Our Country Home - June 2015

SUMMER 2015

At Blue Stone Farms with Cooper Boone For the birds A quirky collection in Bethel

Romancing the stone wall

CONTENTS

Our Country Home

FEATURES

Letter from the editor 4

At Bluestone Farms with Cooper Boone ‘Baking’ memories in every which way

By RAMONA JAN

8

Antique Emporium and Lakeland Stair & Millwork Honesdale’s Twin Enterprises

By NANCY DYMOND

10

Romancing the stone wall

By JOHN HIGGINS

16

This collection is for the birds

By JONATHAN CHARLES FOX

22

Small building, big ideas A classroom without walls

I must admit that in the small window of time during which I have edited Our Country Home, I’ve found that tiny miracles have occurred in a big way.

I always start with a theme. This issue’s theme is living large and small. At fi rst, it was just a seed of an idea. I assigned writers and photographers to subject matter thinking that everything would stay within the one theme. What amazed me most was how other themes appeared.

For example, in this issue you will read about Blue Stone Farm and how living large seems to come naturally to owners Cooper Boone and Mark Veeder, as well as the romancing of a stone wall by John Higgins. You will read about the Antique Emporium in Honesdale, PA—a small family with twin businesses and children. You will delight in Jonathan Fox’s article on quirky birdhouses and the man who collects them, as well as Isabel Braverman’s piece on the Weigh Station (small building, big ideas) in Callicoon,

Ramona Jan

Photo by Joan Rafferty

NY. And of course you may want to try your hand at the DIY American flag. As for the other themes that arose between living large and small, see if you can fi nd them. Here are the hints: sets of twins, heydays, treasures and trash.

— Ramona Jan Section editor

DEPARTMENTS

By ISABEL BRAVERMAN

26

ASK THE EXPERT: Master gardener reveals her secrets A TRR Best of 40 encore

By TOM KANE

18

DIY: Ramona’s Star Spangled Banner

By RAMONA JAN

Cover photograph by Michael Bloom of Michael Bloom Photography, www.michaelbloomphoto.com

Our Country Home, a special publication of The River Reporter, is published by Stuart Communications, Inc. Entire contents ©2015 by Stuart Communications, Inc. Mailing Address: PO Box 150, Narrowsburg, NY 12764 Phone: 845/252-7414 • Fax: 845/252-3298 Have a comment or idea for the magazine?

Contact: Anne Willard at 845/252-7414, ext. 29 or copyeditor@riverreporter.com

2 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

Publisher: Laurie Stuart Section Editor: Ramona Jan Production Manager: Amanda Reed Staff Writer: Isabel Braverman Sales Manager: Tanya Hubbert, ext. 34, tanya@riverreporter.com Ad Sales Associates: Eileen Hennessy, ext. 35, eileen@riverreporter.com Michelle Labatte, ext. 25, michelle@riverreporter.com Alessandra Iavarone, alessandra@riverreporter.com If you would like copies for your place of business: Contact: Amanda at 845/252-7414, ext. 23 or amanda@riverreporter.com

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At Blue Stone Farm with Cooper Boone ‘Baking’ memories in every which way

By Ramona Jan Besides holding a doctorate in clinical psychology and being chosen from 15,000 applicants to give advice on “Good Morning American,” besides being an accomplished country music singer/composer and opening act for Trace Adkins, Craig Morgan, The Bacon Brothers and Bob Guiney, besides being a guest chef on various TV shows as well as hosting his own website Cooper’s Table, besides being the father of 10-month-old fraternal twin daughters, Cooper Boone is a rare and extraordinary found-object assemblage artist, and one of his best and largest works is his Blue Stone Farm.

About a century or so ago, during the heyday of Shohola’s amusement park era, Blue Stone Farm (originally the Aumuller German-American Boarding House, circa 1866) was one of this area’s premier boarding houses. “People would come up by train, stop at Rohman’s Bar and then fi nd their way here,” explains Boone.

“A lot of the old ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s actors like Norman Desmond and Tyrone Power—[Rohmans] guest book is fi lled with their signatures—would come here to party.”

But times passed, and soon the advent of air travel captured the hearts and minds of vacationers, luring them away from the Catskills and Poconos and their magnificent boarding houses, too many of which became sorely neglected. “I’m drawn to damage, old things and saving history,” says Boone. “Everything that I own, including my truck, are basically old things that I just love.”

When Boone fi rst acquired Blue Stone Farm, it was without insulation, it had antiquated wiring and lathe

This Vintage Rexall Drugs advertisement touting the ‘$50,000 chocolate soda’ was acquired by Boone and Veeder at the famed Brimfield,Massachusetts Antique Show. According to Boone, the showy piece “moves around the house and barn whenever the feeling hits.” Right now it graces the dining room, setting off the vintage bowling pin centerpieces.

4 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

Photos by Michael Bloom Photography

Built in 1866, Blue Stone Farm on Lackawaxen Road in Shohola, PA is the personal home of country singer Cooper Boone and his partner Mark Veeder, but it’s also a beautiful and welcoming place to rent and stay the night.

and plaster ceilings and walls. “It wasn’t what I call a fluff and tickle. The house required a complete and absolute resuscitation. It was dark and not heat efficient in any sort of way, and I had a zillion rodents that were living with me for a long time. I tore down walls, put in flooring and radiant heat. It was a complete and absolute gut job.”

When asked if an architect was involved in the reenvisioning of the interior space, Boone replies, “God no!

With my superpowers, I see through walls.” Certainly, the very same powers must be attributed to Boone’s partner of 14-years, Mark Veeder, a professional event planner who also happens to be an avid landscaper, terrarium artist and horticulturalist. “When Mark and I met, half of this property was already done by me. I was in the process of this project, and Mark and I were in the process of getting to know each other, and he asked where I got my inspiration from, and I said, “I have a few pictures.” So I pulled out these tear sheets from magazines, and he says, ‘Hey do you recognize that?’ And I say, ‘no.’ And he goes, ‘that’s the guest house at my house. It was in Better Homes and Gardens.’ It was an amazing coincidence.” And although Boone quips, “At Blue Stone Farm, I’m the Department of Interiors and Mark’s the Department of Exteriors,” Continued on page 6

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Blue Stone Farm Continued from page 4

Veeder did eventually help fi nish Blue Stone Farm inside as well as out.

Magazine tear sheets aside, Boone mainly gets his inspiration in and around town, “I’m really nosey,” he says, adding, “I’m one of those who stops at every tag and garage sale, and if there’s a box of [junk] I will dig through it. I’ve gotten stuff off the streets of New York. I’ve gotten stuff when I’ve toured. My inspiration comes from everywhere as far as keeping wide open eyes.”

Boone considers the most important room of the house to be the kitchen.

Painted in a charcoal chalkboard that sometimes appears navy in the changing light, the walls are also lined in charcoaland-white tiles that seem like fi ne wallpaper from a distance. This spacious kitchen opens to a cozy lounging area. “I wanted an interactive kitchen,” explains Boone. “I didn’t want to be sequestered to a room where you are cooking and you can’t connect to people, and for me the kitchen is the soul of the home, which is one of the songs on my “Sideshow” album called ‘The Kitchen’ that I actually wrote for Paula Deen.” Boone proceeds to sing in perfect pitch: “The kitchen is a place that passes memoires down/It’s where we get a taste of what life’s all about/It’s the keeper of the truth/Forgives all our mistakes/The kitchen is a place where more than food gets made.”

“That’s what I love about this floor,” he says. “It’s about ‘baking’ memories!” And sure as I’m born, Boone “bakes” in every which way.

Glorious found items that have been repurposed into objects d’art by Boone himself (really—where does he fi nd the time?) grace the walls and hallways of Blue Stone Farm. One Boone creation in particular involved a series of birds’ nests (including hummingbird) nailed to a shutter from France that was procured

In a first-floor bathroom, an old bucket acts as a washbasin and an ampersand sign made by Sideshow Sign Company in Nashville, TN lights up your every ablution.

Photos by Michael Bloom Photography

At Blue Stone Farm, a sunny walk-in kitchen opens to a cozy living/dining area. from 21 Front Street/Upfront Exhibition Space in Port Jervis, NY. Other Boone creations include vintage wooden shoe trees nailed to a long, narrow plank, an

old tom-tom drum masquerading as a side table, vintage hand-lettered signs, bowling pin centerpieces, fi re-bucket sinks, billiard balls tucked in a large glass

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vessel, lightning rods made of zinc from the River Gallery in Narrowsburg, NY, and an ancient door from India upcycled into a cocktail table. An old trunk from a tag sale for $30 with all the compartments in near-perfect shape, a working 1920s Monitor Top refrigerator and tasteful splashes of artwork by Cape Cod equestrian impressionist TJ Walton as well as bovine beauties by Maggie Rose and our own James Gann complete the charm and add fascination to the whole shebang.

Not to be ignored is The Barn, a cozy yet open space with original hand-hewn beams and a pristine upper-level loft.

Upon entering, I just wanted to relax— have a seat at one of the two homespun farm tables crafted by Boone and Veeder’s farmhand Victor, a woodworker and blacksmith. Burlap-covered hay bales serve as seating, while parts of an old iron child’s crib cradle Edison bulbs, making for an enviable light fi xture overhead. Side bars from the crib are used as towel racks. All repurposed by guess who?—Boone!

In one corner of the barn, a comfortable sectional sofa and some upholstered chairs hug two upcycled cocktail tables— one made of a vintage chicken cage, the other an old industrial gear. Yesteryear pulleys become lighting over a bar. There’s a repurposed three-seater outhouse, a working ceramic gas stove from the ‘20s, a collection of corks in a jar, strategically stacked wooden rolling pins, a Pee Wee Herman doll, a group of stools made from old tractor seats, and a nuts-and-bolts storage bin—made of baby food jars—that spins. Strewn about the cushy seating are retro feed bags turned into Boone-made throw pillows. A small table involving lettersets/vintage bottles and other doo-dads abuts an armrest. Bell jars protect all kinds of curiosities. (BTW, Boone recently turned down a piano because he didn’t want another project. He’s too busy transforming the barn basement into a “maker space” as well as toying with the possibility of eventually selling antiques in the

Orange County Golf Carts Inc. Brightened by a large picture window (through which a view of the vegetable garden, free-range chickens and barn can be seen), this master bedroom is warmed by a plush sectional as well as a wood burning stove. overhead loft).

“We do a lot of events in the barn, such as A Supper and a Song with Chef Brett from August Acres—a tiny little specialty store in Barryville that’s amazing.

Brett was a Next Food Network star who worked in the city for many years as a chef du cuisine. I imagine the barn to be a place for great music and food. This will be the fi rst year for that….”

As I get ready to leave Blue Stone Farm, Boone offers some spicy spareribs right off the grill, enticing me to stay a bit more. I figure I better check out his cooking—another one of his wonders. As I embrace—no, devour the goods—Boone shares one of his favorite philosophies:

“Embrace the crack in the fissure—that which is beautiful, as opposed to that which is beautiful and that we deem perfection—in people too.” How did he know that I was feeling somewhat ragged around the edges—even scrappy that day? And then he adds, “If something is chipped, crumbled, old—I like that. It’s just who I am.” Yeah, me too.

Cooper Boone will perform at The Forestburgh Playhouse in September at his birthday bash, where friends will join him in song and supper. For more on Blue Stone Farm and Cooper Boone, visit www.cooperboone.com.

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Antique Emporium and Lakeland Stair & Millwork Honesdale’s twin enterprises

By Nancy Dymond “It’s called The Antique Emporium, but don’t let that deceive you, because there’s more here than meets the eye,” remarked Beth DeVrieze, proprietor along with her husband, Harry, of their charming business on Main Street in Honesdale.

From the sidewalk, the store at 1040 Main St. is alluring with its attractive displays of antique furniture—daybeds of yesteryear, vintage rockers, highly polished dining tables, upholstered chairs and sofas that invite your closer inspection. Like the famed yellow brick road in the Land of Oz, the bright orange-painted stairs at the store’s entrance hint at treasures beyond.

The front of the store is divided into unique vendor spaces with rental prices dependent on square footage. Displays change constantly as items are bought and sold, making it a place you want to return to often. In addition to chairs, love seats, tables and other high quality antique furniture, you may also discover musical instruments, picture frames, paintings and brass spittoons.

Beyond the showroom are shelves and cases full of the smaller pleasures and necessities of life gone by. There are sets of dinner plates, gold-rimmed with floral patterns. There are teapots, toys, collectibles and antique bottle openers. Nostalgic items such as cookie jars, glass CocaCola bottles, hair receivers, toy trucks and bride dolls bring back pleasant memories buried in the past. There are exotic and unusual items that will keep you guessing at their purposes.

Beth, originally from Wilkes-Barre, moved to Honesdale in 1994 and bought the Honesdale Remnant Shop, across the street from the building that she and Harry occupy today. She learned upholstery the hard way, by tearing chairs down to their frames to see how they were made and then putting them back together using newer and stronger materials. Her flair for choosing just the right fabric is evident in the presentation of her period pieces. In 1998, she bought the building that now houses the Antique Emporium, her upholstery shop, and Harry’s Lake-

Beth DeVrieze is seen hard at work reupholstering a chair.

Harry ‘s always got a project going, like this pedestal for a plant stand.

8 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

TRR photos by Nancy Dymond

Continued on page 10

The upholstery shop is part of the Antique Emporium, located on Honesdale’s Main Street.

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Antique Emporium Continued from page 10

Lakeland Stair and Millwork company.

“I got rid of the remnant shop in 1999 because that’s when the upholstery really took off,” Beth explained. “I was getting a lot of work, and I just didn’t have time to run the remnant shop. I had to make a decision: Do I want to do upholstery or do I want to sell fabric? So I had somebody take that stuff to the flea market.

“The last bit of it we donated to the Dessin Animal Shelter—a couple loads of notions and fabrics for their annual garage sale,” added Harry.

“After that,” Beth continued, “I used the front to show furniture that I had done, and then 9/11 hit. My work went pffft. My clients were scared; they didn’t know what to do. Some of them asked for their deposits back. I got really nervous that the upholstery business was going to go into a slump, so I opened up the Antique Emporium because I needed to do something with all the space.”

Although they had only been business acquaintances at that time, a new kind of relationship began to bloom when Harry became one of the fi rst customers to rent a vendor space in the new Antique Emporium. “Customer Number 4,” he stated proudly. “I sold tables, chairs and antiques that I would buy at auction to repair and refi nish for sale at the store.”

Beth continued her upholstery work in a back studio, taking some of the woodwork to Harry’s shop on Commercial Street. Harry DeVrieze is a magician with wood, doing everything from restoring antiques, to chair caning and rushing, to artisan work with spalted maple and building guitars from scratch.

He has done work for the Wayne County Historical Society, Wayne County Public Library, Grace Episcopal Church, Wayne County Courthouse and many other organizations. His work has been featured in several regional publications.

Originally from New Jersey, Harry

This walnut veneered chest was refinished by Harry DeVrieze. arrived in Wayne County when his parents bought a place in Milanville in 1974.

For a few years, he worked at a local lumberyard doing cabinetry. Then in 1982, he apprenticed with a wood turner named Antonio Vera. Vera was impressed with the work Harry did remodeling his kitchen and offered him a position at his shop. During the next four years, Harry benefitted from Vera’s extensive woodworking knowledge right up until the time Vera sold his shop and retired.

Harry inherited Vera’s customers and built up his own business doing railings, doors, windows, moldings, cabinets and staircases.

Harry has done all the woodwork for the furnishings in the DeVrieze home, including the butcher-block countertop, and Beth has done all the upholstery.

Harry’s specialties are cabinet designing and radial work, especially spiral staircases with curved banisters. His work-

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shop is full of projects in progress: cedar chests, an antique sofa from the Wayne County Historical Society, a plant stand carved out of a historical house column.

The businesses turned out to be a match made in heaven and, as Harry and Beth continued working together, their professional relationship grew into something more. In 2005, they married and began planning a family. Though both of them had been previously married and had grown children, they still wanted children of their own. That decision turned out to be the greatest joy of their lives—twins—a boy and girl, now seven years-old.

“The kids think we’re just the greatest things on earth,” Harry beamed. “Our daughter loves to sew and our son wants to do woodworking. It’s surprising how much they know. Our son and daughter know about steps, that I make steps, and what kinds of steps, what parts of the

steps are called, and what sealing and varnishing is.”

Beth DeVrieze’s special touch with fabrics extends to custom draperies, upholstery, pillows, slipcovers, bedding, window treatments and all kinds of cloth work. She sews linen napkins, tablecloths and placemats, anything you can imagine in fabric. The investments they’ve made in building their entrepreneurial lifestyle are proudly maintained by a sense of integrity in their work.

“We stand behind our work,” said Harry. “We’re really a specialty team, a one-stop shop, If you have furniture and it’s broken, you can get it fi xed. If you need upholstery, you can get it done here.

We don’t send anything away to other subcontractors.” Beth nods in agreement.

“When clients contract with us, they can be sure that nobody’s doing the work but us.”

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Romancing the stone wall

By John Higgins “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall….”

What?! I remember reading the fi rst line of Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Walls” when I was about eight years old and thinking, “Who wrote this? Yoda?!”

The construct of the sentence was vexing, and even now at age 51, I still think it sounds like something Yoda would say.

(Or Grover from “Sesame Street.” Seriously, they are the same voice—that of the brilliant Frank Oz, puppeteer and director. I know this because I produced “Sesame Street” for years. The fact that Frank voiced both characters is a side note that may come in handy at a cocktail party. You’re welcome.) But now, back to the topic at hand: stone walls. Who— other than maybe Yoda or Grover— doesn’t love a stone wall?

Where I grew up in the Bronx, there was a slang expression meaning that you had an overwhelming amount of something: you were ‘lousy’ with it, e.g. “Facebook is lousy with pictures of people’s chicken dinners.” Here, in our thick slice of Heaven, I feel compelled to observe we are ‘lousy’ with stone walls.

When my partner, Pip, and I returned to this area a few years ago after having spent our fi rst summer together in Narrowsburg back in 1993, we were looking for a good-sized piece of land on which to build our dream home. We were searching for a bucolic setting of wideopen fields, unfettered by time, private and far from the throng of city life. We were grateful that we met realtor Joe Freda through friends, and it was he who brought us to a beautiful piece of land that captured both of our requirements.

We walked the property and discovered the sweeping meadows of a former dairy farm started way back in the mid-1800s.

Since 1964 (the year I was born), these fields had lain fallow.

The property is located on three different meadows near the top of a mountain range, reached by climbing above and away from a quiet tertiary road along a winding dirt path dotted with stone walls. These were once pens for animals.

All around the perimeter were long rows of seemingly ancient stone walls dividing the different areas wherein the livestock would meander and graze. Pip and I were immediately hooked.

12 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

Upon buying the property, we spent each weekend walking it and discovering moss- and lichen-covered stone walls that were mostly in pristine condition. There were, however, a few stone walls that had fallen to detritus from the many winters they had seen, due to the phenomenon we in this area called “frost heave.” And so we set out to have those walls repaired— notably the wall with the natural break in it (pictured on page 14) on the other side of which we would build our main house.

We consulted with our neighbor, Rich, who had created an endless series of beautiful stone walls on his own property. He had trained his own two sons, Aaron and Colton, in this fi ne art of architectural derring-do, and a summer of repair and rebuilding of stone walls ensued. Pip and I learned a great deal about how a stone wall that is to last for eternity is constructed. Heavier, wide stones placed side-by-side, leaning just slightly toward one another create the base. Each layer of carefully selected rock added above is then graded in much the same way, making the wall sturdy and strong.

Watching these two strapping young men build and repair our stone walls often made me feel like Thomas Mann.

It is interesting to note that this past June 22 was the 46th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, which are considered the birth of the gay rights movement in the U.S., eponymously named after the bar on Christopher Street where it all started. Here you have it: another “stone wall” to celebrate strength and the defi ning of new foundations. Just sayin’.

Historically, though, stone walls were built to service specific ends—to keep things in, to keep things out and to mark a territory as mine versus yours, mostly.

The stone walls, too, tell the story of the practical nature of farming. Can’t you just picture the fi rst farmer toiling to clear his land, pulling countless rocks from the soil to make way for growing plants to feed both humans and the beasts of the field? And then picture him reassembling those rocks and field stones to protect his crops, which would otherwise have to compete (hello, Darwin!) with

I came upon this stone wall and the lone heart on some back road in our area. (Not a clue as to where this wall is now, as I get lost easily when I’m driving around.)

Continued on page 14

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A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 13

Romancing Continued from page 14

large numbers of feasting deer and rabbits. (A few years ago we tried unsuccessfully to grow a garden in an aesthetically well placed area of our property only to discover that is was akin to having placed a salad bar available to every animal that wandered by. Had I only paid more attention to the strength, purpose and need for a stone wall then!)

Ultimately, what I treasure about the stone walls in our area is that most of them have been here long before any of us

were born and will be here long after we fall off the twig. They remind me, too, of the stone walls I have always loved along the roads and in the forests of Ireland. So, yes, I’m romancing the stone wall, if you will. Like true love, these stone walls represent something more permanent than death. And beyond what Frost suggests, I think our beautiful stone walls are anchors to the past and will continue to endure, meeting an eternity of seasonal changes, sunrises and sunsets.

Photos by John Higgins

We had this stone wall, built in the 1860s, restored after we bought our property, which we named “Cloud View.”

Photos by Jane Bollinger

Detail of the stone wall (just outside our main house) that leads up to the highest point on our property.

Stone walls in rural Dyberry Township, PA.

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This collection is for the birds

By Jonathan Charles Fox

TRR photos by Jonathan Charles Fox

Steve White of Bethel, NY displays a birdhouse from his remarkable collection, a favorite that reminds him of M.C. Escher.

16 OUR COUNTRY HOME SPRING 2015

You know what they say: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

And while Bethel, NY resident Steve White hardly considers his assortment of vintage birdhouse’s “trash,” all of them have had previous lives in others’ backyards. “I’m not really interested in new things,” White explains, while scanning the collection housed on his property near White Lake, NY. “I like the weathered look that occurs when one of these small structures has stood the test of time.”

It all started about a decade ago, when White’s wife, Suzanne, started “dragging” him to yard sales. “I wasn’t really interested,” he says, “until one of these cool-looking birdhouses caught my eye. That’s when I caught the bug.” Picking up his fi rst treasure on a whim, Steve brought it home and placed it on a stump in the yard. “It was a little too beat-up to hang from a tree,” he says, “but far too appealing to be thrown away. I didn’t know then that it was the beginning of a years-long hunt, but here we are,” he winks, waving a hand at the expansive lawn, the birdhouses are scattered about, peeking out from all four corners of the yard.

“I don’t know,” White shrugs, when asked what the appeal was. “It really started as a way to alleviate the boredom while Suzanne shopped the garage sales. Something about these old nesting spots just called out to me. While there are a lot of beautiful new ones out there, these old ones always seem to have a story to tell.” With the prices of the hand-me-downs too good to pass up, White started scouring the countryside for more unique bargains.

“I’ve never paid more than $10 for one,” he grins, “and most were closer to a few bucks.” Faded, weathered and just plain beaten up, all of Steve’s mini-abodes have appeal. “This hobby is [right] for me” White says while viewing the assortment of tiny wooden homes.

“I enjoy sitting on the deck after a long day and just looking at them. Each one has a tale behind it and that story has a chance to live on in my yard.”

While it’s clear that some of these birdhouses have seen better

days, that’s part of the appeal for White. “My wife doesn’t think I take good care of them,” he says, while pointing out that a few birdhouses are literally falling apart, “but that’s okay with me. I think the decay gives them even more character. My collection is not supposed to be work. It’s a simple pleasure.”

Ranging in style from the ridiculous to the sublime, White’s collection is diverse. Simple structures with barely enough room to house an oriole or two are mixed in with expansive, multi-storied “boarding houses” that fit in perfectly with the history of bungalows that once peppered the landscape of the Catskills in its heyday of 1950s summer residents. While not strictly limiting himself to local fi nds, White admits that he keeps an eye out when they travel. “I found this beauty in Lake Tahoe,” he enthuses, pointing out a saloon-themed birdhouse, which captures the flavor of the locale in miniature detail. “There are no rules when it comes to my collection,” he adds.

“All that matters is that it’s not new.”

Another favorite among the many is one that looks different from every angle, and has yet to begin disintegrating. “It reminds me of M.C. Escher,” Steve says, pointing the odd angles and meandering staircase that climbs the outside of the small artsy house. “I think I found it in Grahamsville,” he muses, while turning it about in his hands. “It doesn’t really matter where they came from. I just like ‘em.” When asked if he is given birdhouses by others, White nods. “Yes, but my family and friends know that I’m very particular about not just taking anything, so I don’t necessarily encourage it. I love discovering them on my own.” That being said, White acknowledges that those closest to him understand his aesthetic and eclectic taste for the old hand-me-downs and sometimes fi nd treasures for him, when they, too, are out and about.

“A few times a year, I’ll make a point of going to favorite collectibles shops, like Gayles Vintage Goodes, right here near home.

Gayle keeps an eye out for me, but most of the time, it’s the journey, not the destination. If it ever becomes work building on my

collection, then it won’t be fun anymore—and so far, it’s been nothing but fun.” Adding to the miniature housing project once or twice during the year is enough to keep White amused, and in between, he has discovered some artistic interpretations of winged creatures to enhance the collection. “I don’t actually hang them, but instead display them on pedestals and stumps in the yard, so birds don’t really set up housekeeping anymore. They’re too low to the ground.”

As aged as some of them are, a minimum of care is exercised and White houses his collection indoors during the harsh winter. “I don’t mind them falling apart, regardless of Suzanne’s warnings,” he says, “but I do put them in the garage off season, in hopes that they’ll last a few more years. Once in a while, I have to retire a birdhouse, but that only encourages me to find another to take its place.

“One man’s trash?” Maybe. But for Steve White, his collection of vintage, worn-out birdhouses get a new lease on life and as a result, become a real treasure.

Another of White’s favorite is this saloon-themed one, which he found in Lake Tahoe.

A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 17

Ramona’s d.i.y. : star spangled banner According to research conducted by the National Museum of American History (a division of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC), "no actual archival evidence or other verbal traditions support the story of Betsy Ross sewing the fi rst American flag." What? How about the tradition of family gossip?

In 1870, Ross's grandson, William J. Canby, made claim to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that his grandmother had "made with her hands the fi rst flag" of the United States.* How did he know this? Apparently his Aunt Clarissa told him 20 years after Betsy’s death.

Here are some of the facts: Betsy worked as an upholsterer. She was very attractive. She was trice married—to soldiers every time—and twice widowed. She and George Washington were members of the same church.

But exactly how much reupholstering did Washington need? That question remains unanswered.

Canby tells us that General Washington not only commissioned the flag, but also visited 24-year-old Betsy at her home to oversee the design. According to hearsay, Washington himself instructed Betsy to change the shape of the stars from six-pointed to the easier-to-produce five-pointed stars—a (now repudiated) meeting depicted over the centuries in many fi ne art paintings as well as a postage stamp issued in 1952.

Now that the question of who really sewed the very fi rst American flag is—”sew” to speak—up in the air (pun intended), there’s cause to re-interpret it!

And just in time for the Fourth of July.

Here’s a fun DIY on the ol’ red, white and blue.

Designate one of the more substantial strands as the piece to sew all the other strands to—Betsy or whoever (I like to think it was Betsy) probably just ripped red and white upholstery fabric into strips that became stripes. Use an ordinary sewing needle or a curved upholstery needle (available at Walmart or Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores to sew your strips into stripes.

No matter what width or length, gather together as many white and red laces, trims, fringes and ribbons as you can find, plus a few gold strands just to catch the eye. The thrift stores in Callicoon, North Branch and White Sulphur Springs usually have plenty of ultra-reasonably priced notions of this sort.

18 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

For the stars, snip a length of starry-looking lace into pieces and use button thread to tack each individual ‘star’ either onto a blue silk handkerchief (as did I), or onto a scarf or random piece of lightweight blue fabric. If you don’t like to sew, fast drying, Multi-Grip glue from Callicoon Supply or Fabri-Tac from Walmart will adhere the stars.

For added interest and variety, cut your stars from two or more different-sized laces. (Word has it that George W—the original—came to me in a dream and instructed me to mix star sizes as pictured, but you may do as you wish). Be creative!

I used roofing nails to attach my “new glory” to the wall, because I have no shame, plus my flag was very large and heavy when finished. If your flag is small and lightweight, thumbtacks will most likely secure it to the wall. Note: You don’t need to have extensions left and right of the top of the flag as I did. In fact, someday I plan to take this flag down and cut those strays off, and then of course, rehang it. But for now, I just want to enjoy my primitive folk-art flag—my DIY star spangled banner. *”All Wrapped up in the Flag,” John Buescher

Once the stars are secure, attach the blue square to the upper left portion of your flag by sewing around all of its edges. It doesn’t matter if the stitches show. That’s all part of the charm.

A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 19

The River Reporter’s 20th

Annual

THE BEST BALLOT IS BACK!

We have revamped our ballot and it’s better than ever! We ask that you simply vote for the people, places or businesses that you think are the BEST. Thank you for your participation and we look forward to receiving your votes. If there is a category that we are missing, let us know!

We will publish our 2015 WINNERS in our annual Readers’ Choice Awards “BEST” supplement in January 2016.

Good Luck to all!

BEST PLACES FOR FOOD & DRINK

2015 READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS

BEST BUSINESSES & SERVICES Auto Service Station _________________

Mortgage Company _________________

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Local Products:

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- Eggs __________________________

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Campground______________________

- Meats _________________________

Grocery Store /Supermarket ____________

Seafood_________________________

Chamber of Commerce________________

- Maple Syrup _____________________

Hamburgers ______________________

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- Wine _________________________

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Steakhouse ______________________

Cider Mill ________________________

Meditation Center __________________

Health Food Store __________________

Vegetarian Food Restaurant ____________

Civic Club or Organization _____________

Movie Theatre _____________________

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College _________________________

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OFFICIAL "BEST" BALLOT ENTRY FORM

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PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY

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Auto Parts Store____________________

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20 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

BEST OF OUR COMMUNITY

HOW TO VOTE: Pleast print clearly your choices for “THE BEST” from the categories listed. Best choices are limited to Delaware, Orange, Pike, Sullivan and Wayne counties. You may also VOTE ONLINE: www.RiverReporter.com/BEST HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Additional ballots are available at The River Reporter of¿ce at 93 Erie Ave, Narrowsburg, NY. Ballots MUST be complete and include full name, address and phone number of voter. All ballots must be received by December 17, 2015. Employees of The River Reporter and Stuart Communications are permitted to vote but not eligible to win prizes. Entries that are late, damaged, illegible or missing voter’s name will not be eligible. One entry per person. Mechanically reprouced or Photocopied entries are not eligible. A business, organization or person may win no more than three (3) categories. Winners will be chosen based on the number of votes received by December 18th, 2015.

HOW TO WIN PRIZES: All ballots will be included in a random drawing for prizes.

Drawing will be held in January 2016. No duplicate winners. BEST Winners will be noti¿ed in January 2016.

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A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 21

Small building, big ideas A classroom without walls

By ISABEL BRAVERMAN I’m driving down a dirt road littered with potholes. It’s early spring and I can feel the mud splashing on my car. “Oh s***!” I exclaim after hitting yet another hole when I was trying my best to avoid it. I’m not very familiar with roads like these, and that’s saying something because I grew up here, in the country.

This is truly a country road—one-lane, dirt, leads to only a scattering of houses.

It’s called Toad Road, but don’t look for the sign, there isn’t one.

What was I doing on such a road? I was in the Beechwoods in Callicoon, NY on my way to meet Isaac Green Diebboll, 26, at his home, a converted barn. Diebboll is the founder and director of North School Studio, which is what we are going to talk about. Before our meeting I emailed him.

“Is your road in good shape?” I inquired, hesitantly. “Toad Road is in great shape.

Rather, the best it will ever be,” he replied. Great.

I make it down the road and lay my eyes upon Diebboll’s magnificent house

Photos by Isaac Green Diebboll

Isaac Green Diebboll founded North School Studio and bought the Weigh Station on Main Street in Callicoon, NY as part of the campus. The building is pictured here in May 2014 with a piano in front for anyone to play. and property (owned by his neighbors and dear friends Mark Keoppen and Wendy Townsend). Two large glass doors lead the way to the open-plan barn, one large multi-purpose room next to a large kitchen. There’s a wooden staircase leading upstairs to another open room, many stacks of books and a mattress lie on the floor. A small bedroom is to the side. It’s a great space; I instantly want to move in.

I sit at the kitchen table with Diebboll and Thomas Bosket, one of the directors

of North School Studio. They are cooking me breakfast. Diebboll scrambles the eggs with spinach, onion and feta (only after they deliberate the best possible way to cook them), and Bosket cuts up fruit for a salad. It’s the best breakfast I’ve had in a while. I look out the window and see an expanse of field; Diebboll explains there are solar panels out there, as well as chickens and a small farm. It is on its way to being a fully functional homestead, and also, part of the campus for North School Studio.

Diebboll is from New York City. He was born and raised there, but his family had a country house in the Beechwoods, where he spent much of his childhood.

After the death of his father, Diebboll inherited the land, 35 acres. There was no longer a house there, but Diebboll had a different vision for it: to build a school on top of a hill.

Three years ago, Diebboll moved to Callicoon full-time in the barn (it’s still affectionately called “The Barn”), and began plans for North School Studio. One of the biggest steps was buying a building on Callicoon’s Main Street. Known as the Weigh Station and Silos, these historic structures are across from the Peck’s parking lot and are now a part of the school’s campus. The silos’ use was to store coal, and the weigh station’s use was to weigh the coal that came down from the silos. People would drive right up to the station to load their coal. Diebboll said there are “layers involved in making this tiny building come to life.”

Deep into our eggs, my questions about the Weigh Station and the school lead Diebboll, Bosket and me into a wide-ranging talk about education, art, community and government. North School Studio will encompass all of those aspects. Diebboll has become greatly involved with community. He is a volunteer fi reman with Hortonville Volunteer Fire Company, he has been fi lming town and county government Continued on page 24

Along with the Weigh Station on Lower Main Street in Callicoon (right), Diebboll bought the adjoining silos (above).

North School Studio held a three-day workshop about 3D printing, including a brainstorming session held in the 1908 Schoolhouse in Callicoon.

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Small building Continued from page 22

meetings and posting them to YouTube; he is the vice president of communications/ education and outreach for Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development; he is a committee member on the Town of Delaware Energy Committee, on the executive board for the Callicoon Business Association, and on the Sullivan County Charter Review Commission. And, he recently announced that he will run for Sullivan County Legislature in 2016. To say he is busy is an understatement. And all of this is intentional; Diebboll says he wants to build a relationship with the community, and indeed he may have done that more quickly than people who have lived here for years.

North School Studio is all about social outreach and listening to the community, or “taking its pulse” as Diebboll says.

He and Bosket as well as other members of North School Studio have spent time doing just that (the other directors are Michael Carpenter, Laura Nitz and Matthew Lohry). At the Weigh Station, they have held various events from art workshops and exhibitions, to a dance performance, to serving soup at the Dickens on the Delaware event. During this past winter, they held a three-day 3D printing workshop, inviting people in the field to come and talk about 3D printing and what it could do for our community.

The property that Diebboll inherited sits on top of a hill and overlooks the Beechwoods. It will become a part of North School Studio.

The Barn serves as North School Studio’s headquarters. It was converted into a living space, and Diebboll stays there.

North School Studio has held events at the Weigh Station, like the art exhibit, “San Precario,” in August 2014, where people gathered.

They recently were selected as a winner of the 2015 New Challenge grant presented by The New School, and have plans to buy the old 1908 School House in Callicoon.

You may be wondering, how is this a school? School, in the conventional sense, in the way we probably all spent our time from Kindergarten to 12th grade, includes classrooms, desks, teachers, tests, homework, gym class and so on.

North School Studio is a different kind of school. The classroom can be anywhere.

Diebboll and Bosket talked about this concept. Their mission is to approach economic development through design and education, and to employ mindfulness of using what you have. They say there is an abundance of people with things to offer and that everybody is an expert. “We’re not going to fit the mold,” Diebboll said.

So, how does all of this fit? Fit into our community, into each individual, into the small Weigh Station building. The Weigh Station is a symbol, a symbol that says we are a small community, but we have a lot to say. Just look up at the silos next door, they are like the watchtowers of Callicoon, the beacon that guides people home. The Weigh Station, and North School Studio, may be small, but they have big ideas behind it.

[For more information about North School Studio, visit www. northschoolstudio.com, or email northschoolstudio@gmail.com.]

On the property of The Barn, or Toad Hallow Farm, are solar panels, as well as chickens and a garden.

We want YOUR photos!

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A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 25

BEST OF

The River Reporter

SUMMER 2004

Master Gardener reveals her secrets

By TOM KANE Lynn Elfert has attracted gardeners and potential gardeners from far and wide.

I have visited the garden numerous times over the years, but until now, I never knew her secret.

Why do so many people visit her to swap seeds, take shoots and show off a star rose or two?

Elfert is not just a master gardener. She is a mystic gardener.

“My garden is my church. It’s my dreamscape,” she said. A woman visitor from the “Course in Miracles,” a spiritual development program, told her that she was competing with God with such a beautiful garden.

“I told her, no, I was collaborating with God,” Elfert said. “Nature makes the weeds; God makes the flowers.”

To Lynn, the garden is a never-ending source of wonder. “Every morning I awake after the first bird song and step into awe and wonder. The forms, the variety, the complexity! And it happens every morning in sun or fog,” she said.

Something else happens that may be harder to grasp.

“There’s a kind of energy exchange that I experience. I put a great deal of energy into the flowers and plants and they in turn give a greater deal of energy to me.”

It took several years for Elfert to become aware of the real energy that was being exchanged.

“It doesn’t happen to those who hire a gardener,” she said with a chuckle.

She recalled a Persian myth about a group of men looking for water in the desert. They kept digging in many places, but to no avail.

“One man kept digging in the same place over and over. They thought he was mad until he struck water,” she said.

Sitting inside, in her “Emily Dickinson room,” with a view of her garden, Elfert sits in contemplation of what she has created and, what’s more important, what she will create.

She has little benches throughout the garden itself for additional thought and observation.

“Sitting in your garden is important,” she said.

You even have to study it, she added.

“Some plants like dark, others like light, others like wet and still others like dry,” she said. “You have to know what a particular flower likes best.”

Plants have certain demands. “When those demands are met, they flourish,” she said.

By observation, she learned, for example, that Japanese primroses like it black, dark and wet— not too much sun.

26 OUR COUNTRY HOME SUMMER 2015

Gardener Lynn Elfert contemplates her garden from her “Emily Dickinson room.”

“What the plant wants is the most important thing you need to know,” she said.

Elfert spoke about the mythology of certain plants and their histories.

“Lambs’ ears, which is called Stachys Byzantium, is a healing plant and was used in one of our wars—perhaps it was the Revolution or the Civil War—as a styptic to stem the flow of blood,” she said. “The army carried it and would place it on a bleeding wound.”

So, some plants were cultivated for a reason other than beauty.

By design, Lynn arranges to have a profusion of color every two weeks.

“You can have flowers and plants in bloom all through the summer if you plan it right,” she said.

TRR photos by Tom Kane

Remembering Lynn Elfert

Elfert fi nds her garden, which she calls her “church,” a source of wonder.

“Come on over and get some plants. They’re free!” said the outspoken Lynn Elfert the day I met her. I had just relocated from the city having no idea about plants, dirt or gardening. In fact, I would jokingly tell my friends back in Manhattan that “instead of buying a staple of little black cocktail dresses, I now buy dirt.”

Lynn’s house, decorated in a bohemian style, was surrounded by glorious English-style gardens. From the moment I stepped on her grounds I was enchanted, and we soon became gardening buddies.

“Never trust anyone who doesn’t have dirt under their nails!” she warned, as she led a brigade of novice gardeners (including me) on a “rogue-ing” (as she called it) expedition.

I thought it might be against the law to take plants from abandoned properties, but Lynn, who looked to be about 70 years old at the time, convinced all of us that jail time was worth saving the roses. Sometime after falling out of an apple tree and severely breaking both her arms, Lynn sold her house and moved a few doors down from me to a house with a fraction of the garden she once tended. “That’s okay,” she said. “I’ll just visit your garden.”

By then, I had about a quarter-acre flower garden in full bloom, which I had hoped she would weed, but instead she “rogued” in broad daylight, mostly the poisonous heirloom plants.

One day, I got news that Lynn had died from an asthma attack, trowel in hand, in the midst of her garden. I smiled. “What better way for her to go?” I thought. Her wake was held in that very garden with her tools on display along with dozens of photos, family members and friends. As we work our own gardens this season, let’s celebrate and remember the life of Lynn Elfert, gardener, teacher, friend and most of all rogue.

— Ramona Jan

Advice to the new or inexperienced gardener “Pick a spot on your property that you can see all the time,” she said.

“Putting your garden way over there is dumb.”

To start, pick plants that aren’t fussy.

Plant day lilies, foxgloves, also called digitalis, phlox, dam’s rockets, primroses, pulmonaria or lungwort. These make easy beginnings.

“Stick to perennials,” she said. “It’s nice to plant an annual here and there for color, but my mainstay is perennials.”

Get to know soils.

“You need to get a good book that speaks about these things when you’re first starting out,” she said.

Elfert recommends “Taylor’s Guide to Gardening Techniques,” published my Houghton Mifflin.

“I think it’s still in print.”

If you can’t find a good book, get to know a good gardener who knows the land around you.

“Don’t ask them to design your garden. That’s yours to do,” she said.

There are books called “bloom charts” that tell when certain flowers bloom.

“I have known people who say, ‘after June my garden disappears’.

That’s their fault. It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“I rarely buy a plant or seeds,” she said. “I visit other gardeners and swap some seeds. I have even visited the garden of a gardener who died before the garden goes to seed. The family usually likes that.”

Tom Kane Tom Kane did a couple of stints at The River Reporter, first as a part-timer in 1996 and then as a full-timer from 1999 to 2012. His extraordinarily varied life experience includes a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in English, a period in the Catholic priesthood, several professorships, public relations work with the New York City Board of Education, teaching English in Jeffersonville and singing with the Delaware Valley Opera Company. His experience in the liberal arts enriched the newspaper’s cultural coverage for many years. He was also a strong advocate for the farming community, and his voice appeared again and again in the news pages covering the plight of local farmers. When the prospect of horizontal hydrofracking appeared on the horizon of the Upper Delaware region, it was Tom who fi rst called The River Reporter staff’s attention to it. He is the author of “The Mark of Gnossis,” a murder mystery set in a Trappist abbey in the plains of Wyoming, and a personal reminiscence titled “Good Church, Bad Church.”

Continued on page 28

A RIVER REPORTER MAGAZINE 27

Master gardener Continued from page 27

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Deer watch Elfert has some experienced advice about deer.

“I lay out chicken wire flat on the ground surrounding my garden,” she said. “For some reason the deer don’t like to put their hoofs on it. They get stuck in the holes and they move away quickly. It works.”

Deer don’t like to eat anything gray, she said.

“They dislike artemesia, lichtis coronaria, lamb’s ears, digitalis, monk’s hood, yarrows and castor beans.”

A garden is a constant source of wonder— even in the winter when you plan for next year.

“Gardening never ends,” Elfert said.

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