PINE PLAINS — If the COVID-19 crisis has shown society anything, it’s that acts of kindness go a long way. As plans for celebrating birthdays, graduations, weddings and more have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, people have done their best to adapt to the new normal. But local families wanting to celebrate their children’s birthdays were stymied about how to do so with social distancing preventing any party planning. That’s why the Pine Plains Hose Company and the Stanford Fire Company have joined forces to make birthdays special for the children in their two towns.
Calling it a morale booster during COVID-19, Pine Plains Councilperson Matt Zick said he thought of the idea as a way to help support the community.
“I feel I do a lot under the radar,” said the councilman, adding he wants to make sure that Pine Plains residents understand and appreciate how much the Town Board is trying to do to help people out right now. “I would like them to see that I’m doing good things that I believe are good for the town.”
Zick’s father, Stanford Fire Company Vice President Ed Zick, agreed that organizing a special celebration for local children by holding socially-distanced firetruck parades was a good idea. He added their other “cohort in crime” is Stanford Fire Company Secretary/Treasurer Kathie Spears, who was key in encouraging the fire company to cheer up local children who were unable to celebrate their birthdays in the traditional way.
So far, the fire companies have been offering to make rounds with their fire engines to children’s homes on Saturdays between 1 and 4 p.m. As an example, for children with birthdays between Monday, April 13, and Sunday, April 19, the fire companies drove by on Saturday, April 18. For children with birthdays between Monday, April 20, and Sunday, April 26, the fire companies drove by on Saturday, April 25. For children whose birthdays fall between Monday, April 27, and Sunday, May 3, the fire companies plan to drive by on Saturday, May 2.
For each house on their route, the fire companies expressed birthday wishes by blowing the horns and wishing the children a happy day. Spears reported on a later date that the fire companies stopped by 11 houses on Saturday, April 18, and 14 houses on Saturday, April 25.
“We’re doing this namely for the kids,” Ed Zick said. “When we run rounds on Saturdays, it’s such a joy just seeing the kids — it’s unbelievable. All the people that have driven in these parades agreed they would do it again, so it’s as much a morale booster for us as it is for them.”
To have their child’s birthday included in the fire companies’ rounds, parents should reach out to either Matthew Zick at 845-705-5533; Ed Zick at 845-266-8366; or Kathie Spiers at 845-868-7320. Parents have also been advised to call by 8 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the Saturday they want the drive by to occur. After determining their schedules, the fire companies will then reach out to the parents to give them an estimated time for their drive by. Additionally, the fire companies have asked parents to make sure they are outside with their child to ensure their child is supervised when the firetrucks pass by.
As far as how long the fire companies intend to make their birthday rounds, Matt Zick said, “I guess you can say we’re planning to do this as long as we need to.”
His father added that they wanted to thank Pine Plains Fire Chief Brian Walsh for helping to run the birthday program. He also mentioned that the fire companies from Milan and East Clinton joined the program last weekend.
In the meantime, the councilman said that the fire companies are now trying to get local town businesses involved with the rounds. As a celebration of healthcare professionals working around the clock to care for patients during the pandemic, Ed Zick said the fire companies have been trying to get a list of nurses in the participating towns to include them in a special celebration on Saturday, May 2.
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.
