10E2388: Desktop Vacation - Wintery Middlebury Vermont

This time next year real estate agents will have flogged a dead horse saturated the interwebs with drone videos of their properties. So watch this now before you get jaded. Desktop vacation to a wintery Middlebury, Vermont.

10E3287: Peru Fair 2014

Tomorrow, Saturday Sept 27th, the annual Peru Fair will crank up again in the little town of Peru near Bromley Mountain in Vermont. This craft fair has returned to its former glory. There is a full-on pig roast and plenty of other food vendors around, hay and pony rides, music, demos and clogging. What else do you need? $6 donation to the Town of Peru Scholarship Fund. Kids under 6 free. No dogs. Opening parade starts at 9:45.

The leaves are turning and it can be chilly by the end of September in southern Vermont - but the fair seems to always be blessed with warm weather - unless it pours. Rain or shine folks! 

Gettup; 10e duck canvas cap, Topo gingham shirt, double front pants, Danner Tramline boots, Norcross bandana. You will be a hero if you bring some Tabasco to the picnic table.

(Pro-tip: unwritten rule that if you hike Bromley you can ride the slide back down gratis. Have your pal drop you off at the Long Trail trailhead a mile down past the mountain and hike up). Our friends in town have revived the JJHapgood General Store - check them out - there will be a beer tent andmusic once the fair ends. After the pig roast grab a quail kabob and some gingery Switchel. This great local potter Janno Gay doesn't do the Fair so much but fantastic list of other vendors here.

"The Pig Roast starts at 11am, run once again by the Peru Volunteer Fire Department: The Pig Roast includes: pork, BBQ sauce, apple sauce, cole slaw, beans, and a roll. Roast corn is $2 extra."  12 till its gone!

 Our sleepy little town turns to this... see ya there!

10E2386: American Field - Exhibition and Market - Sept 13&14

My people! Come along to the American Field pop-up this weekend. I am fired up to speak at this thing, tomorrow, 1pm. Will save a seat for you.

Vendors, demos, music food and beer, so I hear.

10E2385: Seed Planting Bag

Illustrated forestry bag. For holding seeds and saplings. Same friend that wrote a children's book w/ an eyepatched devil, a curse and a gun called "favour" [UK spelling -ed.]. You gotta meet his kids.... #chickencoopcurse #fallingfoul

10E2384: Chappy

Crossing the line here from aspirational blogging to hitting the jackpot honestly... we had an extended family gathering for a week on Chappaquiddick, the small island (almost) attached to Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod. This was a pull-out-the-stops, every-trick-in-the-book 10e-style vacation for parents and kids and grandparents.

The 1 minute "On Time Ferry" ride costs money on the outbound leg only. Mrs 10e and I lived on MV for 1 summer together many moons ago - emotional to bring "the interns" back with us now, old enough to bike from Oak Bluffs (colloquially OB for those just joining), over the Jaws Bridge, and down to Edgartown which faces Chappy.

Party at our house. Its the one with the grey shingles...

 

Chappy has a few paved roads, but mostly dirt. Can be tricky on bicycle but you go faster than most cars as so bumped up. Running on them is a different sport. Calves scream a bit the next day. Plenty of wildlife around... see her?

 

Teaching British kids to play Wiffleball, and all manner of boats and kayaks and paddle boards  around. Rope banister ftw.

         

Fishing with cut up squid. The hits just keep coming. V fun. They only hooked me once...

This is the south east corner of Chappy - Wasque Point. The current rips left to right out there - and the inlet here can pull you when tide going out... but quiet. The Trustees of Reservations administer this area and the Cape Poge Refuge (the other big beach - site of the Kennedy carwash at Dike's Bridge...). If you are taking your car and spending time with a few adults it is worth buying a family membership $67. Good for a ton of MA wildlife reservations outside MV too of course.

We did go back to the big island twice; outings and supplies. Pro-tip, the fish store in Edgartown will deliver to the ferry for you... #gold.  Strong canvas bag game below.

Coope De Ville, OB. This place was our spot back then, still slaying the fish or fried goods. Wings come in 6 heats; mild, medium, hot, dragon fire, suicide, 3 Mile Island. Sweat rolling off my nose - lovely! #suicide So good... Hit Flying Horses carousel w/ the kids after and ridiculously one of the interns got the brass ring. It is like time travel watching that thing. Still only $2.50 a ride. De rigueur. 

Oblig lobster dinner was knockout. Huge fan of soft shells generally and they were great again. I know they can't be shipped by the big corps but why do we care? Can eat them with your hands like in Splash. We followed through and started the bisque that night. #mirepoix The house had a lustworthy set of enamel cookware, as well as cast iron, Reverware, on and on. #veryfortunate Cooking with electric - been a long time!

 

Bright-spark younger brother saved some meat for lobster roll lunches next day. This was my first ever experience with a lobby roll (right?!) - spoiled forever.

 

If you have smoked anyfish you can make pate. Freekin love this stuff. Summer on a cracker. Bluefish beignets aren't half bad either.

 

10E2383: Before We Get To "Wild"

Looking forward to the Reese Witherspoon movie Wild [Nick Hornby screenplay - ed.]. But so much good to find back in Red Dawn too. Practically impossible, but not touching the politics of it with a barge pole; just digging the looks.

[reblog from 2010 - ed.] I saw Red Dawn at our rural 2-screener the week it came out. It was my first rated R (do the math kids). Actually was PG-13, a rating they invented for this movie. Think I told Pops we went to see Mary Poppins which was rescreening around that time, hah! Must have fibbed because it was deemed violent, though seems tame now. SEE, I'm desensitized by the experience! Long/short: playing soldiers in the woods and camping out with girls?? -what 13 y/o boy wouldn't like this movie.

Never forgot the radiator scene... also Charlie Sheen is shockingly good. Denim, mesh hats, old Northface padded jackets and bags, step up trucks, hiking boots, windbreakers and crunchy sweaters. WOlveRINessS.














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