A Belated Holiday Greeting

Here is a belated holiday greeting from Max, Linda and Cash Nova. I felt a lot better after receiving this because I am still writing my own holiday cards. Thanks to all the Novas for the cute and funny photo!

Another Six Inches

The snow has stopped and by my faithful snow ruler we got another 6 inches between last night and this morning. Cold temperatures are moving in this week with the forecast calling for lows in the single digits and below zero at night by the end of the week. Brrrrrrr..........

More "Dwellers Among the Catskills"

Here is some more great history from Woodland Valley historian, Rolf Reiss. Personally, I love this stuff!! It is so cool to learn more about the folks who came before us into the valley.
- Carol Seitz

I promised in my last post that I would share some more from the June 21, 1902 Harpers Weekly article entitled "Dwellers Among the Catskills". In the last installment the author had visited at a farmhouse with a woman named Jane in Snyder Hollow which would later become known as Woodland Valley. He left her waiting for her son who was returning that day from Massachusetts.

"I went presently, and continued as far as Larkin's, the last house at the extreme end of the Valley". ( Larkin's farm included the present day Holz farm as well as the Savage property. The property was at one time owned by John and Lorrie Lurie who operated it as a guest house that boasted both cross country ski trails and a downhill ski slope with a rope tow. Larkin's was also a favorite haunt of the naturalist John Burroughs who camped at the farm at least twice before 1894 while laying siege to Slide Mountain. He writes of his adventures with Larkin's wandering cows in his book Riverby.The first photo enclosed shows Mrs. Larkin and her son in front of the homestead shortly after 1880 and the second was taken from along Woodland Valley Road (near the present day Holz pond ) around 1900.The later photo includes a porch addition an second story eyebrow windows). "

" The Farmer ( Larkin), a grizzled elderly man and his son were threshing buckwheat on the barn floor. They dealt with about a dozen of the brown bundles at a time, standing them on end in regular order, three or four feet apart, and giving the tops of each in turn a few judicious raps which the flails that set the dark kernels flying in all directions. As soon as a bundle that the threshers were belaboring toppled over,the blows became more energetic, and it was well cudgeled from end to end. To do the job thoroughly the bundles were turned and rethreshed once or twice and then the straw was pitched out into the barn-yard to rot for fertilizer. Every Catskill farmer has his buckwheat fields, and these he plants shall yield enough to make sure of a years supply of the buckwheat cakes and some additional grain for spring cattle-
feed."

This shows again how incredibly labor intensive life was in those days. There certainly was no going to Sweet Sues for your buckweheat cakes 106 years ago! Also not much for sanitation back then (Lord knows what else one might pick up off of the barn floor along with the buckwheat!)
I will share more of this great snapshot of life in Woodland Valley soon.

- Rolf Reiss

Better Today

The weather is a little better today. Flurries have been falling all morning but there hasn't been much accumulation. I got up and down my driveway this morning so I guess all that water didn't make it too icy. The road was better than it was last night and is clearer as you drive out of the valley and down towards town. It's still wise to take it easy but everything is passable.

Scrabble Night at the Library

For all of you who love word games and are looking for something to do on a cold winter night I just got this message from Judith Singer at the library.

Hi all - This is to remind you that once again it's SCRABBLE night at the Phoenicia Library, this Thursday, Jan 8, at 7 pm. (Ordinarily it's the first Thursday of the month, but we thought people might still be a little occupied at the end of New Year's Day.)

We'd love to have you join us - it's OK to show up a little late, and don't worry if you don't have a board - we have all the boards and dictionaries we need. But we don't have all the players we need, so please join us if you can, and bring a friend as well.

Hope to see you there! - best regards, Judith Singer

Slip Sliding

Conditions today in the valley are VERY icy. We got about 2 inches of wet snow and then sleet on top of that, followed by rain almost all day today. The result is a thick glaze on everything. The last time I was out 28 was not too bad if you take it slow but Woodland Valley Road is treacherous! They have salted and sanded several times but it keeps on raining and adding to the mess. It is supposed to get colder and change back to snow tonight. If all of this freezes later on it has the possibility of getting really nasty. I made it up my driveway about mid-day but just barely. (Oh how I long to have a nice, flat road to my house!) Anyone planning to come for the weekend who has an even slightly uphill driveway should know that, unless something changes, it might be a challenge to get up it and they should proceed with caution.

Menla Mountain Retreat Hiring Seasonal Staff

I just received this information earlier this morning and thought I would pass it on to the community. The Menla Mountain Retreat center is a great neighbor to us all. Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

Now Hiring Seasonal Staff for 2009

Exposure to a wide variety of holistic and spiritual paradigms
Valuable job experience at a spiritual retreat center
Live in a beautiful Catskill mountain valley
Outdoor activities--hiking, swimming, etc.
Work for a great cause!

Menla Mountain Retreat, located in a stunning, private, mountain valley near Phoenicia, NY, is looking for seasonal residential staff and volunteers to help run our retreat and conference center. Menla is just 25 minutes west of Woodstock, NY, and 2½ hours north of NYC--daily buses connect Phoenicia to NYC.
Working here is dynamic, inspiring, and fun! We’re looking for friendly, hard-working, self-motivated, enthusiastic people who are flexible, upbeat, and have a desire to work for a worthy cause in a remarkable natural setting. You’ll work with a small dedicated year-round staff to host life-changing programs that range from Tibetan Buddhism to Yoga, from Environmental Protection to Social Justice.
After scheduled work time, staff can enjoy the hiking trails, swimming pool, meditation sanctuary, yoga studio, and other facilities. Staff is also invited to participate in Menla-hosted programs.

• Full and part-time seasonal staff needed starting as soon as April running through as late as November, 2009.
• Compensation for staff includes free room and board plus a full-time weekly stipend of $175 per week.

For more information, visit our website at www.menla.org
To request an application, contact menla@menla.org.

Menla is operated by Tibet House US, a 501(c) non-profit corporation

CMRR Holiday Train Donates to Local Food Bank

The Catskill Mountain Railroad holiday train in Kingston was a great success despite the challenging weather conditions on several of the weekends it was in operation. On the last day of this year's holiday schedule, half of every ticket sold was donated to the Queens Galley which operates a soup kitchen in Kingston. The last photo above is of the volunteers of the CMRR presenting a check to the Queens galley folks. I thought that the WCA members who leave the valley for the winter but volunteer for the CMRR and the ESRM when they are here in the summer (you know who you are), would enjoy seeing how the railroad is helping out in the community during their absence.

Holiday Treats

I am a bit late posting this up but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
- Carol

Cream Cheese Dainties

In anticipation of the Savior’s birth,
Is the sweet smell of ancestral baking.
In the kitchen tonight,
My darling is reproducing cookies,
That her mother and her mother’s mother,
Baked at the old place in Farmville long ago.

We salivate in anticipation of them
Each December, and thank God and cook equally.
They are here once again cooling on the racks,
Piled high in the Teddy Bear Cookie Jar,
I pop one into the maw now and then
Just for the purpose of testing.

Boreegard
aka Mike O'Neil
December 22, 2008

Happy New Year - Cold Temps and Lost Power

Happy New Year to all the residents of Woodland Valley (even those of you who slipped off to warmer climates to avoid the winter weather). I wish everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous 2009!

We got about 4 inches of new snow here yesterday. Fortunately, it is the light and fluffy kind and it is easy to shovel. Most of the snow from the last storm (the 18 inches we had before Christmas) had melted before this storm arrived so there is no big pileup. The temperatures have dropped down into the single digits. Right now, by my thermometer, it is 8 degrees....Brrrrrrr. It was even colder last night. But it is sunny and quite beautiful in that "Winter in the Catskills" way. The temps are supposed to rise in a day or two.

The upper part of the valley had a power outage on Tuesday. Early that morning a huge, double trunk pine split in two and half fell across Woodland Valley road bringing down the power lines with it. NYSEG, Time Warner and the Shandaken Highway Department were all here quickly. The tree was removed and the power and cable were restored by 1:00 pm. I think everything was only out for about 4-5 hours. That is a miracle considering the size of the tree. I am not sure which houses lost service and which did not but it was definitely from my house to the end of the road.

Well, that's it for now, I am going to put on a couple of layers and go out and enjoy the sunny winter weather!