Pickin' Circle Cancelled Tonight

This message just in from Dakin Morehouse.

Hello pickers …
Unfortunately we have to cancel tonight’s Picking Circle Jan 31 due to a wicked bug going around. Sorry for the last minute notice - hope it doesn't inconvenience anyone.
I thought I was over it enough to open up and stay in the other room but 2 of our regulars have E-d in canceling anyway (for similar reasons) so – Consolation event - Tomorrow, Friday, Feb 1st Phoenicia Phirst Phriday is having their 1st anniversary at Upstairs Art on Main St in Phoenicia with all of their year's featured artists invited back to perform. Perhaps we'll see you there?
So keep on a picking - and keep healthy!
Dakin
Hope to see you all pickin' at the Station next week, the 7th of Feb!

Keeping Up with the Weather

So here is the current weather report from the valley so everyone is up to date. It rained rather hard early this morning with some strong winds. By mid-morning it had turned into a sunny beautiful day. The rain melted some of the snow pack down. It is clear tonight and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and clear too. Friday the forecast is for the ever popular "wintery mix". I will keep you posted so the folks headed up for the weekend will know what to expect.

Stocking the Woodland Valley Stream

Every year on the Monday of Memorial Day Weekend and the Monday of 4th of July weekend (this date is a little different every year) some generous locals stock the Woodland Valley stream with brown trout. We all meet the fish truck at the entrance to Roxmor, then proceed up the valley and turn around. We then caravan back down the valley behind the truck, stopping frequently to take turns putting buckets of fish into the stream. The stocking goes on all the way down to the Grandview area and then finishes off with some refreshments and good cheer. A lot of the people that participate in the stocking are fisherman but not all (I myself have never cast a line into the stream). If you have never participated I highly recommend it.

At this time of year Mike O’Neil collects the donation money to pay for the trout stocking. Here is a letter from Mike and the address where you can donate if you feel so inclined.

From Mike O’Neil –
My conversion to the divine pursuit of fly fishing came at the hands of my father who took me down to the brook when I was twelve, equipped me with the second best fly rod in the cabin (my mother’s nicely balanced Shakespeare glass rod) and started me out with a Royal Coachman dry with white bucktail wing (Chile Allam’s favorite fly). On my ninth cast I hooked and caught a 14 inch wild rainbow. “JESUS!!!” my father intoned loudly, keep the tip up, Mike, keep the line tight!!!” I did, and have been a fly fisherman ever since—with strong ties to Woodland Brook, which become steadily more indelible as I age.
Now I will not be coy. And, I will suffer no youthful attack of embarrassment as I ask you to contribute to this year’s stocking fund. The exact number of fat, healthy, spirited Brown Trout that we put into the stream will be defined to some extent by your munificence in response to this letter. Your generous and prompt response will, as always, be greatly appreciated.

To help us stock the stream, please send a check, made out to THE WOODLAND TROUT FUND, to Mike O’Neil, 101 Rambling Road, Vernon, CT 06066.

Many thanks,
Mike

Reminder to all WV Skiers

Just a reminder that this week (January 28 to February 1st) mid-week lift tickets at Bellayre are only $10.00 a day. I am typing this in full ski gear and I am hitting the slopes as soon as I finish. It is a great deal and even if I only ski for a couple of hours, it is wonderful exercise. See you on the slopes!

Photos from the Pickin' Circle

I went to the Panther Mountain Pickin' Circle the other night at the Empire State Railway Museum. I played a little music and took some photos. Just thought I would share them with you.






You'll notice Dakin Morehouse WV resident on the mandolin in this photo.














Jean Druffner, another WV resident, gets a little help turning the pages while she sings.















James Koop adds some percussion into this tune.

Join the WCA

For those of you who call Woodland Valley home (full-time, part time or weekend) and read this blog I want to invite you to join the Woodland Community Association (if you aren't a member already). We are fun! Doesn't this blog prove that?! And the membership fee is only $25.00! All you have to do is send a check made out to the WCA to:

WCA
PO Box 509
Phoenicia, NY
12464

Please include your snail mail address in the valley, your alternate snail mail address (if you have one) and your email address. That's it! Then you can get to know cool people and send me things to post on the blog. Join now so you can brag about it to all your friends!

Happy Birthday to Robby Burns and Boreegard!

Here is a poem sent to us by Mike O'Neil aka Boreegard on the occasion of his 66th Birthday.
Happy Birthday Bo!!

Tempus Trucks Along

I took two heavy gold timepieces out of the bank crypt today,
So that the jeweler could eyeball their current value,
For the personal articles rider.
‘Mother to Jim, April 19, 1890’ says one of them,
And the other says nothing, but proclaims silently,
“You were in the chips when I came into the family.”
Each has elaborate calligraphy carved on its golden front,
—O’N for the Old kings of Ireland and my people,
Who found their way to California back in ’49,
Enduring God only knows what terrible things.
Uncle Jim died at 59 in 1923 with no spawn.
I didn'’t know him, nor he me.

Slouching into the cusp of my 66th,
I think about my progenitors,
About where their dust might be,
What their lives must have been—, did they blush
Did they dance, did they sing?
Did they think of their future progeny?
And what might they think about
The cheapo throw-away TIMEX that I insisted be
my birthday present today?
There'’ll be no safe steel box holding it,
For the Grands to marvel over.
Tempus fuget indeed.

Boreegard

Enduring a snotty head cold
upon his natal date
January 25, 2008

Phoenicia Post Office - Customer of the Year

The lovely and talented Dave Pillard (ladies man, man's man, man about town) has been crowned (Dave insisted on there being a crown involved) "Customer of the Year" by Ken Roffe, Postmaster at the Phoenicia post office. Dave was "Customer of the Month" back in August and defeated the other 11 customers of the month to win the coveted "Customer of the Year" title. His victory was a resounding one with a whopping 16 votes. (Yes, Phoenicia is just slightly bigger than Petticoat Junction). Dave won lunch with Ken (the conversation topics were not just limited to postage) at the Sportsman, USPS Star Wars matted prints and Star Wars first day cancelations. His photo is also prominently displayed in the post office without ever having committed a crime (No folks, looking fabulous is NOT a crime). Dave is thrilled with his victory but remains humble. Although, he will sign autographs if asked at his place of business, the Tenderland Home. Thanks to Ken Roffe for thinking up this fun contest to entertain and honor the customers of the Phoenicia post office. Can't wait to see who is the next customer of the month!

Cold and Quiet

It has been very cold (single digits at night, teens to low twenties during the day) and quiet in the valley. There were some people around for the long Martin Luther King weekend and town was busy but up here in the valley it was just calm and beautiful. We still have about 6 inches of snow on the ground and it melted slightly a couple of days ago and then it refroze. This made for some slippery driveways. Several people I know whose driveways have steep inclines have had some problems but not too bad. If your driveway is flat you don't have to worry. Well, that's all from here for now.

Presidential Primary

Just a reminder that both the New York State Democrat and Republican primaries will be held on February 5th. Whatever your party affiliation it is very important that all citizens make their voices heard. Please make sure you vote in these important contests. And if you are not registered you can get information and a registration form at the website below. It is too late to vote in the primaries but you can make sure you are ready for the final showdown in the fall.

http://vote-smart.org/voter_registration_resources.php

Sound Horn Curve - WV History

Here is some wonderful Woodland Valley history sent to us by Linda Dunnican McDonald.

"The picture above is of the wooden road, that was built at the bottom of Craig's corner, so people could get in and our of the valley after the Big Flood in August of 1933. Craigs Corner is just above Roxmor, where you go around the big curve right before the Fawn Hill Bridge. It was right in front of the Beach house (mentioned by Hawley in the Clementine story) now owned by Ed Twerdak. Beach married a Woodworth, their daughter married Thomas Bigelow Craig (artist) and it was known as Craig's Corners from at least my mothers time. We also called it the "Sound Horn Curve" because there were yellow county signs, on either side of the curve, telling you to "Sound your Horn" before you approached the full curve, so as not to hit anyone or anything. The last Craig complained loud enough and the signs were removed in the late 60's ( ? ) I've been married 42 years and Bob remembers the signs still being there. The more traffic that came up the valley, the more annoying the horn blowing became, I'm sure.

These photos are from my mother's photo album, she was almost 23 at the time (she is 96 now) and the family with it's car, was stuck up at the end of the road for over 10 days, before things were redone enough to drive out."




"This photo is of the workers changing the course of the stream at Craig's corner to bring it away from the road area."

Florida Report

Here's another report and photo from the Florida bureau of the Woodland Valley blog. Many thanks to our anonymous correspondent.

"Our brief cold snap has been forgotten for now, but we know you guys could send us another anytime. This week has been 78-80 degrees and beautiful. If I could pack up this weather and bring it up I'd be up there in a heartbeat! My Orchid blossoms don't like change when they are developing. Even bringing them in the house to protect from cold temps is rough. The dry hot air heat causes all kinds of damage on its own. The orchid blossoms I share today (cattleya "candy tuff") survived with minimal damage (you can see a little around the edges of the opening blossom) and they have opened to give a great show and unlike many orchids, the fragrance is amazing."

Yet Another Wintery Mix

The local forecast calls for a wintery mix starting this evening. So if you are coming up from the city to start the weekend early watch your driving.
- 01/17/08 10:00 am
The snow is falling lightly. Predictions are now for an inch tonight and maybe another inch tomorrow. I will keep this running so anyone coming up between tonight and tomorrow will know what to expect.
- 01/17/08 7:30 pm
About 2 inches of very heavy snow was on the ground this morning. It was a pain to shovel but it's the kind of snow that if you don't get rid of and it freezes it will be like a rock! Temps are in the high 30's and everything is melting. The sun is shining and it's another beautiful winter day in the valley.
- 01/18/07

Star Rebate

Recently I realized that there is a great program around for Shandaken residents that I wasn't taking advantage of. It is the STAR program. It is a State Tax Relief program and all full time residents are eligible. I didn't get in on it because for some reason I just thought it was for seniors. You are probably all out there saying......."Duh, Carol, where have you been?". But just in case there is someone else like me who didn't quite understand how this works I am going to tell you what I have learned. All full time residents are qualified to receive a rebate on their school property taxes. All you have to do is either go to the assessor's office and fill out the Star form. They need to verify you are a resident so make sure you bring your driver's license so they can make a copy. Or you can visit the Shandaken website, click the "Departments" link and go to the assessors department that way. Then you can download the form and mail it to them with a photocopy of your license. Don't try to fax it to them. Heidi Clark told me that the fax of the license never comes out clear enough. Once you file the paperwork you are qualified for the rebate. Seniors 65 or older may be qualified for ENHANCED STAR. You can get a bigger rebate but it is based on your income so you need to show them your tax forms. Seniors who do the ENHANCED STAR need to reapply every year. Deadline for filing is March 1st so get your applications in now!

For more information you can call Heidi Clark at the Town Assessors Office at (845)688-5003. She will answer any questions you might have.

The Latest Snow Report

The snow is not too deep. At this point there is about 3-3.5 inches of light fluffy stuff. Not too bad. The temperature is about 35 degrees right now. The weather channel says to expect another inch. To quote Yogi Berra "It ain't over 'til it's over!" But that is the latest report. All is fairly well in the valley.

Update - 01/15/08
Just a dusting of fresh snow overnight, and flurries today with no accumulation. It's melting fairly quickly. Temps in the mid-30's today, and will be again tomorrow (with full sun, woo-hoo!!).

Water Levels for the WV Stream and Esopus

Here is something that some of you might find interesting. You can go on to the USGS (United States Geological Survey) website and get the water levels of the Woodland Valley Stream and the Esopus Creek at any time. The water levels are updated every few hours so you can monitor the rising of the stream and the creek very closely. If you go to the site and scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see a graph that reads “Gage”. That graph gives you the creek height in feet. I find this information particularly helpful in times of flood or draught. I recommend visiting the site a few times when the creek is at normal levels so you get a sense of what “normal” is for the streams in our area. Then you can go back and see it at the higher levels and monitor it yourself during bad storms. If you live stream side you might want to bookmark these links. I am going to give you a direct link to the Woodland Valley Stream info, one to the Esopus Creek info, the page for all available gages and the main USGS website.

Please Note: I am linking to the Esopus at Coldbrook because it is below the portal and would be more accurate for Phoenicia then the information from Allaben, which is above the portal. For those of you that don’t know, the portal is the tunnel under the mountains where the Scholharie reservoir drains into the Esopus and then ultimately feeds the Ashokan. It is opened and closed by the DEP depending on how much water needs to be transferred to the Ashokan.

I am also going to put the direct links to the Woodland Stream and the Esopus Creek information on the list of useful links that is a permanent part of the first page of this blog.

Woodland Creek above Phoenicia
Esopus Creek at Coldbrook
USGS - All Gages
Main USGS site

Expecting Snow

We are expecting snow overnight tonight. The weather reports are calling for 4 to 8 inches. Time to get out the snow ruler again. I will let you know tomorrow how much accumulates.

Free Trees to Fight Streamside Erosion

There is a program available from the NYSDEC for streamside residents in the Ashokan Reservoir watershed called "Trees for Tribs". In an effort to help streamside residents prevent further erosion, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the NYSDEC have done several plantings in the watershed with more planned for spring. The "Trees for Tribs" program is accepting applications for spring plantings of trees and shrubs until March 1st. I called Michael Courtney at the Cornell Cooperative and he told me that the folks along Woodland Creek would be eligible for this program. If you are interested in joining forces with these organizations to plant a streamside area on your property you can call Michael at (845) 340-3990 to apply through the Cornell Cooperative Extension. You can also learn more about the program by calling Kevin Grieser at the NYSDEC at (845) 256-3145.

Also check out the full Esopus Creek Management Plan at http://www.esopuscreek.org. This site has a lot of interesting and useful information and I have made it a permanent part of the blog in the "Useful Links" section on the right.

Streamside Sculpture

Don't get fooled by all the snow in this photo, I actually took this last week. I love when people make the stacked rock sculptures on the edges of the creek. I thought this was a particularly simple yet beautiful one. Especially with the snow around it.

With the warm temperatures of this past week most of the snow has melted away. There are still some bigger piles though but it is all going down fast.

Mi Vacacion de Verano

By Mike O’Neil

We flew down to Puerto Vallarta this past summer. It is a small Mexican town on the west coast of Jalisco, situated on the Bahia de Banderas (the Bay of Banderas) with well- founded contentions of grandeur. It has always been known for its beaches, which run for many miles, and its forest iguanas—of which there are fewer and fewer.

Jeanne and I have taken occasional day trips to Mexican border towns over the years, but this was a full week. We lived in a mountainside villa (Villa Las Palmeras) within walking distance of the town center, in the company of our son Dan, his partner Rick, and about 25 other hard-playing, hard-drinking 30-somethings—their pals. And though it was sub-tropically hot, and in the middle of the August rainy season, since Dan had offered to fund the whole thing, who could turn down such an adventure?

Several rivers run through the town, and in the rainy season uncountable side streams and freshets tumble down through the hills and mountains that form the sheer backdrop along the coast. Intense greens and browns are the landscape colors that strike the eye. Tropical jungle foliage clings to the sides of the nearly vertical mountains. Rockslides are not uncommon—driving along its twisting main road up through the countryside is a jarring, tooth-grinding venture. Most everyone speeds, giving little care for safety. It can be fatal. Several weeks ago, a sight seeing van, much like the one we piled into occasionally, plunged over a steep embankment and crashed on the rocks seventy feet below. All eleven occupants died.

The town, viewed from the elevated vantage point of the Villa, was quite beautiful. When it was not raining, the sunsets were an orange-pink magnificence, and fireworks often lit up the night sky. To me its crowning glory is the main church in the center of town—Our Lady of Guadalupe—whose tower is in fact topped with a huge facsimile of Empress Carlota’s crown. This struck me as odd because, as you will no doubt recall, Carlota’s husband, the Emperor Maximillian, Arch-Duke of Austria, and she were installed as rulers of Mexico by Napoleon the third—all backed up by his French army. The Mexicans themselves for the most part didn’t take kindly to this colonialist incursion. Eventually, in 1867, a few years after our civil war, we told the Frenchies to withdraw their forces. Their army left, but through a misguided mixture of hubris and noblis oblige, Maximillian stayed—only to be shot full of holes by the Republican minions of Benito Juarez. My question—why would the Mexican Catholic establishment in Puerto Vallarta chose to venerate the crown of an oppressor? Life is full of mysteries. The crown is mighty pretty though.

The town itself is generally driven by a tourist economy. It is clean and cheerful. You find many jewelry stores selling a great deal of silver, restaurants of all sorts (HOOTERS and HARDROCK CAFÉ are oddly prominent), and in every third store it seemed, large signs boast genuine Cuban cigars. I bought two.

But for the glitzy storefronts, there is an ever-present patina of knife-edge poverty slipping out at the edges. The cadaverous, cleanly dressed woman sitting mutely on the steps of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, holding an empty plastic cup just a bit forward of her knee; the ever-present street venders politely but insistently plying their wares. There was no begging, but there was a definite need to sell one’s box of goods, in a town where skilled construction workers make four dollars a day—and it’s a very long day, indeed.

Speaking of the jungle habitat, Jeanne and I had good reason to know the particulars of its flora and fauna. Along with the rest of the young friends of Dan and Rick, and Rick’s parents Jessie and Merla (two people closer to our age than the rest) we went on a southbound rattly open-air camion and drove well into the single-lane dirt road raw countryside. It’s not that we didn’t know what we were getting into. The brochure for LOS VERANOS CANOPY TOUR pictures people smiling, and eventually most of us did too, after it was over. The abomination is called zip-lining.

Steel cables had been strung high in the jungle canopy upon the stronger trees. They lead to a number of platforms from top to bottom. One is fitted out with various hooks and harnesses. Eventually, one is hooked onto a handheld device that rings onto the cable, pushed off the platform with the admonition “Hold your legs straight, Senor,” as you go “zipping” down and across a 500 foot forested abyss on your way to the next way station (there were fourteen such things in all). At one really dicey point of descent I screamed, not intentionally meaning to take the entity’s name in vain—JESUS H. CHRIST!!!

By the way, the young Mexicanos in charge of this operation didn’t call me Senor—there was a certain sense of errant fun and competence in all this. They took to calling me Santa Claus—for my girth and snow white beard, I suppose. And when mis amigos Pablo y Carlos would call me that as they advised me to lift my leg and hold onto the damn rubber handles, as they hooked me up to the cable for the next terrifying descent, I would say to them, “ Que deseas par la Navidad, Chicos? (What do you want for Christmas, little boys?).” They ignored the humor of this bit of Spanish. Just as well—that was not the time to distract them.

Zipping over the terrible chasms I never looked down—always looked straight ahead, but Jeanne told me she did once. Once was enough for her.

We survived and made it to the bottom, where cold beer and DVD’s of our adventure awaited us. Paisanos offered to place a large tarantula on your neck or face, for photo ops. I didn’t bite, so neither did the spider.

More of the Villa Las Palmeras. It was an obscure, private place run by an ever attentive staff who fed us, cleaned, and otherwise saw to our needs. There was air conditioning of a sort in our rooms; mi amigo Jorge saw to the place settings and the delivery of meals, assisted by a dour-faced Jesus. .Oh! For the guacamole y frijoles de Anna Rosa—our cook. Las Palmeras translates literally to “the palm trees” and water coconut palms ringed the villa, with green coconuts ready to fall.

There was one Mexican delicacy that I had looked forward to, which I eventually discovered was not to be had in Jalisco—grilled goat (en Espanol se llama cabrita asada). Some years ago, my friends Bob and Margie Lyons told me about it, and described it as akin to a delicate lamb. Jesse and I were both interested in the thought of tasting it, but to no avail. After an interrogation of Anna Rosa and her kitchen staff en Espanol, we were given the name of Restaurante de O’Reguan situated on the corner of Collonia y Vovadilla. But before Jesse and I made the mistake of going there, we were told that the place didn’t serve grilled young goat at all. They served mutton stew. Have you ever eaten mutton (i.e. fatty old sheep)? Not my favorite. I daresay, not yours either. We were advised eventually, that we’d have to travel to Monterrey, to find it, and that it was certainly not to be found in Jalisco. Chiwawah!

22 Augusto ‘07

New Blog Features

I just wanted to call your attention to some new things on the blog. If you scroll down on the right side of the first page (under the archive list) there are some new features. I have added a list of useful hotlinks. You can now go directly to the town, library, board of elections and esopus creek management sites, to name a few, through this blog. Just click on the site you want and you will be taken there. I also posted a list of the library hours which will remain on the blog permanently. Since so many of the residents use the library I thought this might be useful. Check it out!

Library Survey Reminder

The wonderful library gals (I love that word, My Aunt Sophie said "gals" a lot) asked me to remind everyone to return their library surveys. They all have to be in by this Saturday January 12th. Everyone who uses the library is encouraged to participate, full time residents, part time residents, renters and snow birds, they want to hear from us all. You can fill out the form electronically and send it by email. Unfortunately, I can't post attachments on this blog but if you are not in the valley and would like to fill out a survey, email me at wvview@gmail.com and I will send one to you electronically. You can fill it out and email it back to the library by Saturday. I would also like to remind everyone that you can go to the library website and order books online. You can order a book from any library in the system and when it comes to Phoenicia they call you to come get it. I think the whole process is very cool! And I am sure if you need help figuring out how to use the website you can go there or call during library hours and they will help you out. So here is the link to the library online.

http://www.phoenicia.lib.ny.us/

Regular Phoenicia Library Hours:
Monday 1:00PM - 6:00PM
Tuesday 10:00AM - 4:00PM
Wednesday 1:00PM - 6:00PM
Thursday 2:00PM - 6:00PM
Friday 1:00PM - 6:00PM
Saturday 10:00AM - 3:00PM
Sunday closed

Contact the Library:

Phoenicia Library
48 Main Street
Phoenicia, New York 12464
Phone 845.688.7811
phoenicialibrary@hotmail.com

I'm Melting.........

We have had warm temperatures for the last couple of days here in the valley and the snow is melting fast! If it continues as predicted, I think most of the snow covering will be gone by the end of the week. As always, I will keep you posted.
- 01/08/08

Clementine Botchford - A WV History

I have to admit, I saw it hanging in his house, and I begged Hawley Botchford for this photo and some family history. I LOVE Clementine. Some pictures are worth a thousand words, this one is worth a million. To me, Clementine embodies the spirit of all the women who lived in this area at that time. They were straight, strong and no nonsense. They bore children, tended the animals and crops, cooked, cleaned and got everything done that needed doing. I wouldn't have wanted to cross her but I bet there was no one better to have on your side when things got tough. So I post this up in honor of all the women who came before us into the valley. May their resilience be an inspiration to us all!

- Carol Seitz


Clementine Garrison Woodworth Botchford 1845-1941

Clementine Garrison Woodworth was the twelfth of thirteen children (seven survivied to adulthood) of David (1804 - 1887) and Orilla Clement Woodworth who moved to Woodland Valley about 1849 from East Jewitt purchasing a large tract of land to operate a tannery and lumber business with son-in-law, Napoleon William Beach and his wife Malinda Woodworth, Clementine's older sister (later became the Craig family). Together they owned most of the the middle part of Woodland Valley.

David Botchford (1815 - 1884) and Eliza Egbertson Botchford (1817 - 1875) moved to Woodland between 1845 and 1848 to work with the Synder family in the tanning industry. They had five children, with four surviving to adulthood. Their second child was Henry Jay Botchford. Henry and his younger brother, George Madison Botchford, both married Woodworth daughters. Henry married Clementine and George married Clementine's older sister Ella.

Henry and Clementine's relationship developed through letters and rare visits while Henry was serving as an officer with the NY 44th during the Civil War. Henry and Clementine were married on January 24, 1867. They had 8 children. Their first four children died very young (between the ages of 1 and 5 yrs - two were named after their father Henry Jay Botchford). The next four children survived to adulthood (George Madison, Henry Jay, Mary Eliza (Polly), and Clement Woodworth. Henry died in 1882 from a chronic heart condition acquired during his service with the Northern Army. Clementine and Henry were living in Port Leyden, NY at the time of Henry's death. With her four young children Clementine returned home to Woodland after Henry's death to be with her family.

Clementine's father, David, died two years later. Clementine and her sister Zelia ran the farm until Clementine's oldest son George, who never married, retired from his NYC realty business and came home to Woodland Valley to help his mother in 1930. George ran the Woodland Valley farm for his mother until the "big house" burned in 1955 and the farm was closed. George died a year later. Clementine's son Henry Jay (yes, the third try for this name, finally successful) marred Carrie Margaret Hutchings, known to the family, and widely in Phoenicia and the valley as "Botchie". They had one son, another Henry Jay, who married Juanita Hawley Hauk in Tennessee and they had two sons - (current residents) Andrew Kenneth Hawley and Henry Jay (VI) . When our grandfather, Henry Jay, retired from a career in refrigeration, he and his wife Margaret also returned to Woodland to assist George in managing the farm. Clementine's granddaughter, Mary Eliza, married Gardner Gillespie and their family still owns the white house below the Botchfords, known to the family as the "Cottage", and a considerable segment of the original property.

Clementine was well known for not wanting electric wires to cross her land, for some reason. And although that meant that the valley had no electricity, her son George continued to honor her wish for five years after her death in 1941 at 96 years of age.

- By Hawley Botchford

Pickin' at the Station

To all of you who read this prestidigeous WVV Blog,

Just wanted to let you know that anyone who plays an instrument (mostly strings) is welcome to play with the Panther Mountain String Pickers Association circle which meets most Thursdays at 7:00 till 11:00. Started by Dennis Havel and Harry Jameson, we have been meeting to pick and sing all winter long in the Ski Lodge at the foot of our Woodland Valley for a number of years. 2007 was the first year we have extended it through the summer down at the RR Station, and because of renovations at the Ski Lodge we are continuing at the Station for a while.

We go around the circle picking and singing folk, old timey, jazz, blues and traditional mountain music. Sometimes a theme surfaces like when we first started at the train station or around different holidays, but usually we just practice what we like to play often joining back-up with whomever is 'up'. The only rules are no booze, drugs or nicotine and unless asked, we try to remain nonjudgemental. Sorry but it's only for pickers - no audience and it is an acoustic circle, meaning, no amplifiers, electric guitars etc.
Individuals and small groups of our members are often seen performing locally and some even have CDs. Some are various degrees of 'professional', some specialze in the history of some area or artist and some of us just love to be involved while continuing to learn. We range between 4 to 14 in number with half being semi-regulars. Cancellations and special performances go out over our Picking Circle E-list and I will also post the same to this blog - with Blogmistress Carol's indulgence.
Our holiday recess is over and we will have our first Picking Circle of 2008 this Thursday (Jan 3) - down at the RR Station just on down Woodland Valley Rd, which becomes High St. After crossing Bridge St, the Old Phoenicia RR Station is about a block further on the left of Lower High St. It is really just Woodland Valley Road extended. Coming from the east on 28, take the first right after the Phoenicia Diner. The Station is the first building on the right about a quarter mile in.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR! - tune up and come on down for some fun a pickin' an singin'.

- from Dakin Morehouse

Rush Hour, WV Road, New Years Day

Photo by Jennifer Holz

The Snow is Piling Up

We had another 7 inches of snow yesterday. That makes a total of 15 inches (by my snow ruler) of new snow between Monday and yesterday. It wasn't that bad to shovel, very light and fluffy. And, I must admit, I kind of enjoy digging out. I had to do it last night in the dark and the valley was absolutely quiet. In the hour it took me to shovel a spot at the end of the driveway where I could put cars until my snow plow guy came, no one drove by until I was almost finished. And, in the bitterest of ironies, the truck that did come at the end was my snow plow man. Oh well, even though it would have been nice if he came an hour earlier, I got some exercise (who needs the gym while there is snow in the Catskills) and he finished the rest of my very long driveway so I could get up to the house. All's well that ends well.
- Carol Seitz - 01/02/08