Ripton is where it's at

Delights in Ripton, Vermont include Robert Frost's cabin (yet to be explored), the Ripton Country Store:

The Chipman Inn which Katelynn and her rents discovered and we're bringing it back as a Bread Loaf hangout. We tried to go the square dance last night for the free beer, but we could not enter. It brought back too many memories of forced square dancing lessons in elementary school. We should have been brave enough, but were not. We rounded up another person who was hovering outside the door, Ricardo, and headed to the Inn which is a B&B with a bar and couches. It was a good time, but the only picture I got with this stupid camera is this gem (reasons why giving up Media at Esko is really sad.... goodbye DSLR)...

our retired explorer: campground envy

Friday we don't have classes and I didn't have to work, so Bryan and I went exploring. The previous night we attended the first pond reading which is a thinly disguised kegger by a pond behind the barn. It's called a pond reading because an expressive reading of Ellen, a book by the man who gifted Middlebury these grounds, takes place, followed by a professor's choice of readings. This reading was done by Professor Luftig and was alternately funny and moving. I left telling Bryan that it was at that reading that I finally felt like this campus was Bread Loafy. It's such a big campus that you're able to be pretty anonymous as you walk around campus, unlike at the smaller campuses. It has the feel of regular college and I had been missing the community that I had come to associate with Bread Loaf, so it was nice to see it here. I'm looking forward to more of that here. Here is the scintilating reading of Ellen by what I assume are some of the "frat boys" on campus (there is one dorm that throws what everyone calls frat parties): 

Friday we headed out to Silver Lake Campground where a couple in their 70s are hosts. They live in Middlebury and live out at the campground all summer. It's a hike-in campground, though I think they can access their host site via vehicle. Officer Ruth was a little in awe of them living in a tent at their age, but after visiting the campground, it's clear why they choose to live there. It's a lovely little lake in the woods. The sites are much more beautiful than Moosalamoo's and there is a great, wide open picnic area where you can swim. I wish we could move the yurt there, but it's 6/10 of a mile hike in which would be difficult with the yurt. Not to mention that I simply can't see how Moosalamoo would get by without our stellar hosting skills. Most nights the sites occupied are ours, Keith's, and one other by an old man in a van camper.

Here are the sights at Silver Lake:

 

 That night at work Katelynn and her parents came by and helped me pass the time. Having three Georgians to listen to speak made my evening! I love their accents!

Saturday we explored Sugar Hill Reservoir which evidently is a popular swimming and fishing place. It isn't as nice as Silver Lake, but we passed some time there.

There appear to be some pretty sweet cross country trails here, including one marked with this sign that is identical to signage out at Phil and Kelly's farm in Esko, Minnesota. Curious...

a break in the clouds

Based on the number of times I have reached for my camera, the past few days have been an improvement on the rainy mess that has been Moosalamoo Campground. The forecast still looks like this: 

but at least we've had hours of delightful sunshine, wind for the first time since our arrival, and the rain has mostly been starting at 5pm. Also, the humidity has lifted, so it isn't stank inducing to just move around, let alone try to get some exercise. We know the humidity lifted by our daily drive by Mt. Moosalamoo. If there is a haze around it, it's humid. If you can see it clearly, you won't want to die every time you move your body. Here is the first clear day's view: 

The result is that we've actually been capable of hiking and biking, we had our first successful fire last night with Keithers and it was downright pleasant. You know it's been a some crummy days when all three of us remark with a level of surprise that we're enjoying being outside by the fire. 

So, today we celebrate sunshine and a dry yurt floor! 

it's a midwest thang

As St. Lunatics famously wrote, "It's a midwest thang." Yeah, I just quoted St. Lunatics in my blog.

Today in Fictions of Finance, we shared some of our financial impressions and experiences and it got me thinking a lot about some distinctions I notice when I'm out here at Bread Loaf. It makes me feel very Fitzgerald-esque minus the eventual gathering of wealth and the jumping in fountains. Mostly, it's just the strange relationship with wealth. As someone who doesn't put a whole lot of stock in acquiring wealth [see leaving your job to live in a yurt] (don't get me wrong, I worry about money and want to feel secure), it has been interesting to read the books with my Midwestern, middle class world looming behind me.

I'm just always reminded of how different my experiences as a public school kid, working in a middle class community, are from some of my peers here. A lot of the people in the room work in supremely expensive (Marshall's got nothing on these tuitions) private schools where 1%-ers kids attend school. Since I have exactly zero experience with that kind of wealth, I'm always really intrigued by the stories told here and it just sort of hit me that I'll get to spend a class hearing more of those stories that are so far from my own understanding. That's pretty great.

In unrelated news, true to my goal of taking advantage of every opportunity for free food or drink, I had a free [probably leftover] wrap that was sitting in the barn instead of paying the $12 for lunch on campus. Then we had social hour on the Adirondack chairs. Here is proof since this would be the second blog without photos if I didn't add it:

Then I went to class and sat down to kill time for a bit and then torrential downpours set in, true to Vermont form. Good news! More free stuff: Bonfire tonight by the pond with beer (thank God - this campus has had only dry events which is not how I'm used to rolling at Bread Loaf), I got more work hours for this weekend, and Bryan presumably secured himself a job in the kitchen at the aforementioned delicious Rosie's in Middlebury. It's that good midwestern work ethic. They heard my MN accent and were all about hiring him. He told me not to blog about it in case it wasn't a sure thing, but too late.

"How high's the water, Momma? Five feet high and risin'."

The rain continues to fall, but Ranger Dave assures me that this is a weather front that will move out. Luckily, the company is good, the crew is reunited, and classes start today.

As of 49 minutes ago, I've started my duties as computer lab (called the Apple Cellar here) assistant. It's roaring here with one professor working away in a corner.

The Vermont campus has a much more serious and studious feel than Santa Fe and from all accounts, the courses will be more demanding. Certainly the opening speeches and ceremonies have focused on the rigor and the challenge ahead, which is disconcerting, but I'm sure we'll all rise to the occasion and that it will be a good challenge rather than an impossible challenge. At any rate, it takes some adjusting coming from the whole Santa Fe feel. That is not to say that the coursework at Santa Fe was not challenging, but the focus was much more on community and togetherness whereas the focus appears to be otherwise here.

I am taking Fictions of Finance, which I have twice a week for a long block. The focus should be on how writers portray the economic world, how they take on capitalism, especially the stock market's influence on ordinary lives. I don't know anything about economics, so I think it will be interesting and hopefully not over my head.

My other class is Male, Female, Other, which is about the history of gender and how "others," those who don't quite fit society's roles of gender, have faired. The syllabus is daunting and the class starts at 11. I'll keep you posted. It has been enlightening reading and there is nothing quite like reading Deliverance while camping in a new forest. Can you hear the banjoes yet?

Summer in Hyde, Some are Not

Vermont is lovely, green, and hot, muggy, and rainy. Admittedly, it was going to be hard to beat Santa Fe, and we have only been here about five days, but the yurt life just isn't quite as delightful in Vermont.

See tiny sliver of light?

Wet, stanky floor.

The yurt roof has a teeny, tiny gap where we didn't quite line the roof cover up quite right, so we woke up the other day, after those nice-to-fall-asleep-to rains to a wet floor. After we cleaned that up, we realized that the entire "tub" floor of the yurt (it's a tarp/tent-like floor) was seeping wet through it. Therefore, all our stuff, the rug, dog beds, etc. was sopping wet. Since then we have had some sunshine, but more heavy rain in the evenings, so it's drier but not dry. Also, the bugs are bad.

However, the other night Keith showed up (he's camping at Moosalamoo too!) and then last night we were reunited with the crew, so that cheered us up. More to come...

nesting in the green mountains

The yurt is starting to feel like home again. Bryan spent yesterday building [tall] furniture, including a kitchen counter and a "wardrobe" for my clothes. As the sun was setting last night, we got the rug down and the transformation from shelter to home was complete.

In the past few days the following things have taken place:

We started our duties as the all important Moosalamoo National Forest Campground Hosts. It sure is hard work. Basically we greet people, clean out any campsites that slobs mess up, and radio in to headquarters once a day. It's pretty epic and I had to listen to Bryan do it 3 times before I was brave enough to do it myself. The main ranger, Dave, is really nice and stayed to bullshit with us for at least a half hour, so I'm sure we'll be fast friends any day. He brought us these Forest Service Volunteer hats:

Klue is pissed because we didn't accept the volunteer vests they offered us. She wanted one and was denied. 

One of the cops, Ruth popped in a couple times and she's friendly too.

We got our first rainstorm yesterday afternoon and it rained hard all night. We fell asleep to rain on the yurt roof, which is a pretty damn nice way to bring sleep in. We woke this morning to a wet floor because the yurt dome leaked. I guess the roof cover didn't end up in the exact correct place, so we'll have to do a little fixing on that. It's also ridiculously humid and we're in the shade, so everything feels really moist. Yuck.

We had stellar breakfast, and you know how we love breakfast food, at Rosie's in Middlebury. We popped in at the legendary Ripton Country Store, which has just about everything a country store ought to.

We got supplies and groceries in Middlebury and checked out the main campus.

We headed to Bread Loaf and took in the picturesque campus where I'll be doing my studies. I'm so glad we came buy and had the chance to see it sans people. The massive, old, mostly yellow buildings that are so iconically Bread Loaf were lovely in their silence and we got to take some pictures before the 250 students start rolling in tomorrow.

another successful yurt raising

She's up!  A note about yurt raising: It is not a two person job when one person has back troubles, but we succeeded nonetheless!

News from Yurtlandia

We're a couple of schoolteachers whose wanderlust and nerdiness has led us to the traveling yurt life, although that is about to get more permanent (see upcoming blog). For the second summer, we're about to hit the road, set up the yurt at a campground, and live simply. Last year we stormed Santa Fe, where I immersed myself in Victorian novels and contemporary short stories (in other words, I worked on my masters in English). For six weeks, I got schooled, Bryan played, we yurted, and we met all sorts of amazing people (lucky for us, many of these characters about to resurface in this blog). This year we head east to Vermont, to the land of Robert Frost, maple syrup, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I'm pretty sure I got all the important stuff there. So, tune back in in the coming weeks and months, because even if this summer isn't that interesting (impossible: Keith will be there), you'll want to be around long enough to get the link to the next blog. Trust me. 

Wondering how we ended up in a yurt instead of in student housing or a cozy apartment?

http://yurtininsantafe.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-conventional-or-reasonable-thing.html