Well, we’ve finally organized all the photos of our restoration into a huge online album!
Have a look:
Restoration Photos
By Room
TO VIEW THE HOWARD HALL FARM BLOG, CLICK HERE.
TO GO TO THE OFFICIAL HOWARD HALL FARM WEBSITE, CLICK HERE.
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Welcome
OUR LEARNING LABORATORY IS A 1780s STONE MANOR IN THE HEART OF THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY. THIS FEDERAL-STYLE HOME PRESENTS A NUMBER OF RESTORATION CHALLENGES SPECIFIC TO THIS REGION OF THE COUNTRY. WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US IN OUR EFFORT TO RESTORE GREEN.
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We just finished the video from our last lime wash training workshop:
**CLICK HERE TO WATCH !**
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WE FINISHED THE PLASTER CLASS VIDEO!
We just finished editing a video of our Lime Wash Workshop with Rory Brennan from “This Old House”. It was our most successful plaster workshop yet! Now you can watch it online to get a feel for what we’re doing over here. CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.
TO VIEW A COMPLETE LISTING OF GREEN RESTORATION WORKSHOPS,
CLICK HERE.
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Here’s where we are as of this morning, Dec.6th.
Each slide represents an area we’ve been working on, from mortar, to chimneys, and on…
To view a slide-show of every single project in progress, CLICK HERE.
And here’s a little treat from TED:
Larry Brilliant: The case for informed optimism
Google.org director Larry Brilliant uses a clip from an old Frank Capra movie to show that we’ve known about global warming for 50 years — yet we’ve done almost nothing to solve it. He explores this and other mega-trends that could easily inspire mega-pessimism. But, he says, there is a more powerful case for optimism, and he tells us why. Recorded at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford, UK. Watch this talk >>
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Today’s forum question: How to remove tar, paint and muck from floors and doors, and do it green.
Visit our forum today to learn how to remove all sorts of treacherous materials that have been applied to floors and doors over the years in an environmentally friendly way!
[Click here to read about a shockingly simple technique we've been experimenting with!]
To submit your restoration questions for an answer from whichever qualified person I can snag, email them to: howardhall.farm@gmail.com
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Age of Restoration: Times Union
This just came out in the Times Union. (There was one tiny mistake, but it’s less than a century long, so…: for the record, the house was built in 1780, not 1870.)
From: timesunion.com
Age of restoration Tinsmith Dennis Heaphy is turning a 19th-century house into a workshop
By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer First published: Sunday, November 18, 2007
Dennis Heaphy doesn’t require affirmation of what he does as often as most workers do. But every now and then, even for Heaphy, affirmation is nice.
“I was having a glass of wine last night, and the bartender asks, ‘How was your day?’ ” Heaphy says. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m really enjoying this. I’m laying on the roof, and I’m intent on what I’m doing; I’m scraping off the existing tar on the metal to prep it to be soldered. And then I realize that it’s a beautiful day, and I’m looking out on the Hudson from the highest point.’ “
From his rooftop perch at Howard Hall Farm, Heaphy can watch the Hudson River hug the bank as it pushes past the village of Athens, near Hudson. A fourth-generation tinsmith, he is restoring the roof of the 1870s house.
A beefy man with flowing hair and a bushy mustache, Heaphy usually divides his time between New York City, where he is resident tinsmith at the Statue of Liberty, and Syracuse, where his great-grandfather opened a metal shop 115 years ago. But for several weeks over the next several months, he will be in the Hudson River Valley helping restore the old Federal-style house and giving lessons in tinsmithing.
Platform for school
Heaphy’s participation exemplifies how Howard Hall Farm is a laboratory for “sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques,” as its owner Reggie Young puts it. He and his partner, Nora Johnson, bought the house in 2005 as “the platform for a school of restoration that I had fantasized about,” Young says.
It was in rough shape — perfect for what Young had in mind. He’s a former restaurateur in New York City and Connecticut who grew up on a farm in eastern Pennsylvania. His parents did restoration work, and he did, too, even while owning restaurants. But he wanted to do more.
At Howard Hall Farm, he and Johnson started by ripping out the electrical system, plumbing, ceilings, floors, walls and siding as well as tearing down all additions.
“We gutted it back to everything that was original,” Young says.
That took about six months. Then reconstruction began. Young and his partner are bringing in preservation and restoration experts from around the country to oversee the work and give seminars in, for example, masonry and historic paints and finishes.
The real thing
Young recruited Heaphy this summer after reading about him in an article in a New York newspaper. The article was headlined “The Tin Man.”
“He told me the house was built in 1780. That was the hook,” Heaphy says. “The opportunities don’t come up that often to come in and try to salvage old work.
“This is not theoretical. This is the real thing. You watch some television show, and you can muse about it. But actually to get your hands in it … “
And Heaphy’s hands are full with this project. Standing on the roof, he says: “You’re looking at a map of people’s mistakes over 200 years.”
He has the expertise to correct them. He learned to work with metal from the old men in his family’s shop in Syracuse that supported the family’s hardware store and heating and roofing companies. What turned out to be a fortunate happenstance started as a nuisance.
“I inadvertently learned a trade that very few people have anymore,” says Heaphy, 48. “I really only do work that I find interesting, like this. Having this talent has given me the freedom to do that. But when I was 11 years old I didn’t want to be a tinsmith.”
He wanted to be with friends. Instead, he worked after school, Saturdays and summers learning to solder, bend metal, corrugate pipe, lay out a job and envision how it would look when finished. By the time he was 15 or 16, he says, he was master of the shop.
“I learned to appreciate the craft,” he says, “to love working with metal.”
To the statue
He also loves performing, and that led him to the Statue of Liberty. His mother was a singer, and Heaphy, while running the shop, did summer stock and regional theater. Through people he’d met acting, he got a job transforming a room of the Ellis Island museum in New York City into a theater. Then he befriended workers in the Ellis Island maintenance department, the same workers who oversee the Statue of Liberty. He told them about his family business.
“I said, ‘So what do I have to do to become the resident tinsmith for the statue?’ ” Heaphy says. “I’m positive the guy’s going to laugh in my face. And instead he goes, ‘I don’t know. We can probably find you something.’ And inside, as a tinsmith, I’m thinking, ‘What did he say? Did he really say that?’ “
They found him a job repairing the brass windows in the statue’s crown. Then he repaired the brass grating in the lobby.
“They kept on giving me different projects,” Heaphy says, “and I became the go-to guy.”
He also got a job performing, five times a day at the base of the statue, a dramatic re-enactment of how the statue was built. He puts the show aside when there’s work to do on the statue.
Bringing it back
He’s been the statue tinsmith for eight years, working from April to October and then going home to Syracuse for the winter. Until it snows, he says, he’ll continue working on and off on the Howard Hall Farm roof. He’s planning on finishing in the spring.
“The tin roof is still intact,” Heaphy says. “But over the years people have dropped things on it and punctured it, and they put nails in it to hold it down, or they put tar on it, or they put caulk on it, and when they ripped out fireplaces and chimneys they put aluminum over it.”
He is removing as much tar with a chisel as he can, and then he’ll have helpers remove the rest with paint thinner. They’ll wash it with soap and water, and he’ll use a brush to get it as smooth as possible. It will eventually be painted red.
Heaphy will solder the holes and remove any exposed nails. A tin roof like this, he says, should be bent and folded to create waterproof seams. He’ll peel the roof back so the soffits can be replaced, and he’ll create drains. He’ll replace the tin around the new chimneys.
In the process, he’ll teach contractors and others about the art of tinsmithing.
“What Reggie’s trying to do here is give people a window to the past and the opportunity to get their hands into these processes, to appreciate the original process,” Heaphy says. “Happily, these old roofs do exist, and there are people out there trying to keep them.”
Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at tkeyser@timesunion.com.
Classes for restorers
For more information about lessons with Dennis Heaphy or Howard Hall Farm renovation and seminars, call Reggie Young at 945-1945. (or 945-1253)
Upcoming seminars:
Dec. 1-2: Rory Brennan (plasterer from “This Old House”): Lime washes and finishes.
Dec. 2: Brigit Binns, spokesperson for Williams-Sonoma and author of cookbooks: Green-friendly cooking.
Dec. 8 (tentative): Shannon Hayes, author of “The Grassfed Gourmet,” “The Farmer and the Grill” and “The Carnivore Chronicles”: Cooking class.
Dec. 15: Mercy Ingraham, author of “Open Hearth Cook”: Hearth cooking from the Federal era.
Next year’s seminars begin in April. Topics include kiln building, Dutch-barn building, historic sash restoration and historic doors.
A green-technology conference, exploring options and costs for restoration, is scheduled May 17-19. Heaphy will give seminars in tinsmithing June 21-22.
All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2007, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.
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WARMING NEWS FROM ATOP THE WINDY HILL:
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HOWARD HALL FARM IS ABOUT TO BE FREE WATT READY!
“Here’s the scoop on our new heating system:
Mind you, we are not engineers, but have a practical approach to these
issues. After extensively researching what is available, (and there
are other cogeneration systems that we did not choose),we chose to go
with a product from Climate Energy,
which will eventually both produce our heat, as well as provide the
bulk of our electricity, all in a highly efficient system that has been
developed by Honda. On Saturday we (the heat system installers and myself)went to
Climate Energy’s training session…...”
Click here to read more, or scroll to the bottom of the page for the full story from Reggie Young.
THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR!
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In Other News:
OUR NEXT WORKSHOP IS ON DECEMBER 1ST AND 2ND:
JOIN US FOR THE LONG AWAITED
LIME WASHES AND FINISHES TRAINING WEEKEND
WITH RORY BRENNAN FROM “THIS OLD HOUSE”!
This Historic Lime Plaster Workshop will be given by Plaster Preservationist and Conservator Rory Brennan. His projects have included some of the finest government buildings, churches, and Historic House Museums in the Country.
SPACE IS LIMITED, SO EARLY REGISTRATION IS RECOMMENDED.
WE NOW HAVE GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR THIS WORKSHOP AT A DISCOUNTED RATE!
A LOVELY PRESENT FOR THE TALENTED PERSON IN YOUR LIFE
CALL 518-945-1253 FOR DETAILS
OR EMAIL: HOWARDHALL.FARM@GMAIL.COM
TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT IN THE WORKSHOP.
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NEW GREEN RESTORATION FORUM
AFTER RECEIVING ANOTHER INCREDIBLY DETAILED EMAIL FROM A
COMPLETE STRANGER WHO CARES ABOUT HER HISTORIC HOME, WE DECIDED TO MAKE A PLACE TO ENCOURAGE THAT SORT OF PASSION!
SO, WITHOUT
FURTHER ADO…
IF YOU HAVE A RESTORATION QUESTION, OR AN ANSWER TO
SOMEONE ELSE’S,
PLEASE SEND IT TO: howardhall.farm@gmail.com
To visit our brand new Restoration Forum, click here.
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PROGRESS ON THE RESTORATION OF HOWARD HALL FARM:
Our Support beams are installed and completed!
Click here to read about the scary amount of work we’ve done since All Hallow’s Eve.
From lime mortar pointing, to the installation of gargantuan LVLs,
to terne tin with Lady Liberty’s Tin Man, Dennis Heaphy.
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TO KEEP UP TO DATE ON ALL THE GREEN RESTORATION WE’RE DOING AS WELL AS UPCOMING EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, CLICK ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING BUTTONS. THEY ARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL BROWSERS AND FEED READERS:
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Howard Hall Farm is both a historic restoration project and a
vehicle for educating people in sustainable, environmentally conscious
restoration techniques. The site of our learning laboratory is a 1780’s
Federal stone manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley.Our mission is to
investigate, restore, and revive every facet of this structure in a
green manner, and provide a forum for other interested homeowners and
craftspeople to learn to do the same. In an effort to educate
ourselves, we bring in preservation and restoration experts from all
over the country to hold training workshops. With the help of these incredible
individuals, we can all learn to bring an old home out of the cobwebs
and into the green. As preservation architect Carl Elefante says, “The
greenest building is the one you don’t build.” We invite you to join us in our effort to RESTORE GREEN.
WWW.HOWARDHALLFARM.COM
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FULL STORY:Howard Hall Farm is about to be free watt ready!
Here’s the scoop on our new heating system:
Mind you, we are not engineers, but have a practical approach to these
issues. After extensively researching what is available, (and there
are other cogeneration systems that we did not choose),we chose to go
with a product from Climate Energy,
which will eventually both produce our heat, as well as provide the
bulk of our electricity, all in a highly efficient system that has been
developed by Honda.
On Saturday we (the heat system installers and myself)went to Climate Energy’s training session. We saw units running and working. The only down side is that we have to wait to get the electric side of the system until it gets through UL approval, unless we get a test unit, which we are working on…
For now we have the boiler that will be ready for the final install next year. If we were doing hot air, and not propane, we could be up on line with the whole system right now. But the wait will be worth it. Once we have it, even if the power goes out we will still have electricity, and not from the grid.
It will be much more efficient making wattage from our unit than from the fossil fuel plant that feeds the grid as they aren’t very efficient at all. We feel that this is the greenest option out there at this time for all kinds of reasons, and one that makes a big difference in terms of pay back in less time than geothermal, which we can hardly afford right now anyway.
We will be discussing the system on the blog as we get it installed and going. We’re looking forward to installing the whole deal with the hot air natural gas option (that does make electricity now) for a client soon, so we will have practical experience on that end soon. (We couldn’t do that in our own house, since we can’t do duct work here without destroying the historic fabric of the building).
Our installer will become the dealer for the Upstate New York area soon and we will posts links as soon as all that is arranged. Very exciting technology that is just out, and we are getting the first Climate Energy system in New York State. I believe we’re number 57 in the chain of installs in this country.
Keep posted for more info on this topic if you are an energy enthusiast!
The following photo’s are our ancient old oil tank coming out (which was once a water tank). We are setting this room up so that it can be a viewing room for the system.
-Reggie
THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER: 
THIS NEW SYSTEM IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR…..
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GREEN EVENTS IN NEW YORK FILL UP THE NEXT 3 MONTHS!
I can’t get the calendar on our site, but anyone who wants a copy sent to them by email, should write to: howardhall.farm@gmail.com Or CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ON A NEW PAGE.
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Saturday the 20th of October: Dennis Heaphy, Lady Liberty’s Tin Man came to HHF.
He brought his own oil can, and didn’t squeak a bit.
CHECK BACK TOMORROW TO FIND OUT ABOUT DENNIS’ VISIT…
AND TO LEARN WHAT THIS IS:
ANY GUESSES?
Send them to: howardhall.farm@gmail.com
don’t forget to leave your name and URL.
THE PRIZE: Public humiliation….
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On December 2, Brigit Binns, the spokesperson and author for Williams-Sonoma, who has written and co-authored 19 cookbooks, will be holding a Green Friendly cooking class to be followed by the signing of her new book and a feast at Howard Hall Farm!
To reserve a spot in her cooking class, email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com
We received this from her today:
“This Friday, I’ll be demonstrating some fabulous recipes from my new book The Relaxed Kitchen, on the Today show at 9am and again at 10am (times appx).
If you miss it, or are outside the US, you should be able to see video shortly afterwards by clicking [here]or [here]. (click on “Secret Sauce blog”).
Times should be your local time on NBC or your local NBC affiliate.
Thanks!
Brigit L. Binns”
To view more classes at Howard Hall Farm, CLICK HERE!
In other news, DENNIS HEAPHY ARRIVES TONIGHT!!!!!! Click here for more info!
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It’s Blossom’s First Birthday!
Click here to see her slide show and leave a little note!
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TODAY IS THE DAY OF THE WINDOW WOMEN
Nikki primes the glazing
And Brooke and Lorena sand the old shutters…
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This is Wesley (see crew page for description).
He’s up on the wall re-pointing with lime mortar.
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This is the front of the Federal Mansion in progress….for those who are not color-blind, I’m sure the oddity of the top level will jump out at you immediately. You might ask, “What the hell were they thinking using two different kinds of wood on the siding up there?” That’s understandable. Here’s what we were thinking: Rumor has it that cedar doesn’t hold paint as well as pine. We wanted to test that. What if people have been cruelly slandering cedar all these years for no reason without even realizing it? Making it go to different drinking fountains and sit at the back of the truck for no reason but prejudice….wouldn’t that be atrocious? We can’t let the ‘alleged’ injustice go on! Reggie is doing an experiment on his house to compare the difference between cedar and pine…so, stay tuned and we’ll let you know what the outcome is.
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REGGIE TAUNTS BLOSSOM BY PRETENDING SHE CAN HAVE ONE OF OUR NEW BROCHURES:
Blossom thanks Reggie for being allowed to be near the brochures:
Meanwhile, in delusional jack-russel land: Blossom thinks she’s a mink coat…..different kind of priceless. Much more wiggly, and much less valuable.
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You can now register for classes and workshops at Howard Hall Farm and pay securely with PayPal by clicking here.
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| click here to see the new brochure! |
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Reggie’s friend Kathy just let us scan these historic photos of the house we’re restoring!:
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Found this on:
Weirdly pertinent to our project… Anyone got gall?
“HOWTO make medieval ink
The new issue of the journal Science In Schools presents an interesting project on how to make iron-gall ink, the same ink used by da Vinci, Bach, van Gogh, and countless medieval monks. The author of the project, Gianluca Farusi, and his chemistry students used a recipe written by Pietro Canepario in 1619 and published in his book De atramentis cuiuscumque generis (All Kinds of Ink). The ingredients consist of acorn galls, water, ferrous sulphate, and gum arabic. From the project page: 
Many mediaeval miniatures of St. John of Patmos demonstrate the importance of ink: they portray the Devil attempting to steal the saint’s precious ink. In the Middle Ages, two kinds of black ink were generally used: carbon ink (a suspension of carbon, water and gum) and iron-gall ink (obtained from oak galls). Carbon ink was used as early as 2500 BC whereas iron-gall ink was used from the 3rd century AD onwards, by individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Sebastian Bach, Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh. According to recent research, traces of iron-gall ink have been found on the Dead Sea scrolls and on the lost Gospel of Judas.
The reaction that forms the ink pigment was not used in the ancient world to produce ink, but it was known: in his Naturalis Historia (Natural History), Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 79 AD) describes how to distinguish verdigris…used to process leather, from the cheaper copperas…with which it was often adulterated. He writes:
“ …The fraud may be detected using a leaf of papyrus which has been steeped in an infusion of nut-galls: it immediately turns black when adulterated verdigris is applied …”.
Although he could see the transformation, he did not understand it. Now, we know that this ancient test relies on the reaction between the ferrous cation (iron(II)) and gallotannic acid that is at the root of the iron-gall ink preparation.”__________________________________________________________________
Greg Howell wrote a lovely article about us on the front page of October’s “Northeast Antiques”, and Ken Greene put our restoration story in the Almanac! _________________________________________________________________
Watching Harry work is like being a toddler and reading a comic strip that has grown-up jokes in it. I’m not sure what everything means, but I’m left with a mild sense of wonder, and the vague feeling that if I understood the mastery of everything he was doing, my head would hurt, and I would begin to stutter in his presence.
These timbers are somehow going to end up in the attic. Soon, it seems…
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This was not here yesterday at 5:30 pm. It literally grew overnight. It’s bigger than my head. Yes, that’s a real post-it note tacked to it. Holy goat-whipping leprechauns.
ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF MUSHROOM THIS IS?
MORE IMPORTANTLY, IS IT POISONOUS?
….I GUESS WE”LL KNOW BY TOMORROW IF ALL THE CHICKENS ARE DEAD. THEY’VE BEEN FIGHTING OVER IT. MAYBE THEY’RE TRIPPING.
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Chimneys cleared, stairs scraped, floors found, and alliteration abounds!
So even though I posted that Ralph was about to begin demo in the blue room, now, just a couple hours later it’s finished and he’s in the attic tearing up the nasty floor of the bathroom to reveal large old boards beneath. I’ve never seen anyone work so fast.
The room went from this: 
To this: 
To these: 
Can you believe this guy? It’s insane…you can look at the blue album below to see the before and after pictures of the demo. You won’t believe this all happened in the small part of the afternoon in one day! And he didn’t just do the demo and clean up in that time. He also neatly stacked hundreds of old bricks…crazy.
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| 2007-09-18, blue room before and after pictures |
Blossom is lonely today. Reggie’s not in the office, and I don’t have time to play with her. I tried to have her sit quietly in my lap but she kept eating my sleeve. 
Ralph found an old photo album in the attic wall. If you recognize any of these people, send an email to howardhall.farm@gmail.com to claim it:
Meanwhile, out in the yard, Harry’s preparing the gigantic beams to be hoisted into the attic.
And Lorena is scraping years of accumulated lead paint from the Victorian staircase: 
Look at the lovely rose-colored wood under there! I can’t believe people painted over it!
The hero of the day is Ralph, who is now officially dubbed Speedy Gonzales:
On his way out today, I was telling Ralph that it’s scary how much work he got done, and his reply was, “Well don’t go into the attic then, because I also ripped out the bathroom floor…”_______________________________________________________________Ralph is about to start demo in the blue room.
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| 2007-09-18, blue room before pictures |
And a lot’s been going on in the attic. I’m adding updates to this album, so just click on it to see the changes:
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| Attic Restoration at HHF August ‘07 |
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Our Sheep Got Haircuts
After months of searching,WE FINALLY FOUND A SHEEP SHEARER! 
They got the latest possible hairdos in every sense of the word.
It’s a little late in the season, but they don’t seem to mind. I don’t think they’re hip enough to care….
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The newest addition to our crew, Ralph, helped us finally get rid of the hideous attic bathroom. He threw it down the stairs!
Airing out the attic bathroom floor.
lovely restoration scene…
This was sent to us by Sylvia Hasenkopf. It’s a picture of an ad placed by Joseph Groom (one of our house’s inhabitants from days of yore) in 1793!
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| Ongoing Attic Restoration at HHF August ‘07 |
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Visit From A Morning Prophet
Click on the album below to meet my strange visitor.
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| praying mantis on my desk |
This morning, I was greeted by an unusual guest. I sat down at my computer at Howard Hall Farm, and perched on top of it was an enormous Praying Mantis. She stared at me calmly and followed me with her eyes. The magnificent creature was inches away from my face, and longer than my hand. She looked around at the scenery. The way she moved was stunning and sinuous. She held her forelegs delicately, and moved them with the grace of a Flamenco dancer. When I sang to her, she moved the top of her body and swayed, arching and lowering her back. Her antennae balanced on a gust of wind. She was very aware of all of my movements, as I was of hers. … following me with her large amber eyes. She showed me her underside. It was a stunning synchronicity of delicately monochromatic corals and reds, with iridescent copper filaments. We looked at each other. I was awed by the acuity of her awareness. We watched and tilted our heads together. I couldn’t help but speak to her. She was like a fairy. When a mantis is threatened, it spreads its forelegs to allow penetration of the victim, fanning its legs and opening its mouth…hissing… This mantis did not do that. She danced: turning, swaying, and writhing. For twenty minutes this went on. Silences and sways. Communication. We shared one last gaze, then she flew over my head and away. Mantis means prophet in Greek.
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Visit the album below to read about the incredible work that’s been done in the attic:
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| Attic Restoration at HHF August ‘07 |
After glimpsing the newly exposed, luscious bare bones of our long-suffering, (and until recently) tastelessly butchered attic, I went to Catskill + Co for lunch. That place has such a wonderful ambiance. There are streaming curtains of cut-paper birds flowing from the archway between the dining area and the chocolate counter, and the staff there is incredibly sweet and intelligent. They chatted with me about static electricity and held the door as I left. Even though they *charged* me (I couldn’t resist a show of bad taste in the face of such a delicious place), I still felt very welcome there. It reminded me of a romanticized movie version of life in the silent film era. And the highlight of the scene: Someone had scrawled across a large mirror behind the counter:
**Throw open your heart.**
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Little items of note:
A friend sent word today that :
John Ashbery will be MtvU's first poet laureate.
Another little oddity:
On the door to the basement washroom, which does not close all the way,
there hangs a sign from a little string, which on one side says “occupied”. On the other side, it says “Not Occupied”. It’s intended function is obvious, and we though that the people (people like privacy) here would appreciate the measure. But what is strange is that the sign has only been turned once. Apparently, people feel that
whether they are there or not,
the space
is always occupied.
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A Good Morning To All from the Post-Eclipse Light to the Place It Eats Its Noon
The stunning Eastern light on this morning after the eclipse saturated the Howard Hall Farm Balcony, and turned everything to gold laced with delicate gray shadows.
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| Post-Eclipse Morning Light at HHF |
August 28, 2007
I am reminded of an old favorite poem:
“At North Farm
Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,
At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through
narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?
.
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?”
John Ashbery