Date: 2010-08-07
From: The Lookout Cabin!!!

To: Barnard
Miles today: 6.2

07 Saturday August ¢ 6.2 miles to Barnard Gulf RdYathzee wasn¢t feeling well when she got in last night. She hasn¢t been eating much and has taken lots of naps. Her headaches have been frequent and hard to deal with. We¢re all relieved to see her arrive last night. Tossed and turned a bit without my pillow. My food bag doubles as my pillow at night in my tent. The possibility of mice had me paranoid enough to hang it in the shack.We ate on the giant rock radiating heat from the morning sunlight. My camera now won¢t zoom at all, or so I though until last night. It would only zoom all the way out. The only way to get to zoom on the camera to return to normal was to turn it off. It worked enough for me to get a clear view of the Whites! Got a nice view of the sunset from the platform last night.We took a long break on the rooftop before starting the day. We listened to the Black Keys, Zeppelin, and Marley, and marveled at the Vermont skyline. We tried getting started a few times but it was entirely to hard to leave the best view in Vermont. Amazing day! Glad I didn¢t get up to see the sunrise so I¢d be able to stay up later for the trail magic we were about to get. We met ¢Grommet¢ at the shelter where she invited us to Fable Farm for the evening. They were having a dance in Barnard and her farming community was providing produce and a night stay at their farm.¢What¢s the catch?¢ I ask myself.It all sounded cool but I kept my poker face about the whole thing. To good to be true? I¢d turn out to be wrong! What an amazing place! The streets reminded me of the first town that the character from Big Fish encounters. When we get to the farm, I see the catch. It¢s a hemlock wood pining event! 8X8X12ft long hemlock poles! I was instantly interested and told them that I had construction experience. Chris tried to ascertain the extent of my architectural talents and jokingly I told him I¢d helped Habitat for a few times. He was very friendly and excited to show me his tools for carving the wooden structure. ¢No nails. No metal!¢ say¢s Chris. Chris has John Lennon style sideburns. ¢I went to college for anthropology but I wish I would have just used the money I¢d spent to buy a farm¢ said Chris. I think he¢s a cool guy after he played a Hank Williams senior song about ¢Burning the House Down¢.Tom Planer shows up to assist the unprofessionals. He¢s very friendly but he¢s busting Chris¢s balls about a few comical mistakes. The whole situation is relaxed and experimental. Grommet, who earlier gave us Spilanthiam as a joke, had even hand chiseled cut the side braces. They were building a structure that would shelter their clay oven. They have a mud oven! They used it to cook out chicken dinner with. The farm also sponsors a weekly concert where they sell pizzas made from the produce of their farm. They have an acre farm land here and several other larger pieces of property. They have chickens and very interesting people working for them. Johnny, who looks like Johnny Apple seed. Matt, who is the father of a long blonde haired child named Meridian. Meridian is the 6 year old prot©g© of Matt who is raising his daughter in the art of piratedom. Matt told me as we stand on top of the hemlock structure that I helped assemble this morning. We¢re balancing on the beams as he tells me about his sailboat. ¢If the boat¢s still afloat when my friend dies, it¢s my boat.¢ says Matt as we walk along the braces of hemlock above the clay oven. We discuss the various reasons why we¢d both make great captains one day. I couldn¢t help but think of the Queen Bee I have at home! About what an awesome lady she is. Matt and I test the structure out by doing the sailor shimmy thing like Frank Sinatra. Johnny Cash played as I told Matt about what Averi will tell you when you ask, ¢What Do You Want to be went you grow up?¢We ate a dinner of delicious free veggies, chicken and green gravy. The first chicken was cooked to perfection. The second chicken was not done. I saw Tree feed his pink fowl breast to the dog. The dog was a bummer. It was an Australia sheep dog of some form but it was pretty nuts. It ran around freaking people out by attacking them randomly. No one was allowed to run. Frisbee meant you needed to be mauled by this mean ass dog leaping at your throat with its teeth bared. It tore my shirt when I caught the Frisbee.Stretcher displayed his professional dancing talents when one of the girls wanted to dance. He¢s schooled in the art of Lindy, Charleston, Blues, West Coast swing. She likes this obviously as they dance to Black Key¢s songs. It was hilarious watching them pretend not to like each other the rest of the night. Grommet took us across the road to the local pond to wash off in the cool night air. It was freezing cold but it reminded me of the rock quarry at home. The bottom of the pond was covered in soft grass that your feet sank up to your knees in. Amazing! Brewhaha! Gesus, it creeps me out having wet weeds envelop my legs like they might drag me down to a pond beast and swallow me. Ack! I¢m freaking out inside writing about it! It smells so good and clean. The leaves look happier here. The leaves look pressed and starched. The air and breeze are perfect here. I discussed the contents of the blender full of green sludge with Meridian¢s mother. She tells me it¢s gravy, but I don¢t believe her. I¢m not in the South anymore! I¢ve been bitching a lot lately about the general lack of white gravy in the North. Hot Foot and Tree agree that this is a deal breaker for New England¢s popularity contest chances. Stretcher is busy showing Lisa his dance moves as we eat kale, pickles, and all sorts of organic produce.The Barnard Street Dance starts with the band playing Zydeco music. Stretcher, the dance pro has never heard of zydeco. That¢s another bad point about the North! He pretends he doesn¢t want to dance again when Lisa asks him to come along. She loves it. We¢re eating raw chicken anyways. I cover it in green gravy and love it! Salmonella be damned!We wadded out to the concert where we see the two sweetheart high school age ¢Woofn¢ kids jump into the cold black pond that¢s right behind the event grounds. They don¢t stay in long and they disappear. The boy¢s from Oregon and the girl¢s from California. They¢re so freaking happy that we are all envious of them. They lounged around while we put up the carved hemlock structure earlier.I put up a fight and don¢t buy any food. We watch the band and Stretcher dancing with Lisa. He¢s pretty good! Hot Foot bought a shirt to commemorate the occasion. We watched some pretty amateur fire dancers. I was amazed by the sight of the Milky Way in the night sky. Astonished to see what the real sky looks like. It looks bigger in Vermont. I wonder why I haven¢t seen the Milky Way before? This land, Vermont is heaven¢s Eden if there is a place. I can¢t stand to pee on the ground in Vermont! I pick up every scrap of trash that I can carry here! I¢m crazy about this place. This place could feel like home! They even have a bee hive! The thru-hikers get exhausted and go back from the music early. We sit around the fire and someone grabs my Cherry Delight bag and hand it around the bon fire for others to share. I wasn¢t really happy about that but not many people took any! They¢re going to burn the lumber and cut tree limbs in the fire tonight. All of the firewood right beside my tent. Damn it! They¢ll keep us up all night. I¢m getting so old. Old and lame. The conversation with the fireside attendees turned awkwardly silent. Once the concert goers had nothing to do, they all came over for a long sing along. They played ¢Behind Blue Eyes¢ and ¢Wagon Wheel¢. They guy doing back flips on the trampoline earlier was playing guitar and with a girl on mandolin.