Life as Russ

My Busy little Sweetie!

2011-10-01T10:16:00.001-04:00

My 10 year old daughter Grace has always been a busy little bee. She always has a project or 12 going on somewhere in the house. It has even added the phrase “ a Grace-mess” to our vocabulary, because all these projects tend to go unfinished for days, but can’t be disturbed.

I never worry about finding something for her to do, because given a few free moments, she makes up a project….often wildly imaginative and creative, but not necessarily something anyone else would ever have thought to do.

So I wasn’t terribly surprised Thursday afternoon to come home and find Tracy on the computer, Jeremiah doing homework, both in the living room, and Grace in the kitchen with every possible baking ingredient out on the counter. She had flour(s) eggs, milk, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, granulated birch sugar, a bunch of spices and god knows what else. There was a bowl on the counter with a rather nasty looking mixture inside, something akin to what you get mixing a bit of milk with 4-5 rotten, black bananas.

“Grace, What are you making now,” I hesitantly asked. The answer was of course, “I wanted to make something, don’t worry, I’m almost done”

Tracy came out and helped her set the oven to a good temperature and time and they put the glass bread pan with “the mixture” into the oven. Then they cleaned up and Tracy and I made dinner and the stuff just cooked away, somewhat forgotten.

As we got ready to sit down for dinner, the girls checked “the stuff” and it seemed done so they pulled it out to let it cool. I guess somebody forgot to grease the dish, so after it cooled a bit, there was a minor struggle to get the bread-ish creation out, but it finally popped out onto the rack without any visible harm.

That’s when Grace told us she had made a card and this bread for a little friend in class who had broken her arm the day before. We thought maybe someone should taste it before it was given as a gift, so Tracy cut an end off and quartered it, and we all slowly picked up our pieces, sniffed a bit and took a bit. Holy Moy and what a surprise!! It was delicious… kind of like a lighter, fluffier zucchini bread in color and it tasted a lot like ginger bread. I was very impressed and amazed. We asked her what what she put in it, but she didn’t really know…”a bunch of stuff” - Zen baking at its finest!

Grace never ceases to amaze me. xoxo

September 17th: 1966 to 2011 ~ My Annual Birthday Blog

2011-09-18T10:46:00.000-04:00

Well, folks, Once again, we are back to my birthday and I invite you into the little windows of my life that I post every year. This year, I'm 45 (for those of you who don't want to do the math) and life is good.

If you’ve followed me here on “Life as Russ,” you have probably been wondering, "where the hell is Russ?" I really haven't blogged much this year. If you follow me on Facebook, you probably know why... I've spent a lot of time playing there and posting pics, comments and other little snipets of my life.

This year was different, that's for sure. The beginning started out soooo slow at work. Thus my ability to play on Facebook. The economy just kept tanking. Something happened around May, though...at least in our area, and we have been crazy busy ever since, with no apparent end in sight.

Maybe because of this, I just really didn't do much gardening this year (maybe its also because until I built the outside pen, the chickens ravaged my garden to the point of my giving up on getting any summer vegetables...only beets, carrots and potatoes remain unscathed) We have made some good friends with people through Tracy's Derby team and I've been lucky to get to hang with some old friends as well.

Once again, we had another great vacation in Maine at Acadia National Park, which I still have yet to post about. The kids are in school at Waldorf. Grace in 5th and Jeremiah in 8th (his last year) Tracy is still working all but full time there as well as working on survey research projects for me.

So here we are, again this year, checking out what was going on in my life in years past. What were the big events in my history?

5 years ago: 2006/7 - 40 years old
Not a great year... but a life changing one. Lots of stuff happened, and I think in the long run, we all ended up much better for it. Work was booming.

10 years ago: 2001/2 ~ 35 years old
The Biggest events this year? Lets see...

I'm a Dad to a beautiful baby girl.

I started working out, which I continue to this day. We bought a Bowflex and that was the beginning. It's long gone now, but that purchase was a life changer. My back is still weak and healing from breaking it over a year ago, but working out is what stops the pain.

Work has taken a downtown at CHA and we are struggling to keep my survey department viable, but we have had some big projects with Vermont AOT and with the Army Corps to keep us going.

15 years ago: 1996/7 ~ 30 years old
We live in the little red school house on Belvedere Road in Gilsum until late winter, when we move into our FIRST house on Juniper Hill Road in Stoddard.

I'm a survey tech at CHA and I've been travelling A LOT, all over New England on projects for Sprint, AT&T and some others, surveying sites for cell towers.

The BIG thing that happened? ... Tracy and I decided to have a baby on our 1st anniversary at Tony Clamatos (October 7, 2006), so we went back to the school house and made one. On July 10th, 2007, Jeremiah is born! The poor little guy took 14 hours to come out, his heart rate kept going down to almost nothing and when he finally did pop out, his lungs had collapsed and his internal organs weren't functioning. The best and worst day of my life! Actually, that was one of the worst weeks, as both he and Tracy almost died and we ended up in the hospital in Hanover for the week.

20 years ago: 1991/2 ~ 25 years old
Tracy and I are a couple now, and live at the condo on Sugar maple lane with two of my best friends, Molly Legg and Chris Rickson.

In the spring of '92 we decide to get our very own apartment on central square in Keene, third floor above China Wok. Yup, we eat a lot of Chinese food now. Being down town is pretty fun. We hang out a lot in "Beak Alley" behind our building and the Stage.

I’m still kind of a long haired Dead head hippie freak, but at least my old crew chief is gone and I start working with my friend, Bill Cadmus. I also spend a bit of time on the road, surveying in Vermont and Mass.

25 years ago: 1986/7 ~ 20 years old
I’m a Junior at Keene State College. I left the dorm scene and live kind of a nomadic lifestyle between Mom & Dad's house and my girlfriend's place. I'm still a Geography major and still goofing off. Case in point...Spring break in Fort Lauderdale with a bunch of college buddies. We drive down in one 28 hour stint, fueled by chips, beer and will power. One big blurry party all week. We did a lot of stuff we shouldn't and are lucky to make it back to NH in one piece.

30 years ago: 1981/2 ~ 15 years old
I'm a sophomore at Keene High school. I can't say I like school, and to make matters worse...I discover the wonders of beer. I play football on the JV squad and I make the travel team for the Varsity squad, and I even have a few forays onto the field. Its a big deal for me, having just learned about football the year before. I live in Westmoreland, and I dont have my drivers license yet, so its tough sometimes to hang with friends or fit in.

35 years ago: 1976/7 ~ 10 years old
We live in Westmoreland at our new house, and I'm in the 5th grade. My sister Sarah was born a month ago. Dan & I spend a lot of time playing in the woods and swamps around our house, hiking and building forts at the "sand-pit." We draw lots of maps and figure out what all the trees and bushes are. I guess my love of my current career choices of Land Surveyor and Wetland Scientist get their start here.

40 years ago: 1971/2 ~ 5 years old
I honestly don't remember. I know we live in Keene, on Laurel Lane and Nana and Bup live down the street. Dan is just a baby and I think we do a lot of travelling with Dad on his business road trips.

~Hopefully, I have my years straight, but there it is, a little glimpse into the history of Life as Russ

The Zen of Karaoke

2011-09-15T09:22:00.001-04:00

Well, Folks, September is here and my fall quarterly meeting for the New Hampshire Lands Surveyors Association will soon be upon us. At each quarterly meeting, I have to give a report, as Director of Education, about the success or lack thereof of seminars we have put on, and to give some insight into upcoming seminars.

Some quarterlies are sparsely attended, 25-30 people, maybe. The Fall quarterly and the Annual in December usually have over 100 members. Now if you follow me here, or on Facebook, you probably realize that giving reports, presentations and public speaking are one of my un-favorite things. I usually feel the specters of fear and anxiety start to hover over my bed in the early morning hours, weeks before the day I have to do my thing..

So I was thinking about the upcoming quarterly this morning, and what I would have to report on, as I slowly drove along Poocham Road, and it occurred to me… I don’t have a even a tad of fear or anxiety. I’m looking forward to the meeting, and I have stuff to say. What gives?

I have to chalk up it up a lot to experience I guess. I’ve been doing these presentations in front of the membership for over 4 years now, and I have even presented a few seminars myself. It gets easier every time. Still, even as late as last spring, I was tortured by the thought of having to stand up in front of people and talk. And really, it doesn’t just pertain to my professional association duties, but public speaking in general; I go to planning boards, zoning boards and school functions. Yet, today, I feel fine.

I was mulling this over, and for some reason, karaoke popped into my head. So I have to tell you, recently I went to an event hosted by my wife’s Roller Derby Team, The Elm City Derby Damez…. A karaoke fundraiser. … And I got up and did a number!

Of course, I’m not that over the fear and anxiety of being in front of a crowd, but I have a lot of new friends lately who seemed adamant that I participate. Daisy heckled and manhandled me to give it a go; John decided we should do a duet, it was our duty as the Derby men; and Spark came up and sang with us. She knew neither John nor I were too thrilled to get up on stage, so she brought the courage. And really, what could be better than having a pretty, confident girl who likes to sing on stage with you to focus eyes away from the nerdy white guy. (That’d be me) So we did it, and I had fun.

So I was thinking about this and how Karaoke, before recently, would seem a fate worse than death; but I did it with only minor prompting (and maybe a couple glasses of bravery) The thought occurred to me that karaoke was both a strengthening experience and an insight to where I’m at in life.

If I could stand up in front of a 100+ crowd, mostly drunken strangers who had no reservations about heckling me, while attempting to sing a song whose lyrics I only half knew and make an ass of myself, then standing up in front of a small group of sober, polite, respectful fellow surveyors and delivering a small report on a topic that I have expertise in, is a walk in the park. The same holds true with planning board or client meetings.

Now, its not that I think it was all because of karaoke or that I’m going to seek out karaoke every weekend as a means to build character and find my true path… I’m just saying…

A Pirate needs a ship

2011-09-09T09:40:00.001-04:00

So, for as long as I can remember, I have loved boats. Do I have one? No. Have I ever had one? No. We actually, that is not quite true. I have a canoe, but what I have dreamed of since I was a little kid is a sail boat. Actually there have been two dreams, a small square rigged ship like a brig to live on and sail around the world with, and a Danish (Viking) longboat. Maybe its in the genes. My Uncle Jim has been building sailboats for years.

These things have been on my “someday” list forever. Well, we all know what “someday” means. I think you’ve all heard me write about my ideas on ”someday “ before. “Someday” never happens. “Someday” is how we express dreams we’ll never see. Things that would be cool, but that will never, ever, happen, unless “someday” we win the lottery.

I don’t keep a someday list. To quote Master Yoda’s philosophy, “Do or do not, there is no try” (read …try = someday) In the last few years, I’ve come up with goals that I have in life and either scratched them out as a “someday” thing not worthy of taking up brain space, or put them on an active list of things I’m tackling. Another trick I learned from some classes I took years ago, either Dale Carnegie or the 7 Habits Covey stuff; (I can’t recall) is to put your goals out there. Let people know what you are doing. For some reason (the theory behind it I can’t quite put into detail) once you put it out there and let people know, people who you trust, people that you look up to, like, feel responsible toward, whatever, you create a superior inner power and motivation to get it done. I guess maybe you don’t want to come back later and say, “oh that? naw, I was just full of shit.”

So, back to the post I was trying to write. Recently I was blabbing with a friend on Facebook about my boat desires. Turns out, he builds boats and ships…wooden ones. I mentioned that I would at least like to build a small sailboat, but one that somehow looked a little like a Viking ship.

Well, Wade’s the man. Apparently, there is exactly such a thing. He showed me some pics of just what I was looking for. So this is kind of exactly what my first boat wants to be in my mind. The guy who posted at this link already did it. Now I want to.

http://woodenboatrescue.org/archive/oselvar%20details%20of%20Faerings.htm

No… I’ve never built a boat, and I’m sure I wont be circumnavigating the globe with my first creation, but its set in stone now… I’m going to build one… at least one. This seems like a great first project, and pretty close to what I’m picturing in my head.

http://www.woodenboatstore.com/16-Double-Ended-Pulling-Boat-Shearwater/productinfo/400-058/

By next time this year, I’ll be conquering and plundering up and down the Connecticut River in my “ship”

Sad but True

2011-09-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

This weekends Elm City Derby Damez vs Mad Knockers roller derby bout has been cancelled due to the fact that FEMA needs the arena to deal with problems that Hurricane Irene caused.

Sorry, folks.

I'll keep you posted on further developments and up-coming scheduled events.

Elm City Derby Damez Vs. Mad Knockers

2011-09-02T09:22:00.001-04:00

~ Saturday September 10, 2011 at 6:00 PM

I know, I haven’t written anything in ages. Its been a crazy busy summer. I promise soon I’ll be posting my annual Acadia summer vacation blog to keep in tradition with my 2009 and 2010 posts. I also have a Good Eats in Town post to put up about this fantastic BBQ & Brewery that we visited in Bar Harbor.

In the meantime, I want to give a shout out to The Elm City Derby Damez. Any of you who follow me on Facebook know that my wife Tracy (a.k.a Mae B. Tū TuFF #222) is a member of the Derby Damez. They are a killer Roller Derby squad, and a great bunch of people that we are glad to have become friends with. This upcoming bout is in Brattleboro,Vermont, one of the Towns recently devastated by Irene, so we are hoping that the ice rink where they bout in Living Memorial Park is still there.

So here I am, shamelessly promoting the Damez on my Blog. Come see them!!!

Oh yeah! Don’t skip out at half time. My sister-in-laws boyfriend’s band Midnight Jump is rocking the half time show.

Here’s a little map to help you find the place:

Monadnock Monday’s Routes

2011-07-29T14:49:00.001-04:00

Well folks, here it is the last few days of July and I have neglected to let you in on my Monadnock Monday hikes. I know…It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything, in fact. I do plan on writing more again. Honestly, this summer has been so busy that I have have been reveling in “having” work (almost too much) instead of finding things to do and “wishing” I had work. So I haven't been doing a lot of writing. Or if I do, its just quickie blurbs on Facebook. But I digress. I wanted to let you know what I’ve done to date for hikes.

Of course the first thing to tell you is that Instead of once a week, it has turned out that I’ve only managed to hike once a month or so, and now that work is so busy, I can’t afford to miss Mondays, and so the quest has been suspended until further notice. I hope to get back to hiking this fall, although there is still the chance that I’ll make the trek on a weekend or two this summer. I’ve made the trip 6 times this summer so far, and here is what I’ve done and where I’ve gone.

April 11, 2011 ~ I did a solo hike up the steep and beautiful Marlboro Trail , which usually promises to be devoid of other hikers. The promise held, and I met only one other person. Near the top it was a little treacherous, as there was still snow and ice in the sheltered areas, which also turned out to be the steeper tougher going areas. (1hr-45m up: 1hr-15m down)

April 18, 2011 ~ School vacation for the kids. I decided to take them up with me. While we were buying provisions at a fantastic sandwich shop in Keene, we ran into my sister-in-law Shelly and her kids and one of their friends. They were also heading to the mountain for a hike, so we decided to join them. Their destination was the Marlboro trail. It was interesting to see the changes in the trail in just one week. Buds were opening and the snow was almost all gone.

It was pretty fun hiking with a passle of kids, who ran up and down the mountain constantly while Shelli and I trudged along up after them. My kids were very excited to be hiking with their cousins. We even decided that we should do more family hikes and camping after this trip (2hrs up: 2hrs down)

May 2, 2011 ~ Another solo hike. This time I left from the State Park so that I could buy a trail guide at the headquarters gift shop. I ascended the White Cross Trail and came down the White Dot Trail. The White Cross is fairly steep, with a stairway in places…a good trail NOT to come down on with tired legs. The snow was finally gone from the mountain and I had a beautiful sunny breezy day to hike.

The park headquarters was closed when I arrived, and when I got back. I spied a ranger and asked if that was the case, and she told me normally yes, but she could open up if I wanted to buy some stuff. So I did :) I bought my trail guide and a sticker for my truck. I love the State and National Park gift shops. So many cool maps, books, guides, trinkets and gadgets. (1hr-40m up: 1hr-08m down)

May 9, 2011 ~ For this hike, I chose the Dublin Trail and hiked with Shelly. It turns out this is one of the hidden gems on Monadnock. It is a very pretty trail and not terribly difficult.

Although the trail head looked like it must get crowded later in the season or on weekends, there was only one other car when we arrived. When we arrived at the summit there wasn’t another soul around. We ate lunch and enjoyed the sunshine for about an hour. I know now to where sunscreen, no matter what…what a burn on my legs! By noon, a small crowd had ascended the mountain and filled the crags and crannies around us. We decided to leave and made a leisurely descent back to the car. (1hr-40m up: 1hr-30m down)

May 29, 2011 ~ The Family Hike. Once again, I hit the Dublin trail. Tracy, the kids and I met my sister Sarah and her husband Bruno, and my brother Dan, sis-in-law Shelly and their kids and did the family tour. It was a great day and we all enjoyed the group thing plus the little mini-conversations as people broke off at different hiking rates and chatted.

At the top we met a couple of Tracy’s Roller-derby team mates. The top was actually quite crowded…it was a pretty warm and sunny day, and if you check your calendars you’ll also note it was a Sunday. Not everyone can work 4-10 hour days and make their own schedule. (I think this hike was about a 5-1/2 hour round trip..forgot to write stuff down)

June 2, 2011 ~ The last hike so far this summer. I did a another solo adventure. I started at the State Campground on the Dublin Road and started up the mountain by the Birchtoft Trail. After a fairly easy, gently sloping wooded climb of about an hour I came to a cross roads and decided to hop onto the Cascade Link Trail. Fantastic choice!

It is almost all open ledges and “the long way,” but its not very steep at all and its so sunny and open. There are so many great views and places to sit, and of course, no other hikers. Cascade ends at the Pumpelly Trail, which them leads to the top. It was a gorgeous day, so I took advantage of the weather and my free time to enjoy a leisurely lunch and a good book for about an hour, soaking up the sun in just my shorts and sunglasses on the summit.

I took the shortcut on the way down, the Red Spot Trail, which is quite a bit steeper. (2hrs-30m up: 1hr-35m down)

Now I have three trails left to finish the quest of climbing all the main trails leading up to the summit. The halfway house trail, the Lost Farm Trail and the Pumpelly trail. The first tow are fairly short trails, but Pumpelly will eat up the whole day. I’ve done it before… its beautiful and follows the open ridges on the spur that runs southwesterly from Dublin Lake to the peak.

And so the quest begins…

2011-04-11T21:42:00.001-04:00

Today, I started my quest to climb Mount Monadnock at least once a week, until snow cover in the late fall/early winter renders the hike too difficult, probably sometime in December. And by too difficult, I mean that until I don’t want to climb in the ice and snow.

Mount Monadnock is MY mountain and one of my most favorite places to hike. The Mountain is surrounded by NH State Park and is also the southerly terminus of the 50 mile Monadnock Sunapee Greenway Trail. There is an unofficial site which also has a lot of information about hiking Monadnock, and of course, you can always check out Wikipedia. Monadnock is reported to be the 2nd most climbed Mountain in the world after Mt. Fuji.

So, yes, I’ve made it a goal to climb my favorite mountain every Monday. Maybe on a Sunday, if the family or friends want to hike with me. And I’m still formulating a theme for my hike. I’m not sure what I want this to become, so far, other than a weekly adventure. Some thoughts were; To hike the same trail each week and document the change in seasons and the “look of the mountain”; To hike the same trail and document my own journey from winter blubber body to summer svelte; To hike every trail of the mountain at least once in every season; to just randomly choose a trail and follow whatever adventures and thoughts hit me, and write them down. Maybe I could do a photo journal of my hikes, although probably only with my IPod or Blackberry, as I don’t have a digital camera. At least when the family comes along, Tracy will have her camera and I’m sure she will capture some beautiful shots and interesting shots. I even thought of writing to hiking magazines and/or suppliers and see if i could get someone to sponsor my hikes, preferably with a great pair of hiking shoes. I just don’t know yet. I’ll have to ponder. I’m open to suggestions.

Today’s hike was perfect. it was the first really warm day of spring, in the 70’s down in the valley, although it was probably more like 50 at the top and the wind was strong enough to knock you down. I started a little later than I had wanted, so I didn’t arrive at the Marlborough trail trailhead until 11:30.

It seems like no matter which trail you select, there are some commonalities. You start at a road somewhere and for a ways, you hike an easy incline, sometimes an old woods road, discontinued town road or maybe just a wide trail.

And although the hike looks easy, the first 20 minutes found my lungs and legs struggling. I was huffing and puffing and soaking with sweat in those first moments.

At some point in any of the trails, there is a sharp incline. You have to go UP at sometime. It’s even hand over foot crawling at some places. Today’s trail actually had two steep sections. As usually happens when I hike, after conquering the first incline, I found my wind and from then on there was a sense of euphoria. Then the hike was much more enjoyable.

After the first steep section, the trail opened up and the vegetation gave way to a less steep incline of bare rocks and warm sun. Not for long, though. Soon I was back into the dense spruce and fir, but now with the added joy of corny snow and dirty slippery ice. I met the one other person hiking the Marlboro trail at this spot, and he was headed back down, as the ice was a bit too much, I guess. It was a little worrisome at first. Then I did the unthinkable, and deviated form the marked trail, but as I was hiking on top of snow, I wasn’t worried about causing erosion and I skipped the worst of the ice and saved a broken leg or neck.

Finally, after trudging and slogging hand and foot up the snowy crags, I came out to the trees and from there, the hike was really an easy joy. The warm spring sun had melted all the snow outside of the tree line.

The top of Monadnock is bare, as it was deforested and the soils eroded over 100 years ago. The steep spots were behind me, so from here on it was just walk and enjoy the view. The wind doesn't stop blowing from there on, and there were a few huge wind gusts that almost knocked me over. Balance is a bit more critical. I hit the summit around 1:30, a pretty fast hike. The Marlborough trail is one of the shortest, although maybe one of the top 3 most difficult. Pumpelly Trail can take a full day to go up and down.

I took some pics and met a couple who took a couple more for me, then settled down in a crag on the sheltered side of the mountain to eat my lunch. It was delicious! Just a sandwich and wasabi almonds and lots of water, but it certainly hit the spot.

After lunch and a short rest, I geared up and wound my way back down the mountain. This is always the most difficult part. Your legs are tired and your feet ache. More people fall on the way down than ever on the way up.

I noticed in myself a profound difference mentally. On the way up, I had all these thoughts and ideas; plans and epiphanies, worries and wonders. On the way down, just a verse from a Beastie Boys tune (of all things) going through my head in time with my steps…over… and over… and over… and over. I finally had to mentally force myself to focus on thinking nothing. Around 3:00, I made it back to my truck, sweaty again, exhausted and tranquil.

Words, at least my words, don’t do justice to the feelings I had on the mountain and delicious relaxation that I feel tonight from my hike. I’m just glad I went today, and glad that the weather cooperated.

Today, I traveled alone. I’ve never hiked Monadnock alone. It was nice. Meditative. Faster than hiking with a group. In the future weeks, I’m looking forward to more solo hikes, as well as hikes with the family, maybe a friend or two, or maybe a group…I guess whatever happens will happen. I think I’ll probably try to take at least a few pics each time, and to write about my experiences here, if the muse hits me.

Maybe I’ll see ya on the trail.

Sugarin’

2011-03-21T17:30:00.000-04:00

Since I was a little kid, sugaring has been one of those events that heralds the coming of Spring. In fact, Sugaring is really kind of another season of its own, here in New England; at least in the New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts corner of New England that I live in. It falls between Deep Winter and Mud Season, although there are plenty of years that the seasons overlap and a few where one of the three seem non-existent. To those uninitiated with any of these seasons, Sugaring falls somewhere between the last week or two of February and the first week of April.

When I was just a little guy, living in Keene, we experienced sugaring season only by seeing the sap buckets hanging on the maple trees along Summit Road or Old Walpole Road when we went for a drive. It usually meant that at some point during the season, we would get maple sugar candy treats, often at Grandma’s house. On those weekend drives with Mom & Dad, my brother would be beside himself with excitement, and he would fill the car with screams of “Buckets, buckets, buckets!”

We moved to Westmoreland when I was 9, and our new place had scores of big giant old maples along the stone walls running through the woods and at the edge of our field. Dad decided that first winter that we could try making our own maple syrup, and so we went up to Bascom’s sugar house in Walpole and bought 25 buckets, lids and spigots.

When February school vacation rolled around, we got all our gear together, put our on snowshoes, went out, and tapped 25 trees. It was amazing. We drilled the holes with a brace and bit, and no sooner had we pulled the drill bit out, but slightly sweet tree sap started flowing. We hammered in the spigots, hung up our buckets and lids, and listened to that beautiful sound of drips in the buckets that would echo across the field to the house.

We didn’t have an evaporator for boiling the sap back then, but Dad knew how to make anything. He took an old oil drum, welded some legs, made a door and chimney and cut a hole in the top for an old refrigerator pan to sit in. We set the contraption up in the middle of the backyard between the house and the barn and boiled sap on the weekends. It felt magical.

During the following years, our technology progressed. First, we moved the “evaporator” into the barn. We spent so many nights, Dad, Mom, David, Dan and I, hanging out in the barn, watching the sap boil. I can’t really express the tranquility. Its hard to define… you have cold wet feet and pant legs from gathering sap, your face and hands are alternately chilled by the cold outside and burned by the fantastic heat of the fire. You stare at the sap bubbling and roiling steam, and it seems as if time stops…all of a sudden its dark and 9:00 at night and time to go in. Most nights, Dad would drain off the “almost syrup” and bring it into the house to finish boiling on the stove.The whole house would smell of sticky sweet maple syrup.

The next boom in technology was the sugar house and a real evaporator. Dad built the sugar house one summer, and then designed and built the evaporator. He made it with angle iron, thick sheet metal, fire brick and stove pipe and he had stainless steel pans made up for boiling the sap in.

There was a top pan for warming and a lower pan for hard boiling. A spigot allowed the top pan to slowly drip into the bottom pan and the bottom pan had a draw spigot to drain off the syrup when it was done.

A friend of mine and I picked up 50 more sap buckets sophomore year in high school to boost production. We had an old 1000 gallon milk cooler to store the sap in. There were a few years during high school that I spent long hours out in the sugar house during sugaring season, boiling sap, making syrup, and trying my hand at other artisan activities, like carving and blacksmithing. There may even have been a few beers involved during some of the weekend sugaring events.

Now its years and years later. At least that’s what the calendar says. It certainly doesn’t seem it. I have my own kids and we have our own place with our own maple trees. When we first moved here, I hung up a few buckets, but it was a poor year and we didn’t really have anything other than the kitchen stove to boil sap on. Boiling sap inside makes a sticky mess on the ceiling and windows, and isn’t the optimal way to go. Nobody seemed that interested anyway, so we didn’t do it again…. until this year.

This year, Grace began asking around Christmas time if we could tap trees and make syrup. I decided why not, and we planned to tap around the first week of March. That week, I stopped at Dad’s house and picked up 6 buckets and lids, since the old ones we had were really no good anymore. Grace & I went to Agway and I bought her 6 spigots and we came home, got the hand drill out and tapped trees.

Just like when I was a kid, as soon as we pulled out the drill, the sap started to flow. Her face lit up as she pounded in the spigots and they began to drip. By Sunday, we had 6 full buckets, so we decided to boil. If you follow me at all, you know that I have a fantastic fire pit of stone that I built a few years ago and this became the base of operations. I inverted an old metal grill stand in the center of the pit, put the grate in it and placed a big lobster pot on top. We built a fire underneath and spent all Sunday afternoon boiling down our little cache of sap. In the end, we made about a pint of delicious, amber colored maple syrup.

The following weekend, we bought a 10 gallon metal trash can to store sap in, and by Saturday morning, it was overflowing. I had to work on Saturday, so Tracy and Grace lit up the fire and started to boil on Saturday afternoon. The whole weekend was perfect for sugaring. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, and the snow was corny, warmish and melting. The temperature dipped to 19 at night and rose to 45 during the day. Sap was dripping furiously into our buckets, so much so, that we gathered 3 more times over the course of the weekend.

This time, the whole family spent the day outside. While the sap boiled, I cleaned up winter debris from the patio, took down Christmas lights that had been buried in snow and cleanup up my work shed. The kids played around the yard. Tracy was in and out all day. We all drifted back to fire every so often to check on the sap and stare at the steam and flames.

By supper time, we were all mentally and physically exhausted; from sun, from cold, from fire, from steam, from the difficulty of walking in the wet snow and from the fresh air. Coincidently, this was the weekend of the “big moon” and the vernal equinox. I finally brought the sap in around dark, to finish up on the stove. We ended up boiling from Saturday morning until Sunday night and made about 1-1/2 quarts of darker, yet still delicious syrup.

There was such a change in all of us after this. I felt a huge increase in my own mental, emotional and physical energy levels, and noted the brightened moods and tranquil minds that we all seemed to share. There were lots of smiles and happy faces. Even Tracy, with her recent surgery and pain, smiled and felt better.

Sugaring for us isn’t about making syrup. I don't really use it, and the kids will have probably eaten it up in a few months, so its not a food source or a money saver. Sugaring is a ritual of Spring, a ritual I have known for at least 35 years, and now something I love that I have shared with my family, and that hopefully, my kids will someday share with theirs.

Life in New Hampshire

2011-02-18T11:40:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things about living in New Hampshire? By the time you are tired of the current season, a new one starts, and excitement and energy fill up the air all over again. The last couple of days, the weather has been so warm… 50’s in February. I’m sure it’s just a warm spell, and I’m just as sure that Old Man Winter still has a few snowflakes to hurl in our direction, but he’s past his prime now.

I love the winter; and this winter has been a classic one. Record snowfalls in some parts of New England, deep freezes for days on end, sub zero weather…the whole kit and caboodle. It does present a conflict in me… as an outdoor enthusiast, there are so many opportunities for fun… I look forward to fantastic snowy winters.

As a surveyor…. deep snow is a death knell. There is not much you can do when the job is to map the edge of the parking lot and all the utilities, and you have no idea where they may be under the piles of snow and ice. A stone monument marking a property line under 4 feet of snow in the middle of the woods is NOT an easy thing to find.

So, you have to find the good and get over the bad. Enjoy the season that is upon you, until the next one arrives. I’ve been snow shoeing. I’ve enjoyed the cold air outside while the fire in the woodstove roars inside. The kids have been snowboarding and skating every week. We’ve made snow forts. Even the hard work of shoveling the snow out to the shed or off the roof was fun. Good exercise with a tangible end result.

But now… the winter has worn on me. I’m ready to start doing something else. And low and behold – the weather turns, and its 50 degrees and sunny out. The patio ice melted away yesterday. The roof is bare.

There are some funky smells in the air… rotten, wet, frozen things have surfaced with all their pungencies…yet still…they are smells of spring… of life and death still happening under the frozen mantle of snow and ice.

I feel the sun’s energy. I’m thinking now of looking at my seed catalogues, planning 2011’s garden… of pruning my fruit trees and imagining the next additions to my orchard… of hanging some buckets on Maple trees to make some maple syrup with the kids. I’ve even contemplated fixing up my mountain bike and getting out and riding the muddied up snowmobile trails.

Sure… there is still plenty of winter to be had… some of our biggest winter snows arrive in March… but then they melt.

Another one of my moments…

2010-12-31T11:55:00.001-05:00

A few years ago, we had a huge ice storm here in New Hampshire. Thousands of trees were split and shattered, and power was out in our neck of the woods for about two weeks. We lost a few trees, including one 200’ tall, 30” diameter white pine, which came crashing down in a rush and a roar that launched both Tracy and I out of bed. It sounded like the end of the world.

Well… It wasn’t, thank goodness, but it did leave a big mess of pine boughs, branches and tangled remains of all the little trees that it took with it in the fall. I spent two weekends cutting up the remains of most of the pine and the little trees that were on the bank or in the garden, and I built a big brush pile. Once the snow arrived, we spent a family afternoon burning brush.

The snow covered a lot of the remains, and there was such a tangle, that after the initial cleanup triage, I let the rest of the mess lie. I planned on cleaning it up in the spring. And that’s what I did. Over the last 2 years, during moments here and there, I dragged limbs and branches up to the corner of the yard near a stone wall, where the pile would be masked by the small trees, the bank, and the garden. The pile also turned into a repository for all things wood. Garden baskets that had lived their life, an old wooden bench whose legs had rotted, the board ends from countless back yard building projects. What started as a small place to drag a few branches began to have a life of its own, layers of the seasons work stacked in a mound. And as it happened, we had somewhat of a droughtish summer, so the wood dried to tinderbox quality.

Shift forward to this December Christmas vacation. We had our first substantial snowstorm here in Westmoreland on the day after Christmas. Not a blizzard of huge proportion, really, just the normal snowstorm of years past, and about 15” of white, dry, fluffy snow covered the ground. It was beautiful, and the winds, which accompanied the storm and that remained for days after, sculpted the snow around the house into all kinds of interesting lunaresque landscapes. The wind also blew all the snow off what now was a very substantial, and very visible, brush pile in the barren back yard.

I decided on Tuesday that if the winds subsided a bit, I would burn the brush pile, along with all the paper bags full of Christmas wrapping paper and cardboard gift boxes that filled the garage. Around noon time, it seemed like the winds had dulled to an occasional light breeze, so I began hauling up some of the bags and boxes. I lifted some of the limbs that stuck out from the unruly mound and began inserting the combustible materials. I pushed them deep into the mound, to make sure they would ignite the entire body, and when it all seemed ready, I lit a match. And another. And another. And another. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. It was going to take a little more manipulation get anything going. The paper and cardboard would slowly catch, then in an instant, erupt into a huge flame, licking the limbs and penetrating deep into the pile, but once the fires had consumed the more easily combustible materials, it left the rest of the pile smoldering but un-finished.

I’m not someone to give up, once I’ve decided to do something, so back to the garage I went for the remaining paper and cardboard, and this time I began to strategically place it where the smoldering limbs seemed most receptive to burning. As things began to burn, I pulled at the mound and draped dry limbs over the flames, to let them lick at the the branches, and slowly, but surely, the fire started to take hold. As luck would have it, the winds began to pick up again, and the fire began to heave and puff, like a living organism. The winds would slow and the fire would lick high, then delve deep as a new wave of pushed into the mound. Then, with only little warning, the pile began to make a rushing sound, and with a roar, the entire mound heaved upward and burst into flame.

The heat generated was enormous. Where moments ago, I had my face and hands close in the brush, working to get the pile to ignite, I now had to back off at least 20 feet to avoid being scorched. The flames roared and reached high above the mound. Dry beech leaves and hemlock needles, 30 feet above the ground crackled and disappeared in smoke. All I could do for a while was let the waves of wind and flame consume the body of wood and tinder.

It seemed like an eternity, but in reality, the burst probably only lasted a few minutes. Soon the fire had taken most of the pile and it began to collapse on itself, although still burning fiercely. As the the heat began to subside a touch, I inched forward to gather stray limbs and push them deep inside the infernal heat… I wanted total consumption. The coals were glowing white and hot enough to easily melt glass. The day was cold, maybe 20 degrees outside with a fairly strong wind blowing now, but the heat from the fire created an envelope around me and I felt nothing but warmth. When heat of the fire ebbed, I would dart in, grabbing whatever I could, and push it back in toward the flame. Not without consequence. Most of the hairs on my fingers and wrist and a few eyebrow and mustache hairs writhed and melted in the process. My cheeks and fingers began to cook with a healthy red glow.

This went on all afternoon, a frantic dance to keep the wind, the fire and the wood working together to an ultimate finish. As the afternoon closed, and it started to get dark, the fire finally began to wind down. I could now sit down and bask in the glow and relax. Tracy brought me out a cup of coffee, and I sat down on the stone wall, with the woods and cold wind at my back and the fire in my face.

And here was my moment. I had been listening to seventies tunes on my iPod all afternoon as I worked. Now as I sat to sip my coffee and stare at the fire, “The City of New Orleans,” by Arlo Guthrie, began top play. I experienced something. The biting wind and cold on my back, neck and ears; the heat of the fire still burning red on my cheeks and hands; the delicious oxygen laden, crisp air coupled with the aromatic smoke and resin of burning pine; the bluesy sadness of the music playing in my earphones, while I happily danced inside and hummed the tune. Between verses, I could hear the cold winds alternately rushing and whispering in the pines above me. I had simultaneously a feeling of solitude, sadness, oneness and euphoria. I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, but the flames and hot coals drew me in once again, and I could only stare. My thoughts disappeared, my mind quieted, and my spirit vibrated and hummed a tune of joy.

I sat sipping my coffee, kicking my feet in time to the music, and humming until the coffee was gone. The fire was all but a few larger limbs now, burning slowly in the huge bed of coals.

I stood up, and with a last look at the pile that was my world for the afternoon, took a deep breath and walked across the darkened yard toward the inviting warmth and glow of my house.

Christmas Dinner Menu - 2010

2010-12-21T20:57:00.001-05:00

Well folks, the big man is due in just a few days and I’ve been digging through my recipes to make my shopping list for our Christmas Dinner. It has become a tradition to host dinner at our house on Christmas Day. We usually do our Christmas’ mornings at our own houses, and then converge on 331 Poocham around 4-ish in the afternoon. We start with appetizers and wine and exchange Christmas presents between the cousins.

I usually serve dinner around 6:30 or 7:00. Usually, its a small gang of about 14 people and we have just enough room in our small dining room for everyone. One nice thing about a small room… it’s not conducive to getting up and moving around, so we all tend to sit, drink wine and chat until late in the evening (at least late for this family, especially after an exhausting Christmas day).

Most years we play a game or two at the table while we eat dessert; trivia, some new board game, or our seasonal favorite….the list game. Its really not Christmas until we’ve shared our lists. (Rules and procedures found here)

Of all things Christmas, the dinner is my favorite. I love cooking a big meal, especially things that are not normal weekly fare. I love the smiles that light up on faces as dinner is served; my guests see the feast in front of them and taste favorite dishes they have been looking forward to all year and then their faces speak of the pleasure that words just can’t express. I love the party at the table afterwards, when my tasks are done, and I can just sit and soak up all the love and togetherness.

This year, I’m sticking to most of our traditional standbys. In fact, if you peruse last years menu, you won’t note much of a difference, a couple deletions, a few additions, but basically the same. For a few years, I tried to mix it up each time, a whole new and exciting menu for each Christmas, but a couple years ago I decided that tradition was important, too. When I was growing up we always had a certain meal at Thanksgiving, at Easter, on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas day. You looked forward to that meal and all the delicious dishes you knew would be there.

So this is one of my gifts to my family. I may not win any awards from the food network or Top Chef, but I make this meal with love and get great pleasure out of having everybody over and sharing it with them. That’s what Christmas is really all about.

So, without further adieu, here is this years menu:

appetizers

smoked trout
cheese and cracker plate
crab cakes*
curry spread*
parmesan stuffed dates wrapped in bacon
wines

entre

coriander crusted standing rib roast
scalloped potatoes with goat cheese and herb de Provence
green bean casserole*
oven roasted garden carrots in maple syrup
green salad*
devilled eggs*
cranberry sauce with crystallized ginger
homemade baguettes*
wine

Desserts

mince meat pie
apple pie
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
coffee

AND….

more wine

Buen provecho!

* contributions by guests.

Taking the early morning air

2010-11-27T10:16:00.001-05:00

I love the early morning air. I love the cold crisp chill on my cheeks. So, here it is the 27th of November, and this morning the air is frozen. Ok…its not really THAT cold… the temperature is about 30 degrees, but there is a fairly steady breeze and it chills the extremities.

I decided that I would go out for a walk this morning, before the family woke, before the mental clutter of the day’s chores began… before coffee. Well, maybe not coffee. I’ve been inside so much lately, and by nature I am really an outside person, and I just wanted to feel it… the outside. It’s hard to explain. The quiet, the solitude, the energized yet tranquil mind at the end of an early jaunt.

So I put on my boots, my Carhart canvas jacket and my leather ivy cap, open the door, and I take that first step out of the the warm, cozy den into “The outside” I begin my stroll by heading down the driveway and taking a right down the hill, toward Mame & Steve’s. I wanted to start the walk going down hill, to break into the exercise slowly, and then finish up with a hearty uphill blast. So peaceful at the beginning. No sounds, except for the steady whisper of the winds in the pines and the leafless oak branches. An occasional chickadee peeps as I walk along the gravel road and a blue jay is calling from someone's garden compost pile, but other than that… just the sound of the wind and my feet crunching on the gravel. At this point, even my mind is quiet, just footsteps and air, the breeze and breath.

The vistas on my road are beautiful. I really do live in a little corner of heaven. I want some pictures to share with everyone and I stop occasionally to take a shot. My photographer is still cuddled warmly in her bed, and my photographic expertise is limited to a phone camera, so these photos are mine, and just don't do it justice.

Down at the village of Poocham I take a right onto Crossroad. The village of Poocham is a funny thing. Google maps says that’s where I live, and it places the location dot at the intersection of Crossroad and Poocham Road. Historically, I believe there was a blacksmith shop here, maybe another shop, a big farm, a tavern and school just up the hill. The big red farmhouse is still there, and until recently, the 1800’s tavern was still a bed and breakfast, though now it is a residence.

The old, one room school house is having some troubles maintaining structural integrity. We peek in every once in a while, disturbing the mice. The roof has “issues”. The fields around the “village” are now the domain of horses, a large flock of sheep, a few sheepdogs and a vineyard. So… maybe it still counts as a village… it is a landing spot, I guess.

I meet Mame and Steve and Laurel out for a walk on Crossroad, and we stop and chat. This breaks the mental silence of the morning I had been experiencing so far, but it opens a new energy. I’m not a big talker, I guess, but we chat for a while. There are maybe a dozen houses within a mile of mine on the road, and all the neighbors know each other… which is to say, we’ve all at least met each other, and really know each others dogs, trucks and landscaping. We talk about Thanksgiving and the weather. Then… onward.

I round the corner on Butterfield Hill Road and push on over the last down hill section past the Cemetery. Yes, our village does have a cemetery, too, and although most of its inhabitants moved in around the mid 1800’s, there are a few newcomers every now and again. There is a big stone crypt with a wooded plank door that is always ajar, and the kids like to peek in and scare themselves… Zombies, vampires and ghouls might inhabit this place… you can feel the energy of long dead souls, but I believe they are friendly and wish only to say hello to the newest neighbors.

At the bottom of the hill, I turn left and begin my ascent up Poocham Road, back towards my house. Now the energy is different. My blood is pumping, my thighs are twitching with the effort to keep the fast pace up hill, and my breathing deepens. The cold on my cheeks is now accented by the warm flush in my blood, and I can really feel the chill and the exhilaration. My mind has taken on a different mood, too. The peaceful tranquility has lapsed into something more active, an energized awareness. Although the world hasn’t changed around me, the quiet tranquility of my surroundings now feels more alive, and I begin to contemplate what I might accomplish today.

The walk up hill feels faster, but my watch tells me different. It takes almost twice as long to get home as it did to reach the cemetery. I stop at my driveway, just to take a minute to look at MY house. Yes, I do live in a beautiful place. Poocham Road… Westmoreland… Cheshire County… New Hampshire… New England… I live in the middle of a place that is a destination… people come to visit and have a taste of what I KNOW everyday. I feel so lucky to live here.

As I open the door, the heat from the fire simmering in the woodstove blasts my face and the smell of coffee fills my head. I have emerged from the quiet side, and I’m ready to start my day… and yet the house still sleeps. The dogs manage to roll an eye at me as they lounge in front of the stove, but the cat senses my destination and immediately launches into my spot in the chair. We battle for this spot constantly.

So here I sit, expunging my mind from the thoughts and feelings of the morning, while the fat, chair-hog cat slowly engulfs my shoulders and neck with glacial like persistence. I’d really like to sit and have one more cup of coffee, but to get a new cup, I’ll lose the chair.

Oh well, it’s time to get up and load the truck for the dump, so I submit to her persistent will. I’m ready for the day, now, anyway.

And the beat goes on….

2010-11-15T12:32:00.001-05:00

Howdy folks! As you probably have noticed, my blog posts have been few and far between of late. I’m sorry, if you look forward to reading them; and you’re welcome, if you have enjoyed the relief from them.

To be honest, I have been entirely uninspired lately. I feel like I am suffering from a writer’s block, if blog posters can suffer that malady. I really enjoy writing, and last year, I made it sort of a goal to publish a blog at least once a week. For a while, I was doing just that, and I actually felt pretty good about some of the material that I had written.

Lately, I just haven't felt that energy build up, that need for a mental release into the void. And really, that’s what it is for me, too, a big mental release. The idea starts flowing around in my head, and it builds and bubbles, aches and ferments, until finally, I have to get it out. I write it down, tell somebody, and get it out of my head. And just like when I decide to do a painting or sketch, or do a project outside over the long term, I am completely exhausted and wiped out when I finish. Emptied and satisfied. When I am writing (or doing some other creative endeavor), putting my soul into it, and its coming out well, I even break out into a full sweat. The process and afterglow are akin to that other feeling we all know and love.

Of course, its not like nothing has been happening, and I haven’t actually been busy. Work seems to be picking up, the phone rings, we get jobs, I can bill my time; so despite whatever the Media and the all knowing “THEY” say, I think things have picked up. I find that the busier things get, the less time and creativity I have to devote to writing something insightful.

Another detriment to my creative blog juice flow has been the summer project schedule. Around home, my list of yearly projects, my outdoor fun, has been completed for the year. That doesn’t often happen, where I actually find that my weekend to do list is devoted to such things as: Read a book, Go for walk, Watch a movie. I had so many projects on the To Do list at the turn of the year back in January. That has been the mainstay of my weekend warrior time, and for the most part, the main influence for my blogging. Now that they are done, I have to retreat back into the darkness and meditate, pull out some new goals and ideas, new landscaping projects and garden designs to work at. I have been pondering building an outside mud/brick oven for cooking, and a bunny hutch for our furry friends in the basement, but my yard is beginning to look like Farmville.

I guess that the withdrawal from active to passive sort of flows with the season’s rhythms, though. As it gets darker and the Solstice approaches, we begin to hibernate a bit. I know that I begin to do more things of an inner nature, like meditate, read, paint, eat tasty foods and just relax, sit by the fire and chill. Mentally regroup while maintaining energy through the holiday season. Once the snow gets here, and the holidays have past, it’ll be a different story… then I can start snowshoeing, sledding and snowboarding… playing outside in the delicious cool winter air without a whole lot obligatory events to attend. And so the Wheel turns.

So as far as blogging is concerned, maybe I just need to practice, perhaps doing some automatic writing exercises (I think that this post is something along that line actually) just to get the creative juices flowing again. And because part of the process is publishing my little trinkets of wisdom and life observations, you, my dear readers and friends, may just have to wade through a couple three columns of blah before I get my thing going again.

So thanks for reading my mental meandering. I promise I’ll get back to something with a little more meat on its bones in the near future.

A moment in time…

2010-10-21T08:53:00.001-04:00

I had a lot of thoughts running through my head on the 25 minute drive into work this morning. Sometimes, my mental ramblings just bounce around in my head all day until I get them out. So, Folks, this morning, you are the lucky recipients of my morning epiphanies. I need to clean house.

I had a conversation yesterday that wandered into “What kind of person am I” in the sense of a morning person, a night owl, etc. I had some ideas yesterday…” I am this… well, but then I am that… or maybe…” Pondering the question this morning, I came to the conclusion that I am none of these. I am a man of moments.

For while it is true that I am not a fan of leaving the comfy warmth of the bed in the morning, I love catching the first rays of the day, breathing the morning air, sipping my coffee by the light of the woodstove in the quiet before the day. I’m not necessarily keen on the idea of having to go to work every day, but I enjoy the ride in, on most days. The day is still fresh ahead of me, and although maybe I am tired from staying up late, this day is new and hasn’t been mixed with the energy of other people and events.

At the other end of the day, its the same. I wouldn’t describe myself as a night owl. In fact, if there is a lack of mental stimulation, I fall asleep pretty easily, and often early. Of course, if I’m interested in what I am doing, reading a GOOD book, blogging, painting or sketching, writing, or playing a game, I often stay up way past the point where its to my benefit.

I hate the day to end. I’ll fall asleep on the couch or chair, but wake up and resume whatever I was doing. I want to stay on the scene. Tracy and I almost always were the last ones at a party, the wee morning hour people, just so we didn’t miss anything. That’s when the best conversations happen anyway. I love staying up and watching the stars, hiking outside at night, sitting by the fire until it is all but a faint glow of dying coals. Once you find your blissful spot, it’s hard to give it up and call it a day.

Mid day, lunch time, 10 am, 3:30, Supper time, they all have moments for me. I find lately that the 3-5 in the afternoon period is my slow period. I struggle to stay awake if I’m driving. Yet it is also the most productive if I am doing deed research or AutoCAD or working out. Then I’m on fire. I don’t really have a time of day… and while there are patterns that certain things, like falling asleep on the couch, will happen if there is a lack of interest or entertainment, given something enjoyable to do, I have boundless energy.

So all of this brings me back to my bubbling brain this morning. When I stepped outside to the go to work, I was engulfed by that beautiful autumn air. The temperature was only about 32 degrees, but the air was moist with impending rain, and full of all the Autumn aromas; rotting leaves, wood smoke, frost. Yes, even frost and impending precipitation have a delicious odor. There was a fog or misty-ness about the air, and the sun was casting an orange-pink glow over the sky. The leaves on the trees were brilliant; oranges, yellows, bright deep reds, and they were glowing, seemingly giving off their own light. I wish I had thought to snap some shots with my camera, but probably the colors were more of a feeling than a visual anyway.

I hopped into the truck and put on a favorite tune on my IPod, Jason Mraz’ “I’m Yours” and headed down to Keene, singing as I bounced along past the beautiful scenes on our dirt road. I was wishing I had a video player to capture all of my favorite, beautiful spots along the trip, which this morning, were in their fullest glory.

My head was reeling, happy, full of thoughts and ideas and yet stunned by the beauty surrounding me and so grateful to live in such a place. My spirit was vibrating!

So yah, I suppose one way to look at it is that I was on my way to work with a long day ahead of me; I had had very little sleep, and that this morning, in concept, was not any different than what I do every other day… but for me… it was one of those moments… a space and place in time that brought me real joy and I wished I could share that moment with you; but I just can’t seem to capture the feelings, sights and senses with words.

You’ll just have to trust me.

2010 Garden Journey ~ The Harvest begins

2010-10-04T07:56:00.001-04:00

Well, folks, here it is October 10th… 10-10-10 and I’m finally getting around to writing about the garden again. Many months ago, it seems, I was good at keeping you up to date on the high excitement of the Huntley garden. Big plans!

I put in a green manure cover crop way back at the end of March, unheard of that early here in New Hampshire. Just around the beginning of May, everything was going according to plan; the cover crop was big and green, so I mowed, and roto-tilled the plants into the soil and waited a week to let the plants break down. Then it rained. Every weekend and mid week for at least a month. Finally, around July 4th weekend, I got the garden planted. Only a month late. Then it never rained again. The driest summer in a long time.

So here we are harvest time. The almanac says that we can expect a killing frost in these parts somewhere around my birthday (September 17th), and when I was a kid, that was the norm. The last few years, it has been much later… a temporary hidden blessing from the whole global warming thing. Every cloud has a silver lining kind of thing. The garden is still alive and growing. The killing frost predicted for last night never came, although it was 35 degrees out this morning. Tonight is supposed to be another cold one.

Throughout the summer, we ate a lot of veggies from the garden, especially lettuces and summer squashes. As is the pattern, by August, I loathed zucchini. And the damn things just kept coming. We sort of stopped picking them and so we eventually got some thigh sized cucurbits that were useless for anything except tossing onto the bank for the chickens to peck at. At least our feathered friends were thankful for the bountiful harvest they received every few afternoons.

My cucumber/pole bean teepee followed the same course. We had fresh cucumbers galore all summer, in salads, with salt/and vinegar, with salt and lime, with ranch dip as raw veggies in lunch boxes. Maybe we should take up the art of pickling… next year. I like the natural version using whey instead of salt and vinegar. It makes the pickles healthy, with live cultures, just like yogurt, and they still taste great. Yup, next summer.

We never did get more than a couple jalapenos and 1 poblano pepper. The plants themselves are mammoth. I’ve never had such luxurious pepper plants; and they all had loads of blossoms, just no fruit. I’ve been told that that’s a function of a too fertile soil, that peppers prefer a tougher life…who knows. Anyone? Any advice?

I had some heirloom plum tomatoes that seemed to be following the same path, except that there were loads of green tomatoes all summer, just nothing red. Then a few weeks ago, they ALL starting turning red. They are thick and meaty and sweet, with few seeds, grown for sauces/salsas. I’m still picking them, although puppy Tessa found a hidden way into the garden and has spent afternoons also harvesting them. Who knew puppies loved tomatoes.

Our kidney beans and turtle beans are ready and Grace & I have been picking those and drying them in the oven. We haven’t gotten very far yet, and we already have filled a shopping bag with beans for soups and chilly. That idea paid off! We eat beans several times a week.

We also have a lot of sweet little carrots, also an heirloom variety, and Swiss Chard and Kale. I made a Caldo Verde soup this morning, which will simmer all day, and used our own carrots and later I’ll add the kale. It’s gonna be good! Beets and rutabagas also look like they will be harvestable soon.

Last but not least, we grew a few pumpkins. I put in three kinds, little pie pumpkins, little hull-less seed pumpkins and a French variety. Its an heirloom also… Musque de Provence.

We didn’t get a lot of the ones that I planted, but we did get some weird hybrid gourd-ish things all over the yard and in the compost pile. Seeds from some bygone garden or compost. We do have one giant French pumpkin. It looks like the ones you see in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast movie. Huge lobes, not very tall, and flat on the bottom.

It’s funny, but the whole summer just seemed to come and go, like the garden. We were travelling through Spring 2010 with big plans, exciting ideas, optimism for all the summer events, and then… Boom… October was here. For me, it’s like we slept through Summer. If you follow me at all, you'll know that’s not quite true… we did a lot of things and I was very busy with home projects and family fun; it just seems to have gone by so fast, like the garden.

I also realized this summer how much that I really love to plan the garden, buy the seeds, plant the garden and watch it grow.

I love to see how my plan turned out. I like mixing flowers and herbs into the beds and seeing all the different textures, colors shapes and sizes of the plants. It’s like a big soily canvas with leafy, living paints.

We are just not that good at harvesting! At the end of the summer, when it’s time to pick things,we are tired of the garden and on to new stuff, like Autumn activities.

But I guess that's one of the reasons, that I love living in New Hampshire. By the time you are tired of the season; it changes!

Hiking Monadnock ~ September 2010

2010-09-30T21:35:00.001-04:00

I’ve been hiking Mount Monadnock since before I can remember. It is one of THE things to do here in the Monadnock Region, and I’ve even caught myself in a state of genuine surprise when meeting someone from the area that hasn’t spent at least an afternoon up there.

The story is that Monadnock is the second most climbed mountain in the world, next to Mount Fuji. That’s its claim to fame. I can believe it. There is bedrock and ledge along the trails that have been worn smooth by the tramping of feet, booted and bare. Realistically, it has probably only been a destination, a weekend jaunt, since the mid 1800’s.

Mount Monadnock is located in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. It is the highest peak in southern New Hampshire. You can see mountains in Vermont and Massachusetts from the top. On a clear day, you can see the Atlantic and the Boston sky line, 75 miles away, the later of which is surprisingly prominent on the horizon… not what you expect from such a distance. There are tons of stories and folklore about our mountain, too. Thoreau camped there and wrote about it.

Painters from around the globe have puts its profile on canvas. In fact, to me, the profile is a model of what a mountain should look like. It reminds me of the “Lonely Mountain” from the Hobbit.

My personal history with the mountain goes way back. When I was a kid, we took class trips to go up the mountain. I believe the cub scouts also went up. It’s true, that during the 5th grade through 12th grade years, I probably didn’t visit Monadnock as often…for although you can see it from almost anywhere around, a lone sentinel guarding the pastoral life in Cheshire County, one still needs a car and license to get there….or at least a driver.

During the college years, I re-discovered the exhilaration of the climb. In fact, it often became a Sunday morning cure for overindulgence the night before… a race up the mountain and down to sweat the poisons out. Afterwards, we would come back and hit “Mr. Pizza” (now Amicci’s) for a slice or sub and… a… beer.

These days, I go at least once a year in the Fall with the kids. Waldorf has a hike day, and the entire school does a trek up the mountain. Ironically this year, my trip was not that one. The Family had been talking about doing the mountain all summer, and last weekend, it just happened to work out to be a time when we all could go. The school trip was going to be mid-week, a few days later, but no matter. I couldn’t take the time off, this year, to go with them, so I was happy to have this opportunity.

The day turned out fantastic. It was actually quite warm for September, and not long into the hike, the guys had their shirts off and still managed to soak everything with sweat. We took the White Dot Trail, from the State Park headquarters.

The trail starts out relatively easy, with only a minor grade. Then you hit the wall. It seems like every trail up the mountain has the same spot. A flattish section, and then a dramatic break in grade, where you spend a while going up almost vertically, hands and knees style, or cutting back and forth across the slope.

Things changed once we got up above the tree line. When you come out of the trees, the slope evens out, the wind picks up significantly (and never seems to dissipate,) and the temperature drops at least 10-15 degrees. The shirts and sweatshirts went back on.

Finally, we made it to the top. There were more people up there than I had ever seen before. I guess the height of foliage season is not the time to go if you are looking for quiet and solitude. There were a lot of college age kids, freezing their behinds off, dressed only in shorts and tank tops. But at least they looked good, with earrings and makeup and sparkles and I-phones out texting madly to their friends on the peak with them. And that’s what counts…being stylish. Right?

We ate our lunch at the top, and then dubbed around for a while. Tracy and Ken took a bunch of pictures. After an hour of that, we packed up and made our way down. A storm was moving in, and by the time we hit the tree line, the clouds had covered the peak.

Once we got down to the ranger station, we checked out the gift shop and Gumpa bought everybody a souvenir. I love State and National park gift shops. So many field guides, maps, trinkets, hiking gadgets, and cold drinks… its one of the few times I realy like “shopping”

Then, per “Hiking Monadnock” tradition, we drove back to Keene and went to Amicci's for pizza before heading home.

Yesterday, Jeremiah climbed the mountain again with his school…a different trail and new adventure. I never get sick of it. I could go up the mountain once a week. The last trip even inspired us to do more.

I’ve always liked hiking, but this time the rest of the family seemed to really enjoy it, too. Now we are talking about doing the 5-6 day Monadnock-Sunapee Trail, a 50 mile jaunt between the two mountains. I even bought the trail guide.

Autumn Equinox

2010-09-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." — George Eliot

Today is the first day of Fall. The Autumnal Equinox occurred last night at 11:09 Eastern Standard Time. I can’t say what that means to other people around the world, but here in my house its a beginning.

Now is the start of my favorite season. The cool night air returns, and it's actually comfortable to wear long pants, a shirt and boots in the morning. It’s also comfortable to hike in the woods or work in the yard. The mosquitoes and flies are gone for the most part, and the air is exhilarating. I find myself with a renewed sense of vigor and a lust for life.

More often now, our fire pit comes alive, it’s embers warm and comforting during the chilly Autumn evenings, as we sit and watch the familiar constellations pass by overhead. The air is cool and crisp, so the stars are bright, and yet the fire, maybe a coffee or hot chocolate and a sweatshirt keep us toasty warm. On occasion a cold beer will also do. There are new scents in the air, as well. Split, drying wood and crisp, fallen autumn leaves replace summer flowers and the scent of hay drying in the fields. I live for these nights. My spirit soars!

All of the hard work over the summer months is coming to fruition, in the gardens and in the orchards. At the beginning of Autumn, we are still going full bore, working hard to finish the summers chores. Mother Nature’s seasonal clock inside each of us pushes us onward to take care and finish everything, to make ready for a long winter.

Around here, even those who are far removed from the need to prepare for the cold dark months ahead still seem to find increased energy, and a desire to do something “seasonal” outside. The orchards fill up with people, locals and out-of-Staters, here for a weekend excursion to pick apples, drink cider, eat donuts, cheeses and smoked pulled pork sandwiches. We pick at least one sunny Saturday or Sunday during the fall to spend at Allyson’s Orchard in Walpole. It’s an annual trip we cant miss.

Another integral part of the season for me is Football and home-made soups. We aren’t avid football fans here at Casa Huntley… I could really care less about what all the other NFL and College teams are doing, but I enjoy watching or listening to the New England Patriots. I usually fire up the crock pot and make something like Caldo Verde, with our own kale and veggies, or my own black bean, butternut squash and turkey chili with chipotle. Sometimes Jeremiah bakes a whole wheat bread. If the game is on at 1 O’clock, we probably miss it, or listen to it on the radio while out raking leaves or stacking wood, but if the game is on at four, it becomes a family dinner affair. We grab our bowls and bread, and descend to the family room to watch the game on TV.

Later on in the season, when, in older days, the harvest was completed, the fall celebrations start. I don’t think its any wonder that so many people are born in June and July, nine months from now. The holiday festive season is a beginning.

“Why did dusk and fir-scent and the afterglow of autumnal sunsets make people say absurd things?”— L.M. Montgomery (Emily's Quest)

All the favorite holidays start now. Halloween kicks it off, and around here we have the Keene Pumpkin Festival, where 70,000+/- people descend on Keene for a harvest/Halloween Celebration. It’s huge! It has been rumored that, after running for a couple decades now, this is going to be the final year, in no small part because of the fact that it has grown so large and un-manageable. People come from all over the northeast and beyond.

Three weeks later, my favorite holiday arrives…Thanksgiving! It’s a huge family event. We travel, as do so many, and usually spend the night. Tracy’s family makes a huge spread, with the standard thanksgiving turkey plus a lot of other dishes, not so standard, but very delicious. In years past, snow has been a factor in travel and often the snow, skiing, and sledding start after thanksgiving. Lately, it has been a little warmer and dryer, but the snow is still on its way.

Finally, we hit the holiday hat trick of Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Years. I used to put on a Winter Solstice celebration dinner and a bonfire, but it gets a little tough to have Christmas dinner the same week. We still try and have a Solstice bonfire, or at least a fire pit night and observe the seasonal shift. Christmas Dinner is at my house a few days later, and New Years is usually up in the air.

The last few years have been somewhat of an exception, with the bum economy, but in normal times there is a seasonal pattern to work. Those of us who depend on the weather for work, surveyors and wetland scientists like myself, or for people in the construction industries, it is customary that that summer is the extremely busy season, and a 50-60 hour work week can easily be the norm in order to take advantage of the light and warmth.

The winter roles around, and things calm down. That’s when we all take our vacations and play. Sledding, skiing, snowboarding, hockey, snowshoeing… and it all starts soon. For me, it’s also a time for not feeling guilty about staying inside on a Sunday, curled up by the fire, reading a book, learning a language, playing guitar or doing a sketch or watercolor. A beginning of the inside season, too.

I’m not saying that I don't like the other seasons, or that I dislike Summer, it’s just that by this time of year, I’ve had enough, I’m ready for a change. The season with all stuff that I like to do is about to start again… the Equinox begins it. I’ve heard some say that it is a depressing time of year, things are dying, the geese are leaving and summer is over, but for me, it’s an exciting new beginning… until the next season and next beginning.

September 17, 1966 to present: My Annual Birthday Blog

2010-09-17T16:21:00.001-04:00

Well, folks, another year has come and gone. I am now 44.

Last year I posted a timeline of sorts…a day in history kind of thing. What my life has been like over the past 40+ years. At first, I thought that to do the same thing again this year would be redundant.

But then, so what! I do like to repeat myself…if only to hear myself talk; and I am my own best audience, so let’s commence with this years story.

This year has been good. If you’ve followed me here on “Life as Russ”, you know that I’ve spent a good portion of my free time building stuff, like a chicken coop and a shed/workshop. We now have a dog, a cat, a puppy, 2 bunnies, 2 rats and 17 chickens…talk about a zoo!

We had another great vacation in Maine and I still work at SVE. The kids are in school at Waldorf and Tracy is now working all but full time there. I’ve rediscovered some old friends and made some new ones. Life is good, despite the economy.

Now let’s take a moment or two and see if there have been any great events in “A day in the Life” to reminisce over:

5 years ago: 2005/6 - 39 years old

My third winter at SVE and I think I have come into my own. We are super busy, even throughout the winter. I religiously work out and I’m probably physically in better shape now than in any time in my life (except maybe football, but I’m stronger now) Martinis are beginning to take a toll, though.

10 years ago: 2000/1 ~ 34 years old

The Biggest events this year? Well, there are four…

The world didn’t end at new years. All the hype about technology failing and plunging mankind into the dark ages was just that….hype….news for the Enquirer.

In February 2000, I broke my back, and the world did end, in a way. I was told I would be an old man from then on, never be able to lift heavy objects or do hard manual labor again… but I beat that rap. (The last two technically are when I was 33 but they need repeating he he)

Tracy, Jeremiah & I sold our house in Stoddard and moved to Westmoreland in April 2001. She’s pregnant and I have a bum back, so our family does the lion’s share of the move.

Finally… Grace is born in August, 2001!

I’m working at Clough Harbor and Associates, running a very successful survey department and hoping to make Associate. I became licensed as a NH Wetland Scientist on this year, also.

Yup, 34 was a big year.

15 years ago: 1995/6 ~ 29 years old

Here is another big year, as far as life events go. Tracy & I got married! October 7, 1995 - We had the best wedding, at Saint James Church in Keene, a huge one with all the family and friends. We rode around town in my Grandfather's restored Packard. Our reception went all night and is still recalled as one of the best parties ever. We spent a week in Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon, but both of us were a tad sick. Someday we’ll come back to Mexico in better shape!

We live in a an old, 1800’s one room school house that still has the chalkboards on the walls. It’s cool in the summer, and freezing in the winter, unless we have the woodstove going, then it’s warm enough to melt our candles.

20 years ago: 1990/1 ~ 24 years old

I’m beginning to see a theme, here. It’s 1990/1 and a few more life changing events take place.

I moved back from Boston at the beginning of the year and lived with Mom & Dad again for a couple months, getting my sh*% together. Then in April 1990, I go on a cross country road trip with my best friend Sam. We make all kinds of stops along the way, crashing at buddies houses, skiing in the Rockies, and goofing off in Carson City Nevada. We finally hit Cali and Sam decides to stay. I take a bus to Vegas, hitchhike to the Airport and fly back to Boston.

In May 1990, I move into “The Condo” with my friends Molly & Pete, into Sam’s vacated room. This is where “The Tribe” started. Room-mates, housemates, party crashers, FWB’s and girlfriends come and go, but Molly & I are there to the end….and still remain better than friends.

This is also when my survey career started. The same week that I moved into the condo, I got a call to start working at C.T. Male. Thanks to John Doughty and Roger Monsell. This put me where I am today. I spent the whole first summer working out of town in Lowell, Mass, surveying the city’s canal systems for the National Park Service. We helped make a National Park! We get cash each week for travel expenses, and my crew chief & I bunk up in a cheap motel and eat bologna sandwiches all summer so as to come home with a wad of cash in our pockets. The weekends are one big blurry party.

I’m kind of a Dead head and a hippie with a long blond braid and big red beard. My crew chief is very conservative and uptight. Ha ha

Grandma died this year.

In February I meet Tracy and by May, we are living together.

Summer of 1991, I start working on another National Park Service job, surveying what amounts to 18 miles of park corridor for the Appalachian Trail in Vermont. Bob, Bill, John, Bruce, Jeff and I spend the whole summer surveying and camping. “Howzit goen…Guden U” ha ha. One of the highlights of my career, to this day!

25 years ago: 1985/6 ~ 19 years old

I’m a sophomore at Keene State College, living in Carl Hall, on campus. I work two jobs and have a girlfriend off campus…so I rarely stay in my room. I’m majoring in Geography, but mostly I’m goofing off. College is wasted on the young and foolish. I have my first surveying class, and little do I know, at this time, what that impact will be.

30 years ago: 1980/1 ~ 14 years old

I graduate from Westmoreland Elementary school and become a freshman at Keene High school. It’s a huge step going from a class of 25 kids who grew up together to a class of 400 people that I barely know. I’m kind of lost. I love school and learning at first, but it soon becomes apparent that that is not cool…and I succumb to the need to fit in.

I joined the football team, without any more knowledge of football than the fact that it IS a sport… so obviously, I’m not very good. But the season progresses well and at least I play on all the special teams and make some good tackles, get in the best shape of my life (to date) and make some good friends.

So here again…another big year.

35 years ago: 1975/6 ~ 9 years old

I live at 94 Laurel Lane in Keene, NH and go to school at Jonathan Daniels, an open concept kind of school. I'm in Mrs. Gemmel’s 4th grade. I’m sure something big is going on, but other than being in love with Nancy Andrews, unrequited…I can’t seem to recall much.

Oh year…in June we move from Keene to Westmoreland, and then something huge happens in August ‘76… My sister Sarah is born!

40 years ago: 1970/1 ~ 4 years old

And finally…another big year and the last on the list… the world doesn’t revolve around me anymore! My brother Dan is born in September ‘70.

So looking back here, I’ve kind of blurred the lines between following the theme of a specific year (2000, 2005) and what happened at the certain age that I was (which crosses over year boundaries)…but isn’t that how memory works. It’s all really a blur and most of it feels like yesterday, anyway. It does seem that for me the 5’s and 10’s happen to be big years. And now that I’ve filled the blanks, next year I’ll stick to the age theme.

…stay tuned…

Acadia National Park ~ 2010 summer vacation

2010-09-04T19:58:00.001-04:00

-No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one. ~Elbert Hubbard

Well, here it is folks, the wildly anticipated and highly acclaimed account of the Huntley family’s 2010 summer vacation. You may remember that last summer, we spent a week in Acadia National Park in Maine, camping and doing all the touristy things listed in the official guides. Well, we had so much fun last year, that we decided to produce the sequel this summer. And just like almost every other sequel of a box office smash, it was good, but didn’t match the first trip.

Now I’m not saying that we didn’t have fun, or that we won’t go there again. We are experienced Rusticators now, and there is still so much to do and see. Our trip this year just hit a few snags. We believe in Karma, and it certainly seemed to believe in us this year, and as the week went on, things just got better and better.

So sit back, pour yourself a favorite beverage, pop some corn and prepare to read another fascinating account of the Huntleys in vacation mode.

First let me say that we really needed a vacation this summer. The weeks leading up to vacation had been very stressful. I had used a lot of vacation time already this year, so I didn’t have a full week. We decided to leave on a Monday afternoon, after I worked all day Sunday and Monday morning. Perfect! We would stay in a motel an hour or so from Sewall Campground and arrive in the morning around 9, in time for check out/sign in. Since it was mid week and the last week of summer for most families, there shouldn’t be a problem getting a spot in this very economical, first come first serve national park campground.Well, that was mistake number one.

We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Belfast the first night, and I was a little shocked at the $150 price tag, but the view of the ocean was nice and there was a hot tub, sauna, heated pool and restaurant. One night of luxury before roughing it was ok.

Tuesday

We got up early, ate a complimentary full breakfast in the dining room, and then we were out the door, all before 8 O'clock. We arrived at the campground around 10:00 AM only to find a line of 20 cars and people ahead of us, some of whom had camped in their cars overnight.

Aaggh…no room at the inn, they said.

We got in line and decided to wait for a while and ponder our choices. From talking to a few others in line, I learned that all the private campsites on Mount Desert Island were full and that here, they were only letting people in as others left. We weren’t going to give up, but what to do?

Well… Lady Luck found us! A woman with a family, in line behind us, had talked to the rangers and found out that there were a couple of group camping sites open, but just for the night. If we wanted to sign on with 3 other families, we could have one and then come back in the morning to wait in line. We would be given spots, if available, before the new-comers, but after the renewal people who were just lengthening the stay at their already secured spots. At first we hesitated, but as the prospects for a personal campsite seemed bleak, we decided to go for it.

We found our group campsite, which was actually a much better spot than the single sites… bigger, sunnier, grassy and open. It really worked out.

We set up just the essentials and then left for Southwest Harbor for Sandwiches and Ice Cream at the Quietside Cafe, one of our favorite stops. Last year the place was listed as “for sale,” and we were afraid one the best stops on the trip would be gone, but we lucked out and it was still there.

After we ate, we went back south to Sewall and spent the afternoon on the rocky beach. We left around dusk, cooked supper in camp, and then had a fire and S’mores with our Site-mates. It was fun camping with and meeting new people!

Wednesday

Wednesday dawned early for us. The Ranger had told us to be at the station at 5 AM to get a jump on the line, so the two dads, Michigan and New Hampshire, (that’s what the rangers called us), hiked down to the station at the crack of dawn… shorts, sandals, messy hair and with out coffee.

We thought we had been duped at first. There were two cars in line already, but no rangers and nobody else around. That changed at 5:45. The cars started lining up and other change-site people showed up, as well as the people who wanted to keep their sites and stay longer. My crew showed up around 6:30. Tracy had woken the kids and they ate, broke camp, packed the car and brought me coffee and a breakfast bar. Is that service or what!

We actually had to wait around until 9 when the ranger station officially opened, then we got our tickets…Michigan was 1 and I got numero 2. Apparently our group stay caused quite a commotion at headquarters, as one of our group, a guy who hadn’t even stayed the night, complained at the ranger station about the lack of sites and the neccesity of group camping. This caused all kinds of problems, as the group site we received was normally not allowed for the likes of us or to be used in this fashion. The Rangers felt bad for our families and hooked us up, apparently against the rules. No good deed goes un-punished, I guess. I’m sure they got some good Karma out of it… they went out of their way to help us and I couldn’t be more appreciative. But, in any case, by 10:00, people left, and we had a site, and so went off to set up camp.

By this time, it seemed like most of the day was shot. We drove up along the Sommes Sound, got taco salads and quesidillas at a stand and then went to the Park Visitor Center. It’s a cool place to stop, lots of gifts, a video to watch and…bathrooms! Then we piled in the car again and drove up Cadillac Mountain. We spent the afternoon hiking around with the multitudes on the peak, snapping pics and enjoying the views. Yup…touristy, I know, but the kids had to come here at least once. It’s one of those places you HAVE to visit if you come to Acadia.

We were going to go into Bar Harbor, but every one was kind of hungry and tired, so around 5 we headed back to camp. As I started setting up for dinner, Tracy went to light the Coleman stove and noticed the fuel tank leaking profusely. We made a quick decision to scrap the 15 year old stove and pick up a newer propane one. We cooked beans and dogs, made a fire and roasted S’mores again, and hit the sack around 10.

Thursday

Thursday dawned a beautiful day! I woke at 5 AM again (for some unknown reason) but I made the best of it and got up and made coffee. I sat by the remains of our fire, sipping coffee and reading “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” until Grace peeped out of her tent.

She loves camping and hiking, but she’s also a bit of a chatty-Kathy, so we decided to take a hike and let the sleepers sleep. We walked to the amphitheater and hiked around the bogs and woods there, then explored the entire campground for next year’s spot. We found some great places and a cool little cemetery, too.

Once back in camp, we ate hard boiled eggs, oatmeal, melon, yogurt, coffee and cocoa. We packed up the car and shot off toward the other side of the island for some hiking along the Sandy Beach/Thunder Hole trail. It’s a beautiful hike along rocky cliffs and beaches. Of course, we went off the trail and hiked the rocks. We spent all day here.

Later we went into Bar Harbor and got Ice cream at another great stop, Ben & Bill’s. We ate out on the sidewalk and looked in a few shop windows, but didn’t really feel like doing the shopping thing.

We headed back around home around 7. We hit the store on the way and got supper sandwiches, breakfast and day hike snack supplies and then went back into camp and made supper. Sandwiches are key for supper fare! No cooking, little cleanup and quick; plus everyone gets to “do” something. Once again the kids cooked some S’mores at the fire after dinner and we hit the hay early.

Friday

Friday started out a repeat of Thursday. Grace and I took a hike over to Sewall beach this time. We decided that today would be “Bar Harbor day”, although we wanted to do something outside first, so we went south a bit to the Abbe museum and the Wild Gardens at Acadia and Sieur de Mont spring. I loved the wild gardens. All the plants I deal with as a surveyor and wetland scientist are here, planted and set up in little natural communities and labeled. We spent quite a while exploring and playing. Around 1:00 we ate our snacks in the parking lot under some shade trees then headed off to Town.

Bar Harbor is such a cool little town. Every year we spend at least one day here, checking out all the shops, galleries, music and eateries. This time there was a big music festival going on in the common and some funky, jazzy band was playing… so… there wasn’t anything in the way of parking for at least 1/2 a mile.

We were going to park at a spot near the school, and then hike back, but just as we were passing through the center of town, Lady luck blessed us again. We were stopped at an intersection, and I decided to let a couple car loads of tourists and a bus pull out. “Oh well,” I said “They’ll probably find all the good spots, but maybe it’s good Karma.” No sooner had I said that, than a spot opened right in front of us, right on the common. Nice!

So we spent a fun afternoon moseying around town. We all bought something. Jeremiah bought a battle-axe of all things at a sword and knife shop, Tracy and Grace bought wrap around, multi use skirt/dress things and I bought a woven basket for picking vegetables in the garden. So… I’m boring.

The evening was a repeat, too, except we did go to the amphitheater around 8:30 where the rangers were hosting a show put on by the national weather service. After the show we walked back to camp and went to bed.

Saturday

This was Cranberry Islands day. Since I was a kid, coming here with my folks, I had always wanted to visit the Cranberry Islands. Brochures all over mount Desert Island boast of the wonders of the islands, the history, the museums and the cafés. We caught the ferry in Southwest Harbor around AM and went over to the isles. the ferry ride was fun. The weather was beautiful and we saw harbor porpoises, seals and an osprey.

We spent the day ferrying around from island to island, checking off each stop the brochures suggested.

The afternoon started to cloud up, and we were hungry, so around 4 we took a very chilly ride back to the main island. We went to this cool place we had been driving by every day, called Eat-a-pita and Cafe2. You can read about our dinner here. Afterwards, we had our traditional last night desert at the Quietside Cafe and then went back to camp. It was a dark and moonless night because of the clouds that had moved in, there were a few sprinkles, and the air was heavy. It looked like rain.

Sunday

Sunday morning arrived and so did the rain. We actually managed to eat and break camp before a drop hit. We even said our goodbyes to the beach at Sewall, and just as we pulled out and headed north towards Southwest Harbor, the full onslaught of the the rain hit. In fact, it rained the entire 7 hour ride home.

And for 2011…

Of course, we plan to come back again next year. This time with a few tricks up our sleeve, now that we are experienced Rusticators.

Sunday morning is THE day to arrive. That’s when most people are leaving for the week. We also found that, starting this year, 1/2 the campsites can be reserved on-line, so we’re not taking any chances. And… now that we have done about all the touristy things that everybody with a few days to spend can do, next year we’re going to do more hiking, biking, kayaking and exploring…and I’ll make sure to keep a full weeks vacation available.

Happy Trails!

Berry picking on a summer day…

2010-07-26T19:37:00.001-04:00

Well, Folks, as you probably know, if you have read any of my blogs or follow me on Facebook at all, weekend relaxing for me comes in the form of backbreaking yard work, construction projects, landscaping and gardening. If I don’t have some project, or at least the lawn to mow, I get all hitchy and anxious. I like to do stuff.

It’s not that I don't enjoy chilling out, sitting by the fire, reading a book or hanging at the beach… I really do. I just need to go away to do them. If I’m around home, there is always something that I have wanted to get done. I have an image in my mind of the little Eden that I am slowly creating on our plot of land, a place to get away from the world. A place without “The News”, without “Politics”, without jobs and clients and planning boards, a place where I grow my own organic foods that are nourishing to the body and bring peace to the spirit.

This little dream has a lot of components, and as of yet, they are not all built or in operation, so that is the source of my incessant business (for lack of a better word) It’s getting there. This weekend, I got a good start on our little fruit orchard… 4 apple trees, 2 pears, 1 plum. I would like 1 more plum, 2 peach trees and two of something else, so far planned only as “the last two spots”

But today… I took a break. After putting up another section of fence near our “orchard”, I took a swim and decided to sit on the patio, drink coffee and read. That lasted 5 minutes. I asked the kids if they would like to take a hike up the road from our house to the top of this bald hill and check for berries. The instant change from bored and bickering to polite, enthusiastic and energized was a miracle to behold. We got ready in a record 5 minutes and headed up to the hill.

We cal it Allard’s Hill, because about 5 years ago, I was hired by a gentleman, Mr. Allard, to survey and subdivide his 100+/- ace parcel. He had clear cut the entire top of the hill, which was a little disturbing, but he had a vision of a wildflower and berry meadow. It was hard to picture amidst the mud and exposed ledge at the time. The survey was fun, I learned a lot of history about the people and properties on our road and really, we couldn’t solve the mystery of the property line locations until I came across a will written in the 1840’s that described everything.

Today, the place is beautiful. We go there quite often. Mr. Allard eventually sold the property, without subdividing or building a single house, but his legacy of the beautiful wildflower/berry hilltop meadow has become a reality. The place is teeming with berry bushes and wildflowers of all types and there is tons of wildlife. We saw a huge flock of Turkeys with their babies and found evidence of bears eating blackberries all over the place (evidence of course = poop).

Grace and I wandered all over the hill, picking berries from the countless blackberry patches. It is still a little early, in another week or two, I imagine gallons of berries will be ready for the taking, but we still managed to fill up her berry basket. The new owners have set up a weather station, and a picnic spot at the top, with a log book for visitors. Jeremiah did a great sketch of the view from the table and wrote them a nice note.

The four of us, George came too, finally ended up at the picnic table and we just sat, stared at the view and filled our faces with blackberries, and still managed to preserve about 1/2 basket to bring home for ice-cream later and oatmeal for breakfast.

So there it is, folks. Occasionally, I do take a break, and this afternoon’s break was a good one!

2010 Garden Journey ~ Finally…The Garden is in!

2010-07-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

Every year I plant a garden. Some years it’s quite prolific, others years it’s attractive, but offers less in the way of comestibles, and a few years here and there, it has been the domain of weeds, spiders and bees or left fallow altogether.

After last year’s success with vegetables and what I felt was a very artistic approach, I decided to step it up a notch. I drew up nice plans, back in January and ordered organic, heirloom seeds. I wanted to start everything myself in March, instead of buying seedlings in May. I also wanted to try a green manure.

As luck would have it, we had a super warm spring, and I tilled and planted my green manure seeds, (buckwheat, field peas, spring oats, vetch and mustard) in the last few days of March. An early start like that is unheard of in these parts.

Well, that turned out very successful! By the weekend before Memorial Day, the garden was completely covered, about knee high, with all these wonderful, beneficial little plants.

I mulch-mowed them and tilled them into the soil, as the method calls for, and let the soil set a week before planting (or so I planned)

But then, two things plotted against me to confound my plans. The first was my complete distraction with building… YES, you got it…the chicken coop! The second was a nasty period of rain, every other day it seemed.

Finally, around the second week of June, I had my coop done and the soil had dried out, so I started putting things in. My time was limited to week-nights and weekends, but now, two weeks later, I have everything in. What is amazing to me, is how fast things are sprouting. The stuff I put in two weeks ago has already sprouted and is off to a great start.

I planted Italian plum tomatoes; Poblano, Serrano, Cayenne, Jalapeño and sweet peppers; pole string beans, Romaine, mixed leaf lettuces, pickling cucumbers, black beans, kidney beans, kale, Swiss chard, beets, rutabagas, carrots, zucchini and summer squash, & cilantro. The corners of the beds are planted with marigolds and Grace interspersed all kinds of flowers throughout the garden. Outside the main garden, in the back, and up on the bank, I planted pie pumpkins, hull-less seed pumpkins and French pumpkins, and three types of winter squashes: acorn, butternut and delicata.

Do I really expect a grand harvest in the Fall or lots of tasty vegetables over the summer? Not really. My friend Michael saw me buying some last minute seeds at Agway last weekend (stuff I had forgotten to order) and commented how late it was to plant a garden. For me… it’s not the harvest… that is just the bonus. It’s all the thought and the care; the work and the sweat; the sore muscles; its watching the plants grow and seeing how the “plan” turned out. The garden is kind of a moving meditation for me, and a method for artistic expression. If I’m feeling stressed or anxious, I can go work in the garden (or really anywhere in the yard) and it all melts away.

I guess it’s the New England gene in my blood that wants to make sure my art or meditation has some practical purpose, at least on paper. Hopefully, we will get at least a salad out of the garden.

In other parts of the world, people practice art and meditation for their own sake; here on Poocham Road, we like to make sure that the things we do are of use…

The Chicken Coop

2010-06-29T16:32:00.001-04:00

If you follow me at all on Facebook, you know that I have spent a good portion of the spring and early summer building a chicken coop. It has been a long journey, but finally, the coop is complete!

This project has been more than just a utilitarian effort to house our new chicks. In fact, in my minds eye, it wasn’t even a 12’ x 4’ chicken coop that I was building, but a 12’ x 24’ post and beam barn with workshops and storage. You see, that is what I really wanted to build. I have always loved old barns. I’ve spent countless hours exploring old barns, at places like Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, Fort Number 4 in Charlestown, NH, The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY, and privately during my surveying career and as a kid growing up. I have spent hours, since I was kid, browsing through books by Eric Sloane about life in the 1800’s, and about old tools and old buildings.

A couple years ago, I bought this book on timber frame construction; my “Bible” on how to build my own post and beam barn. I have always wanted my own barn; a place to house a few animals, to store firewood, to have a woodshop, and a small blacksmith shop… a place to work on artistic endeavors, and a place to keep all my gardening tools and outdoor stuff dry.

Finally, a couple years ago, I decided to build a small shed from scratch, in post and beam fashion, using only hand tools. A first shot model for my future barn. I cut down trees for posts and hewed logs for cross supports, beams, and floor joists. I cut mortise and tenon joints and fastened them together with wooden pegs. By the time I got to the roof, I was a little tired hewing, to be honest, making strapping seemed like areal chore and required so many trees, and my attempt at making pine shingles proved VERY labor intensive and required a lot of practice and a lot of dry wood without knots… so… I opted out and bought rough cut lumber and cedar shingles. I also bought the 12” planks for the floor.

The shed…it’s nice, but it was my first attempt, and I used a lot of round, crooked, & various size woods, without a square angle or edge in the bunch. I still need to put the 12” pine board vertical siding up. Still, it looks very rustic and like an early 1830’s shed. Mission accomplished!

This year, once we started talking about chickens, I decided that we needed a new coop. Our old one was too small, and as I had built it 8 years ago with plywood and 2x4’s without paint or anything… it was beginning to have issues. I could have gone the easy route and bought a coop plan on-line and did the plywood thing again, but instead, I decided to build my barn - in miniature.

I bought rough-cut 4”x4” beams and 12” pine boards from this fantastic local saw mill run by 2 sisters. I based the design on the small barn design in my “Barn Bible”. I decided not to go with wood pegs, but nails. I also went with the cedar shingle roof. Cedar smells sooo good!

Originally, the coop was going to have wooden wheels at the base of the posts, so it could be mobile, with a trap door in the floor and a ramp so the chickens could access the area under the coop, which would be fenced in. As the chickens scratched and ran out of plants, worms and bugs to eat, I would move the pen. Well…I can still move it, even without the wheels, but damn, this coop is heavy, so decided to keep it where it is for now. I’m going to cut a door off the back, once the chicks get older, and fence in an outside pen for them along the bank between the coop and the shed.

The chicken wire panels in the front come off for easy cleaning of the coop and for replacement with plexi-glass windows in the winter. There is a main access door at one end and a nest access door to the 3 egg nests on the other end.

This was such a fun project and one I am really proud of. I enjoyed building it and it adds a nice aesthetic to the back yard.

Of course now, I want to tear down my rustic shed and build the full sized barn project from my book. I’m sure there are a few other priorities to attend to before that plan comes to fruition.

And so it begins…

2010-06-16T22:16:00.001-04:00

Well… on Monday the chicks finally arrived; 25 tiny, multi-colored, peeping balls of fuzz. We ordered chicks from McMurray Hatchery back in February. We picked all kinds… chickens with fluffy feet, some with fluffy heads, a few rare Spanish chickens, some weird dinosaur looking ones, some half-wild ones, and each kid ordered a little bantam for their own. The kids were out of their minds with excitement. Jeremiah was too young to remember the last batch and Grace was just a baby, so this is going to be a life memory for those two.

They have been waiting for the chicks to arrive with as much anticipation as Santa on Christmas. Well, Ok…not that much… but they were very excited. I have to admit…me too. Chickens are more interesting to watch that one would imagine, and they each provide an egg every day. What more can you ask? And what are we going to do with 2 dozen eggs a day? Who knows… I told Grace if she cared for them, she could have 4-5 dozen a week of her own to sell. She is such a little entrepreneur!

Within the first hour, we experienced two chicken milestones. The first? Grace named one of the chicks “Steve”; the second? Steve’s health started to go down hill and Grace was in tears. I tried to explain to her that it is normal to lose a few chicks the first day. In fact, when I was a kid, our chick batches of 25 would arrive and by the end of the day there would be only 12. Maybe we shouldn’t name them yet, I suggested. Of course…that didn’t help. But luck was on our side and Steve pulled through. The rest of the day was chick-mania. We went to Blue Seal feeds and picked up chick supplies, and came home and set up a nice little pen for them. Within a couple hours, all 25 had names. (not that I can tell who is who, or remember any names)

Grace is adamant that her little bantam chick is going to be trainable and learn to do tricks and sleep in her bedroom. I’m just smiling right now… I’ll break the news about chicken hygiene and intelligence another day.

Jeremiah also had his own trauma. His bantam, Milo, immediately became the lowest on the pecking order and the others pecked its face until it was bleeding. We had to separate it from the others until it healed up a bit. Jeremiah was sure his chicken would die… it’s always his thing that dies or disappears. But again…things worked out, and after the chicks ate and drank, they all relaxed and left each other alone. So now the chicks live in a hamster cage on our window sill. As soon as they are big enough, they get to move outside into the new chicken coop that I’ve built. If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that for the last month, I’ve been building a post and beam style chicken coop.

More on my chicken coop project another time…

Class trip

2010-05-07T19:50:00.001-04:00

Every year, Jeremiah’s class at the Monadnock Waldorf school goes on a class trip. In fact, every class, third through eighth grade, has a class trip. Next year, Grace’s trips will start. Each year the trip lasts a little longer and the group travels a little further afield.

In the 3rd grade, it was the Farm trip sleepover. In 4th grade, they went to the White Mountains in NH for a couple days.

Last year, Jeremiah’s fifth grade class went to Cape Cod for four days. They slept in cabin’s, roughing it, and they cooked their own food. During the day they went on various daytrips studying the biology and geography of the area. Some days they hiked, others they did bike trips. Tracy went with them last year as one of the four parent chaperons. I made a short entry with a class photo here… She had a blast!

This year, his class is heading in the opposite direction; westward to New York State. After a little prodding from Tracy, I volunteered to be one of the adult chaperons this year. I’ve gone with the class as a chaperon for the hike we do every year up Mount Monadnock, but never for a four day trip. It should be pretty fun!

We are going to do a day at Howe Caverns, a day at the Herkimer Diamond Mines, a day in Cooperstown visiting the Farmer’s Museum and Fenimore Art Museum, and a day exploring the Heidelberg Escarpment (a limestone region of 100 foot limestone cliffs and underground rivers). This all ties in with the geography and geology the kids studied this year. We will be living in rustic cabins again, and enjoying campfires, music and stories at night.

We leave early on May 24th and return at night on May27th. I’ll be sure to fill you in.

2010 Garden Journey ~ They’re up!

2010-04-12T14:22:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, I told you that the first seeds had sprouted in my green manure project/experiment. So far, it has been a great success. The garden is covered with a carpet of green, which on closer inspection, is the result of thousand of little plants growing.

On the windowsill, all of my Kale and heirloom Italian paste tomatoes have sprouted too. I planted Poblano, Jalapeño, Serrano, Cayenne, and sweet green pepper in another flat as well as these pumpkins from France that are really cool colored and funky shaped. Nothing in that tray has sprouted yet, but it’s early. The cat hasn’t laid all over the seed trays, yet, either, which is a plus.

I’ve also done some improvements to the garden area. I took down the old wattle compost bin, which was falling apart anyway and really just a buffet for the neighborhood dogs, and built a new bin with boards and added a mesh fence on the inside and two sliding access doors. I put all the old compost in the further bin from the garden, and it was already too hot to touch in the center of the pile by this weekend. To me, this stuff is so cool. Its all well proven ideas and ancient technology, but I’ve never really tried composting and the fact that it does generate extreme amounts of heat and turns plant matter into a black potting soil type of stuff is amazing to me.

You may also have heard that we had chickens. Well..our last “lady” Carmela, after surviving the winter alone in her pen, disappeared after only a week of having free reign of the yard again this spring. A little surprising, she was one of the better flyers and lived way up in a hemlock tree. On the bright side…her coop, a 4 x 6 x 7’ tall structure makes a perfect tool shed for the garden. Yesterday, I nailed some wheels onto the supports on the bottom and did a combination of push, drag, left and shuffle to move it to the back of my garden. All good…except for a small mishap. I had lifted the whole thing up about navel high to slide a log underneath. A s I went to lower it, the wood I had hold of broke and the coop came slamming down on my left thigh and knee. It hurt like a mutha-f… But in true Huntley fashion, I walked it off and kept working for hours till all my little projects for the day were done. Later it hurt more and when I took my work pants off to take a shower, I discovered a big red and purple bruise and dent in my leg. I had to laugh, as I always seem to hurt myself in the name of outdoor projects. Tracy didn’t think it was that funny.

Now I have a garden shed to keep all my garden tools and supplies in right in the corner of the garden. I’m thinking of painting it and adding some left over cedar shakes I have to the roof for aesthetics. No doubt you’ll soon hear that I broke something falling off the roof or have been blinded by paint.

But honestly, hurts and all…I never feel better than when I spend the day “playing” outside.

Another corner turned

2010-03-29T11:31:00.001-04:00

Many months later, as he stood before the expectant faces of his esteemed colleagues, Russ Huntley remembered that distant afternoon when his friend Dave convinced him that being a presenter at the seminar would be nice.

Yes…a famous quote, borrowed and modified from one of my favorite authors. And maybe it should have remained firing squad, for leading up to the presentation, that’s how I felt….a condemned man standing before the firing squad.

It all started about six months ago. I am the Director of Education for the New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association, NHLSA, and one of my charges is to coordinate and set up educational seminars. We usually try to have them coincide with a quarterly meeting of the Association, so that the members can take advantage of a travel day and obtain both some continuing education credits and hopefully, learn something new.

I had an idea, a theme to build on, from the previous Spring seminar, and so I set about to pull together the players and then step away and let it happen. Wrong. I had contacted a couple of fantastic presenters and things seemed to be going on track until the details started to emerge. One of my presenters, a prominent local author, had a program that probably wouldn’t fit with the time of year we were presenting, due to cold weather and snow. I spoke to my friend Dave, the other presenter and a very well respected and prominent surveyor. He suggested a couple of other guys to ask and some ideas of how we could set up the program, with little cost to the Association, as well. In this conversation, he quietly slipped in “..and you could do an hour or two on wetlands.” Sure, I blurted without thinking of what that meant.

The months pressed on, and pretty soon, it was two weeks before the presentation. As the team began to touch base and coordinate, I began to sweat. I love people, I really do, I like seeing people, watching people, getting to know people, just not necessarily talking, being the focus of attention… especially presenting to a group who are there for the express purpose of listening to me. I decided that it wasn’t a big deal, I present to groups all the time for my job, and I started to pull together something. I made an outline of what I wanted to talk about, and started on a PowerPoint presentation, as that seems to be the modus operandi of the presenters at our meetings. So far so good…or so I thought. Everyone else around me…those who know me anyway…could see the change in personality…the fear building inside me. While I was actually engaged in preparing the presentation, I was fine… even excited and enthusiastic about my topic. The rest of the time, I began to feel like a condemned man.

The worries and fears began to mount. Of course, I had selected the after lunch time slot…the power point kiss-of-death. The other presenters were talking about things related to boundary surveying, research and physical evidence, while I was talking about wetlands, something none of them are licensed to practice (unless they are also Wetland Scientists). I’m dead! What if I can’t talk…or what if, God forbid, all my work comes out in about a 20 minute talk and I’m left standing listening to crickets for the next 30-45 minutes. What if the computer doesn’t work and I’m left with paper in my hand and nothing to focus on except the crowd….the firing squad.

Of course I had the support and help of friends and family. My wife, Tracy, more than anyone, understood my suffering and tried to allay my fears and calm my nerves. A few friends at work, and scattered around the world offered encouraging words and support. I focused on their words and good vibes.

The day came…the presentation loomed. I sat through Brian’s presentation, then Dennis’s, then it was lunch. I wasn’t hungry, but I managed to stuff down a few pieces of chicken to stop the shakes and the rumbling in my stomach. I left the lunch early and went back to our room to set up. I plugged in my memory chip into Brian’s laptop, only to find that it had an older version of PowerPoint and wouldn’t play mine….aaaagh. My head started to dance and the heat seemed to rise to 110 deg in the room. I took a deep breath and went and grabbed my laptop, and after fumbling with the wires and software, got everything to work….whew!!!

Brian, Dave and Ed came up, and each offered their own words of encouragement. They sat scattered around the room. Deep Breath…I didn’t even hear Ed introduce me. I then welcomed everyone back and a few friends in the front row joked around with me…we laughed about the fact that it was after lunch and it didn’t matter if my presentation was interesting…they would be sleeping anyway.

Then, something happened. A couple things anyway. A gentleman in the audience, Randy O. asked me some questions and provided some comments. a few others began asking questions and I started answering. I knew my subject. I kept presenting and pushing onward, and I noticed people writing things down. Wow!…I said something that someone wants to remember?!? There were a few nodders in the group (it was after a lunch of heavy carbs and cheese…I would have been dead), but even they woke occasionally to participate. All of a sudden, Brian was smiling at me and pointing to his watch…and I was on the last couple of slides. A half dozen questions answered later and I was done…with my talk running 10 minutes over and a group of interested people to boot.

I went up stairs for a drink of water and to sit down, let my adrenaline burn off. A number of people went by and told me they enjoyed the presentation, and a few approached me with more questions. I was shaking, a bit numb, and yet feeling a little euphoric at the same time. I called Tracy immediately to tell her I was done and alive. The rest of the day…and in fact the rest of the weekend went by, so slow and tranquilly. I felt a huge weight lifted and yet something else too. I conquered another fear… I did something new and exciting, something that I’ve always admired others for doing and being able to do… I was one of the presenters… a teacher… a somebody… I turned another corner.

Many days later, as he sat in his office, contemplating another blog, Russ Huntley remembered those blurry minutes after his wetlands presentation when he promised his friend Dave that giving another presentation would be nice.

Brian Burford, Dennis McKenney, Dave Mann, and Me…all smiles…all done!

2010 Garden Journey ~ The first sprouts

2010-03-29T11:24:00.001-04:00

My garden journey has begun again this year. The first sprouts are up!

Last weekend, in a spurt of pent up energy, waiting for the growing season to commence, I did the un-thinkable here in chilly New New Hampshire…I tilled the garden and planted. For most people, and for most things that you are planting in the garden, Memorial Day, at the END of May, is the traditional garden planting date. True, the snow was gone and weather had been in the 60’s for a week or so, but we often get snowstorms and sub freezing weather all the way into mid-April. Maybe I pushed it a little.

I have always enjoyed gardening, as a hobby, as a means of artistic expression, and even as kind of a moving meditation. Part of the joy is to do everything organic, no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, very little or minimized carbon footprint (except for maybe the roto-tiller.) So, ever since I was a kid growing up in Westmoreland, reading organic gardening magazines, making garden plans and planting my gardens, I had learned about and wanted to try something called a green manure. It’s an organic gardening concept, where you plant certain things in the fall or early spring, plants that have some beneficial properties for your garden, and then just before planting time, you till them into the soil.

Some plants draw and free up potassium and phosphorous from the soil, some add nitrogen, some have deep, penetrating roots that break up the subsoil. Some just grow very fast and add a thick leafy matter to the soils to help build up its organic content. One of the plants I chose, Mustard, has an oil that is toxic to fungi and nematodes, both of which can make a beautiful garden go to crap in short order.

So… last week I tilled the soil and planted a mix of buckwheat, field peas, spring oats, vetch and mustard. Of course, that was the end of the the two week warm spell of 60 degree weather and it turned cold and rainy. Oh well, I thought. I’ll have to buy more seeds and try again. But yesterday… all my little seeds have sprouts and are starting to grow.

If it works out well, I’ll do it again next year, as well as hit the garden with the new manure source of 25 chickens that we will be getting in May. Maybe I’ll be able to grow pumpkins the size of a VW.

Next time on Life as Russ ~ How I survived the NHLSA Spring Quarterly

The Human touch

2010-03-14T00:57:00.001-05:00

I was thinking about something this morning… What! He thinks? You ask yourself. Yes..on occasion.

I was thinking about sitting on the couch with Tracy, Molly, Chris, Kevin, Jacqui, Dan…maybe all not on the same couch, but two small couches and one coffee table. Maybe a Monday night, a hot summer night, a few glasses of wine or beers, it’s dark outside, it’s dark in the room except for the glow of the TV, we’re sleepily watching a movie. Nobody is really talking, but everyone is relaxed, leaning on each other, legs piled on the coffee table. My Tribe. No personal space…just a big pile of friends.

Then back in time…Fiske Hall…Me, Jeremy, Jason, Brian, Mace, Donna Lee, Katie-O so many others…watchin Letterman, again, piled onto couches and chairs…eating Ramen. Late night conversations.

From there, I went back further, perhaps because I’ve reunited lately with family and friends who are now spread out across the country. I remember so many family gatherings and reunions; or just summer get-togethers; at Nana & Bup’s or at Grandma’s. I was one of the youngest cousins. I remember games of tag, wiffle ball, lots of food, hanging out on the porches and back steps. In love all with mis primas and wanting to emulate all my cool primos. Ice cream! Quicksand! Swing on the Big Elm. More wiffle ball in the back yard. My aunt’s swimming pool. Sleep-overs. Kids piled in blankets on beds, sleeping bags, couches.

I don’t have much to say, really…just reminiscing… looking at memories from a distance. We are all spread out now. A few phone calls, maybe; a visit now and then; or now, the internet, brings family and old friends back together. Little snipets of conversations and some nice pictures. Pictures speak 1000 words….it’s true. Amazing…the internet.

Now I’ve met and started some great correspondences with new people, because of the internet. Even made a couple of friends, I’d say. The internet allows us to talk to people all of the world…from close by like New York, to far away places like China, Italy and Australia. Different lives and experiences in different places. Different ways of speaking…even different languages.

The common thread here…not what you might think. It’s dinner. It’s shaking hands and hugs. Its sitting on the couch. It’s blankets….. It’s actually none of these, because whether its family, old friends, or new friends…the internet allows us to talk and visit like never before, but it leaves a big gap. One that, for me, feels like a hole that never seems to be filled. There’s no human touch.

Music makes you bulletproof

2010-02-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

I think sometimes life takes a look at what your doing and decides you need a little knock in the head, a little “wake up and smell the roses,” a “drink your coffee and lets get going.” In the past week, I’ve had a number of little signs put before me, messages from the great beyond saying, “Hey…listen, here’s something you should do” “Oye, güey, necesitas despertarse!”

I’ve gone thought phases in my life where I have been very outgoing and other phases where I’ve been somewhat of an introvert. It seems in the last few years, the later has been the case. Even to the point that family gatherings or school functions give me great anxiety. I don’t know why. I don’t like being like that.

Then there’s that little part in side me, that voice that is constantly challenging my introvertedness. I join boards and committees, where I have to make presentations. I have to go to planning and zoning boards for clients and present projects to the town and abutters, sometimes who are not particularly happy about the project that I am presenting. Last year, I took a conversational Spanish class, where I not only had to speak in front of other people, but speak in a language that I didn’t know very well and I had to try to hold a conversation. Lately, not only have I organized a seminar for this spring’s quarterly NHLSA meeting, but I’m going to be a presenter. I seem to volunteer and step into the nightmare constantly. I can’t seem to help myself. The little voice wants me to enjoy it, and it keeps urging me to take one more “no thank you bite”

Then the other night life had had enough. Another opportunity to rise above the anxiety and fears was in the works, and I was miserable. I was waiting to go to a planning board meeting, a meeting in my own town. A meeting where I knew that there were contentious people who planned to attack me in public. A meeting where the owner and president of my company would be presenting another project following mine…I would be on many stages. I had a bit of nerves going. Then, a couple little things happened in the course of a ½ hour that brought me just a little enlightenment.

I had about an hour to kill before the meeting. So to relax, I decided to sit down and read my book a bit. In the story, the characters were about to descend a very steep mountainside scree slope. All were terrified. One of the characters told the others to embrace the fear in order to find the joy in the descent. I’ve heard this before in real life. An article in Men’s Health talked about the very same subject. The characters began their descent and there were many perils, dangers and almost death experiences on the way down. But…by the end of their descent, they were exhilarated and high on endorphins…they felt the rush of passing danger successfully. An interesting chapter to read, on this of all nights.

Then it was almost time to go, so I decided to check my Facebook page before I left. Earlier, I had posted a portion of lyrics from a song that I recently discovered and like. The song has good positive lyrics and a poppy, up-beat, reggae-ish rhythm that picks me up. It’s an easy song to play on guitar, and my daughter Grace loves it. We sit on my bed and I play, while we both sing. She made me give here a set of the lyrics so she could learn the song and practice. We even talked about maybe performing the song (me on guitar and both of us singing) at her school’s talent show this year. I was all for it, (Daddies have no fear) but in my head afterwards I thought, Damn! Jumping into discomfort yet again. I had commented as much on Facebook and a good friend posted “ha ha, no fear. you're on guitar? Music makes you bullet proof.”

That’s when something clicked. I thought about that, and about the scree slope, and about the article in Men’s Health concerning anxiety and doing things that REALLY scare you to numb yourself to common daily anxieties. I thought, what if, instead of dreading this meeting, and making my fears a negative thing; what if, instead, I looked forward to the meeting. Change my outlook. Look at it as a chance to run down the scree slope, bullet proof. So I did.

I’m not saying that I wasn’t nervous, but it felt different. I was also exhilarated and found myself chatting up a number of people before the meeting, AND enjoying it. I came home and was positively POSITIVE, UP and AWAKE. This is the way to be. This is how I want to be.

I’m sure I’ll need a reminder now and then, but I think that night, Life was sick of me not listening.

You’ve got mail.

2010-01-26T14:11:00.001-05:00

Remember the Mailbox? I mean that metallic can with a door, stuck up on some post. It is usually found along a town road, at the end of a driveway, at least in the rural town that I grew up in. The mailbox is one of my favorite places in the yard. Although, no, it’s not a feature begging for exhibit in prominent Landscape Architecture magazines. It is just a functional item.

My mailbox is a dented gray can on a 2” pipe stuck in a tubular shaped base of concrete. It’s not even a permanent feature. The snow plow, bored high school students travelling on our lane, and even an occasional falling branch from the big oak trees spread out overhead, have endeavored to reposition it. It is just a plain, ugly thing, and yet it is a portal. Every day things are deposited in that can, things for me, Tracy, the kids, the current resident, or postal patron. And every day, I look forward to pulling up to the mailbox, in my truck, as I arrive home from work, to see if there are any goodies in there for me.

Yes Folks….Goodies. I love mail. I’m sure that’s not too much of a surprise to those of you, my friends, who know me and to whom I shoot off various E-mails, letters, notes, chats, tweets and pokes to on a regular basis. Here, though I am talking about mailbox mail. The tangible stuff. Stuff I can read, no matter whether I’m in the truck, sitting at the fire pit, sitting on the couch or laying in bed. Now maybe I’m not talking about the mail that says I owe $400 for an oil delivery or that the mortgage is due. Really, I don't look forward to those letters. You can keep ‘em, Billing Departments!!

I DO, however, love my magazines, postcards, letters, packages from my professional organizations, DVDs and books from clubs…you get the picture. These are little presents. Stuff for me to open, stuff that I enjoy reading or looking at, delivered to me, each day, at MY mailbox. Automatically. I just show up at the mailbox, and there they are, all shiny and packaged in plastic, or tucked into big brown packs, or crisp white letter envelopes.

I have loved mail since I was a kid. My brother and I used to sign up for all the seed catalogues, free calendars and farm catalogues advertized in the Old Farmers Almanac. From then on, every day, we would get little presents from the postman. Craft-matic adjustable beds spent a lot of money on paper and postage on account of my brother. He took the the love of mail even a few steps forward and wrote to a dozen or so pen pals around the globe. I had a pen pal for a while, too…Nimi Ibrahim from someplace in India. A letter from Nimi was like Christmas. The idea that somebody, somewhere in the world, was thinking of me and took the time to jot down their thoughts on paper and send them to me was so wonderful.

Most of the mail I get now is in the form of magazines. I love my magazines! Every Friday, Entertainment Weekly, and once or twice a month I get Discover, National Geographic, Men’s Health, Rolling Stone, POB, ACSM Bulletin, Salis, People en Español, The Benchmark, The TBM, American Heritage and my newest, Hobby Farms. These are what I look forward to, they provide so many hours of entertainment or education, or both.

So I have an idea, which actually prompted this blog posting. It would be fun to receive and send stuff from my friends and readers who follow my blog, here and through Twitter or Face book.

Send me a note or a postcard. Or put a signed picture of yourself, or a copy of your favorite take-out menu, or a small coin or item from your locale. I’ll follow up with something of the like from here in Cheshire County. I think it would be fun to start correspondence with others from around the country or around the globe and have something more tangible that a few bytes of data on a server somewhere. Maybe if it turns out successfully, I’ll start a blog series about the stuff I get, where it comes from, depending on how much, if any, response I get.

You can send mail or postcards to:

Russ Huntley
331 Poocham Road
Westmoreland, New Hampshire, USA 03467

We’ll see how the experiment goes. I’ll let you know.

Back to the Drawing Board

2010-01-24T16:37:00.001-05:00

So, I still haven’t settled on anything that really grabs as far as my blog goes. I’m back to my original template for now. We’ll see how it goes.

And please, let me know if you like this version better than the darker version I’ve had for the past week or two.

I know; if it’s not worth reading who cares, but just as in fine dining, presentation is very important, so I’m struggling with coming up with something I want to continue with.

I also wish I could get an Uncial font to work, but I haven’t been successful so far.

A new look

2010-01-15T11:57:00.001-05:00

Well friends, here it is; a new fresh look to my blog. This is in part because I wanted something new to look at, but mostly because, in trying to edit and fix some problems with my previous template, I caused major blog template trauma.. I dubbed around with a number of different ones, and I still haven’t settled permanently on this one. Let me know what you think. I may make a few changes here and there over the next few weeks or so, and try different things out.

Belyashi

2010-01-08T11:58:00.001-05:00

So I made these little lamb pies the other night. I got the recipe out of this cool book and I wanted to try something.

The recipe called for fresh or ground lamb and caramelized onions for the filling. Well…I didn’t have the fresh lamb, but as luck would have it, I had 1/2 a lamb roast from a gift that a buddy at work had given us for Christmas. Tracy had cooked it with a cranberry ginger sauce and it was so delicious, so I minced up about 1/2lb of the leftovers in the fridge for this recipe, including generous portions of the sauce. I also used shallots instead of onions (again, left from a previous recipe and not standard fare in the pantry) and added some minced dates and a pinch of Garam Masala at the end…just for a little zing.

The pastry dough is rolled out in little squares, very thin. You put a scoop of the lamb filling in the center and fold/crimp the pastry around it, leaving a small open area at the top, then flatten with your palm. Then you fry them in a small amount of peanut oil, first the open face, then the bottom, At the end, you add water to cover the bottom of the pan and cover for 30 seconds to steam

I haven't made a lot of pastries, so they didn’t come out pretty. They DID however taste fantastic! I wasn’t sure if the kids would eat them….they both gave the plate “the look.” One bite though, and it was a feeding frenzy.

My first pastry experiment and it was a success. I’m sure with more practice, they will also LOOK delicious too. How something looks is such a big secret to how it ends up satisfying the palate. (and really, the choice of an aquamarine dinner plate was NOT key)

I’m not much a sweets person (except for chocolate, which I DO love). I’m more of a savory and spicy cook, I like to cook things that excite the senses. I’ll be making more of these in the future and experimenting with other little pies as well.

Take care

2010 is upon us!

2010-01-02T22:45:00.001-05:00

So it’s finally here…2010. Since the Solstice, we've been sitting by the fires, hibernating in our dens; eating comfort foods, watching movies, napping, playing on-line, re-connecting with friends and family, old and new. As this weekend draws to a close and our annual hibernation is over, it’s time to re-emerge into the world. The winter is far from over, but already the sun’s weak energy is influencing us to action and motion.

Years ago, in a previous life, I was sent to a Dale Carnegie course, kind of a promotion and transition in the place that I worked. I actually got a great deal out of that course. One of the things that has stuck with me all these years is a tool to use, a successful method to help achieve ones goals in life. Simply put, you have to put your goal out there into the cosmos.

Setting a goal for yourself, and keeping it to yourself, often times relegates that goal to the dreaded “Someday” list. Publicizing your goals on the other hand, gives you motivation, especially if you tell people who you love, that you look up to, who you respect, etc. For some reason it works to give you some kind of responsibility, a commitment or pledge, even if only imagined, that is harder to break. It’s not a guarantee, but it is a great motivator…and as I’ve always found…ANY help in the right direction is GOOD help.

So in keeping with this theory, I’ would like to offer to you, my dear friends and readers, my lists of goals and resolutions for the coming year….my voodoo for making my dreams a reality, if you will. And of course, being a Virgo and a compulsive list-maker and categorizer, it’s all listed out below, with pictures and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.

Personal goals

Continue my Spanish Studies. I feel pretty comfortable reading, and not so bad at writing, but my verbal skills are still pretty poor. This year I will focus on actually talking to people. (Se tiene que mover la boca, como dicen mis amigos). I’ve developed a love and passion for the language, thanks to a few friends, now it’s time to USE it.
Continue writing. Sounds simple. I’m going to add to this simple task the added depth of developing my two blog series into something I publish monthly…something with a little more substance. I’ve been inspired by two of my favorite blogs “you don’t have to read v2.0” & “aromasysabores”. and I want to step it up…to be in the same league.
Take another family vacation this summer. Although plans aren’t really made as to destination, I would like to go for a week to some place like Colonial Williamsburg, Quebec City, or Washington DC. Maybe a week’s tour of the 19+/- Smithsonian Museums. Something for us to remember as a family, to learn from and enjoy together. Another family camping vacation at the end of the summer is also in the queue.
Get a passport for myself and the family. I guess this is probably kind of critical if we want to go to Canada or Mexico in the near future.
Begin, in earnest, the long dreamed of Tavern…at least the plans. It’s a far reaching goal involving an Inn/Tavern, the sea (or maybe a river), a boat, a small surveying business in a side office, cooking, live music, and other, as yet unpublished thoughts. Breakfast and dinner only.
Start the process to become licensed as a surveyor in Massachusetts. I’ve passed the national exam and have my NH license. Just need to build a portfolio, and apply for the Mass State exams (written and oral) I’m going to sit for the exam in October, as it’s too late to apply for the April examinations.
Become more involved in my professional associations; NHLSA, NHANRS & GSDI.
Continue the quest and devote my free time at home to beautifying the yard with gardens, fences, walls, plants, flowers, etc. The plan evolves as I do stuff, so who knows what the final outcome will be. Right now I have in my mind to: finish the split rail fence down the south side of the driveway and out to the woods; cut down the dying trees; plant 4 apple trees in the front “orchard”; continue the “wetland” garden with more blueberries, cattails, winterberry holly & cranberries.; clean up the bank behind the house; finish off the driveway bank with more rugosa roses and a stone retaining wall near the house; build a new compost bin; more/new chickens and a new coop location near the shed
Host a summer bash, hopefully a solstice party.
And as always, step up the workouts and health conscious dietary choices to get back to “fighting form”

It’s a lot of stuff, I know, but for me, the more the merrier. It’ll take me all year to do it all, whether I have one goal or a hundred….might as well fill my dance card.

Thanks for listening and please people…hold me to it!

The passing year in review ~ Stuff I did in 2009

2009-12-31T10:45:00.001-05:00

Well, folks, it’s almost over…2009. Last year, I wrote about a few of the goals I had for 2009, and how I hoped to better myself in the coming year. I thought I’d let you know about some of the things that have happened, some of the things I’ve done and some of the things I’m proud of. Then it’s time to plan for the the next year.

2009’s goals

I have blogged about most of the things that I’ve been proud of, as far as accomplishments go. I guess this blog has really served to fulfill a couple of the goals I had for last year. I wanted to write more, to express myself, and to publish my thoughts for others to read. I think this probably also has become an artistic endeavor. I started two series on my blog, Good Eats in Town, and Our New England Life. I hope people have enjoyed reading them.

I worked pretty hard and consistently studying Spanish, too. I took a conversational Spanish class and continued my studies at Spanishpod. Spanishpod has been invaluable, and not only have I learned a language, but I met new people from around the globe and have made some REAL friends, too.

I spent many other hours, last winter, exploring artistic endeavors with water colors and pen & ink. I would fall into my pad, and emerge exhausted, hours later, with a creation, and expression, or just an exploration. During the summer, I expressed myself with a more tangible medium of wood, soil, seed & stone. I shaped and worked the natural world around me and built things in the yard, some just for the fleeting season, some for enjoyment for years to come.

2009’s projects

Every year I write a list of projects that I would like to accomplish. For years, they were the same old projects, put in the Someday category. For some reason, something has changed in the last year or two. Really for both Tracy & I and the family…so many changes. I’ve gotten rid of, at least in my head, the Someday category. Someday is where you put things you don’t REALLY plan on doing. I just started DOING, instead. This was also reflected in what we did as a family, taking vacations, doing stuff together, bettering our home. I’ve blogged about all this stuff already, so I won’t bore you here with all the details. I just wanted to post some of the things we did, things that I built, just to share, and to say “look what I did!” Kind of a pictoral chronology of my favorite accomplishments.

The hand hewn gate

Fenced and planted my garden

The Trellis

The fire pit…”Brad”

Visit to Fort Ticonderoga and the Gardens

Acadia National Park Vacation

The Garden gate

The Shed

Christmas Dinner 2009

All of the good photos are courtesy of Tracy Huntley, My lovely wife and very artistic photographer

So there you have it…a sampling of some of the things I did and am proud of over the past year. Of course, there is so much more…but this is getting long and I have to go….New Year’s Eve preparations are still yet un-prepared.

Thanks to my beautiful wife, my fantastic kids, loving family, old friends who have always been there, old friends I’ve reunited with, and new friends who have come into my life.

Happy New Year!! See you in 2010!

Christmas Dinner menu - 2009

2009-12-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

Every year we host a Christmas dinner at our house for the family. The meal has become a tradition, with few variations…this coming year being no exception. Although subject to change, this is what I am planning on right now.

Appetizers

Smoked trout

Cheese board

Parmesan stuffed dates wrapped in bacon

Entre

Coriander crusted Standing Rib Roast

Cedar Plank-Grilled Salmon with Cilantro Pesto

Scalloped potatoes with goat cheese and herb de Provence

Green Beans with Bacon and Shallots

Frijoles Charros

Cranberry Sauce with Crystallized Ginger

Apple Pie, Mincemeat Pie, 2 more pies (undecided)

By the guests

Appetizers

Bread

Wine

Soda

More Deserts

Winter Solstice Celebration ~ 2009

2009-12-20T20:32:00.001-05:00

Winter solstice officially takes place at 12:47 pm, Monday, December 21st. The solstice signifies different things to different people. It is considered the first day of Winter, the beginning of the winter season. It is also the shortest day and longest night of the year.

We have noted the solstice many ways over the years. As a kid, it was always just the first day of Winter. An exciting time, and quite often, the first day of the Christmas school holiday.

Later on, while exploring different theologies and beliefs, we discovered that Solstice had a spiritual meaning to many folks. We started celebrating the solstices and equinoxes and the natural rhythms of the earth. Not necessarily as a religious experience, but as a recognition of those rhythms. I spent most of my waking life out of doors and felt very attuned to nature’s changes. I meditated daily and followed my own spiritual path. I felt a part of the earth.

Some years we invited friends over for a big bonfire, snacks, drinks…a big party outside. Other years, we hosted a Solstice dinner with the family. In fact, the solstice dinner evolved into the Christmas dinner that we host now. Two dinners in one week was just a little too much.

The last few years, probably more like eight, we haven’t really celebrated solstice, as in the past. I’ve spent too much time inside at a desk. We lost sight of the things that really made us happy and that made us feel at One with all. In fact, at least one year, we forgot all about it. Other years, we noted, the night before or day after, “Hey, did you know solstice…”

I think that in these past two years, we have had a great awakening. I’ve begun to re-discover the things that I love to do, and to pursue those things again. Over the past year, I blogged about much of the things that I enjoy and those re-discoveries, such as my garden, landscaping, building things with hand tools, writing, art and learning new things.

Solstice is a re-birth. The sun and its light have been waning every day since September. Once Halloween rolled around, there has been, and always will be, more darkness than light to each day. We go to work or school in the dark, drive home in the dark, and our outside activities are limited by the amount of daylight left each day. Finally, the solstice arrives. The first day of Winter. Old man winter has barely cast his icy breath over our world. There are many weeks yet to come of ice and snow and deep winter is still ahead. And Yet…The sun is already on its return path. Each day from now on, the day grows a little longer, a little brighter. Before the solstice, we were heading into both the dark and the Winter. Solstice reminds us that although the winter still has yet to come upon us, the sun and warmth are on their way back.

This year, we are going to recognize and celebrate, in our own small way, the end of the darkness and return of the sun. Tonight is the last night that the sun is still waning. Tonight, I’ll let the fire in the woodstove die out, and prepare a special log for the morning. We will light a special candle at our advent table, a light to carry us through the final darkness until the light returns tomorrow. In the morning, to symbolize the re-birth of the sun and the new year, we’ll re-light the fire in the woodstove with the flame from our Solstice/advent candle. In reality, the darkness will carry through until the calendar new year for us. We’ll spend the Christmas season, warm and safe in our den, sharing food and gifts with family and friends. And when 2010, the new year, arrives, we will come through on the other side.

Happy Solstice to all of you, my readers, my old friends, my new friends, my family. Tomorrow, the sun, still pale and weak, and undoubtedly cold, returns.

The first snowfall

2009-12-06T18:37:00.001-05:00

Photos by Tracy Huntley

Another great weekend. I love the cold weather and snow. I does play havoc with my business, but I always feel sooo good after spending a day outside in the snow.

Yesterday it started snowing around noon. Grace & I were stacking wood. We passed the whole afternoon. back and forth from the driveway to the shed. Just as it was getting dark, we came inside, cleaned up quick and then went to Keene for Graces Spiral Walk at Waldorf. Its a cool ceremony we do every year at this time. Afterwards we went to Amiccis for the usual…a large pepperoni pizzas, buffalo tenders with blue cheese and 4 drinks. We came home, put the kids to bed and dubbed around until SNL at 11:30.

Today, Grace & I spent the morning stacking the rest of our wood for winter in the shed. Later on the kids started sliding and I hung up Christmas lights on the fence and arbor/gate. Tracy took all kinds of pictures; she is working on a new art project that is pretty exciting. I think it goes on display/tour sometime in April.

I made one of my favorite crock pot soups, Caldo Verde, this morning. So here we are, it’s cold outside, Winter has set in, at least for the night. The fall chores are either completed or given up for the year, most of the Christmas shopping is done, or at least planned and there isn’t much left to do but enjoy the season. There’s a warm fire in the stove, the Christmas tree lights are lending a wonderful ambiance to the living room and everyone is relaxed and enjoying a few minutes of play before dinner.

Desayuna

2009-12-02T08:39:00.001-05:00

Huevos revueltos con chorizo y queso, frijoles charros, uvas verdes y cafe.

La desayuna se veïa mejor en casa y por supuesto era muy muy sabrosa. Me gusta ésta desayuna, es uno mis favoritas

Thanksgiving day festivities

2009-11-28T09:39:00.001-05:00

Another year..another wonderful thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving meal was awesome! As usual, there were so many delicious treats and hors d’oeuvres before, as well a fantastic soup, that by the time the main meal came, I had to take small portions, probably just as well…I still had to waddle back to the couch for football. After a while, we had desert and played games. The deserts were incomparable, as always, but my favorite was a 3 layers chocolate pie and a tiramisu cheesecake. Qué rico postres!!!

For many years we’ve gone to Tracy’s Mom & Dad’s house on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday night or Sunday morning. That was back when we had less animals at home, the kids were babies, her sisters still lived at home and often, others stayed as well. We’re all older now, with responsibilities elsewhere, so the nomadic life is less spontaneous. This year we made the trip on Thursday morning and left on Friday, after lunch. A shorter visit, but still, great to see everybody and enjoy a fabulous meal!

The weekend in review…

2009-11-23T06:54:00.001-05:00

Friday

Didn’t make it to the cinemas or even out on Friday night. We wanted to see 2012, I’ve gotten mixed reviews. the fall back was Saturday night.

Saturday

Did chores Saturday morning and then worked out. a big workout, new routine…very intense and now I’m still very sore. Raked leaves in the afternoon

Saturday night Tracy, the kids & I went to an open house/ coffee house cafe/ open mike thing at the new Waldorf High School in Keene. What a great time! Kids and adults performed. There are a lot of talented people at our school.

Things that stick out in my mind: a song with acoustic guitar and accompaniment by one of the kids on violin. It was awesome! Also, a girl in 9th grade, Lydia, my daughter’s “8th-grader”, kept coming back up and doing a “blond joke” routine…she of course is blond and a dead ringer for an older version of Grace. Grace was so inspired that at the end of the show, she got up and did a little something. Another kid, a 9th grader, had written a song, and after performing a couple times already, got up and did his own song.

I can’t believe this community at Waldorf. People are excited to get up and let it out. It makes me want to learn something well enough to get up and perform. I’d love to have the nuts to get up and play guitar and sing for everyone…provided it was good ;)

Sunday

I have had such a big to-do list….some stuff has been on it for a couple years, and this summer (well actually, all of 2009), I did so many things. On Sunday, we finally raked all the leaves out of the driveway. It seems like, because it’s a low spot, that’s where all the leaves collect. I then took a pick and rake and re-graded the driveway…the center was getting way too high and our car was bottoming out all the time. That hump has been bothering me for over a year. Done!

I also transplanted the big quince bush to the other side of the driveway. One more quince and cut down the dying maple, and I can finish my split rail fence and plant two more apple trees. The apples of course, maybe even the maple tree are going to have to wait till Spring.

Made a great soup/chili that cooked all day. Came in around 4 and settled in for the Patriots. They won.

I’m still sore….or more sore in different places this morning. Luckily, I have a class all day, and more chili for supper tonight.

The Christmas “List game”

2009-11-20T14:49:00.004-05:00

Well folks, Christmas is coming, full of all those holiday traditions that we look forward to.

We always have the family come for a big Christmas dinner. I usually make a standing rib roast with orange/coriander crust, a planked salmon with basil pesto & almonds, scalloped potatoes with goat cheese and herb de Provence and string beans with garlic in olive oil. Everyone brings stuff too, so there are a couple of different salads, tons of hour de oeuvres, and bottles and bottles of wine.

Its always a fantastic party. There are so many funny conversations, dramas, drunken conversations, someone cries, someone laughs till they cry, we all overeat to the point of discomfort, and usually, after the desert, and after the wine has flowed much too freely for a few hours, we play games.

For a number of years now, my sister and her husband have been the instigators of a particular game we call the list. It’s great as a conversation builder, and gives you a little peak into peoples heads, but you do have to be fairly comfortable in your relationships. Originally, I hadn’t heard of the game (as basically, it’s a drinking game of sorts, and I’ve played my share), so I wasn’t sure whether it was a French/European origin (Bruno & Sarah have dual citizenships and travel quite a bit, so maybe its a common game from someplace else?) Maybe it’s a late 20-30’s something game. I have a friend who is married to a French guy who also plays this game, and who happens to be of the same age group, so who knows. Maybe I’m just old and out of the loop.

The game has evolved over the years, too. At first it was pretty plain, but I think it has evolved to make it seem a little less harmful to the insecure.

Basically, the game starts with the question “who is on your list”. The concept is that you have a list of people, Celebrities, famous or well known for something like movies, sports, etc that you find attractive, and that, if by some chance of fate, you met one time and the attraction was mutual, you would have a “get out of Jail free card from your significant other to spend the night with this person, go on a date, sleep with, whatever. One time/free chance. In fact, you would be obliged to spend time with that person. That was it the first year.

Obviously some very interesting observations spring out of this game. You can’t just name a name, you also have to have some reason other than the lame one of she/he is hot. Interesting enough, the ladies at the table go all out, have great lists and reasons, and get very excited over the game. The guys, not so much. A couple of the guys won’t even venture a name, but will accept some movie stars name from their wife. Others play a little more, but generally the guys are subdued and don’t act too enthusiastic. I have to admit, the last couple of years I couldn’t think of anyone either (at least not that I wanted to blurt out), especially sitting around the table with the family…who would I put on my list and why?

The game has evolved, too. Sometimes it’s just been living celebrities, other times the dead are also OK; hetero/homosexual encounters have been played, and even cartoon characters are allowed. I think the only thing really out of bounds is actual people you might be friends with, work with, talk with regularly or that you have a fairly good chance of meeting, maybe even only remotely meeting. Naming a friend, or the waitress at this shop, or the clerk at that store might get a little weird anyways.

2008
Last year, Sarah & Bruno changed it up from being a real person, that, although highly unlikely, not impossible to meet, to “who’s on your holo-deck” Think Star Trek – Next Generation. A room where a computer can make up a world full of anybody you want to interact with, you can stop, rewind, change the character etc. You can put anyone or anything in your holo deck, be any place, any world for that matter, and since its not real, there’s no chance of REALLY meeting this person, so its a little more forgiving to make some radical choices.

2009
So, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve put some thought into this year.

This year I have a list. Obviously, not too realistic, and not everyone is on it for the same reason. Most are not only beautiful, but also interesting, and seem intelligent and confident. They would be an interesting person to meet, even for coffee. There are a couple choices for just pretty..talking might ruin it. A couple inky characters, too. It’s pretty safe to say though, that there isn’t a snowballs chance in hell that I’ll ever meet any of them, but now I have a list to share.

So without further adieu, my pictorial list for the 2009 annual Christmas list game.

I’m just sayin…

One of my favorite towns, Walpole, NH

2009-11-19T11:41:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know…I’m from Westmoreland, and it took me a few years but I found my way back and now I have a great place on a quiet country road. So, in fact, Westmoreland, IS my favorite town.

That being said, there are a number of other cool places on my list (yes, I keep lists; these are on the “towns I would like to live in” or “favorite towns” lists…maybe I’ll go on about lists and the list game in a future blog, without naming any names to protect the innocent; and not so innocent); locally, Walpole & Keene, NH and Brattleboro, VT are on my favorite towns list. If I had the ducats, maybe I would pick someplace more exotic, tropical, mountainous or exciting, but I think I would always keep my place here as a retreat.

In reality (IF i had the ducats), I would love to live on a schooner; two masts, a couple of square sails too, a small kitchen, and an anchor to pull at any given time, like a small pirate ship. I would live on the boat and not have a “homeland” so to speak. It would be great to run a little tavern, eatery or Palapa on shore, serve whatever I was making that day, along with some tasty beers, and coffee. I’d keep the hours I felt, swim when it was hot, fish and grow vegetables, have chickens for the eggs. I would also hang out a sign as a surveyor and help people out with boundary problems, or laying out a water line or building or something.

Ideally, I’d be in a country that spoke Spanish, so I could use and better my Spanish skills and even help those unfortunates who showed up without a common phrases book and didn’t speak a lick of anything but English. I’d close shop every once in a while and disappear on an adventure, an escape, or to just visit home in New England. (See, even in my dream, I can’t escape calling HERE home).

So, I’ve gone way off track, folks. I meant to talk about Walpole, NH.

Walpole is so beautiful, and there are all these cool places to shop or eat…Burdick's, The Walpole Village Tavern, the Walpole Village Market are just a few. I’ve been frequenting the Market and Burdick's recently, as I had planning board meetings in town for a subdivision that I did. The Market has an awesome deli and all kinds of imported and local epicurean delights. I found chorizo, made in house, last trip. Next door is Burdick’s, and I can’t seem to stop by without picking up some cocoa powder covered cocoa beans. They are so good, bitter and chocolate. Burdick's is also a fantastic gourmet restaurant. I’ll have to do some gustatory research and devote a future good eats to a dinner at Burdick's and a night at the Tavern, also a fine restaurant.

Until then, from my Favorite Town, Ciao!

Monadnock Waldorf Craft Fair

2009-11-13T09:08:00.001-05:00

http://www.monadnockwaldorfschool.org/

Halloween in Keene

2009-11-11T22:23:00.001-05:00

Our New England Life ~ 3rd issue

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. When we were kids, I lived in a subdivision neighborhood in Keene, 100’s of houses with candy to visit, within walking distance. Mom & Dad would take me & my brother around the neighborhood to collect candy. It was all magical. After trick or treating, we went and visited my grandparents and my uncle to show them our costumes and get the extra special candy they had saved for us.

We moved to Westmoreland when I was 10, where houses were few and far between…only 2 visible neighboring houses across the field at first. We would dress up and go to the old neighborhood for the candy and goodies. Once I hit High school, I stopped Trick or Treating for a while…it wasn’t cool…Halloween parties and mass quantities of beer and other Halloween treats were the preferred venue for the evening. Later I went to Keene State, and lo and behold, costumes were cool again…especially WITH the beer and unmentionables.

I guess maybe guys always remain 10 at heart…I still love to dress up in costumes…I put on one and BECOME that character, so Halloween has remained my 2nd favorite Holiday after Thanksgiving.

Now, of course, I get to be the Dad, taking my kids around the neighborhoods. The first few years, we followed suit and hit the old neighborhood and then the grandparents and great grandparents houses, just like when I was a kid. Then for a few years, we traveled the haunted paths of Court Street. One of my best friends, Chris, lives in a huge house that looks like the mansion at the beginning of Scooby Doo. That was Halloween central, in our travels. That part of Keene really gets into it, so many people decorate and make their own haunted places.

Last year, we let Jeremiah have all the boys from his Waldorf Class sleep over at our house and we took them to Trick or Treating around the Lincoln Street, Waldorf neighborhood. Another gold mine of candy, with the added bonus of so many parents from school, either in the houses giving out candy or on the streets with their kids. Kind of a big social event for everyone.

This year, Jeremiah went to a friends house and he and his boys went trick or treating based out of one of the guys mother’s house near the school. Jem forgot his candy gathering bag, so we showed up with it and then tagged along with some of the other parents. He didn't mind and the guys included Grace as part of the crew. She loved it.

Their costumes were something else! Grace wanted to be a Pilgrim/colonial girl and Jem wanted to be a 2nd Massachusetts Militia man from 1776. They had seen these costumes at Old Sturbridge Village. Tracy started making the costumes after supper Friday and finished Saturday Morning at 5 am, just before I woke to bring Jeremiah to Keene to his buddies for the day.

Yup, I’m the cloaked figure…it actually was pretty scary after dark…

Keene Pumpkin-fest 2009, Cont.

2009-11-11T22:21:00.001-05:00

Our New England Life ~ 2nd issue, part II

Usually we don't go to Pumpkin-fest, because of the huge crowds, but this year, we bit the bullet. It’s not just the crowds, necessarily, both Tracy and I are kind of shy and anxious people, and maybe it’s the thought of meeting someone you know, what would you say? Maybe its the dizzying crowds, making us all walk around like we’re half in the bag, disoriented and cranky. So many people, so much noise, its a little overwhelming…maybe that’s why I haven't spent much time in big cities (or really any city except Boston, which seems ok)

Anyway, I digress…this year, folks, we went to Pumpkin fest at the height of crazitude! AND, we had fun. we ate, (delicious fried dough) and walked, and took pictures and bought some super delicious pineapple/habenero jelly at a vendor’s stand. So here are some pictures from a successful day. I don’t know if Keene beat the record or got back into the Guinness Book again. It was a perfect cool day, lots of music, food and crazies to watch. Enjoy!

Thank God...I'm finished!

2009-10-26T15:09:00.001-04:00

Well....not completely finished. I have this woodshed/woodworking shop I've been building, using hand tools & post and beam construction. Kind of a life sized model for adults using methods and materials circa 1800. I've got to tell you, todos, this project has been taxing my mental state for weeks. I've built, re-built, designed, redesigned, measured, re-measured and redesigned again, this foolish shed roof. You might say I get a little obsessive sometimes ;)

Work goes in phases, based on the time I have on weekends, and after work daylight hours. I've been attempting all autumn to finish the roof so I can park my woodworking tools in the shop and out of the moldy basement, and so I can stack my winters wood and keep it dry.

I wanted to completely finish this weekend, but 2 obstacles stood in my way...drenching downpours all Saturday, making working on a roof impossible, and the lack of proper funding for shingles. (I haven't been able to pick up any extra septic designs lately to subsidize my extra curricular activities) I've also been on the fence as to whether I should use cedar shakes or slate shingles.

Sunday, though...what a day! I was out in the yard by 9:00 and I worked until dark around 7pm. The whole roof is now framed and trimmed. Now all I need is shingles. Looks like slate is going to be pretty hard to come by and as luck would have it, Tracy said we have a bit extra this month, if I want to go buy cedar shingles this coming weekend.

Its soooo beautiful out to day...a perfect cool, sunny autumn day...and it's almost beyond my physical capacity to remain at work while my project lies so close to completion...but without the ducats....I'm going to have to be satisfied with daydreaming.

A day to break all records!

2009-10-18T21:50:00.004-04:00

Yes, amigos, today was a record-breaker. So much news, so few minutes to type until the shows are on. More on the records in a minute.
But first, I want to let you know that we did NOT make it to community night for Pumpkin Fest :( We were all too tired and the kids had been sick all week. We opted for TV and reading and early bed. We DID, in fact, go to the Pumpkin Fest proper on Saturday and had a great time. More on that in the next “Our New England Life, 2nd issue, part II”
So…Today started out with rain mixed with snow…the second snowstorm in New England this year and it’s not even Halloween yet. True, here in Westmoreland the snow didn’t accumulate even a smidge, but the damp, the wind and the cold cancelled my plans to finish the roof of my shed/woodworking shop. It had the makings of taking my good weekend and stomping the life right out of it. Its possible that I might even have become crabby. Only so many times you can check the weather radar before resigning to the fact that today will SUCK, because won’t get to do what I wanted to and had planned to do, all week.
Instead of letting it take me, I decided to go with the flow. I made a tasty frittata for breakfast, along with bagels and some habanero/pineapple jelly we bought at the fiesta yesterday. Qué Rico! Good thing number one (1). After breakfast, I decided to go to Keene and pick up some supplies for supper and our recently formed Sunday afternoon tradition of Patriots football and soup/stew family dinner in the living room, followed by desert and Sunday night shows.
Grace and I went to Keene. We bought our supplies and then hit a couple stores. I lost my leather Ivy cap sometime, somewhere, last week, and so we were looking for for a replacement, looking for the cost of a caphalon 12” omelet pan, for a white chefs hat and chef coat like Leo’s or Ashley's, for white table cloth for the breakfast table y de verdad, for any thing…mostly, just for fun, for spending time with my girl, Grace. We didn’t find one thing we were looking for (except for the fun). We had a great time together! Good thing number two (2)!
When we got home I started our Sunday Dinner. This week I made a delicious pozole, and Tracy made a fantastic apple pie from some apples we picked at Alyson’s. Tasty treats for Football…good thing number three (3).
We all spent the next hour or so doing our own thing, I read a little more of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, studied a little about the imperfect tense in Spanish and spent some quality time with Tracy ;) Good things four through seven (4-7) (quality time gets 2 points he he)
Four O’clock arrived and we descended to the living room for Football, a game of New and Improved Risk , coffee, cocoa and a snack plate of cotija and pepper jack cheeses, chorizo, fruit salad, apple tart and donuts…”Donuts?” you say…I know….I was hungry when we went shopping.
The record day started to build to heights hitherto unknown in this part of Westmoreland. The Patriots played this afternoon in an early autumn Nor'easter, the earliest blizzard in New England that I can remember, and it snowed really hard in Foxboro, Massachusetts all day. The game was a complete blow-out against the Titans…59-0. Not the best game for excitement, but fun nevertheless. Good thing number eight (8).
But THE BIGGEST, THE GRANDEST, THE MOST RECORDBREAKING THING OF ALL…I totally dominated and squashed Tracy and Jeremiah in Risk. “That is big?” you’re wondering? True…beating a 12 year old boy…not a feat to be proud of…BUT, whooping Tracy's ass…MAN!!!! WHAT A SPANKING!! Better than Sex (well, not really, but at least I can brag about Risk. he he) In one turn I took out almost all of ASIA and captured the third objective in order to be crowned world dominator and so I won the game.
Tracy always, always wins…always! I play for fun, but I know that I’m probably going to lose…its been that way since we met 20 years ago. Of course then, Risk involved a lot of tequila, some beer and a bowl or bong hit, and my brother, my roommates and Tracy all designed to remove me from the game first, before I could be a threat (at least in their heads, since I never win)…but even long after those days were gone, she has always won…with questions like, “What is a continent?”, “Can I use more than one dice,” “I cant decide where to place my 15 new armies, can you help me?”… (all ploys to catch the uninitiated unaware and take them before they know they've been slaughtered by a master) Yet tonight…I gave her the smack down she had coming…I revel because now that she knows the rules to New and Improved Risk…I’ll never win again…but tonight…I reign supreme!! Good thing number nine (9)
We ate the pozole and afterwards the pie and the glow was complete. The kids are off to bed and now we are contemplating re-watching a movie that I slept though last night (too tired after a long day…la pelicula…Bajo la Sal), or a show. I doesn’t matter. Maybe a haircut thrown in the mix, It’s all good.
And by the way…I WON Risk! ha ha ha ha

Keene Pumpkin-fest 2009

2009-10-16T14:07:00.001-04:00

Our New England Life ~ 2nd issue

Pumpkin-fest festivities start tonight with community night. The locals actually can come and enjoy the pumpkins, the vendors and tasty tidbit without the hordes of out-of-staters massing around Main Street and the side streets.

For years, Keene had the Guinness book record for the most lit jack-O-lanterns in one place...something like 28,900+/-. Now some bigger city has it...not quite fair for a city of 25,000 to compete with a city of 500,000, but oh- well.

We will probably carve a Jack-o-lantern or two and bring them down tonight. We'll eat some naughty food...sausage and peppers, fried dough, hot chocolate, maybe canoli, it's up in the air still. Despues de check out the sights, watch the people, and then steer clear tomorrow

None of us (the family) do well in huge crowds. We get kind of shell shocked, almost like being too stoned to walk or something and nobody enjoys themselves. Who know's, we still might stop down....lots of fun to see, smell ,taste and listen too. Live music, people in costumes, tasty treats, goodies to buy...it's a big PARTY.

Photos Courtesy of Al Braden

2009 NESS Conference

2009-10-12T13:30:00.001-04:00

Save the Date!

NHLSA 40th Anniversary Annual Meeting & Equipment Show and NESS 3 day Conference

December 10-12, 2009

Radisson Hotel, 11 Tara Blvd., Nashua, NH

Three days of New England surveyors meetings, seminars, vendors showing the latest in technology and a chance to meet and talk with fellow surveyors from across New England, New York and even beyond.

Here is a link to an updated agenda and details

For more information:NHLSA Office @ 603-895-4822 E-mail: info@nhlsa.org

NHLSA Director of Education: Russ Huntley @ (603) 355-1532 E-mail: rhuntley@sveassoc.com

Keene Pumpkin Festival

2009-10-10T08:08:00.001-04:00

It’s coming…

The Keene Pumpkin Festival …80,000 converge on Keene

Alyson’s Orchard ~ Walpole, NH

2009-10-05T21:58:00.001-04:00

Our New England Life ~ 1st issue

Last weekend, we made our annual fall excursion to Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole, about 10 minutes drive north of here. Each September or October, we try to pick a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine and fall foliage to go and spend some time at Alyson’s. We usually spend an entire afternoon.

Alyson’s is a 500+ acre orchard/farm on a beautiful hilltop overlooking the Connecticut River valley and over into Vermont. A long gravel drive winds upward from Route 12, through the apple orchard, to the crest of the hill. At the top there is small parking lot, a farm stand, a small pond for boating, a bocce court, a small playground for kids, a pen with little Bantam Chickens and piglets, an area to picnic in and a large beautiful function hall. The BBQ tent is outside the farm stand, and there is usually wine tasting, beer, and fall produce to buy. This year, there was live music, too.

This year our timing was perfect. The day turned out to be dry, sunny, with a slight breeze and about 65 degrees…completely perfect! We usually try to arrive around 11:30, in order to partake of the delicious pulled pork sandwiches that are always being created in the tent outside the farm stand. This year, we were trying to be a little more economical, so we settled for giant home-made chocolate chip cookies from the farm stand. We bought our bags for picking apples and meandered down the hill into the orchard.

After many years of tasting and sampling the various kinds of apples, we’ve decided that our favorite kind is Honey Crisp. They are, just as the name implies, crisp and sweet, with a subtle taste of honey. These apples also keep superbly, last year we had apples in the bags on our porch until they froze rock solid around Christmas time. Of course, you really never can tell from year to year and we still haven’t tried all the apple varieties, so we were forced to eat a few apples here and there before we settled on the perfect row. Even though the parking lot

was full and there were more people walking around the farm stand than we had seen in previous years, it’s still easy to find a private row and be able to play together without bumping into anyone else.

We picked apples, Jeremiah, Grace & I wrestled some, Tracy took all kinds of pictures. Tracy usually tries to find a couple of good pictures to use for our family Christmas card. She is such an excellent photographer. She has taken most of the good pictures in this blog. (the crappy ones are mine from the cell phone)

After we had filled our bags to overflowing, we brought the bags to the car and took a walk down to the big oak tree. This tree is enormous, the 4 of us together can’t reach around it. It has to be at least 250 years old.

There is this great hammock swing hanging from one of the huge branches and it is so relaxing to sit and swing in the breeze and watch the clouds drift across the valley.

Around 5 O’clock we decided to walk up the hill, back to the car and head to mom’s for supper. Alyson’s is such a great way to pass a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and something we look forward to each year.

Weekend Update

2009-10-05T09:12:00.001-04:00

Friday night -

Bought supplies after work and made JP’s Fish Tacos. They were a huge hit! Only problem is that I made them too big, more like a large burrito, and we all couldn’t move afterward. I may have been guilty of finishing off the fish in Jeremiah’s taco too :) Must learn moderation...

We ate down stairs and watched an episode of Craig Ferguson. Tracy & I watched a DVR'd episode of Trauma - some new show. It was OK...I'd watch it again.

Thanks for the NY invite. I don't have a Facebook account anymore, so I miss out on a lot of friends activities. Maybe again someday in the future.

Saturday –

Went to Tracy’s uncle Paul’s house up north (who is incidentally 2 years YOUNGER than me.) Haven’t seen his family in a long time, there are actually 3 more daughters now. (4 in total) His youngest, of 14 months, hung on me all day, giving me hugs and little presents like dollys, pieces of apple etc. What a cutie! Ken & Judy, The Jessies and Natalie (my super–cute niece) and Ray & Alice were there. It was a pretty rainy crappy day, outside and we just sat around and visited, looked at some of Paul and Doreen’s videos and ate, and ate and ate!!! We finally waddled out of there around 5:00, after spending a very enjoyable afternoon.

I liked Paul’s man-cave. Found out he ships off to Afghanistan, in 10 months I think. Paul is a huge guy, he towers at least a foot over me and he is built like Hulk Hogan. Very kind hearted, yet no one gives him, or anyone in his family, any crap. Weird to think he’ll be over there for a year.

After we got home and put the kids to bed Saturday night, Tracy & I watched Crank II. What a bizarre movie. It didn’t rate high on my list of movies, but maybe I needed to see Crank. After that debacle, we watched Saturday Night Live with Ryan Reynolds hosting and Lady Gaga as the musical guest. She isn’t what I thought. Sexy, but in a weird kind of way, I guess. Her music didn’t really do it for me.

Sunday

Got up early and made breakfast then Black Bean, Pumpkin and Turkey Chipotle chili. Went to Keene while it was still cloudy and crappy out and bought some needed supplies, then came back and listened to tunes while working on my shed. I put in in 2 more floor joists. One more to go, then the last corner brace, then the roof. All of a sudden it was 5:30, so I cleaned up and washed. We went down and watched a fantastic Patriots Game that I had DVR’d (I can’t stand watching 1 O'clock games and wasting my Sunday. Anyway, Pats won!!!)

We ate delicious chili and had brownies that Jem made for dessert. The kids went to bed after the game and I started working on an Our New England Life ~ 1st issue, until Larry David came on. Very funny, with the Seinfeld stuff. Also, we watched the season finale of Entourage...it's one of my guilty pleasure shows, but I love it. The finales always end the season completely, with a story for next year, but with current issues resolved, usually for the better. I’m glad we get to see more of Sloan (Emanuelle Chriqui) next year. Está una buenissima!

Our New England Life

2009-09-30T20:22:00.004-04:00

I’ve been thinking of another series to work on. Every so often I’m going to post something on some enjoyable trip, event or place to visit, etc, that we have done or want to do (the Huntley’s) here in New England. Probably a lot will focus right here around Cheshire County, New Hampshire, but we do get out and about some. Our trip to Acadia National Park this summer for a week was “Be-awesome”

I think there will probably be something on Pumpkin-fest in Keene, and some of our favorite local places to visit. Next week, I’m climbing Mount Monadnock with Jeremiah’s 6th grade class. With the whole Waldorf school actually...it’s Hike Day. Also, we went apple picking at Allyson’s Orchard last weekend…more on that soon.

So, look forward to a new series, “Our New England Life” coming soon. There will also be another post in my “Good Eats in Town Series,” coming very soon…

Verizon Wireless for the laptop

2009-09-26T08:58:00.001-04:00

Yes!!! Tracy bought a wireless modem and an account at Verizon yesterday. We now have high-speed internet at home (faster than the DSL thing at the office even. We’ve had dial up at 33k speed since we moved here 7 years ago and it sucked! Even MSN home page loaded so slow that I could go MAKE and pour a cup of coffee while waiting. Needless to say, I gave up playing on the internet at home years ago, only using it out of bare necessity.

The possibilities are endless, but for me, it means checking movie schedules and the weather whenever I want; looking up random trivia that assail my mind during home hours (ha ha); blogging anytime; being able to have time to do the exercises at Spanishpod; and checking E-mail. The E-mail thing is a biggie, since that’s how everyone communicates. I have a daily opportunity to check during the week, but Tracy checks hers and the family E-mail sporadically at best.

So look forward to even more babble from me !!!! ha hahahahahahahhahaahha

NHANRS - a proud new member

2009-09-24T12:42:00.001-04:00

Just found out recently that I was voted in as a new Member of NHANRS - New Hampshire Associates of Natural Resource Scientists. I've wanted to be a part of the membership for a few years now. I'm looking forward to getting to know and developing relationships with this group like I have done with NHLSA.

Frijoles charros de Leo

2009-09-22T10:33:00.001-04:00

This is one of my favorite recipes, something that has become a staple in our house...good for breakfast, good as leftovers packed with bread for lunch, good with Dinner. It's very simple to make, takes little time and you can modify it with your own compliment of hot or spicy. We like these bean with Chipotle flavor (1 chipotle en adobo) and toasted cumin seeds. Usually I use 1 can of kidney beans and 1 can of turtle (black) beans, but another option for a smokier taste is to use black-eyed peas. Enjoy! and thanks Leo and Spanishpod!

Ingredients:

2 cans of beans, un-drained

1 clove garlic, minced

2-3 chiles, serranos or jalapeños, finely chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

5 slices of smoked bacon

cilantro

salt & pepper

Procedure:

Take the 5 slices and slice them crosswise into 1/4-1/8” strips

Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil to a pot. When the oil is hot, add the bacon, onions and chiles, and let cook until the onions are golden and the bacon has begun to crisp. Add the tomato and continue to cook for a few minutes until the tomato has mixed well and reduced a bit. Next add the beans with their juice and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let cook a bit longer. Add salt, pepper and Listo!

The beans are a bit soupy and can be dished into bowls and served with cilantro, cheese or sour cream. Let the beans cook longer if you like a thicker consistency.

Disfruten!

September 17, 1966 ~ The true year that life began here on earth

2009-09-16T13:38:00.001-04:00

Yes it's true...today I am 43 years old. Tengo 43 años. I spent a little time looking back at all the stuff I've done and places I've been over the years. There are some big stretches of time where it was same old same old, especially in the beginning, and a few clusters of a lot of life changes at once. I guess the same old clichés ring true on the passage of time. A verse that come to mind is:

Life is a short, warm moment
And death is a long cold rest
You get your chance to try
In the twinkling of an eye
Eighty years, with luck, or even less

~Pink Floyd , Free four

Not that I'm melancholy, de hecho, I think as far as relationships, marriage, health, family and profession, I'm in about the best place that I have yet been to date on this tour. I've been re-born in a sense, after a tough couple of years. I work out regularly, except for the last few weeks, so I'm probably better shape and definitely stronger, than I've ever been. I've also made up a bucket list of sorts, and I've been hitting all the stuff on it. Some stuff is a "do once in your life" kind of thing, other stuff is a change of lifestyle and/or the additional of hobbies and activities that I've always wanted to do...building post and beam stuff, landscaping my yard, learning a language that I love. Family is great, professional standing is good, hopefully I becoming one of those types of surveyors that I always looked up to and admired.

So I thought it would be fun (and I hope interesting) to share a few moments and places I've been at over the past 43 years. Kind of a "this date in history" kind of thing.

5 years ago: 2004 - 38 years old

Working on my second winter here at SVE as survey manager. Living on Poocham Road in Westmoreland with Tracy, Jeremiah & Grace. Drinking lots of martinis and working lots of hours. Not actually a healthy lifestyle...soon to change.

10 years ago: 1999 ~ 33 years old

Living at Stoddard II on Juniper Hill Road and working at Clough Harbour & Associates. First year as the survey manager and NE Region surveyor, licensed as a surveyor in Dec. 2008, all with thanks to Rich Roberge, Mike Hart and Roger Monsell, as well as a many other surveyors, but those guys in particular. I've become professional, have a short hair cut and dress for business most days. Have two crews working for me. Stress level is always pretty high. Jeremiah is 2 years old and our little house is a little crowded. Still have a healthy back (broke it in 2000)

15 years ago: 1994 ~ 28 years old

I'm dating Tracy Pike and we live together at Stoddard I with Roxy, two Kitties (Thelma & Louise) and Bunny. We have an awesome garden and a big open field. Our little cottage is awesome, with a beautiful big deck, but winters are a little chilly - no woodstove allowed (we rent). I'm working at Clough Harbour. I spend a lot of time on the road as a Party Chief or field tech. Recently got my septic designers license. I keep my hair in a long braid or ponytail, down to mid back and usually have a big red beard in the winter.

20 years ago: 1989 ~ 23 years old

I'm dating and living with Diane Rickson in Medford, MA, just outside Boston. I work for Steve Marchese Landscaping for $10/hour but have the truck and equipment to use on the weekend, making $50/hour mowing lawns. Cut off my long curly hair and went with a mullet at Diane's request. Duh! Chris Rickson, Dianes brother, is one of my best friends (still is). Hang out a lot of nights in Boston at Bennigan's where Diane bartends.

25 years ago: 1984 ~ 18 years old

Freshman at Keene State College. No girlfriends, I have long curly hair, and I'm living at home for the first semester before moving into Fiske Hall in January with an old buddy. Fantastic grades first semester...no so fantastic from there-on. Lots of parties, girls and beer, thereafter as well. Hanging with Jeremy Westhaver and Jason Kyrousis. First class in Geography that led me to classes on land surveying, that led me to my present career and BA degree in Geography. Klaus Bayr, my geography professor and advisor, with his cool Austrian accent, strict adherence to detail, awesome sense of humor and love of geography really got me started. Thank you!

30 years ago: 1979 ~ 13 years old

Living in Westmoreland on Glebe Road with Mom & Dad, Dan & Sarah. My teacher is Mr. Peach. I'm in love with every pretty girl in school...to no avail. My luck with girls doesn't really change till Senior year in High School. Sam Olmstead is my best friend, and has been since I came to school here in 5th grade (still is). Reading The Lord of the Rings and other Tolkien stuff, as well as books by James Michener...first was Centennial, then Alaska, then Chesapeake, then Hawaii, and more. Got my first music device, an 8 track player, and an 8 track album ...Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf. My dog is Shiloh, a big golden retriever, foof dog, my best buddy.

35 years ago: 1974 ~ 8 years old

We're getting back there. I live at 94 Laurel Lane in Keene, NH and go to school at Jonathan Daniels, an open concept kind of school. I'm in Mrs. Mayes' 3rd grade.

40 years ago: 1969 ~ 3 years old

The world revolves around me! ha ah

So there it is, a spin around the life of Russ Huntley. I'm looking forward to a few more years and a lot more fun. Thanks to all my friends and family along the way.

Mahogany and leather bound books

2009-09-14T12:32:00.001-04:00

I love books...especially leather-bound, signed copies. My Carlos Castaneda, "The Art of Dreaming" is my favorite. Fun just to hold.

My real favorites are the little blank, bound notebooks... Moleskin with graph paper is my choice, although lined and unlined are good, too. I always carry one with me... and a very fine tip fountain pen and a mechanical pencil with a .05 lead.

You never know when some save the world, blockbuster idea, the plan for the future that beats all or the novel of all novels is going to zoop you in the forehead. Or just the next movie you want to see from the previews.

I love my books...but they're still mostly blank.

~Sam & Jen came over 2x this week for a visit. Had Dinner one night and a fire at Brad Pit and yesterday just sat around Brad and chatted. I love making dinners for friends. We almost never have anyone over except at Christmas and the kids birthdays. Really enjoyed the visits! Brainstormed some cool ideas for future endeavors.

Late summer garden and a very good day!

2009-09-03T08:49:00.001-04:00

What a crazy day...maybe even a crazy week! The day started like any other, Tracy woke first and made lunches for all of us (I love that about when school is in session - She makes the lunches in the morning and they are WAY better than the crap I pack for myself) I got up and made breakfast for all and then hit the road.

At work I had some pictures of the new garden gateway I built this summer. I wanted to share, so I attached 6 pics to an E-mail to my friends at the office, some surveyor friends, Sam, Joe, JP, Leo, Lili, Mom, Dad, Dan, Sarah, Ashley etc. I should have looked at the pic size.... 5mb each This turned out to be a problem I guess. The e-mail was so large I crashed our server for a about an hour and made some real issues for people trying to open their outlook. Sorry :)

I thought, oh great this is going to start the day off well, but in reality, it only got better. After a somewhat sluggish summer for work, this week the calls started to really pick up. Yesterday, they really started. I got requests for quotes and just plain handed out some great jobs. Even after I went home last night, one gentleman stopped at my home and asked me to survey his place and I got another call at home for another survey. More survey requests this morning on E-mail.

Another great thing...the weather. It's perfect and looks to remain so for a few days if not a dozen. Temps in the 70's, clear, dry-ish, very sunny, slight breeze and 40's at night, perfect sleeping and fire pit weather. Labor day weekend is coming and it looks to be a fantastic long weekend.

Also, had a nice chat with a friend on Windows Live. I almost never use it, but hit the button yesterday by mistake to start it, so I logged in just to see if anyone was there. Had a fun little conversation in Spanish. It's cool because you have to think on the fly, no dictionary, no spell-check. It's still not speaking, but it's better than just reading. Plus it was just cool to chat with a buddy that I've been getting to know over the last year or so. Thanks, fun talking to ya, JP!

Plus...(there's more? you say), I finally finished mowing the lawn last night and cleaning up the yard, so now it's time for the next project...the shed roof. AND...Tracy got that badly abscessed tooth finally pulled (for free, yet!) and although it hurts like hell now, we both think things will be on the mend from here out.

So anyway...here are a few pics from the garden gate and the yard...and a link to see more if you are so inclined. http://picasaweb.google.com/home

Acadia National Park ~ Fantastic Vacation!

2009-08-24T13:02:00.002-04:00

We went to Acadia National Park in Maine for a weeks vacation camping. What a fantastic time! The whole vacation we kept hitting good Karma…whatever we planned on doing, it worked out at it’s best possible. First off, I was supposed to go on vacation the week before but had to cancel, and so missed a crappy rainy week and hit the hottest, sunniest, best week of the summer.
We decided to leave late Saturday night, spent the day getting things ready. After a very late night drive, we bunked down in Augusta, ME at the last room in the last hotel – Yay!! Motel 6!
We arrived Sunday morning to a fairly empty Sewall National Park Campsite and picked our camp – Somewhere around noon. We spent the day setting up, getting supplies and picking up brochures of what to do. We went over to the Sewall picnic area later in the afternoon and played around on the rocks at the ocean until supper. We came back to camp, had a camp fire, S’mores and planned the week. I’ve learned (late-comer, maybe) that if we actually choose some things to do and plan a day to do them, we end up doing a lot of fun things on vacation. Playing it by ear often leaves us in camp until 1-2 in the afternoon, cranky, hungry and without any idea of what to do, or having missed some scheduled event that we might have liked to do.
The rest of the week went like this:
Monday - Bar Harbor Day

Rode the free Bus from Sewall to Bar Harbor
Geddy’s for lunch
Hiked out across the low tide bridge to Bar Island, played and hiked all day, Jeremiah and I followed a doe and fawn all over the island, or rather, they seemed to follow us on our hike
Ice cream at Ben & Bills and walked around shops
Caught last bus to campsite
Campfire and Bed

Tuesday – Echo Lake

Up early, drove to Echo Lake, already 90º by 10:00. Hiked up the extreme trail on Beech Mountain. Chutes and ladders, big views and cliffs.
Ate lunch at 1:00
Played at the lake all afternoon
Back to camp
campfire & supper
Bed

Wednesday – Sailing Day

Went to Southwest Harbor at noon
Took 3 hour sailing cruise around the islands and sound on the Rachel B. Jackson
Drove around the island around 4:00 then back to Southwest Harbor for Ice cream
Back to camp, ate supper late
Went & watched the stars over at the beech rocks at Sewall picnic area till 10:30.
Bed

Thursday – Acadia Park Day
Decided to stay another day as the weather was fantastic.

Drove to park headquarters, & bought a few books and maps. Decided to spend the day hiking and at Sandy Beech.
Hiked from Sandy beech to Thunder Hole along the shore cliffs. Played, rock climbed, took lots of pictures.
Hiked back to the beech around 4:00
Went swimming in an unusually warm ocean. Saw lots of Jelly Fish
Back to Southwest Harbor, to Quietside Café for Pizza and ice cream again. New favorite flavor – “Maine Birch Bark”
Back to camp for a fire
The waves were pounding and the fog rolling in late night.

Friday

Up at the crack of Dawn
Packed the car by 9:00 and headed over to say goodbye to the ocean at Sewall Picnic area
Left the island around 10:30
Home around 6:00

Going to pick out some more fun for a trip next summer. There is so much hiking and food and fun to have there!

T -60 minutes and counting

2009-08-14T15:21:00.001-04:00

This is it..vacation starts in less than an hour (although in realty, I'll still be here at the office for at least 2-1/2 because I'm going to work out before I leave.)

The whole family is pretty excited... I'm excited just to able to sleep past 5:30 am.

I'll post some pics next time and maybe do a Good Eats in Town ~ on the road edition.

Work was different this week. Not much billable, but a flurry of activity with new projects starting up, seemingly successful interviews and some BIG project proposals. I'll die if we get Enfield WMA...that is a surveyors dream job. Twenty one miles of semi-wilderness surveying and over a year to finish it. It's a long shot, I know, but man...if we get it!

A friend sent me a story by Hernando Téllez - Espuma y nada más. (Thanks Anna8) I remember reading it back in 6-8th grade days in Westmoreland (but in English) it's one of those stories that has stuck with me all these years...I'm excited to read it in Spanish. I just enjoyed a short story by Márquez that Lili posted on Spanishpod (in Spanish). I like the book group thing. One thing I've begun to realize....you just can't translate stories....You have to know what they say in the native language they are written in AND understand all the colloquialisms that the writer understood when writing it. So much is lost in translation, even the little nuances that really change a meaning of a simple sentence. Makes you wonder about the Bible :)

Still wish I had someone to regularly converse with. It's easy and comfortable enough at my own pace, talking to myself i the truck or in the woods in Spanish, but still...complete brain freeze face to face (not that there are really any opportunities anyway)

I put a wooden shingle roof on the garden gate, built I'm going to take it off and put on the cedar shingles that I got for $5. It looks so nice. My Art is my Garden and the yard is my canvas.

Does anybody even ever read this stuff? Who knows. At least it gets it out of my head :)

BRAD fire PIT

2009-08-05T08:59:00.001-04:00

Everything at our house gets a name...the car, the truck, favorite utensils, every animal...even dozens of names for each of us (the human residents), ...whatever.

Last night at Gracie's party, my brother in law Bruno decided our fire pit should have a name. We pondered for a few minutes, then my sister Sarah hit it dead on...Brad.

Brad fire Pit

Rib's rock!

2009-08-05T08:44:00.001-04:00

Here is my pretty girl...chuffing her face full of her favorite meal in the world....Ribs, corn and beans.

Happy Birthday Grace!!!

2009-08-04T12:12:00.001-04:00

Today is Gracie's 8th Birthday! She is my little sweetie and already such a cool person. We call her radical girl. We went to Canobie lake park Saturday and she is just tall enough to hit the adult rides...which she did over and over. Stuff even I wouldn't go on.

For her birthday dinner, she wants BBQ pork ribs, corn on the cob (cooked on the grill) and Leo's frijoles charros (spicy bacon/beans, she calls them...it doesn't hurt that they are from Leo...she has a crush) She seem sometimes 8 going on 28.

She has such a crazy sense of humor