A Wicked Old Car in Island Pond, VT

One never knows what one will find on my brother's property in Island Pond, VT. He owns about 70 acres there. He built a small house there about 6 years ago. We like to joke about him being "near the grid" not really "off the grid" since he drives to East Burke to the parents' house to use the shower; do laundry; check his email; watch the Red Sox; drink beer and eat snacks.

On his property he has a brook, waterfalls, beaver ponds and even a sand pit! He's also cut lots of hiking trails around the property. The land is a drumlin - a remnant of the last glacial period (or "ice age" as some like to say; did you notice how I said "last glacial period"?) At one point the land was pasture but the trees have grown up and so far we haven't found evidence of a foundation anywhere. But perhaps the original farm house wasn't anywhere near his 70+ acres.

On Sunday when I was there for brunch, we went for walk to check out a new trail that he cut. Pete's friend Luke spied this old car in the woods and asked if it was new (?)! We went to have a closer look and it seems to me that it's becoming one with the earth. There's moss growing on it; its tires are long gone; a tree has fallen on it and even the tree is moss-covered!
Pete joked that he'd just made the last payments on the car. But the big question is: What kind of car is it? And what year?

My dad the Red Sox fan

My dad loves the Red Sox! And loves it even more when the Yankees lose. Here he is telling us how he feels about the season thus far...

Just Wondering...

How am I supposed to know which way a car is turning if they're not using turn signals?

How does the government know how many illegal immigrants are residing in the US? They say there's 8 million...how do they know?

A Wedding

Trevor's daughter, Myrrh, married a nice guy named Joe Brooks on Saturday at Bramble Hill Farm in Amherst. The ceremony and reception took place in renovated barn.

Jason, Myrrh's brother, Joanna Adler, maid of honor. The bride and groom. We introduced ourselves to the officiants but I've forgotten their names. It was a lovely ceremony.

Myrrh made her dress. It's 100% silk. My kind of fabric. We both agreed that if you have to wear something all day it had better feel good against your skin! She looked radiant.

Myrrh and Joe met swing dancing. They really know how to cut a rug, as the saying goes.

Myrrh and her proud and happy dad, Trevor.

Parking Lot Party!

Our new food coop, River Valley Market, had a Parking Lot Party last night. Trevor walked on stilts to entertain the crowd for the first hour but then ended up directing traffic and helping people find parking. It was a huge turn-out! Here he is with my friend Michele's girls, Hazel (curly head) and Lucy.

The bicycle-powered band, the Ginger Ninjas played for the crowd.

The band is on a 5,000 mile tour called the Pleasant Revolution that ends in Mexico City. They travel by bicycle and all of their instruments are pedal-powered. They had volunteers from the audience help with pedaling to power the amps.

Enjoying the music, "mind shaking love groove folk funk roots rock explosive international pedal powered mountain music for a pleasant revolution."

View from the stairs.

Raw Milk Day in Hardwick, MA

On Saturday Trevor worked at the Robinson Farm in Hardwick, MA for their Open Barn, as part of Hardwick's Raw Milk Day. In case you're wondering, in Massachusetts raw milk can be sold at the dairy but not in stores. Many people are learning of the health benefits of raw milk vs pastuerized, homogenized milk that you can buy in store. Anyway, the Robinsons live "across the street" from our friends, Eric and Lucinda who host the East Hardwick Annual Spring Jamboree AKA May Day that we attend the first weekend of May every year, rain or shine (hopefully shine, in my case). It turns out that they actually live down the street and around the corner. But in rural central MA we learned that if your cow pasture is across the street then that still counts as "across the street".

These photos aren't in the order I'd like them to be but you'll just have to put up with it. I haven't yet figured out how to upload additional photos and have them where I want them. I think I'm learning that it's the opposite of what I want it to be...

Freshly picked corn in the shop.

A gorgeous copper beech tree on their property.

Trevor goofing around with the locals.

John Deere tractors will always remind me of the "Tractor Tipping" short in the extras of the movie Cars from now on... If you haven't seen it I highly recommend the movie and make sure you watch all the extras!

COWS!

The cute little shop on the Robinson farm where you can buy raw milk, goat cheese, organic eggs and veggies.

LOVELY!

Blog Title Suggestions

Here are Trevor's suggestions for a blog title:


A Few Little Remarks
Nancy's Little Blog
A Little News from Nancy
The Other N.F.L.
Little Words & Pictures
A Little Hindsight is a Good Thing
The Little White Bunny Blog
Nancy's Notes
Little Words — Little Pictures
Everything's Little for Me
I'm a Little....
A Little Commentary by Nancy Little
Nancy Little's "A Little Commentary"
Let's Get Little
Nancy's Narration
A Little Account
I'm a Little Accountable for This
Fleetwood and All That Other Stuff
Fleetwood's in the Middle of Nancy Little
My Middle Name is Fleetwood
A Little Something for You
The Little Chronicles
Nancy's News
Nancy's News Flash
My Friends Told Me to Put a Title on my Blog
Do You Have a Good Title for This?

Mechanic-speak

I reluctantly brought my car into my mechanic yesterday. For quite a while it had inconsistently been making a high-pitched consistent rattling noise from the front of the car and on Wednesday it was louder than ever so I decided it was time. When Steve, the guy behind the desk at Ryan Imported (they work on domestic cars too, not sure if my Chevy Prizm is foreign or domestic since it's a Toyota engine but definitely a Chevy paint job), called me to tell me what was making the noise I felt very much like the dog in the comic strip where the dog's owner is reprimanding the dog and all the dog hears is "Blah, blah, blah, Fluffy, blah, blah, Blah. Fluffy.... blah... blah... Fluffy!" I was on the other end of the phone hearing "blah... blah... serpentine belt...blah...A/C compressor... blah...blah....blah...$398....blah....blah....and if you decide to do that....$678 additional..... call you later." I opted for only one repair since I'm not working and couldn't really even afford the one repair. That's what credit cards are for, right?

So, since I was home for the day without a car, I decided to call someone to come look at our washing machine which has also been making a funny noise for quite a while. Wouldn't you know it? The appliance repair person wanted me to describe the noise! Well, I'm not very good at that and wasn't expecting him to diagnose the problem over the phone so he came over around 10:30. I thought I was talking to my mechanic again! He kept talking about brakes and clutches and belts! Were we really talking about a washing machine? My head was spinning!
Once again I was feeling like that dog in the comic strip, "blah...clutch...blah...brake....blah...basket...blah...belt....$150".

Then Mr. Gauger (never did get his first name) starts telling way too much information about Kenmore appliances! Did you know that Whirpool makes them? (do I care? not really) And my model is basically the same thing they've been making since 1985... fascinating...only a few knobs are different. They're all the same inside! But if you go into Sears today to buy a new machine they're all fancy schmancy. While Mr Gauger was waxing poetically about washers I was thinking to myself how happy I was for him that he loves his job... He'll be back on Tuesday to actually fix the machine. Can't wait!

Primates and Pancakes

Our friend, Jennifer, had a house warming party today at her new home in Holyoke. She and her fella (as she calls him), Scott invited everyone they know to check out their new house, eat pancakes and listen to The Primate Fiasco band. The Primate Fiasco is awesome! They play dixieland-style jazz, funk, swing, you name it.
Jennifer with our friend Kelsey Flynn who is also friends with Jennifer. See how small this world is? Jennifer and Kelsey are friends from the comedy world. Kelsey knows Trevor cuz his kids knew Kelsey from way back when Kelsey worked at Motherwear (nursing catalog in Florence, MA.) cuz their mom worked at Motherwear. Now Kelsey is a DJ on the River in Northampton. She also is active in the theatre world in Northampton and has blog on masslive.com.

The Primate Fiasco is a really fun band! They're having a free (yes free!) show at The Elevens in Northampton on Friday the 19th of September. I probably won't go since we're hosting a pre-wedding soiree here that night.

A trip to the beach!

Yesterday, Trevor and I went to my new favorite beach, Rocky Neck Beach State Park in East Lyme, CT. It takes about an hour and a half to get there from our house. It's mostly highway so it's pretty easy. The beach has superfine sand and is shallow at low tide for quite a ways and so the water temperature can be quite nice. (above picture is not mine, I "borrowed" it.)


When we got there Trevor went immediately into the water. It was almost warm! I followed him and sat in the warm salt water letting it soak into every pore of my body! I LOVE SALT WATER! I was in the water for maybe 10 minutes when I turned around and saw something small swimming towards me. It was a baby turtle! So I quickly got out of the water and ran and got my camera!

Size comparison. Trevor's hand vs. baby turtle.

The baby turtle worked very hard to get to shore.

Made it to the beach!

The baby turtle rested on the beach for a few minutes and then hitched a ride on some waves back to the water!

Morning Glories taking over the garden

A few years ago I planted some morning glories from seed. I'd never had good luck with morning glories before but that year they came up and I built a little trellis (sort of) out of bamboo gardening stakes and hemp twine and they climbed up the trellis and onto the porch and looked lovely. When they died in the fall I just left a few vines on the ground and the following spring they reseeded themselves. They've been reseeding ever since and now it's to the point where they completely take over and are climbing on everything and anything that gets in their way. This is okay with me since just about everything around the morning glories has gone by and the garden still looks good. It's just covered in morning glories!

I like using the macro feature on my camera to get close up photos of flowers.

Am I in the right place?

If you're asking yourself if this is Nancy's blog the answer is, YES! I've decided to change the template because I didn't like the brown font of the old template and also wasn't happy with how the pictures were looking against the background. I think this looks better and I hope you do too!

No Labor on Labor Day

I spent most of Sunday afternoon writing cover letters and sending my resume to a few potential jobs, which I had to do at the home of my cousin-in-law Andrew and his lovely wife, Sarah, since the DSL was out at our house and I had a deadline of August 31st for one of the positions I was applying for. It was such a nice afternoon but a deadline is a deadline and so I spent it indoors at my computer at someone else's house. I told myself since I was working on a Sunday that I would take Monday, Labor Day, off. Even the unemployed deserve to take Labor Day off.

So, on Monday, because I had labored on Sunday, Trevor & I went to visit our friends, Don & Barbara in Bellows Falls, VT. They were laboring on Labor Day though. They had all kinds of stuff to bring to their church in Westminster West, VT for the church tag sale this coming Saturday. When we called to say we were on our way they said they were sure they'd be back by the time we got there. We arrived exactly when I said we would and they weren't home yet. First I checked all the doors to make sure they were locked. I mean, to see if they'd possibly left one unlocked. But, being the paranoid types that they are, sure enough they were all locked! Then I did my best imitation of Peter Rabbit and started snacking on their vegetable garden. The fresh snap peas were the best! When I was bored with that and in need of a bathroom I hunted around for some ferns and striped maple leaves and found a spot where I could relieve myself out of view of the next-door neighbor and the road below. Then Trevor & I noticed that there was a ladder leaning up against the back of the house that had, obviously, been there for quite a while since the grass was growing up around it and whoever mowed the lawn had carefully mowed around the ladder. Trevor climbed the ladder and discovered that the second floor windows were indeed locked. Gotta love those paranoid types. While Trevor was still up the ladder and tormenting the cat who was sunning herself in the bedroom, I went over to the porch above the garage one more time and discovered that the window into the dining room was not locked! Just as I was about to go tell Trevor that I'd found a way to break in, Don and Barbara came home! We all had a good laugh and went in the house together.

We had a really nice walk around the reservoir together despite the most vicious mosquitoes I've come across in a very long time. They were so thick that if you stopped or slowed down for just a few minutes they were on you! Once we got to the other side of the pond where there was a breeze we had some relief from the blood-thirsty mosquitoes and could slow our pace down a bit to enjoy our surroundings. No pictures from this walk though! Maybe next time.

Barbara cooked us a lovely meal and we went home happy and well-fed.

Solving Problems

After several months of intermittent DSL high speed internet service from Verizon and at least 3 phone calls to India, a technician came to the house to today to solve our problem. The technician, thankfully, was not from India (nothing against Indians). He discovered that although there was a strong signal coming into the house, somewhere along the way by the time it actually reached the modem the signal was spotty. He decided that what needed to be done was use a phone jack that was conveniently located near the computer and run a new wire to it. And, amazingly, that's all that it took to get the DSL working again. Well, he did have to go back to his central office, (where, it turns out, his boss is Indian) to check it out there and told us that we were "only" 11, 800 feet from the central office and so if we wanted to upgrade to faster DSL service we could certainly do that because we'd get a strong enough signal at the house. On his way out, he gave me his card and an 800 # for Verizon in Canada, not India. I was so grateful I gave him a couple of my homemade oatmeal cookies.