In the course of marketing the dressed cocks I called on a man
who wanted help with his office-work, and as I was qualified the contact
resulted in employment for a half to a full day weekly for the next several
years. The modest pay was a great help in buying groceries, which I did upon
leaving work, thus avoiding a special trip to the village. While it cut into
the time I had formerly given to writing, it was more productive,
For some reason the haying dragged out that year, and was
not finished until the end of August. Probably it was a summer when I had to
spend a couple of weeks in training at Fort Ethan Allen in order to retain my
active Reserve Commission; but this was something in which I was keenly
interested and so did not begrudge the time when it could possibly be arranged.
I even managed to keep on with a military correspondence course in order to
secure more credits. I'm sure most people of that time considered it a rather
idiotic but harmless hobby, but it gave me satisfaction and a needed change,-
and later on paid off handsomely, I think to the Country as well as to myself.-
Anyway, the haying finally got done and/then there was the usual multitude of
cleanup jobs. Isabel, after putting up the usual garden crops, found some nice
peaches in the market and filled many jars (this was something we were very
fond of but could not grow successfully in our climate,) And I bought a Jersey heifer
calf to raise,
Wyeth had to be taken to Rutland for an eye, check. He had been
working hard and deserved a break, so while we were in town I let him browse
around a couple of sporting goods stores, One of his hobbies was firearms and I
believe it was on this expedition that he found a fairly good Sharps carbine
the purchase of which we were able to finance (it being long before the days
when antique weapons even approached their present astronomic prices,)-Also in
the entertainment field the family attended a Walter Hard program which was
very good, in the "theater" which had been constructed in the big
barn at Fletcher Farm, a recently constituted philanthropic group, just over
the Cavendish town line in Ludlow.
The autumn was chill but beautiful, and the few rainy days
were useful for inside painting. I also gave the cow barn a there cleaning,
sprayed it with disinfectant, and finished the walls with a good coat of whitewash,
Then a neighbor wanted help getting in corn for ensilage. And at last I got
around to digging the potatoes - a modest ten bushels - which ended the garden,
We were so busy that a couple of nights we had to work by lantern light, out at
the barn plucking ducks and chickens for market, It was on one of these
evenings that I happened to look toward the north where the horizon was
brilliantly alight, "What do you suppose it can be?" I asked Isabel -
the first thought being fire, always a horrid possibility in the country, But as
brilliant shimmering fingers shot up into the sky we could not doubt that it
was the Aurora Borealis. It was the first such exhibition we had seen here, and
was a breath taking spectacle lasting for almost two hours. During late summer
and fall the northern lights are not uncommon as a pale band of gold across the
sky, but seldom do they put on a real show.
Then came a period of cold and snow, "Do stop in and
prod them about the stove," Isabel urged. "It's freezing here,"
The Heatrola had gone to the shop for a repair I could not make myself. So I
prodded and received the stock answer about hard-to-get parts. Tho it grew
milder for a while, it was bleak and rainy and we were very glad when the stove
was returned, 'the more so because I was in bed with another of my severe colds
(an affliction which bothered me less and less, doubtless thanks to outdoor
life and healthful climate.)
My convalescence was enlivened by Isabel's account of how
she had purchased a "player" piano, which someone had abandoned in storage.
Not exactly handsome, it had no music rolls and we never tried to see if the
player would work; but for the girls to' learn and practice on it was well
worth the $15, we paid for it delivered! (At a later time after inheriting a
real piano, we gave the "player" to some summer neighbors,... who
later in turn contributed it to an auction, and it ended up on the platform of
the to hall where I imagine it still is,)
Altho the cord wood had been brought up and stacked at the
shed in good season, the sawing was delayed and it kept getting later and
later. Then intense cold - 10 below zero with that good old northwest wind and
snow hit us in early December. This further hold up and then made difficult the
sawing stint. So when at last it was completed I was considerably relieved, and
there seemed and adequate supply.
Time not otherwise occupied I spent helping Isabel change
some of our domestic arrangements, which began to assume their final pattern.
Neither of us had liked having our bedroom on the first floor (not having boon
brought up with this system) but considerable work was necessary before the two
north rooms upstairs could be used. Forming the partition between wore their
closets, shallow but so long that the far end of each was most inconvenient to
reach. By tearing out the one belonging to the front room and shortening the
other, needed space was gained for the smaller room. I then built a new closet
for the front room extending out into the hallway by the foot of the attic
stairs. When this was finished and much plaster repair down on the walls, the
room was redecorated with a simple rose pattern paper the girls liked. The
trim was painted white. We had found a little old iron stove "Rathbone
& Go. Pat. 1865" and set it up on the hearth to take off the chill.
The girls moved in and used that room as long as they remained at home.
Then we went to work on the room they had vacated in the
southeast corner, The first task was to build a small closet behind the door (in
most old houses, closets must have been a second thought, as where rooms did
not lack them completely they were very poorly designed.) Then this room, also,
was completely "done over". Isabel choose paper with a small
oak-leaf-acorn pattern, white on blue, the floor was painted a darker blue;
trim and ceiling, white. The pipe from the room below gave enough warmth so
that we blocked the-fire-place flue, This had one serious drawback:
occasionally moisture distilled from not-quite-dry wood condensed in the short
horizontal length to the chimney and ran out at the seams, the odorous black
drip splashing from the floor onto the wallpaper and baseboard, making an
unsightly mess. - Isabel and I moved in as soon as we could, and it has been
the "master bedroom" since.
This move completed, we could better see the way we wanted
to arrange things down-stairs and I began to plan, The larger part of the long
back room would make a nice kitchen, with a bath partitioned off in the corner
adjacent to tie old kitchen which would become the permanent living-room, The
"front parlor" would be convenient as a dining-room, opening directly
into the new kitchen behind it. Water for the bath and kitchen was the big
problem, as the gravity inflow from the spring provided no pressure; but I had
glimmer of a thought as to how this could be worked out, My ideas tend to
germinate slowly so it is best to give them time,- a matter of years in some
cases. Then the result usually is satisfying, There seemed no hurry in this
case, and there were more pressing matters.
During the summer we had acquired some ducklings. They were
most amusing-creatures; loved the back brook and grew amazingly. A little
cracked grain kept them well and happy. When they reached maturity we selected
the best drake and two ducks to keep for hatching eggs in the spring; the
others we sold or ate. But I wouldn't have bothered with them except for variety,
They were a great nuance to pluck because of the fine down which required
perseverance to remove (it could be singed off but this was apt to spoil the
appearance.) - I fixed a nice one for Isabella birthday.
Along with other preparations for Christmas I was having
made for her a pair of snow-shoos by a man in Maine who specialized in such
things. They turned out to be very good and also gay, with red and green wool
tufts around the front edges. Then one day the minister came up from the
village and we all went out to the pasture and cut some nice spruces to
decorate the church, as well as fir trees for both families. - We sent trees
"home" as usual, and also some dressed chickens.
However, we never did really catch up on the lost time; in
contrast with the previous year everything continued to run late. Moving in the
stove and hanging the storm sash was not accomplished until just before the
holidays. Them by helping a neighbor saw for a couple of days I financed a
shopping expedition to Rutland. And in between times I was getting up as much
reserve wood as I could. Then. everything came to a halt when it turned mild
and rained all one day, making it too messy to work outside.
A lovely candlelight service at the church on Christmas Eve
did much to sooth rather frayed nerves, even tho Isabel and I had much to do
when we got home. Santa Claus does not always lead an easy life!
Fletcher Farm and Walter Hard: Tiemann describes how the family attended a "Walter Hard Program" at the newly formed playhouse at Fletcher Farm. Born in
Manchester, Vermont in 1882, Walter Hard ran the family drug store there, but his heart was in journalism and story telling. By 1930, Hard
had produced his first collection of poems, Some Vermonters, and his column
regularly appeared in the Rutland Herald, Boston Transcript, Boston Globe,
New York Herald Tribune, and Chicago Tribune. When he died in 1966,
Walter Hard left behind nine books of poems and two prose works, one of which
he wrote with his wife, Margaret. He was an Editorial Associate for Vermont
Life from its first issue in autumn 1946 until spring 1951; wrote the “Green
Mountain Post Boy” feature in Vermont Life from summer 1947 until the
winter of 1955-56; and continued to write an article of observations on Vermont
and Vermonters in that magazine twice a year through the autumn 1960 issue.
Learn more about Walter Hard at the Vermont Historical Society website.
While most locals
think of Fletcher Farm (Route 103, located in both Cavendish and Ludlow) as a
craft school, the farm was established around 1783, when Jesse Fletcher and his
wife Lucy, came from Westford MA. Passed down from one relative to the next, in
1928 Mary Fletcher and her daughters gave the property to the National Board of
the YWCA to be used as a training school for young women. Not successful, the property was returned to the Fletchers. In 1933, the entire
property, including more than 400 acres of forest land and meadows,
about half in the town of Ludlow and half in Cavendish, was given to a newly
formed non-profit educational foundation, Fletcher Farm, Inc., with the
condition that the property should always be used for educational purposes for
the inhabitants of the towns of Ludlow and Cavendish and such other, places
as may be determined by the Trustees
The big barn was
remodeled into an auditorium with stage and dressing rooms. The Fletcher Farm
Players, aspiring actors and actresses from Ludlow, Cavendish, and neighboring
towns, often gave performances there. In the summer of 1936, there was some
activity every week at the Farms: Farm Women’s Week, Home Demonstration Week,
Music Week, Public Health Conferences, and several plays.
In 1948, the Farmhouse,
barns and sugar house were leased to the Society of Vermont Craftsmen, a
non-profit organization, who have continuously operated the Fletcher Farm Craft
School ever since. It's purpose is to provide instruction in the Arts and
Crafts under the expert guidance of skilled professionals.
To this day, Ludlow
and Cavendish split the taxes associated with Fletcher Farm. It now houses the Supervisory school union for both towns, playing fields
(soccer and baseball) and continues to provide a wide array of craft classes
throughout the year, which are offered at half price for Cavendish and Ludlow
residents.
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