Good day to you fellow reader. I have the latest edition for you. Enjoy and I’ll see ya out there.
UPDATE
THINGS TO DO
Ok friends, big news. Catskill Crew finally has an events calendar.
For the last 2.5 years I’ve been manually finding, aggregating, and curating happenings across the Catskills and Hudson Valley. That effort shall continue — but now, I’m excited to share a fancy shmancy calendar.
The Crew Calendar offers you — yes you — more ways to find and filter events based on your interests and location.
For event submitters: You can submit right on the calendar.
FROM THE MOUNTAINS
THE REPORT
CONDITIONS |
|---|
SUNRISE 6:20 AM ↑ |
SUNSET 7:29 PM ↓ |
MOONRISE 9:18 PM ↑ |
MOONSET 9:46 AM ↓ |
MOON Waning Gibbous 78% |
AIR QUALITY Good 24 AQI |
FIRE DANGER Low |
PROPERTY: The Edmund Rockefeller House c. 1855
PETS: Sparkle the pup, Meatball Sub the cat, and Hog the cockatoo.
SKY: The somewhat elusive Aurigid meteor shower peaked the night of Aug 31–Sep 1. Under ideal dark skies 6 meteors fly by per hour. The meteors come from comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess), a long-period visitor on a roughly 2,000-year orbit that left only a thin dust trail.
SIGHTINGS: Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
LET ME KNOW
MURDER IN THE MOUNTAINS
For the last few months, I’ve been designing a new board game — a version of Clue called Murder in the Mountains.
Old Man Blackwood — the least-liked man in the Catskill Mountains — gathered a handful of folks for a weekend of adventure.
By Sunday he was dead, and his body turned up in a place no one expected. The sheriff is snowed in two towns over and the bridge is out.
One of the guests is a killer, and until the roads clear it's up to you to prove who did it, where in the mountains it happened, and with what weapon.
I’m testing some samples so we can get the design just right. It’s nearly complete.
The initial run will be pretty small, so if you want one, let me know below. You’ll be the absolute first to know when they arrive.
Do you want to be first to know about Murder in the Mountains?
GARDEN REPORT
WOODCHUCK WARS
CONTRIBUTED BY SANDY
Hey all — Just wanted to share the tale of my garden this summer versus a woodchuck …
It all started back in June, just as I’d gotten everything in the ground. Something was eating my main garden, I noticed. Some creature was really destroying particular favorites, it seemed — my peas ripped down and munched on, my cabbages and broccoli and brussels chomped away. Entire squash vines or bean plants, gone. The culprit even preferred particular varietals of kale. Eight-going-on-nine years gardening here I’d never had destruction this bad.
The fence out there being too tall for deer to clear, my lead suspects were woodchuck or perhaps rabbit. I started doing what I’d previously been advised to in response to woodchucks, e.g. setting a humane trap. I consulted my best friend back in Iowa, who asked her farmer dad. He recommended a side-dressing of blood meal (which apparently “chucks” don’t like), also spraying plants with a concoction of mostly water, essential oils and some drops of dish soap. I did all this. We installed a critter cam, solar-powered.
Finally: The camera caught a woodchuck in broad daylight, grazing on chard. Leashing my dog, we sprinted out, where to my dog’s profound excitement we caught glimpse of the woodchuck darting away. He then smelled around a long time, a detective casing a crime scene.
Perhaps we did scare it … Upshot is: I haven’t seen the woodchuck inside the garden since. The damage seems to have stopped.
I admit I was afterwards distracted. We have our peach trees and other younger fruit trees surrounded by a high fence elsewhere on property. Strolling up to check our peach harvest the other week, we realized the fence (strong, metal) had been mangled, clearly by a bear. Our early-ripening, original tree’s ample harvest had been mostly consumed, pits everywhere.
We commenced to guarding our peach tree until we could harvest the rest, which did seem to work this time. That fence however will need professional help. Never ends!
So it goes, gardening amongst wilderness. Can’t control much, except our own responses. Happy harvesting — Sandy
RIVER LEGENDS
THE PORTAL
A new level was discovered within River Legends… Anglers started reporting that every so often, a cast triggers the river to swirl and a portal to be revealed. Then all goes black.
When you come to, you're in the old flooded mines — where something truly massive and ancient awaits.
What we know so far: There's no trick to finding the swirling portal. No perfect cast earns it. No storm calls it up. The river decides when the portal opens.
Can you find the portal…?
Can you catch what lurks below the surface…?
Can anyone beat AJA…?
ROAD TRIPPING
ON THE STONE
I’m writing this edition along the banks of the Yellowstone River.
These are the final moments of another incredible fly fishing road trip — and I couldn’t be more excited to get back home.
I added a few new photographs to the gallery below.
POSTED
THE BULLETIN
PARTNER: Want to join forces with Catskill Crew? LET’S CHAT.
CREW CONTRIBUTION: Looking to support local journalism, local voices, local community? CONTRIBUTE
THIS WEEK
HAPPENINGS
LOCAL’S NIGHT:
Catskill Crew has joined forces with Ralph's Bar and Bowling in Big Indian to launch Monday Local’s Night.
Every Monday night from 3-9PM stop in for a $99 special for a beer, a shot, AND a room for a one-night stay.
Three-frame bowling tournament, a White Russian drink special, Free pool upstairs, and some absolutely top-notch pizza from Auggie over at Tiny Pizza Kitchen.
BBQ & BLOCK PARTY:
Come on out for a good ol’ fashioned BBQ & Block Party in Woodstock with Woodstock Meats and The Clubhouse.
We’ll be grillin’ smash burgs, Latin-inspired chicken sandos, house-made sausages, and so much more. We’ll be slingin’ beer from Kingston Standard, Hugo spritzes, hibiscus margs, and a watermelon vodka fizz — just to name a few.
See ya at Woodstock Meats on Labor Day Monday, September 7th, anytime from 4 to 8PM.
ALABAMA SHAKES:
Big news for Labor Day weekend. On Friday, September 4th, Alabama Shakes take the stage at Bethel Woods — and they're bringing the one and only Mavis Staples with them.
If you've heard Brittany Howard sing, you know. And Mavis? She's been singing since the 1950s — and she's still got it. All of it outdoors, on the same grounds where Woodstock happened in '69.
Pack a blanket, get your tickets, and send summer off right. GRAB TICKETS HERE
THE RIVER:
A new documentary, The River, is making its grand premiere.
The film follows Dan Plummer and the crew over at Friends of the Upper Delaware River — featuring locals who show up day after day, year after year, to protect this wild and beautiful river. It's a story about friendship, stubbornness, and the "River family" that forms around a shared stretch of water.
The River premieres at Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock on Saturday, September 5th at 7PM, and Callicoon Theatre on Friday, September 4th at 7:30PM.
Grab a ticket here or at the door.
TOMATO FEST:
Tomato season is peaking — and Hudson Valley Seed Co is throwing their second annual Tomato Fest at the farm in Accord on Saturday, September 5th from 1 to 4PM.
The lineup runs deep: Heirloom tastings, cooking demos, pizza from Itsa Pizza Truck, seed-processing demos, live screen printing, pick-your-own dahlias, and a book talk. Bring an appetite and get the details here.
TUESDAY | TV Sleep, Slow Teeth, and Grains of Euphora
Avalon Lounge, Catskill at 8PM
New EP "Material Music"
TUESDAY | Geeks Who Drink Trivia
Happy Valley Arcade Bar, Beacon at 6:30PM
May the trivia gods shine upon you
WEDNESDAY | Sketch & Burlesque
Unicorn Bar, Kingston at 7PM
Go make some art
THURSDAY | Writers in the Mountains
Union Grove Distillery, Arkville at 6PM
Their vodka is really nice (and I’m not a vodka person)
FRIDAY | Mikaela Davis: Graceland Way Tour
Assembly, Kingston at 8PM
Acclaimed harpist and songwriter
FRIDAY | Performance by Meg Lui
Van Dusen's, Lexington at 7PM
Yo Megggg
FRIDAY | Prog Metal Night
Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, Oneonta at 7PM
Smash, thrash, and bash
FRIDAY - SATURDAY | Disco Summer Camp
Glen Falls House, Round Top at 4PM
Two days of good times
FRIDAY | Karaoke Aboard Solaris
Hudson River Maritime Museum, Kingston at 7:30PM
To the high seas
SATURDAY | Benefit: Family of Woodstock
Tubby's, Kingston at 5PM
Have fun and do some good
SATURDAY | 10th Annual Pottery Festival
Sugar Maples Center For Creative Arts, Maplecrest at 11AM
Whole weekend
SUNDAY | Protect the Path
Platte Clove Preserve, Elka Park at 10AM
Get outside
SUNDAY | Wally Walk: Fall Foraging
Wally Farm, Ancram at 10AM
Fall is nearly here
MONDAY | Mushroom Activities with Renee Baumann
West Kill Taproom at 2PM
Renee is great
