The Pepper-Pot is a collection of fantastic short stories and recipes by a group of Vermont writers. I was lucky enough to join them and pitch my story into the mix called “A Bittersweet Land.”

And if you aren’t convinced by one of the contributors saying you should check it out, have a gander at a few reviws from Amazon.com:

“Southshire Pepper-Pot is a tasty book, filled with delicious stories to be munched on slowly with a glass of wine. This is just the kind of book I love to discover and savor with recipes that top off a full-course meal of literary victuals”

Bill Morgan, Beat Chronicler and author of I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Alllen Ginsberg and Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression –Bill Morgan, author

“Southshire Roundtable has given us a tasty literary treat, a rich menu of deliciously seasoned prose and poetry that will satisfy the appetite of all who enjoy a good read. The short stories are delicious tales inhabited by people we immediately empathize with as well as by unique characters who appeal to our fascination with the strange and mysterious. The essays too are remarkably diverse nostalgic pieces about local places served side by side with insightful accounts of such faraway locations as the Middle East and Key West. The talented writers represented here are proof positive that literature of the first order is alive and well in our area.”

Lea Newman, Bennington, Vermont; Professor Emerita, MCLA and author of Robert Frost: the People, Places and Stories behind his New England Poetry and Growing Up Italian in Chicago –Lea Newman, Professor Emerita, MCLA

We fortunately had two items that saved us from a freezing night out in the woods: a cell phone and a digital camera.

It was without a doubt the dumbest thing we’ve ever done as a married couple. Hiking into the woods near sunset without flashlights is not a good idea. Nevertheless, our error was in grossly miscalculating the time of sunset.

Julie and I arrived at Bald Mountain, overlooking Bennington in southern Vermont, around 5:30 pm. We reasoned if we could reach the summit by 6:30 pm, we would make it back down by 7:15 pm. Thinking that the sun set around 7:00 pm, we never thought we’d have a problem.

Unfortunately, the sun sets around 6:20 pm during this time of year.

With 6:30 pm as our goal, we set off at a blistering pace. We scrambled through muddy muck and bounded up rocks. The trail was pretty and very well marked with blue blazes. Though a few sections with multiple turns slowed our progress, we found the gradual trail covered in brown, yellow, and red leaves a relatively easy hike.

At 6:15 pm we reached bear hollow and noticed that one last hill loomed over us. Though the sky was rather dim, we thought we would give it one last push before turning around.

After zig-zagging up switch-backs, we caught the first glimpse of the magnificent view from Bald Mountain. The setting sun cast a magnificent golden shine on the remnants of the fall colors. It was 6:25 pm, we knew we were in good shape.

A few minutes later we reached the rocky summit with meandering little paths, small pine trees, and small patches of red blueberry bushes (at least we thought they were blueberry bushes).

The view was magnificent. Mountains rolled off in every direction. Mt. Greylock loomed off to the south, while the mountains in New York state distinguished themselves with large humps and hills in the west. We snapped a few pictures, laughed at our smearing of the Green Mountain Club’s estimate of 2 hours for a summit hike, and then shot down the trail.

In a matter of minutes we realized the sun was very well set and that we were on the east side of the mountain, already in a deep dark shadow from the vanishing sun. We knew that things were not looking good.

I kept the pace very swift and we bounded over rocks and through piles of leaves. While rushing along I noticed that the abundance of leaves would make finding the trail very difficult in a matter of minutes.

Fortunately the trail was exceptionally maintained with extensive blue blazes all along and generous double blazes to alert us of turns. Yet 15-20 minutes into the descent the blazes were no longer visible. Though the trail was fairly straight and obvious, we knew that it would soon level out, begin winding around, and generally make life very difficult for us.

Panic crawled up through my body and began to set off alarms and pure fear at the encroaching darkness, but then I remembered the cell phone. We never wear watches, so we always bring a cell phone along to help us keep track of time. I thanked God just then for the cell phone.

Though we were out of range for service, we could use the cell phone’s LCD display light to find the blazes and keep on the trail.

Stumbling along, I kept an eye out for blue blazes and shone the phone closely to each suitable tree in search of the kindly blue paint.

Things went surprisingly well until we hit a rather clear area with a few trees. In a matter of seconds we were off the trail. I had seen a double blaze, stepped forward, and soon lost my bearings completely. I also began to lose my mind.

Thinking that I could make things work, I ran around with the phone wildly shining it on everything I could find and immediately found nothing. This only heightened my alarm. The thought of running around the woods all night to keep warm did not appeal to me.

Full scale panic was about to set in when Julie, who had quietly followed my stumbling lead thus far, intervened. “Stop running around, that’s not helping,” she told me. “Let’s just get back to the last blaze on the path and then take it from there.

I walked back with her and within a few tense minutes she found the double blaze. After a few failed attempts to find the next blaze together, we regrouped back at the double blaze. “OK, I’ll stay here while you go ahead and look for the blaze,” Julie said.

Feeling my ineptness and panic, I felt unable to search out the next blaze. I was still reeling from the panic attack of five minutes ago. “Can you try?” I asked. “I haven’t had too much success with this.”

“Sure, no problem,” she replied.

I should say something now about my wife Julie. She is very experienced in the woods. Her family has been hiking for as long as she can remember. No doubt she was frightened, but she also knew exactly what to do when we lost the trail. While I ran around and got disoriented, she stayed put, turned about face, and quickly found the blazes.

While I waited by the double blaze, Julie advanced down the trail with the bouncing light of the cell phone and examined the trees. After a few tense minutes, she called out, “Got one!”

I was relieved, full of hope, and immensely grateful to God. Each blaze was another step out of this mess and Julie had just cracked the hardest part of the trail.

I clumsily stumbled over rocks and into stream beds until I reached Julie with the glowing cell phone. We agreed that I would wait by each blaze until she found the next one.

To her credit, Julie made the most of the situation and made a sort of game out of finding each new blaze. Her resourcefulness amazed me.

I watched Julie and the bouncing light of the cell phone bound down the trail and shine on a number of trees until she declared, “Got One!” I then followed her awkwardly through the darkness.

While waiting at one of the blazes, I realized that I had a light of my own. Slung around my shoulder was our digital camera. Turning the camera on and flipping the LCD screen to a bright picture, I found that the camera made an even better light than the cell phone.

We now made quick work of the trail, each flashing our own lights on the path and onto trees.

During one of our meet-ups at a newly found blaze, Julie remarked, “Isn’t this a great parable?”

Completely missing her point, I mundanely replied, “You mean, don’t go hiking close to dark without a flashlight or something like always know when the sun’s going to set?”

“No,” she stated, “It’s a parable of how God works. He only gives you enough light for the next blaze.”

I agreed, it was a great parable. I also had to place a tremendous amount of faith in whoever designed the trail, praying that it was relatively straight and obvious, and whoever put up the blazes. That was all feeding into the lesson of life and how often we simply have to live by faith. It was a sobering moment that hinted at a grand purpose behind our stupidity.

Though our pace was slow, we arrived back at our car around 7:45 pm or 8:00 pm. We honestly didn’t notice.

Our shoes and pants were wet and muddy, but in the grand scale of things, they didn’t register. We were far more concerned with turning on the car’s lights, cranking up the heat, and digging into a waiting bag of Sun Chips on our journey home.

The Bennington Banner reports that a couple went off the road while traveling on Kelly Stand rd. at 6:30 pm on Tuesday. The article mentions that the husband in the car had a broken leg prior to going off the road. This left the wife to travel 13 miles down the road for help.

They needed a heck of a lot of help to get themselves out and you can be sure they will get slapped with a really steep bill. I am curious what possessed them to go over Kelly Stan rd. after a snow storm dropped a ton of snow up in the mountains. Route 11/30 gets the job done and is a lot faster, even if it’s a bit round about. Even at this time of the year, Kelly Stand road has some really thick ice on some sharp turns with steep drops. They are probably kicking themselves right now. At least they made it out of the mess in good shape, if not a bit more poor.

Technorati Tags: vermont, kelly stand road, stranded

The owner works in the construction industry, but apparently does maple syrup on the side in the winter. He has quite a bit of land with over 600 taps. While driving on the narrow dirt track know as Maple Hill Road, you can seen tons of tubes running down the hillside into holding tanks. While traditional tapping is done with a spout and a bucket, the latest trend is to run lines. It makes collecting the sap a whole lot easier. I recorded a short video of one of these lines. With the sound on you can hear the sap flowing. View the video.

The sap is then put into this huge evaporator machine. There basically is a rather large warming tank that gets the sap hot. The sap will start out clear and does not have any flavor that can be distinguished. Once the sap is warmed up, it is sent into several hot tanks that look like larger versions of the vats you would use for french fries. The picture here is of the evaporating end of the machine where the fire burns the hottest.

A wood fire keeps the temperature up around 218 degrees F. The syrup is boiled down until it has a brown/yellow hue. There are a number of kinds of syrup. The lighter kind is not boiled down quite as much. It is know as fancy and then the next down is grade A. This kind is good for breakfast since it’s not too sweet, but has a rich flavor. The grade B is the darker kind that is boiled longer and has a stronger, more concentrated flavor. This kind of syrup is typically used for baking, but if you have a sweet tooth, it may do the trick.

The smell in sugar shacks is simply astounding. It is all at once sweet and inviting with the mixture of syrup and wood burning. The finished syrup is pumped out of a tap into a bucket and then bottled. Maple Hill Maple, the place we visited, was selling the bottles of syrup while they were still hot.

You can read more about the weekend here and here.

Technorati Tags: maple, syrup, vermont

In any case, there appears to be some movement toward a compromise according to the Rutland Herald:

“State tax officials have compromised on a plan to change the tax-exempt status of Hildene, one of this town’s biggest tourist attractions.

Instead of considering all but 50 acres of the 400-plus acre estate, plus the former home of Robert Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s son, to be taxable, only about 25 acres of meadowland are still being challenged, said Seth Bongartz, Hildene’s executive director.

“That’s still significant to us,” Bongartz said. “We made the point that it is 412 acres, period — this is an estate we’ve struggled to hold together against all odds for 28 years.”

The concession followed a two-hour meeting Thursday between Bongartz, town officials, representatives of the Southern Vermont Arts Center — another property appealing an earlier decision on its tax status — as well as officials from the state Tax Department’s Division of Property Valuation and Review.

Hildene, SVAC and several other high-profile and previously tax-exempt properties in Manchester came under state scrutiny in recent years because of concerns that not all of the property they owned was central to the educational purposes justifying the tax exemption.”
Read the rest of the article.

The Bethany Network

Promoting spiritual and physical wholeness.

• Partnering with non-profits who provide essential social services. When we address physical needs, we open the door for spiritual healing to occur.
• Providing free and lot cost administrative support such as creating flyers, newsletters, and web content.
• Providing tips and reviews of books, software, movies and other products relevant to non-profit organizations.

Recharge, refocus, refresh

The Bethany Network is a different kind of non-profit. Working from the grass roots up, the Bethany Network seeks to support non-profits on a shoe-string through networking and an open source approach.

Read more about the Bethany Network and its services.

During lunch many of us were wrapped up in a discussion of the traffic problem in Manchester. If you’ve ever been through Manchester, you’re probably familiar with the intersection of 11/30 and 7A, known by locals as “Malfunction Juction.” A mere flashing yellow light warns travelers on 7A that travelers on 11/30 are sitting at a flashing red light, trying to turn or cross the road into a parking lot.

It’s a messy spot, and nobody likes it much. The debate lately has concerned what exactly to do about it.

Some favor putting in a circle. With Federal funding available, the huge project that will occur only in the off-season during the evening will take 2 years to complete. It will also eat up a lot of land occupied by local businesses, and will be quite an engineering feat with part of it suspended over a stream. The idea is that the traffic on both roads will always be moving and hassles will be minimized. Of course this fails to take account of the hundreds of pedestrians who will try to cross this intersection. . .
Others favor putting in a traffic light that will cause backed up traffic on 7A, but will be a lot less invasive and expensive.

What I find here is that you have two mindsets. One is trying to keep the traffic flowing, keep things like they’ve always been. The other recognizes that times have changed and we need to put up with some inconveniences, a traffic light of all things, and move with the times.

You can probably tell where I’m going. Let’s face it, Manchester is not a small, cozy New England town. It has gone the way of outlets and commerce. It cast its lot with the city folk who want fancy restaurants and tons of selection. If you go that way, you’ll have to make some concessions to accommodate them.  You can’t keep things as they were and try to support major commercial ventures simultaneously.

The funny thing is that a simple traffic light would not be very hard to install for a trial period. It doesn’t have to stay there if it doesn’t work. Perhaps if some side roads were developed a bit more, the congestion could be relieved a little.

The fact is that no one really knows what kind of effect a traffic light or circle will have on the town. What I can say is that most businesses want foot traffic. As a former resident of New Jersey, I can tell you that a cirlce or rotary is not conducive for foot traffic.

Circles work best in the boon docks where two major roads intersect. The busier an area gets, the lest helpful a circle will be. And if you think you have accidents at the intersection now, just wait until you get a bunch of hurried folk on vacation from Connecticut or New York zipping around the circle in their SUVs. Have I convinced you yet???

Here’s a thought. Try out the light. See what happens. If the town begins to suffer economically, then give the cirlce a go. If you try the circle first, it will be much harder to reverse your decision.

Volunteers harvest timber for recreation center

March 19, 2006
By Johanna Sorrentino Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The Southern Vermont Recreation Center Foundation is bringing aspects of a Vermont tradition to the renovation process.

“It’s really like a barn raising,” said Phil Drinker of Springfield as he takes a break from cutting hemlock logs into 18-foot beams.

He is referring to the tag-team volunteerism that will put close to 100 beams in the roof of the foundry building to replace those that have rotted.

The renovation of the historic foundry building is the third phase of the recreation center project, which will feature an elevated walking track and gymnasium.

Most of the focus now is on the first phase of the project, completing the construction of the swim center before the Dec. 31 deadline.

Continue Reading . . .

Technorati Tags: volunteer, vermont, springfield

Batten Kill Watershed Alliance awarded $2,520 conservation grant

Corned beef menu tonight at church

Weekend fast set for world peace

It intrigued me. I looked into the moleskine web site and found that this notebook used by the likes of Hemingway and Picasso had vanished in the 20th Century and has recently been brought back by a Spanish company. It looked really neat and right up my alley, but wasn’t quite right for me at the time.

Fast forward now a few weeks later. Julie and I have been part of a writing group on every Tuesday night. I also write every day at a cafe and sometimes in bed at night. The number of projects I have been working on has dramatically increased. Julie bought herself a huge journal from Borders to keep all of her writing group projects together, but it isn’t very portable.

While at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT this past Tuesday, I got to thinking. Julie really needs a Moleskine. She just needs something small she can tuck into her purse and use to jot down ideas, book titles, etc.

And so I searched through the journal section. No Moleskines to be found. But I did come accross a really classy little notebook that is the same idea. The cover is a style of Chinese art and it has a band that wraps around it to keep everything tucked together. While looking for the right one, I was praying that God would lead me to the right one for her.

Upon presenting it, she was ecstatic. She had been scoping out a Moleskine a few nights ago at Borders. I really think that God knew she needed something nice to carry with her to catch those creative thoughts whenever they flow. But the story doesn’t end here.

Tiring of carrying no less than 5 note pads in my briefcase at all times and being unable to find my work in an efficient manner, I decided that it was time for me to get a similar kind of journal. While at the Northshire yesterday, I went to the journal section and immediately thought that I was about to lose my mind.

A large prominent Moleskine display butted right up against the journal section that I had torn apart only 2 days ago. What in the world? Was this display here? Did I miss it???

In any case, I picked up the larger version of the Moleskine since I had a lot to write down and usually have a briefcase. Though the small journals were tempting. There were journals that came in packs of three as well. They were skinny and give you the same amount of paper as the large one I got. You just keep your work more spread out. Something I don’t need right now!

Moleskine also offers blank page sketch books and planners. It’s a simple, but well-thought out product. And they are $10 cheaper than comparable journals that you’ll find in most bookstores. If you want a nice, portable way to keep your writing together, I think a Moleskine is a good option.

But back to my impending insanity.

While purchasing my Moleskine, I was dying to tell the clerk about the Moleskine display. I wanted to tell him how long I had been there last Tuesday and that I had missed it. It was hysterical to me. But I didn’t think I could adequately convey the true nature of the situation in a minute. I was checked out before I knew it.

Later that night I ended up returning the Northshire with Julie for a corned beef dinner and Celtic music. I had to take her by the Moleskine section just to show her how amazing it was that I had missed the big display on Tuesday. As I was relating the sequence of events to her, a staff person walked by. Hearing how baffled I was, she mentioned that the Moleskine display has been migrating around the store. They finally moved it to the journal section (where it belongs, duh) since it was selling so well, even though hard to find.

I’m not crazy. A little eccentric at times, but not crazy.

Technorati Tags: moleskine

Leahy fights for grants for the poor

St. James to host Lenten discussions: way to capitalize on the impending release of the Da Vinci Code movie.

Manchester tables banner plan: All change appears to be painful. No matter what.

“Vermont priest numbers have dropped from 274 in 1975 to 181 in 1985, 151 in 1995 to 81 today. That number is expected to decrease to 55 within a decade, as nearly one-third of current clergy are older than the retirement age of 70, while only seven are younger than 40.”

Sap season starts slowly: This isn’t a big surprise with the 50 degree weather these days. Expensive heating oil, expensive gas, and expensive firewood. Now expensive syrup?

Bennington to build ballpark: A ballpark could open up some interesting possibilities for Bennington. I think it could be a great addition to the town.

Arlington OKs cell phone tower plan: There are very few people who probably care about this, but I’m one of them!

“With so many of us overwhelmed in our jobs or relationships, the concept of having a personal coach has appeal. Once reserved for executives, personal coaches are trickling down to the average American worker struggling to build a small business, get out of a dating rut, restore balance to their lives or find an alternate to retirement.”

While a personal coach may not be the best long-term financial paln, I think that it would be helpful to have an outside perspective for important transitions and the vision process.

Technorati Tags: personal coach

The meeting today covered the topic of events. It was a great discussion that resulted in some great collaboration ideas. I hope to post more on that on the NNN web site. If you are interested in this group and live in the Northshire region of Vermont (the greater Manchester area), I highly recommend attending a meeting. Come prepared to listen and to share. It’s a great way to get all of the non-profits working together.

Technorati Tags: Manchester,Dorset, Aeolus, Equinox

The other project that I am very excited about is the development of a web page for the Northshire Non-Profit Network. We are meeting this Friday at GNAT at 8 am. There will be coffee, tea, and donuts. This is a great grass-roots kind of group that meets to collaborate on a variety of topics from newsletter, to volunteers, to this week’s topic: events. There isn’t a strong agenda driving the group, only a topic, and all are free to contribute. It’s a great place to share ideas and to find new ones.

My plan is to propose a web site for the group at this meeting.

My primary reasons for proposing a web site are for the group to have a simple web site where info can be shared, links can be put in a central location for the group’s use, events can be announced, and the public will have a place to find out about our meetings.

At this point I’m thinking about using WordPress, the same program I use for this blog. While I really like Typepad a lot, WordPress is a little bit easier to sort through the control panel. Typepad has too many options and I fear that if someone took over editing the site, they would get lost. I also really like the option of using a free wordpress.com site for now, and then being able to purchase a domain name and use the free version of wordpress to make a more jazzy site. Typepad’s sites are nice in that they make it easy to link to books and other media, but such things will not be needed for the NNN.

I’m open to ideas about user-friendly web site/blog software out there. With my limited knowledge of html, my options are a bit limited.

Stay tuned for the new Northshire Non-Profit Network web site! We’ll see what the group comes up with.

Technorati Tags: northshire,manchester, vermont, non-profit

Technorati tags: equinox, manchester, vermont