Can this cottage be saved?

Is this cottage worth renovating? Can it be saved?

Pretty cute, eh? We call it “Little H”.

(This is the first of my posts on renovating our place upstate. )

Sumac!

In late fall, early winter in the mountains of the northeast, there will be wild sumac. When I was a little girl, my dad collected wild sumac berries from the woods of central Pennsylvania.

The Indians used to collect wild sumac berries and turn it into a juice full of vitamin C. My mom used to make the juice into a delicious tart jelly. Yum!

Sandy Long, in her River Reporter piece, writes all about it; including how it grows along the Delaware.  (You pronounce sumac as “sue-mack”, with a stress on the first syllable.)

In Memoriam – Allan Berube

Tuesday December 11, Allan Berube died in Liberty, NY of complications from stomach ulcers. He was a MacArthur fellow as an independent scholar of gay men and women in the military. His book, Coming Out Under Fire (1990) is considered the definitive book in its field. The award-winning documentary based on his book was released in 1994 and is available as a DVD.

Berube moved to Liberty ten years ago and in that time became a beloved neighbor and respected community member. He was the moving spirit in the partnership that brought the Munson Diner from Manhattan to Liberty. I wish I had known him.

Many obituaries published this week about him and his life, including in:

the Sullivan County Democrat

the Times Herald Record

The New York Times

Beth Ditto. Why? Because she’s cool.

And she has an amazing, beautiful strong voice. She’s the lead singer with the band, The Gossip. She nearly won the NME 2006 award for sexiest woman in rock and roll. AND she strips down to her skivvies on stage. Very outrageous. Very punk. Very rock and roll.

Far Out! NACL Xmas Salon

NACL, the Highland Lake-based theater organization, is doing a Christmas Salon and Party on Thursday December 20 as part of their Salon Sessions series. See the River Reporter article for more details.

Echo Letterpress in Jeffersonville

I’ve been meaning to visit Echo Letterpress for a while and I originally planned on writing about it after seeing it in person. But I just saw an article in the Sullivan County Democrat and had to pass it on.

Boxer Love in Bethel

I just read this story about a rescued boxer in Bethel named Dr. Murray Goldstein (Murray for short) who found love and companionship with a horse. How cute is this!? And he kind of looks like Otto, though Otto is better looking.

This definitely qualifies for both a Cute Fix and as a Sullivan County post. Be sure to check out the extremely cute photos of Murray jumping up to kiss the horse. The Times Herald-Record web edition has a Catskills section.

An Explanation

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been posting much about personal experiences. Instead I’ve been posting mostly about things I think are interesting in Sullivan County in the Catskills. Since we closed our place up for the winter in the middle of November and I want to stay focused on Sullivan County, I just haven’t had many personal experiences up there to share.

Not nearly big enough

Below is the current home of WJFF, Hydropowered Radio Catskill, located in Jeffersonville, NY.

The station is bursting at the seams, so WJFF jumped on the opportunity to bid on the long-abandoned house next door at an auction in Brooklyn on Thursday, December 6.

According to Fritz Mayer, writing in web edition of The River Reporter:

The bidding on the house on December 6 went a bit higher than the board had planned to go, so their representative dropped out. However, two volunteers stayed in the process a bit longer and made the winning bid of $62,000. The volunteers and the board reportedly intend to work together to have the house become the property of the station.

For the full story, click here.

Cute Fix: Otto the soccer guard

I’m going back upstate unexpectedly tomorrow for two days and don’t know if I’ll be able to post while I’m there. If not, then I’ll report back after I return.

In the meantime, here’s a cute fix: a picture of Otto taking a break from playing soccer in October. He’s a powerful blocker.

P.S. I have to credit the remarkable Liz Spikol and her very important blog The Trouble with Spikol for the idea of a “Cute Fix“. Liz Spikol is lucid and incisive in her posts about mental health and mental illness.

Just to give you an idea: she posts about big pharma, meds, the rights of those with mental illness, and people who are mentally ill who are in prison.

She’s also made a great contribution by speaking openly about her own mental illness and her journey to greater health and stability. And she’s funny!!!