"10 Minutes to Frostbite" in Vershire, VT

Members of my extended family on my dad's side have slowly migrated up to Vermont over the last 5 or 6 decades and I've been going to visit them and hang out at the family farm my whole life.  In the last three or so years, my friend Camila and I have made quite the habit of going up to Vermont to visit my (and her honorary) family, and this Winter was no different.  We went up with my brother and his girlfriend for a solid week over my stateside Winter break.  As a kid I always stayed at my brother's house, Hillfarm, but in the past few years Camila and I have stayed with my sister Jean and her husband, (and my godfather), Richard at their house in the lovely and very small town of Vershire in central eastern Vermont.

Jean and Richard moved to Vershire around 2004, bought a very old house that Richard then spent the next 4-5 years fixing up himself, keeping as much of the original structure as possible. 

Jean and Richard's house

house and barn

Despite Vershire being an exceedingly small town - with a population around 300 people - there is plenty to do, if you have a love of the outdoors, manual labor, crafts, cooking, dogs and of course, an open mind!

Jean and Richard haven't bought their own bread in a few years, as Richard makes fresh bread daily with king arthur flour and a bunch of grains he keeps in a jar.

rising dough

On this trip, my brother Chris and his girlfriend Laura, who live in Detroit and are the official caretakers of my dog Barnaby while I am living in Istanbul, decided to meet us in Vermont and do a Barnaby "switch".

 And so it was that Barnaby and I were reunited in Vershire, Vermont. 

 A big staple of our days in Vermont is centered around a good daily dog walk.  Jean and Richard have a new dog addition to their family as of last summer; a Newfoundland/Black Lab mix named Boone.  Boone can best be described as a mama's boy who is gentle giant.

Boone and Barnaby on their walk up to the Vershire Riding School

Note: Boone wants you all to know that he normally does not need a leash for his walks, he was only handicapped due to a vicious heartworm that required he walk at a slower pace for a few weeks.

Barn leading the way

horses at the Riding School up the road

At the end bit of the apltly-titled "Riding School Road," we went off on a path that loops up and around to get back to the house.  In the summer, the walk takes about half an hour, but come wintertime and 3 feet of snow, it takes a full hour and is quite labor intensive.

The walk was pretty taxing, and as soon as our heartrates got up, we were surprised to find that we were sweating in such cold weather.  So some jackets were removed as we continued on our trek.  Thank goodness there was plenty of snow to help us hydrate.  mmmmmm pure snow tastes good.

crossing a bit of a stream



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horse riding rink at the stables up the road



someone was there before us



on our way up to "tabletop"- the peak of the mountain



a view from almost "tabletop"

 we didn't actually walk up onto the rock that is called tabletop, we were satisfied with the view where we were.  Throughout the walk Barnaby got a little tired and cold, which was perfectly understandable.  In order to get through the snow he adopted a dolphin-like move that enabled him to swim/hop through the snow; effective but very tiresome.  So he got an airlift on the way down.

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view of Jean and Richard's house on the backward bit of our loop

Once we got home we promptly peeled off all our layers and plunkered down in the kitchen, which is where we spend all our time during the winter, due to the awesome stove.  I did a little post-walk stretching and yoga, which Boone wanted in on.

Another huge staple of our days in Vermont, especially since the addition of Barnaby and Boone has been generally obsessing over how adorable our dogs are and watching them play.

Note here that they switch toys - the competition is getting fierce

and Barnaby submisses...

It's very tiring to play so much....

 
 Jean and Richard have a beautiful kitchen, and the massive stove means that people congregate here during the winter months:


Boone caught in the act of entering the kitchen. Barnaby is such a bad influence!


So of course there was some cooking:

gingerbread on top, brownies on the bottom

sliving orange peel for my granmere's orange raisin cake

making the cake

making potato, celery and leek soup (recipe found on february's int'l house of cuisine blog)




the kitchen, with the amazing stove.



I spent about half of the time camped out in front of the stove...

view of the backyard from the kitchen sink

fire in the living room

the dogs also spent most of their time hovering by the stove

cuddling session!

One night we drove over to my brother Mark's house for a visit and dinner.  We call Mark's house "Hillfarm," it's the house that my dad bought in 1946 for $500.  He bought it in the middle of winter with a huge hole in the roof.  He and his wife, Bobbie, fixed up the house enormously, built a barn nearby and lived there with their three kids - with interruptions when they moved to Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria and Vietnam, of course.  Most importantly, their settling in Vermont led to other family members slowly (over 6 decades) moving up there and buying (but mainly building) their own houses.

I grew up going up to Vermont every summer, when all the cousins went up.  Some of my fondest memories are of haying all day with dozens of young cousins, hopping into some cars and heading to the Floating Bridge Pond for a dip, and then convening at a different family member's home for an evening of good food (almost always a product of their gardens) followed by a game of soccer or something comparable.

Today Hillfarm is still a farm for Black Angus cows, so they spend the summers haying the fields and packing up the barn to feed the cows.  After many summers that involved long haying days, this trip was my first experience actually feeding the hay to the cows.

the barn stacked with hay from our summer's work!

the shoot going down to where the cows eat

view of the cows from a hole in between the barns wooden planks

the barn, behind which is a huge garden and a pond

MacDonald road :)

my brother, Christopher

red velvet cake that Diane made with yellow-infused icing

Montpelier, Vermont

It was 4 degrees on this day - which means nighttime will be cooooooooold

frosty window

everyone needs a Do It Yourself Maple Syrup Kit

The night before we left we returned the favor of hosting my brother Mark and Diane and her son Charlie over for dinner at Jean and Richard's house and invited my uncle Mark.  Camila and I made a really big feast - of roasted vegetables, a lettuce-based salad with a side bowl of oranges we were too hesitant to put in the salad, potato and leek soup, rice and beans, fresh-baked bread (by Richard), and Chris and Laura made mint lamb burgers.  Mark and Diane brought over Vermont Butter and Creamery prize-winning cheese that looked like a mini brain but tasted nothing like it.

Jean and Diane getting into the festivities!

Mark enjoying his potato and leek soup

Uncle Mark digging into the salad

Mark continuing to enjoy his potato and leek soup

no more soup!

 Boone and Barnaby had their own fun....

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Diane and Jean immersed in conversation

Camila and Mark deep in discussion

 Towards the end of dinner we brought up the subject of lighting the bonfire to Richard.

We decided to forego the bonfire on the coldest night of the year - which dipped to 35 degrees below zero.  Instead, we waited unti the next night, with a toasty negative 20 degrees.  But on our last night we decided we had to light the bonfire!

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So we all bundled up in preparation for the bitter cold.  As Diane noted, at this temperature, "it's 10 minutes to frostbite"

Uncle Mark bundled up...

sister Jean bundled up...

Barn and I bundled up...

brother Mark, me, Jean and Diane

So Richard started setting up the bonfire, using lots of motor oil.

Lighting the massive fire...

Boone wanted in on the bonfire

Chris and Richard in a slightly creepy but awesome photo

bonfire from afar

Camila and I took a quick trip into the house to regroup and warm up!

hot and cold

dancing by the fire

Laura and Chris

Camila sitting on one of her custom made stadium snow seats

Camila and Richard

Jean and Richard

As the fire died down we decided it was time to head in to get warm and clean up after the dinner...
and make silly faces to the camera....

the girls!

oh Boone

The next morning was our last day, and we decided to spend it right, by the stove!

and finally eating the pickled cucumbers we had put in a pickling jar our first day there...delicious!

Camila, Chris, Laura and I packed up our things this morning, made picnics for the road, and hit the road back to our respective homes in d.c. and Detroit.  As we were packing, Jean started talking to us about the various activities we would do this summer when we come to visit; trips to Warren Falls (for swimming and rock-diving), haying at Mark's, preparing elaborate feasts at her house full of mezze and Alice Waters' recipes made with food from their garden, swimming at the floating bridge...