmer’s market in Stowe, up scenic Route 100, over Smuggler’s Notch, to the wonderfully secret Bryant gallery/museum in Jeffersonville and finally to an exploration of the Italian dead at the extraordinary Hope Cemetery in Barre. We had a magnificent birthday dinner at the Castle Inn in nearby Proctorsville and talked for 48 hours about going over to see Lake Bomoseen (Bomoseen or bust) but never quite made it. The neighbors came up for desert on Saturday night and Elizabeth had made Jenn a whopping German chocolate Cake (nine sticks of butter, 10 pounds of sugar). She had also found out that I hailed from Jewish stock- so made a Challah (see photo) that was pretty dam Jewish- although she and her mom called at a “hal- oh”

On the update side- the pictures will show the tree outside out bedroom window is turning shades of colors each day, the pond is de-sliming itself, we have built a fire pit and had our roof leak fixed by the newest Daryl and Daryl…and we now have peace flags strung up by our barn…a great hit with the four wheelers that go by to head up the logging road. We have also discovered two new outside lights that we have no idea how to turn on and off- but are waiting for Karen to illuminate us and them.

Stu spent a few torrid days in Chicago this week and got back to three straight days of almost 80 degree weather- so we got out and picnicked, hiked and went to the beach at Lake Bomoseen- where Stu went in the icy waters (think Titanic). See photos of him catching dinner the old fashioned manly way. We went over to Hubbardston, where there is this eccentric hiking spot on private property; 500 pristine acres owned by and 89 year old gent originally from Ohio, that he maintains for public use. There is wonderful Japanese rock garden and then a series of trails that lead you to magnificent vistas in about a half hour. We went to Moot Point and ate lunch overlooking the Mad River valley. The last time we were there was 7-8 years ago and we knocked on his door for directions (he now has a caretaker and great signage) and he opened it up hanging upside down on a gravity pole in his Speedo (he was a much younger 82 then)…so it was a bit of a risk going aback, but we are adventurous. After the hike we went to the beach and then to the Lake House Grill where sat nursing two dollar beers at the end of their pier and watched the sunset…stopping in Rutland on the way home to buy mums, crab cakes and investigate more bedding.

Saturday night we went to the community supper at the Belmont Odd Fellows Hall (lots of odd fellows) and pigged out, and then on Sunday we drove up to Montpelier for the 251 Club annual luncheon. We were honored as “plus” members with 10-15 other pairs who had completed the quest of going to all 251 towns and villages in Vermont. As usual, we were the youngest people there by 10 years (maybe 20 for Jenn). We did a detour drive on way there- crossing over the Brandon Gap for the colors-which were pretty cool. While at the luncheon- we had our 10th and 12th desert of the weekend. We then rushed home to have our first dinner party with Tante Helen and Haldor and their neighbors John and Lydia . For the occasion , we opened up our living room for the first time (we treat it like a hidden sanctuary covered in plastic), and then ate in the formal dining room. Stu served soup from the 1890’s sideboard..a first for kid from the Bronx. Helen made her Austrian strudel and linzer tart cookies- so we had our 13th- 17th deserts of the weekend. You can see pictures of all of this splendor in the slide show.

Stu is off to Indianapolis this week (via the shuttle plane to Boston from our local airport for the first time) and then he is off from work travel for about a month- while we seriously pursue chasing the leaves. We have decided that just because we live in Vermont- that is no reason not to do our annual fall journeys- so we are doing 2-3 day trips for next four weeks to Adirondacks, down to visit George and Connie in sunny Brookfield, then up to the Islands (yes- we have islands) and finishing up in the remote part of Vermont along the Canadian border. We have discussed fishing- but will need to figure out how to bait the hook and get any possible caught fish off of it. We are searching for lessons and/or someone to go with us and do these tasks.

I hope you are all well and enjoying the autumn wherever you are…Garrison Keillor says we all think more clearly in the cold weather (and should move the government to Maine) so happy thinking.

Stu

Happy Friday to all:

Well-it’s been a busy week in the Green Mountains. The weather has been nuts- alternating between cold and rain and southern- like heat…all making the leaves begin to change in earnest. We got back late Saturday night from our week’s family vacation sojourn to Paradise (Max’s palace in San Diego) and it’s quite an adjustment to be back on Mt. Holly. More attached pictures than usual this installment: a few from Paradise, then the African drummers come to Vermont, the adventures of Stu and Jenn taking an unplanned hike and finally the surreal Tunbridge World’s Fair (yep- that’s right- you can look it up). So…the week in review:

Saturday- got back to Albany International (you can look that up too!) after 8 hours of flying- highlighted by a layover in Vegas that resulted in a quick four aces on the video poker and a $200 bonanza. This was good-because after we landed we stopped at the diner in Troy on the way home and Jenn snuck two orders of rice pudding to go while I was in the bathroom (apparently rice pudding is similar to bedding for her..which by the way, when we spent the night in Albany before our flight to SD, we were compelled to buy more sheets since there was a TJ Max there..I believe we now have 36 new sets of sheets for our lovely bedrooms when you come to visit). We finally got home about midnight and were totally wired with the time difference- so stayed up for hours watching our shows on HBO (anyone catch the season opener of Boardwalk Empire? Masterful). Good family trip with a quick two day side trip to Big Bear Lake, in the San Bernadinos- which is one giant picture postcard.

Sunday- slept really late; tried to get the house and our lives re-organized, admired the new slime in the Pond, found lots that needed done and went off to Proctorsville to hear a group of African drummers in bright fall afternoon sunshine on the town green. Sayon Camara is quite a character from Guinea- now living in Woodstock and paired with a group of new- age white kids from New Hampshire…needless to say he stands out. There were no black people in the audience but I upped our count for our time in Vermont by four just because of his sheer Africaness. It got cold- we left for shopping and dinner in Ludlow- which got us home late enough not to do any chores.

Monday- uggh…lots to do and hot sunshine…no excuses. The lawn had mysteriously grown in epic proportions while we were gone- so we spent the afternoon on it, cleaned the house and went down to visit Podge the organic gardener- lots of good stuff at this time of year- some of which we have never heard of and don’t know what to do with- but bought anyway since it seemed the right thing to do. We then drove around aimlessly looking for something we could not quite find. Stu went to the folk club and we were in our fist heavy rehearsals for the annual show we will do the last Monday in September in the library basement. Two of my songs are being featured and I have a dobro backing me, which is a life peak moment.

Tuesday- it rained- a lot- and it leaked- a lot…so we spent most of the day pondering solutions to this new event. I put a posting on the local town e-serve for someone to patch our little roof over the living room bay window-and got a ton of responses- employment is not all that good in these parts. I only noticed it because Jenn decided that I needed to clean out all the window sills, which were pretty dirty, and I went in the living room for the first time in over a month and saw parts of the ceiling on the floor, which led me to surmise there might be a water problem of some kind. So – I sent Jenn up on the roof to check it out, and…voila.

Wednesday- we woke early to 90 degree heat and major humidity and so spent the morning splitting wood and sweating a lot. Our neighbors lent us their state of the art log -splitter and we decided to get the three big piles of wood left  from old downed trees, cut up (while it was nice and hot)for the impending use of the aforementioned living room and its fireplace. We spent half the day and got through one pile…but did not kill each other…so good morning it was. Stu then felt restless and that we had no plans to speak of- so we headed out for late afternoon hike in advance of hail filled thunderstorms. We went down to Ludlow and up to the base on Okemo Mountain ski area and found that there are apparently no trails there…so we walked up the giant slalom ski slope. You can follow Jenn’s progress from my advanced position in the photo spread. It’s my opinion that they could benefit from mowing the ski slopes in the off season- as they were awfully hard to walk up…and what’s with the lifts just sitting there unused? What about all the homeless people who do not have a lift while these sit there empty?

Thursday- woke early so Jenn could play at Skiping (is that a verb yet). Stu went to the barn to work out and then continued his assault on the window sills. Daryl and Daryl came out to look at the leak and told us it was probably just a result of the storm window being left open for months of driving rainstorms. We were so embarrassed we asked them to come fix the roof anyway. We set out at mid morning for our big travel and event day, heading first for the legendary Tunbridge World’s Fair. Now, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, since the population of Tunbridge is about 350- but it sure was a good fair anyway, though the harness racing highlight was put off because the track was so wet. We decided to not wait when we found out about the delay and after Stu spent a half hour walking around the grandstand trying to find the betting booths that don’t exist, though a slightly disabled man told me he would bet me on the races if I wanted. We left there in advance of the latest hailstorms to go down to Hanover NH (home of Dartmouth) and have a real sophisticated kind of night out. We went to Dan and Whits general store-which is really exciting in this part of the country, then to King Arthur massive bakery operation and then to a giant farm stand. Wow…what a coup this was (unfortunately, no bedding). We then had dinner after walking around for an hour in the pouring rain, at the local Thai place, which is actually one flight up (a good sign when choosing any kind of Asian and left us with a great window table overlooking charming downtown and the pouring rain.) This worked really well once we moved the table far enough away from the window to not get soaked by a worse roof leak than ours. All of that was more than made up for by great food and our server, Darcy of Dartmouth , who squealed with excitement when we finished our soup and were ready for our tofu. We then proceeded to the highlight of our night out, a real movie theater, to see Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen’s latest (see my review forthcoming for more on this). We had been wanting to see this film and going about two hours away was the closest we could find- plus it was good balance to the world’s fair. We ended our evening with an hour and a half drive through pouring rain and fog on Vermont route 131 which has been tore completely apart all summer. Jen kept asking me if I wanted her to drive- which is generally not a good romance builder.

Friday: well, we made it through our first week back home. Wet and cold all day today- Stu decided he was in SD and walked round in shorts and flip flops. Discovered this morning that some guy we called for a tree estimate came down and cut down the tree- which left a mess for us to ponder. I borrowed Larry’s chainsaw and his son josh to follow me around- but the chain was so dull it just quit running. So, josh took me to see Barry the hermit chainsaw sharpener who lives in a trailer in the woods in East Wallingford- who would only talk to me through Josh (until I told him my last name was Barry, too…only a slight lie in the interest of community relationships) ; but he was still done for the day and finding a space in the trailer to go to sleep (around 4:30 pm)- but said he would have it done before daybreak- so that is tomorrow’s plan. Jenn has spent the day cleaning and making friends with the City of Columbus water division which has run up hundreds of dollars of bills at her house while no one was living there. That is why we love Vermont. Got to go get ready for dinner next door. Rachel is making chicken chow mein- which might be pretty interesting.

Till next time,

Stu

Happy Sunday afternoon:

It’s been an eventful week in the great north woods as we inch into Autumn. More leaves turn each day and we have seen a few full blown red maples- we have our October leaf peeping sojourns planned but not sure there will be any leaves left…

Here are the highlights of the last week (notice I did not say “blog entry” even though I have been accused of keeping a blog):

Travel- It seems like every time I leave Vermont it really sucks. Spent a few days in Chicago and this week. the work was good, got to see a bunch of old colleagues and had dinner with Jesse…but the trip sucked. Stayed in the Elmhurst area which is a war zone for hotels. Wound up getting badly bit up in the middle of the night- luckily not bed bugs- but something bad and changed hotel the next day. Last morning there- woke up with a really sore ankle which got worse after getting home (return to tip to Albany and the hated drive, blah, blah, blah). Went to walk in clinic in Ludlow on Saturday (there is no urgent care in Vermont it seems, and we were heeding for ER in Springfield when we found clinic and faux Dr. Jack)) and at least it is not thrombosis from flying- but may be a spider bite. Still hobbling around with a big ankle and not sure what to think (no blood clot, though). Plus- everywhere else I go is both hot and over air conditioned. It ii a fact that we have not AC in Vermont- it’s already in the low 40s at night so we need some heat more than AC

Chickens and Eggs: So, as you know- we have a flock of chickens living next door- ostensibly to provide our neighbors , and by proxy, us, with fresh brown eggs daily. Expect they have been having trouble figuring out where the eggs are being laid. Yesterday- we found the big red one nestled up next to our barn, with eggs dropped everywhere (see photos). She is a Rhode Island Red, and apparently Red likes our house better (she tends to follow me around when I am working out in the barn-gym facility)and has decided to lay her eggs here daily. So we now have a bunch of cardboard egg boxes to take a dozen eggs daily back to the neighbors (we keep three or four as a handling charge more or less)

Dinner with the neighbors- Larry and Rachel and the kids came to dinner right after I got home. Jen and Elizabeth spent around 15 hours cooking and baking and then we were invaded. Quite a mess was made bit the food was really good (Lisbeth wants to go to culinary school, and wants to practice on us; seems we have adopted our new neighbor teens, so we are trying to be conscious of having our clothes on when they show up). After dinner Larry tried to convert me to come to his Holiday Inn church in Rutland- but we had a Jesus vs. Buddha (or Moses) standoff. Josh, our 16 year old neighbor, has taken to wearing camouflage daily in anticipation of hunting season in November. I’m hoping he has more than one outfit.

Sunning- we like to lay out in our yard after we have done our chores, gone to the Farmers’ Market and gotten ice cream from the soft serve in the lady’s kitchen down the road. Karin was not a lawn furniture person- so we have tried to find some. Jenn found some nice ones for $150- but we got two chaises lounges from Rite Aid on clearance that collapse every time we lay on them. Guess you get what you pay for (see photo)

Projects: we had two major home projects this week. the first was an impromptu decision that our rocks were dirty and needed to be cleaned. Apparently when you have a rock garden you have to sweep the rocks- which we had not and they were really dirty- so we spent about four hours trying to make clean rocks (see before and after pix). The we spent a lot of the weekend cleaning and staining the deck. Karin had put on really nice new railings for us but the deck floor is pretty weathered and Jenn said we had to make it right. So we bought some kind of acid to clean the decks and had to wear spacesuits to do it or we would melt down from the acid like on True Blood. We worked well together and after I finish this I will untie her form where I have her stored in the barn. See the before and after pix of this project as well. While we were finishing cleaning the deck a magnificent Blue Herron showed up at the Pond; she looked around abut decided not to go in until I get a bigger strainer to clean the toxic smudge. (see photos of her turning her nose up at the pond). As a small side project I decided to fix the chair we found in the barn and have out outside our front door. While we were gone last week- someone sat in it and it fell to pieces. So I have now attached six pieces of plywood underneath it and you can mostly sit on one side. In Vermont- you have to be handy! (see that photo too)

Speaking of the Pond: Daryl and Daryl never showed up to clean it (I guess they could not find a big enough strainer) and so we ordered six grass carp on line to swim in the muck and eat all the algae. Got an e-mail the next day that the company was not allowed to deliver to Vermont- so I guess we have to eat our own algae. It’s very pretty though in the late afternoon sun when the glare is too great to really see the smudge.

Interesting sights to see: when you come to visit us we will surely take you down to Ludlow where a full-size WW2 tank sites in the front of the high school. I guess they have been attacked a time or two and are now taking precautions. See Stu and the tank photo.

Karin’s flowers- Karin was by all accounts a master gardener- and we are not- so we just trying to stop them from committing suicide over being left with us. A lot of them appear to now have gone south for the winter- but some new ones showed up this week that may be confused about geography. See the picture of the pretty flowers in the chair that we have managed to keep alive so far. And the ones that showed up this week and we picked for our table before they get wise and go somewhere else.

Bedding- it seem that bedding a real priority here in Vermont. we have a lot of beds- but still Jennifer buys bedding of some type every time we go to sale or a store and even brought back a bunch of it that she bought back in Ohio. I’m trying to figure out where all this bedding is going to go, as we already have quite a pile in one closet. But, I think we are trying to make sure and get it right.

THE Theater: We went to our latest show at the Weston Playhouse last night, and extravaganza production of 42nd St. If you like musical theater –you would have loved this. I could not imagine how they were going to do those big production numbers on a pretty small stage- but they pulled it off and it was a packed house for the last night of the run. We sat in the balcony for a broader view of the spectacle- which amazingly fit on the stage with lots of extraordinary tap dancing, full cast production numbers and even a Can- Can line (I have to admit I slept trough some of the tap dancing extraordinaire- but definitely watched the Can-Can). And the orchestra- which they keep in the basement (not a pit, the basement) was amazing. Sounded like a 40 piece though I doubt there is room in the basement for that. The crowd also included three very gay African- Americans. We see a lot of gay people in Vermont, naturally, but this increased the number of people of color we have seen in two months by a full 20%.. At the start of the show, the Director comes out and makes very witty remarks and reminds you to not use camera or video…but says you can leave your cell phones on because there is no service for miles around. We went to Harry’s for our weekly dinner before the show and left with only 20 mutes to make it- but zipped down Route 100 and pulled up right in front of the theater with two minutes to spare. Since it as a packed house- we had unusually heavy traffic coming home..three other cars on route 155 until the Ludlow turnoff- the it got dark again.

Coming up: May be awhile before my next dispatch as we head to San Diego next weekend for a week of family vacation. Tess and Jake are meeting us there and we are all staying at Max’s hacienda (rent free, I believe). Jenn and Jake are joining us on our annual family vacation for the first time- in attempt to help us survive a week with each other. But, as we usually say, it could be worse.

Tomorrow, I am off to Indianapolis for some Casey work; it will take me about as long to get there from here as to fly to Europe. Enjoy the end of summer

STU

Good morning friends and family:

It’s been a quiet week in Mt. Holly, our home town, on the edge of the mountains. Especially, since we have not been here for the last ten days or so. Made a mid- summer hiatus visit back to the Ohio homestead, which was amazingly disorienting. The place looks great thanks to my now favorite child , and yard maestro, Marcus..and in some ways it was nice to be back in the ancestral home….but honestly it mostly sucked. It seemed like traffic jams everywhere we went, too many people, no mountains, and it did not smell good. And…since we are not living there- we had no phone, cable or internet. No big deal on the cable, the phones are a hassle since cell service is awful there…but the internet access-oh my…can you say DEPENDENCY? Had to make twice daily trips to Starbucks to use Wi-Fi, and sit with the coffee- dungeons and dragons type geeks (only joking if you are one of them ). And what is with the menu…can I get a small decaf please (what exactly is a Grande? And how come a tall is a small?). Overwhelming. Got to see our friends and kids which was nice, and Marcus and I did yeomen work on the property to get ready for fall, but the pace…hmmm, a bit different on the pace. So- on Sunday we headed back to snail land, and were so eager to get back –we drove straight for 13 hours (well we did have two diner stops to keep our Greek friends in business) and got back to the new homestead 10 pm Sunday night.

It is good to be back. It smells really nice, the cats were alive (though our beloved Tripod remains missing in action) and the yard was mowed (well, maybe more like scalped) from our young friends next door. Woke up on Monday morning to the birds and bullfrogs greeting us and looked out the bedroom window to see color in the tree (see picture). Fall is coming early it appears.

We immediately got back into Vermont mode by heading out to nearby quaint Shrewsbury to the Pierce General store/ Co-op to get lunch and maybe find something for dinner. It’s about six miles from here and after driving for about 45 minutes we stumbled on it- only to find that they were all out of lunch sandwiches. We bought whatever they had left and sat on the front porch in the sunshine and ate our lunch. It took us eight minutes to get home. We did stop on the way at the little bakery/ice cream shop on Route 103 that is in a woman’s house. She actually does have  a soft serve machine (maple flavor today) in her kitchen. Another roadside attraction.

Thanks to Christine ‘s advice (she is our benefactor and former house occupant, Karin’s, daughter and our new e-mail buddy in Vegas)- we took our next door kid, Elizabeth on a walk to Belmont via the tracks (see picture). Nice walk but then we got more ambitious and hiked all the way up the hill (quite deceiving in grade) to the other side of Gates road and then to the end – past the town dump- to the logging road and back to our house. Another one of those lost afternoons that seems to happen here a lot.

So- the Pond…I have more or less given up on it – as you can see from photo- it seems to take revenge on me and come back with more algae and scum after I spend time on the raft straining it. I may go to Wal-Mart and see what the biggest strainer they have is. We have also talked to two local guys who say they will come in a rowboat and rake it out (Daryl and Daryl?). Karin’s beautiful gardens are beginning to fade with the colder weather, and we’re not sure if there is something we are supposed to do to make them keep growing…I guess maybe it is just what nature does (see photo). Maybe new things will grow soon?

We continue to feel like we have simply assumed Karin’s identity. We live in her house, we sleep on her bed with her sheets, we use her toilet paper and are still eating food she left behind (wondering where to get those sugar free chocolate coated cookies?). We find new treasures each day that she has left for us and we love her art and her crafts. She even left all her craft materials in the barn for Jenn to get started on, which she seems to be avoiding. And now- we have been taken in by Tante Helen and Haldor (Jenn thinks his name is Halidol) who are Karin’s in laws from Austria and Norway and live on the next road. We drink wine with them and get silly. The few people who visit us may think we have simply moved in and are keeping Karin in the basement.

Oh well- I like her identity and as my kids and I say after every family vacation together “it could be worse”.

Come up and visit—the leaves are coming and we are blocking of three weeks to chase them around the state. Hope all is well with everyone. Did you catch the season finale for True Blood? Wow….

Stu

Subject: More Rambles on Living in Vermont
Good evening all:

It has been an interesting week in our hometown, Mt. Holly Vermont. We just got home from our first venture to the famous Weston Playhouse where we saw a great musical drama called “Next to Normal”- a Pulitzer Prize winning play- in one of the country’s most prestigious summer stock venues. These performers are certainly headed to Broadway, and the music was incredible- even though they keep the musicians in the basement and out of sight (I thought it was just a good recording for most of the night). We get the Vermont resident discount which makes it incredibly affordable and it takes us about 15 minutes to get there. Coming back the traffic was a bit slow- we passed two cars coming in the opposite direction. We will be regulars for the rest of the summer season.

On Saturday we spent a pretty typical Vermont weekend day- headed to Rutland in the morning for bull goose Looney of all farm markets and made arrangements to participate in a community farm share program. We stopped at Charlie’s Treasures on Route 7- where Charlie appears to have many treasures but is never there. Then we headed to Ludlow for some thrift store diving and found the beautiful Buttermilk Falls near the Okemo ski resort- a series of three beautiful walls a short walk from the car- each with its own little swimming dam. We wound up the day with a dinner at the local town hall- family style with all the locals (who are the dam flatlanders with the Ohio plates?)- we met our local state rep who immediately hit us up for votes. On Sunday we headed out to White Rocks State Forrest to take a really nice two hour hike to the panorama view and the (duh!) white rocks-see pictures from the top. We came home and did our second mowing- down to 2 ½ hours this week as we may have discovered some of Karin’s’ secrets to the yard -whack and trim more than ride.

We have become good friends with the chicken flock next door who hang out at our house most days chasing Tripod around the yard. The two red mama chickens have taken a real liking to us- and appear to want to join us for dinner in the house (as guests, not main courses). One has discovered a mirror we have stood up in the barn for working out- and spends a lot of time primping in front of it. When I lay down on the lawn to do stretching- they both circle around me and cheer me on. I think they believe that Tripod is one of them –as he walks similarly with his missing leg.

We have received our first invite from June, a thrice divorced ingénue, who has invited us to her hacienda on Lake Nineveh for drinks, dinner and swimming. She will be our new best friend. I have advertised at the local store and on the local list serve to find a pond boy to help me (or better yet- replace me) with the formidable task of cleaning the pond out. We bought a floating raft to be able to clean the middle parts out- which are pretty deep- and very dirty…not much response yet, but we remain hopeful.  Several people saw my ad and told me to call them when we find a pond boy- as they want one too (perhaps a business opp. For me in my semi retirement?).

I went to the folk music club for the second time and have been signed up for a role in the fall performance. Jenn went to a monthly woman’s’ group dinner and met many European exotics. Tomorrow we head to Albany to fly down to Asheville, NC for a family reunion- and we are already missing being away for five days from our little house in the hills…will the chickens forget who we are? Will the pond get dirtier? Will our new best friends forget us? Stay tuned.

BTW- we have all the spare beds neatly made up- so if you can pond clean- please come soon. We’d love to have visitors.

Stu

Subject: First Rambles on Living in Vermont

Good morning all:

We have been here a week today and are getting pretty settled in- it helps when you move into a house that is already fully settled. We have tried not to mess it up too much The weather has been a mix- some days it has rained ferociously in the afternoon and some have been pretty hot and humid; the nights are always blissfully north woods cool. I’m off today for my first trip “abroad”- an overnight to Baltimore out of Albany- which is a disconcerting two hour drive just to get on a plane

So –here are some first observations about living in what the neighbor calls “ the most socialist state in the country”:

• Larry is the neighbor and he is a preacher in Rutland. He raises chickens and mallards which hangout outside our door all day long and play with tripod. He calls us sir and m’am and very night at sunset he bellows out “Glory, glory, Hallelujah”. He and his family brought us a spaghetti and meatball cake for a welcome thought (yes- a real cake with spaghetti and meatballs on top- so you can have all your courses at once)
• There are apparently four miles of hiking trails per person living in Vermont. We have a an old logging road out back end of our property which is a boulder strewn trail that connects to the other side of our road a few miles up. We are about five miles from the Appalachian and Long trail entrance, which goes to a suspension bridge and gorge pretty quickly. We are also about five miles from White Rocks State Forrest area- which is a drop dead beauty of a hike down a hillside to a stream and wading pool sitting with huge white boulders.
• Mt. holly sits at 1824 feet elevation – which is pretty high on the East coast; when we leave our drive and turn on to SR 103 in either direction- we are immediately surrounded by the Green mountains and the Adirondacks. When we tell people in the surrounding area we live in Mt. Holly- they nod knowingly and say “ ah, the snow belt”. Hmmm..
• Vermont is all about local and organic. All restaurants have chefs trained at the New England Culinary Institute-even hole in the wall dives. Restaurants are part of the “fresh network “ of locally sourced food and everyone is “Organic” (except maybe us and Larry down the road). Every town around seems to have a farmer’s market. Ours is in our hub of Belmont- about four miles away- and is on Saturday morning. There are about five stalls and ten people- but we bought organic and free range chicken and buffalo there. They seemed to not know what I wanted when I put my fingers pointing over my head and asked for Ta-tonka”. About five miles down the road is a huge organic garden and roadside stand. We stopped yesterday and it was closed- but the spacey, Amish looking proprietor, Podge, was hanging out back and offered to pick us some fresh fixings from the garden. We got some stuff we’d never heard of and ate it. Turns out Podge is the great nephew of the eccentric founder of the local in-the-woods treatment center, spring Lake Ranch- which is also five mile down the road (getting the theme here?) and where Jenn aspires to be employed part time.
• Along the road to our houses- there are houses selling all manner of weird products; one has a soft serve sign outside- so we will stop by to see if someone really has soft serve machine buzzing away in their living room- and maybe keeping the house cool
• Tripod has found a home in eth barn where he sleeps in an old grain bin, an spends his days mostly hiding in the bushes outside our front door. He aspires to join Gracie and Nico inside and tries every chance he gets. He has befriended the flock of chickens and a wild red tabby cat- with whom he shares his daily feasts
• We live in a house that was occupied by and electricians’ widow- so we have tools hidden everywhere and the wiring is all done in an eccentric mad scientist fashion. There are three boxes of breakers spread out all throughout our four room basement. While Walter electrified, Karin apparently mowed, and she must have been a pioneer woman. It took Jenn and I together five hours to mow and trim the first time. We were exhausted, dehydrated and it looked like shit.
• On Monday nights- the local musicians come down from the hills to the library basement to jam on folk and bluesy music for three hours. I have joined them and been immediately labeled a rock and roll influence right off the bat; maybe because I had come from just hiking on the a trail- and had wild hair and stunk badly and stood up outside the music circle to roam and play.

Well- got to get ready to travel- so that is it for now. Hope all is well in your world. Love or like you all,

Stu

Good Sunday to all:

It has been a quiet week Mt. Holly Vermont, our hometown, on the edge of the mountains. We left the country estate in the mountains for a five day sojourn in Asheville, NC- for a 23 cousin family reunion- many of whom had never met before…an interesting experience. Asheville is beautiful and it was good to spend the time with family- but we could not wait to get back to the Green hills- where it has been an amazing 72 degrees with blue skies and white clouds and brilliant sunshine every day almost for the last two weeks. The really bad news was we returned to find our beloved wild outdoor three legged cat- Tripod- missing in action. He seemed to have adjusted to the move – but apparently took off while we were gone and has not returned as of one week later. We continue to hold out hope for his safe return.

The past week has been filled with chores and upgrades around the villa and various expeditions to the countryside. We went back to the Weston playhouse for another show- Loving Leo- a two person one act play about an aging hippie couple coming to grips with their lot in life while taking care of the step father in law, Leo, who we never see. This one was at the playhouse annex- which is the former Gun and Rod club just down the road from the mysterious Weston Priory. It is a bit like going to a Broadway play with no traffic; when we left for our 15 minute drive home- up Vt. Route 155- we did not see another vehicle for the entire ride.

We continue to work on cleaning out the slimy pond and are making progress; the frogs seem willing to go back into it now. Our 16 year old neighbor, Josh, has been helping me- since I cannot get Jenn into the slime. My new approach has been to float out on a rubber float and skim it out with a kitchen strainer- quite a site as you can see form the pictures. Another ten years and it will be an appealing swimming hole. When I am cleaning it- several big ass fogs just ride around on my legs looking up at me with unadorned affection.

We have been interested in some of the Vermont folk objects we find in everyone’s house; almost each home has a set of miniature irons which hold the front door open and cloth covered bricks to hold the other inside doors ajar…I mean EVERYBODY has them…pictures attached (order form enclosed in case you want to by some from our burgeoning Vermont kitsch business).

We were invited to our first dinner party last week- by our new best friend, June, who is the thrice divorcee who lives alone in a manse on beautiful Lake Nineveh. We drove around in the woods for an hour trying to find her house on a series of unmarked dirt roads…it is deep in the woods and gorgeous. We got to meet another couple and the conversation and dinner were enthralling- filled with inside info about the community. We have now made it to inclusion in the grapevine. Our diner companion, Carol, later took our photo at the community gild fair- to feature in the local newsletter (the Chit Chat). We have found that many places we seem to go- we are not only the newest people there- but appear to be the youngest by far (notice I said appear to be).

We have had quite a weekend on wandering. On Thursday- we drove over to Tinmouth to find a snack bar that serves fresh seafood that everyone raves about; it was not open- so we meandered over to West Rutland and found the Good Food traveling cart (fresh lobster on Saturday for $9.00 each)- another roadside attraction. We spent the rest of the day on our weekly shopping spree in Rutland which seems never ending. Rutland has a miracle mile to rival any other place I’ve been. Dinner at Harry’s capped the evening. We don’t watch TV per se- but we are staying up to date via internet and Netflix with True Blood, the Newsroom and Dexter as well as having watched the modern Sherlock Holmes miniseries on BBC. Someone told us about another BBC series- Foyle’s War- which we watched the first episode of on Netflix last night-check it out- it’s a keeper.

Friday we went to the Ludlow farm market in late afternoon and grazed, then bought a bunch of locally farm raised, organic lamb (it took the farmers and us ten minutes to calculate how much we owed for the products). All the markets always have live music and this one had a classic guy who played all Dead music and sounded more like Jerry Garcia than Jerry (picture attached). We stopped on the way home for a short hike in the Green Mountain National Forrest- the Glendale trail , which it seems fair to say may not have been walked by anyone in the last decade.

Saturday came bright and sunny and we headed out for a day of planned exploration (an oxymoron?). We headed into nearby Belmont for the Craft Guild Fair (birthday shopping) and had our picture taken, dropped off our garbage at the transfer station (open Saturdays only) and hit the post office/ general store. We then headed down Rt. 103 and circumvented Rutland (stopping at the Good Food Cart for a breakfast sandwich- they have a drive through!!!). Up rt. 3 to Proctor- a town built on marble and back over to our main road – route 7, to Brandon, for the community yard sale (bought a workout bench for $5 and two chaise lounges at the local Rite Aid). Ate surprisingly good Thai food from one of the yard sale houses and then up Route 7 to Middlebury to the college’s museum to check out their once in a lifetime show of Edward Hopper in Vermont (who knew the primal urban night life painter also loved the pastoral countryside?). From there back to Rutland to the only Home Depot in 100 miles to get deck- stain supplies and into downtown for the summer fest which turned out to wrapping up (this foreshadows theme of showing up a day late and a dollar short- events in Vermont tend to start earlier than what is listed and end abruptly when everyone goes home). We stopped for a quick beer at a shady bar named “Two Sheas” (get it?). We then set off to Pawlet- south on Route 30- for the highlight of the day- a roast pork church supper. For 25 miles down route 30-in the golden afternoon sunshine- we were tailgated by a state police trooper looking for something to do on a slow day (can anyone say out-of-state plates?). Finally got tired of it and pulled off into a farm market in Wells- where we would up shopping (again!) eating homemade ruggaleh (who knew!). The market also housed another of the ubiquitous lunch carts that specialized in homemade bar-b-q and southern comfort foods. We took note and headed down to Pawlet for the supper- arriving around 5:40 to find that the 5 pm supper was all gone. Turns out the town folk line up at 4 pm for the 5 pm supper and they just wind up starting early and being done in an hour. Dazed and disappointed we jumped back in car- and headed back to the comfort food cart. We wound up having a great dinner sitting with the farm family (including what appeared to be the 100 year old grandpa) at a picnic table and trading Vermont stories, while falcons, hawks and vultures circled around the mountains surrounding us on all sides in the sun drenched valley (is this poetry or what?). We finally headed home around 9 after a 12 hour day of adventure.

Last thoughts on “communication” companies: I have been caught in a Bermuda Triangle of craziness between Time Warner and EarthLink on my Ohio internet service. Spent eight hours this last week going around in circles between the two companies and prepping to get on a rooftop and start shooting. Most of the time has been spent conversing with people on the subcontinent who I cannot understand. Most of it has been really distressing- but laughs and irony can be found almost anywhere. In trying to resolve my issues- I am keeping track of who I speak with and when- so this week I spoke with Indian gentlemen respectively named Brian Miller, Rocky Smith (could not help saying to him “are you shitting me”) and my all time favorite, Johnson (yes- just Johnson, like Kareem, or Madonna, or Elvis)…I asked him if he played in the NBA…..

That’s’ all folks- off to Ohio for nine days this week to take care of everything we forgot to do before leaving.

Love many of you, really like most of you, and, well…..

Stu

Good morning all:

We have been here a week today and are getting pretty settled in- it helps when you move into a house that is already fully settled. We have tried not to mess it up too much The weather has been a mix- some days it has rained ferociously in the afternoon and some have been pretty hot and humid; the nights are always blissfully north woods cool. I’m off today for my first trip “abroad”- an overnight to Baltimore, out of Albany- which is a disconcerting two hour drive just to get on a plane

So –here are some first observations about living in what the neighbor calls “ the most socialist state in the country”:

• Larry is the neighbor and he is a preacher in Rutland. He raises chickens and mallards which hang out outside our door all day long and play with Tripod. He calls us sir and m’am and every night at sunset he bellows out “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” down the road . He and his family brought us a spaghetti and meatball cake for a welcome thought (yes- a real cake with spaghetti and meatballs on top- so you can have all your courses at once)
• There are apparently four miles of hiking trails per person living in Vermont. We have  an old logging road out back end of our property which is a boulder strewn trail that connects to the other side of our road a few miles up. We are about five miles from the Appalachian and Long trail entrance, which goes to a suspension bridge and gorge pretty quickly. We are also about five miles from White Rocks State Forrest area- which is a drop dead beauty of a hike down a hillside to a stream and wading pool sitting with huge white boulders.
• Mt. Holly sits at 1824 feet elevation – which is pretty high on the East coast; when we leave our drive and turn on to SR 103 in either direction- we are immediately surrounded by the Green mountains and the Adirondacks. When we tell people in the surrounding area we live in Mt. Holly- they nod knowingly and say “ ah, the snow belt”. Hmmm..
• Vermont is all about local and organic. All restaurants have chefs trained at the New England Culinary Institute-even hole in the wall dives. Restaurants are part of the “fresh network “ of locally sourced food and everyone is “Organic” (except maybe us and Larry down the road). Every town around seems to have a farmer’s market. Ours is in our hub of Belmont- about four miles away- and is on Saturday morning. There are about five stalls and ten people- but we bought organic and free range chicken and buffalo there. They seemed to not know what I wanted when I put my fingers pointing over my head and asked for “Ta-tonka”. About five miles down the road is a huge organic garden and roadside stand. We stopped yesterday and it was closed- but the spacey, Amish looking proprietor, Podge, was hanging out back and offered to pick us some fresh fixings from the garden. We got some stuff we’d never heard of and ate it. Turns out Podge is the great nephew of the eccentric founder of the local in-the-woods treatment center, spring Lake Ranch- which is also five miles down the road (getting the theme here?) and where Jenn aspires to be employed part time.
• Along the road to our house- there are houses selling all manner of weird products; one has a soft serve sign outside- so we will stop by to see if someone really has soft serve machine buzzing away in their living room- and maybe keeping the house cool
• Tripod has found a home in the barn where he sleeps in an old grain bin, and spends his days mostly hiding in the bushes outside our front door. He aspires to join Gracie and Nico inside and tries every chance he gets. He has befriended the flock of chickens and a wild red tabby cat- with whom he shares his daily feasts
• We live in a house that was occupied by and electricians’ widow- so we have tools hidden everywhere and the wiring is all done in an eccentric mad scientist fashion. There are three boxes of breakers spread out all throughout our four room basement. While Walter electrified, Karin apparently mowed, and she must have been a pioneer woman. It took Jenn and I together five hours to mow and trim the first time. We were exhausted, dehydrated and it looked like shit.
• On Monday nights- the local musicians come down from the hills to the library basement to jam on folk and bluesy music for three hours. I have joined them and been immediately labeled a rock and roll influence right off the bat; maybe because I had come from just hiking on the “A” trail- and had wild hair and stunk badly and stood up outside the seated music circle to roam and play.

Well- got to get ready to travel- so that is it for now. Hope all is well in your world. Love or like you all,

Stu

Subject: Finding Vermont

Just a quick update from the Green mountain state. After our harrowing last week of preparation (that included going down to the last day before we left to have our house closing in place and making 12 additional trips with loads of Jenn’s stuff AFTER we thought we were done, two broken down cars)- we were almost ready to leave at end of week when the three legged one, Tripod, disappeared for three days after Jenn tried to put a harness on him(he took off with the harness half on and flapping in the wind). By Friday night we had made plans to leave without him on Saturday- when he showed back up. We were able with Suzie’s help to get him into a carrier (much deceit) and actually get on the road only an hour late on Saturday morning. I have never seen two cars so full and with the car top carrier on the Jeep it could barely make it up the hills once we hit NY state. We did manage to have a beautiful day for driving- but it took forever with three cats in cages crying all the way – and one (Tripod) pooping all the way- which made it like driving for hours in a dairy cow field. By the time we got to Ryan and Lauren’s new place in Unadilla, NY we had gotten separated and my cell phone was dead –and my car charger broke. As an added amusement, the map quest I had was wrong- so I spent about a hour after Jenn arrived driving randomly through the Catskills trying to find their place- with the crying cat and shit filled car. Once there –we got Tripod into their contained garage and were able to have a nice dinner that Ry had prepared and fought to keep warm and fresh for us. On Sunday morning we got up to repack the Beverly Hillbillies caravan and hit the road- but Tripod was not planning on getting back in the car carrier and scratched the shit out of several of us with his overcompensated talons when we tried. Thus began an hour long chase by the four of us to trap him in the garage, force him into a blanket and then get him shove into the carrier….we left late. Once we hit the road we had another beautiful day and hit Vermont by noon – with only more crying and Tripod shit to deal with. I actually made it to the walk – through to meet the realtor only ten minutes late (after getting separated and a little lost again)- and then we waited for Jenn- who had gotten snared in a speed trap on fourth of July weekend (Welcome to Vermont!)

What a journey.. made us really wonder if we should be doing this- but then we walked through the house and WOW…it was like something out of a fable. Immaculate throughout, every detail attended to, and twice as much stuff left as we expected . Karin took no furniture at all- not even the antique cedar chests. She left shelve of books and music, big screen TV, stereo, her late husband’s antique clocks, closets of freshly pressed sheets and towels, cabinets of really nice dishes. We were amazed and really wondered why we brought anything besides our clothes. We could really have just moved in and done nothing. And the grounds…perennial gardens in bloom everywhere, the whole place beautifully landscaped, the pond gurgling, the house looking like it emerged new from the 1860’s. It was actually overwhelming (Did I mention that every bed in the place was tightly made with all new bedding Karin went out and bought?)

The walk through itself was uneventful. We wound up leaving the Jeep there- car top carrier and all – and got Tripod from the carrier into a dog cage we had schlepped all the way on Jenn’s roof (after we decided the harness was not much of an idea for containing him en route until we moved in). So we left him in the cage in the barn with all his supplies for two days and headed down to our friends Connie and Georges’ B&B up in Brookfield- about an hour and a half away. It felt like coming home after the last few weeks. Spent a nice night being wined and dined and in our own little apartment we have stayed in for 13 years in the middle of this village that time left behind. Today- we recover a bit and tomorrow morning we head up for the closing at 11 and the move in. Then …we start the next phase of the adventure.

Beverly hillbillies pictures are attached. Tomorrow we are going to take pix of all of the house before we move our stuff in- to capture it in its pristine moment. Will send a Shutterfly with these in a few days.

Love,

Dad, Cousin/Uncle, Stu