Mountain Home, June 2021

M O U N T A I N

HOME Pennsylvania & the New York Finger Lakes

Hunting Nessmuk With a New Film by Mansfield University Emeritus Professor Gale Largey Premiering This Month, Professor Jimmy Guignard Considers the Myth of the Wellsboro Woodsman on the 200th Anniversary of His Birth A New Life for Lewisburg’s Iron Lady Fainting Goats & Organic Farming in Nichols Galeton Hosts World Wide Knit in Public Day

E FasRtheEwind

g n di

ed W ion l a ect i c e S p JUNE 2021 S

1

Don’t Assume Your Best Deal Comes From The Big Home Center...

North Country Woodworking Come see your local cabinet makers!

We are a family business with over 35 years experience manufacturing custom cabinets, doors, moldings, and furniture.

We also offer countertops in Laminate, Sold Surface, Zodiaq, and Granite.

~ northcountrywoodworking.com ~ 570-549-8105 • 570-404-1156 - Cell Call for Appointment!

Ask for Pete McLelland or Pete McLelland, Jr.

HOME M

O

U

N

T

A

I

N

Volume 16 Issue 6

5 And the Winner Is...

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

Hunting Nessmuk

14 2019 PA State Laurel

By Jimmy Guignard

Queen Candidates

16 Two Pennsylvania Guys

By David O’Reilly

Professor Largey’s new film chases Nessmuk’s ghost.

18 Animal Magnetism

By Patrick Bernethy

20 Knitting Communities

6

With a new film by Mansfield University Emeritus Professor Gale Largey premiering this month, Professor Jimmy Guignard considers the myth of the Wellsboro Woodsman on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Together

By Gayle Morrow

Galeton hosts World Wide Knit in Public Day.

Lewisburg’s Iron Lady

22 On a Wing and a Prayer

By Lilace Mellin Guignard Helping little birds see what’s real.

By Karey Solomon

WEDDING SECTION

New life, including nuptials, for old downtown building.

30 Fainting Goat Island Inn

By Gayle Morrow

Find ghosts, goats, and love on the banks of the Susquehanna.

36 Biding My Time

28

By Cornelius O’Donnell

Binge watching with soup, wine, and green beans.

42 Back of the Mountain

The Dairy Queen

By Roger Kingsley

By Alison Fromme

There’s no place like home.

The first certified organic milk flowed at Englebert Farms.

Cover by Gwen Button, courtesy Gale Largey; (top) courtesy Gale Largey; (middle) Deziree Rosenberg Photography; (bottom) Joe and Natalie Englebert, courtesy Organic Valley.

34 3

w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Shelly Moore, Richard Trotta Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Patrick Bernethy, Mike Cutillo, Ann E. Duckett, Alison Fromme, Jimmy Guignard, Lilace Mellin Guignard, Carrie Hagen, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Dave Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, David O’Reilly, Karey Solomon

Call For Info and Pricing

Design for Your Life

C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Mia Lisa Anderson, Anne Barnett, Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Deziree Rosenberg Photography, Michael Johnston, Loraleah Marie Photography, Jerame Reinhold, Linda Stager, Sherri Stager, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Gillian Tulk-Yartim D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Brian Button, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller T h e B ea g l e Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2021 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www.mountainhomemag.com.

We specialize in designing a home that is exactly what you need. Always exceptional craftsmanship. Always energy efficient products. Always the security of a 12 Year Structural Home Warranty in the state of PA.

SELINSGROVE

•

LYCOMING MALL

•

MANSFIELD

www.brooksidehomes.com | info@brooksidehomes.com | 570-374-7900

David O’Reilly

Kerry Gyekis

Gwen Button

Bernadette Chiaramonte

Gayle Morrow

Michael Capuzzo

And the Winner Is...

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

W

hen I called Wellsboro resident and retired forester Kerry Gyekis to tell him he’d just snagged a first-place Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, he was motoring north after a visit to the Dry Tortugas, his wife Janet at the wheel of their camper. “I won what?” he asked, confused.

Unbeknownst to him, Mountain Home had submitted the three outdoor columns he’d written for us last year in the sports/outdoor column category, and he had taken first place in the contest honoring the best journalism in the state.

“What?? I’ve never won anything in my life!” he exclaimed when he grasped my meaning. I didn’t see The Look he got, but he chuckled and added, “Except for Janet.”

Our managing editor Gayle Morrow took second place in the same category for her Mother Earth column, a whimsically provocative take on the outdoors. Her column about riding a horse in the swamp, “Swamps, a Morning Ride, and the Addams Family,” was one of the winners.

It was also the first year old friend and retired Philadelphia Inquirer journalist David O’Reilly’s byline graced these pages, and his very first appearance won a business/consumer story first prize for his cover story “The Last Reporter,” an exhaustively reported story of the only remaining writer at the Elmira Gazette, the original flagship of the Gannett newspaper chain. David’s tale of local foragers, “Into the

Woods,” also took a gold, this one for feature story writing.

Bernadette Chiaramonte won second place in feature photography for her painterly up-close-and-personal portrait of an opossum snacking in a crabapple tree. And that photo’s headline won a Keystone award: “Photo Op(ossum)” was one of three staff headlines that won second place for headline writing. Those clever words were penned by our “I don’t do words” operations director Gwen Button.

Gwen and Gayle together also won a second place in photo story/ essay for “Color My World,” which Gayle summed up succinctly: “August offers so many gifts, some so subtle you might overlook them.

Color is not one of those.”

My husband and Mountain Home co-founder Mike was busy over the last year with a book project (some of which we printed in last month’s groundbreaking cover story). But he had time to do one important story for us, “Our Man in the Quantum,” a love song to the late Wellsboro artist Tucker Worthington, the mad genius who made our vision his (and vice versa) over the last decade and a half of our publishing history. For that story Mike won second place in the personality profile category.

Speaking of winners, there’s an additional one we can’t leave out: On page 15 is a picture of our niece, Miss Wellsboro Alexis Banik.

We are very, very proud of her, too!

5

Hunting Nessmuk

With a New Film by Mansfield University Emeritus Professor Gale Largey Premiering This Month, Professor Jimmy Guignard Considers the Myth of the Wellsboro Woodsman on the 200th Anniversary of His Birth

By Jimmy Guignard

I

throw my leg over my bike, pedal out of the driveway, and turn right. Steering through the gate of the Wellsboro Cemetery, I circle left, passing the grave of George Washington Sears. His gravestone sits a few feet off the pavement and shows in bas-relief a balding man with an unruly beard, looking off to the left. Reddish stone frames the sculpture and sits upon a larger gray stone emblazoned with NESSMUK, his pen name. An American flag with a Grand Old Army of the Republic badge affixed stands guard. I nod as I ride by, hoping that he would approve of me, under my own steam, heading out for a three-hour solo ride through his old stomping grounds to shed the busyness of life.

I leave the cemetery, turn right on Nichols Street, pass Sears Street, pass the high school that calls its yearbook The Nessmuk, and drop down onto Route 6 heading west. Pedaling toward the Pine Creek Rail Trail, I think of all the things named after Sears: Lake Nessmuk, Nessmuk Helipad, Nessmuk Trail, Nessmuk Rod and Gun Club, Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods. His name is everywhere around here, but it often seems like people don’t know much about him. Why? A mile or so later, I pick up the Pine Creek Rail Trail off Route 287 and pedal west, paralleling Marsh Creek and imagining (or trying to) what the area looked like when Sears rode a buggy or the train on one of his trips to or from the Pine Creek Gorge, what we call Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon.

When I first moved to Tioga County, I knew nothing of Sears.

This struck me as weird, since I read lots of outdoor writing and

6

spent lots of time outside. My Mansfield University colleague, Tom Murphy, introduced me to Sears through his writings about paddling Pine Creek in 1884. Sears’ writing revealed a man who loved to fish, hunt, and camp and who was acutely aware of the damage being wreaked on the forests in support of industrialization. Who was this guy? Why didn’t more people know about him? But work intruded and my learning about Sears slid to the back burner. A poor excuse in his eyes, I’d guess.

I hit the town of Asaph about five-and-a-half miles later and pass one of Sears’ favorite camping spots, where Asaph Run pours into Marsh Creek. I stop and look out over the thick undergrowth and my desire to stomp around in the spot wanes. It’d be easier to wade down the creek. In Woodcraft, published in 1884 and still in print, Sears describes a memorable trip to this place during which he educates some “youngsters” to the pleasures of “smoothing it” as opposed to “roughing it.” Roughing it occurs in town. It’s not that camping was easy—Sears worked his butt off setting up comfortable camps. Rather, he saw “smoothing it” as getting away from what he called the “age of worry and hurry” that accompanied the industrialism of his times. When smoothing it, life became simpler, stripped down to necessities and seasoned with a heavy dollop of loafing. He wanted working folk to leave physical and, perhaps more importantly, mental stress of their jobs and lives in cities and towns behind. I can relate. I ride my bike to burn off work stress and soak up the soothing effects of the northern hardwood forests.

See Nessmuk on page 8

7

Courtesy Gale Largey

Nessmuk continued from page 6

START SM ALL WIN BIG We’re giving away $15,000! This June, July & August, three lucky people will win $5,000 during our Celebrate Summer! Sweepstakes. To enter, just open a new checking or savings account (consumer or business), either in a branch or open online for twice the chances of winning. You’ll get the same features as the big banks with localized service and a chance to win big!

For details, visit cnbankpa.com/celebratesummer.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. The “Celebrate Summer!”

Sweepstakes is open to legal U.S. residents of NY & PA who have reached the age of majority in his/her state of residence at the time of entry. Sweepstakes ends 8/31/21.

Odds of winning depend on total number of eligible entries received. For entry and official rules with complete eligibility, prize descriptions, odds disclosure and other details, view www.cnbankpa.com/celebratesummer.

Sponsor: C&N. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

I push on, pedaling up Asaph Run Road toward Left Asaph Road and the top of the mountain northwest of his camping spot and across the way from Mt. Nessmuk. Soon, it’s just me and the creek and the trees and the mountains as I climb into Tioga State Forest.

I imagine what it was like for Sears to walk Asaph Run before the trees were felled and the houses built. I think about his two biggest contributions to outdoor recreation—encouraging everyone to go outside and exhorting them to go light. The more I think about this little man—he stood slightly over five feet and weighed between 102 and 115 pounds, depending on the source cited—the more I wonder what drove him to believe so deeply in the benefits of nature. It’s not like being outside is always easy—there can be storms, bugs, cold, and heat. Food runs low. Bodies give out over long portages or up steep hills.

But he kept getting out there, and so do I. Getting to Know GWS This year marks the 200th birthday anniversary of George Washington Sears. He was born in Massachusetts and learned to camp, fish, and hunt from a Narragansett Indian named Nessmuk, which means wood duck or wood drake and from whom Sears borrowed his nom de plume. In addition to learning woodcraft as a child, Sears worked in a factory, which gave him a lifelong animus toward industry and made him a lifelong fan of Charles Dickens. Two of his canoes made famous in his writing about the Adirondack cruises were named after Dickens’ characters: the Susan Nipper and the Sairy Gamp. Sears’ canoes are famous (he owned several over his lifetime).

Being a small guy, he couldn’t hump huge canoes and kit (supplies) over long portages, so he commissioned Henry Rushton of Canton, New York, to build super light canoes, thereby enabling him to cruise lake chains in the Adirondacks. Susan Nipper weighed in at sixteen pounds and the Sairy Gamp weighed an impossible-sounding-forthe-time ten and a half pounds. Of

8

course, this meant his kit had to be light as well. When Sears said go light, he meant light.

Sears travelled a lot over his lifetime. As a young man, he shipped out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, on a whaling ship around the same time Herman Melville was writing Moby-Dick.

He visited Brazil, Ontario, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Settled in Wellsboro, he married at thirty-five and sired three children. When he wasn’t in the woods, Sears was popular company and acquired the nickname “Bacchus” around town because, according to Scott Gitchell of the Tioga County Historical Society, he “liked to drink and was good natured.” Sears was self-taught and a good conversationalist. He wrote prose and poetry. In addition to Woodcraft, he published a book of poetry, Forest Runes, in 1887, available through print-on-demand. Woodcraft was written with the purpose of teaching people, who he called “outers,” how to enjoy the woods. It’s upbeat and humorous and full of sound advice. In Chapter X, for example, Sears exhorts hunters to identify a deer positively before shooting because “it is a heavy, wearisome job to pack a dead or wounded man ten or twelve miles out to a clearing, let alone that it spoils all the pleasure of the hunt, and is apt to raise hard feelings among his relations.” While his anger at industry, specifically tanneries, leaks through on occasion, his prose is largely educational and conversational, a chat around a fire. Preferably one he made, so that it’s made the way it should be (see Chapter IV).

While the humor makes its way into his poetry (see, for instance, “Wellsboro As A Temperance Town”), we see how Sears was a man who felt life deeply as anger and sorrow appear in his writing. A distant relative to Sears through marriage, Scott points out that Sears wrote his prose “for others, but he wrote his poems for himself.” It shows. The poems reveal a sensitive man who identified with common folk and abhorred unequal treatment. In “To John Bull—On His Christmas,” Sears criticizes the wealthy for not seeing the problems of the poor in town during the holidays. In “Mother and Child,” Sears grapples with a mother who, in an outpouring of anguish, drowns herself and her child. Where there is little suffering other than bug bites or exhausting portages in his prose, his poems reveal a man wrestling with emotions, trying to understand the town and the world he lives in. Roughing it indeed. Scott notes, “Nessmuk was proud of his prose, but he considered himself a poet first, and he would have probably written another book of poetry if he had lived longer.”

What Makes Him Tick?

I pedal up Left Asaph, listening to the creek and wondering: how am I supposed to understand Sears? He’s clearly complicated, but aren’t we all? Theater-critic turned Nessmuk-promoter Robert Lyon called him a “sociable outcast” and suggested that Sears may have been a misanthrope. Lyon researched Sears exhaustively and planned to write a biography of him until the flood of 1972 washed away his archives. His Who Was Nessmuk? is a short pamphlet that previews what the biography could have been and is a must-read. (Check the special collections at the Green Free Library in Wellsboro.)

Perhaps the closest thing we have to a biography of Sears is Gale Largey’s forthcoming documentary called Nessmuk: In Defense of Nature in the Pennsylvania Wilds, which will be shown See Nessmuk on page 10

WE’RE

STILL FLYING Williamsport Regional Airport is excited to announce that we’re STILL FLYING! With convenience and competitive rates, we’re here to help you fly healthy.

The safety and well-being of passengers and employees is our top priority. We are committed to instituting multiple layers of protection throughout the travel experience — from check-in to touchdown.

AND THAT’S NOT ALL Fly IPT, Park for FREE!* Convenient Parking Lot is Adjacent to the Airport.

No shuttle needed!

Competitive Rates

World Travel Simply Savor on the Fly Café Hertz® & Enterprise® Car Rental Conference Room Available for Events or Meetings

FlyIPT.com 724 Airport Rd. • Montoursville, PA 17754 • (570) 368-2444 • Find Us On: *Valid for IPT Williamsport Regional Airport, Simply Savor on the Fly, World Travel and Rental Car customers only.

2021 Impact Advertising • 21IPT-NVC-MHM060121

9

Nessmuk continued from page 9

at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, June 14, at 7 p.m. and at the Arcadia Theatre on Saturday, June 19, at noon (before the Laurel Festival parade). When I met Gale, a retired sociology professor from Mansfield University, he and local filmmaker Mark Polonia had just finished the final edits, and Gale had dropped the DVD off at Kingdom, Inc., to have copies burned.

I was fortunate to see a rough-cut premier of the documentary in September 2020, and I learned things about Sears that added to his stature in my eyes. One scene tells the story of Sears and another camper encountering a runaway slave in Michigan. Sears’ colleague wants nothing to do with the slave, but Sears helps the man continue his journey. As Gale explains, “I try to show the social forces at work around my subjects, how they are shaped by them.” And, in Sears’ case, shaping the response to the forces of the industrial revolution as it hit Tioga County.

While I’m sympathetic to where Robert Lyon is coming from, the more I read of and about Sears, the more his interpretation seems a little off to me. Sure, Sears spent many years alone in woods, both single and married. One estimate puts it at twelve years away from home over fifty years, or the equivalent of being gone about every fourth day. (My truck-driving Daddy was gone more than that.) Scott’s mother, Isabelle Jones, was close to Sears’s granddaughter, Mary A. Taylor. Scott said his mother told him “Aunt Mae” loved her grandfather, was proud of him, and often borrowed books from him. In general, he relates, the family speaks fondly of “George” and was proud of their connection with him.

Scott adds that Sears was friends with prominent people, like Civil War General and Governor of Ohio Thomas L. Young and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert Kennedy Young. These types of relationships don’t point to misanthropic behavior. As Scott says, “you have a man and you have a myth.” He suggests that the most accurate picture of Sears probably lies somewhere among all the stories, though he’s sure “we’re never going to know the truth.”

Which brings me back to people See Nessmuk on page 12 10

welcome to

WELLSBORO

Now Celebrating Our

116th Anniversary! ycamore’s Sp eS

ll

ss

en

We

ne

mind. Heal your spirit. body. Transform your soul.

Enlighten your Nourish your

• FUNCTIONAL HEALTH COACHING • HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CLASSES • CANCER PREVENTION/RECOVERY COACHING • AROMATHERAPY & HERBAL CLASSES/ CONSULTS/PRODUCTS: Featuring “The Scentual Soul”

ter

irit

Th

45 Main Street 570-724-1905 Wellsboro, PA www.dunhamswellsboro.com

Ed u c a tio n

C

New Location: 55 East Avenue, Wellsboro

- Fine Aromatherapy EOs and Product Line

Sheryl Henkin-Kealey, BS.Ed, CMA, Certified Holistic Cancer Coach

(570) 634-3777 • sycamorespirit@gmail.com

Visit www.TheSycamoreSpirit.com for class schedules!

Facebook.com/TheSycamoresSpiritWellnessEducationCenter

Man’s Dead Cell Phone 2021

Tioga Office Products 96 East Avenue • Wellsboro, PA

570-724-4060 top11@ptd.net top

We Have a Truckload of Furniture For Sale!

Desks, Lateral Cabinets, Glass & Dry Erase Boards

HIGH QUALITY FIREPLACES AND STOVES

by Sarah Ruhl

Jean is sleepwalking through her life until she answers a dead man’s cell phone.

It turns out to be a wake-up call that helps Jean re-connect to her own spirit and learn that life is for the living.

Face Covering Required

(18 & under)

www . wellsboroequipment . com

Call (570)724-6100 A division of Wellsboro Equipment located at 25 Whitneyville Road, Mansfield PA 16933

The Area’s ONLY NFI-Certified Installers Free Quotes • Financing Available NATURAL GAS • PROPANE • WOOD • PELLET • COAL

Dr. Donna & Ken Mettler and Eugene Seelye

11

welcome to

WELLSBORO Nessmuk continued from page 10

getting outside and going light. That’s undeniable. Early in Woodcraft, Sears shares his democratic view of the outdoors and his awareness that most could not afford the guided trips of the mid-nineteenth century. He writes: “But there are hundreds of thousands of practical, useful men, many of them far from being rich; mechanics, artists, writers, merchants, clerks, business men—workers, so to speak— who sorely need and well deserve a season of rest and relaxation at least once a year. To these, and for these, I write.”

No doubt part of his attitude stems from his antipathy toward the industry he experienced as a child. Part of it stems from his economic status—he was not wealthy—and his small stature.

As Scott says, “He followed the philosophy of going light out of physical necessity.” What grabs me about the passage is the way he reveals his plan for educating people on how to take trips on their own, without guides, and smoothing the rough edges off their hectic “civilized” lives. Everyone needs time to recharge in nature. That’s one reason I ride a bike.

These Days…

Manicure Spa Pedicure Waxing

73 Main Street • Wellsboro, PA 16901

570-948-9299

Hours: Mon-Sat. 9:30am-7:30pm; Sun. 10am-6pm 12

Rose Anna Moore, owner of Moore’s Outdoor Sports, could be called a modern-day Nessmuk. She grew up in Asaph just a few hundred feet from Sears’ favorite campsite, though she didn’t know of him at the time. She fished Marsh Creek (in her words, “that swampy mess”) and rode her bike to “Asaph Park,” now the Asaph Campground, and beyond. In June, Rose will be featured as one of the contestants in the History Channel’s Alone, a show where contestants choose ten items (ferro rods and bows seem popular) to take and are given a camera kit. Dropped in a remote area, they record their lives as they build shelters, harvest food, and cope with danger and isolation.

Rose was dropped near Chilko Lake in British Columbia, a region populated with grizzly bears. Of the experience, she says, “I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t know how hard. You have to stay present. Everything is difficult. You might start the day with five things on your list and only get two of them done.”

When she returned, Rose says she felt a deep connection to Sears—she understood him in ways she hadn’t before. It wasn’t so much that Sears saw camping and being in nature as smoothing it physically—primitive camping and survival can be hard and Sears worked to make comfortable camps. It’s more about how the work of camping clears the mind of the complexities of town/city life. Rose thinks her experience near Chilko Lake was “humbling” and helped to put this “giant life in context.” She focused and narrowed her purpose. Smoothing it, for her, is not about taking it easy physically as much as it is about resetting your mind. Sears’ “writings are lovely,” Rose says, “and you want to go do it.”

Like Sears, Rose carries a strong desire to educate others, to get them hunting, fishing, camping, target shooting, and, most importantly, conserving. Her plans remind me of Sears’ willingness to shoot deer when he needs the food and his willingness to call shooting a deer “murder” when he doesn’t. It’s a stronglyworded lesson in conservation. Take what you need. Practice restraint. Think long term.

I wonder how Sears would have made out on Alone.

See Nessmuk on page 41

welcome to

WELLSBORO

Canyon Country Fabrics HOURS: Tues, Tues, Wed. & Fri. 9-4; Thurs. 9-7; Sat. Sat. 9-3; CLOSED Sun. & Mon.

664 KELSEY ST., WELLSBORO, PA 16901 • 570-724-4163

• 108” Wide Backing • Batting • Fleece & Flannel • Crafts & Gifts

• Lg. Selection of Cotton • NEW Home Décor NOW IN STOCK!

For All Your Quilting Needs!

THE BEST LOCAL COVERAGE. THE BEST REGIONAL PHOTOS.

THE BEST WRITING, PERIOD. 1-Year Subscription $24.95

Z

R M E A M M I COUNTRY N ’ S GREENHOUSE

Annuals & perennials Double Ground Mulch

Mushroom Soil Geraniums

3541 Rt 660 Wellsboro PA Phone 570-724-3971 Open Mon-Sat 8am-6pm • Credit Cards Now Accepted

Name:____________________________________________ Date:_____________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Email: ____________________________________________ Phone: ___________________________________________ Send Payment Payable to: Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901.

Call 570-724-3838 or online at subscriptions@mountainhomemag.com 13

L Q aurel

Miss Athens

Phoenix Jacobson

Miss Canton

Carmya Martell

Miss Millville

Anna Deitrick

Miss Austin

Cierra Marks

Miss Central Dauphin

Abbigail Hess

Miss Milton

Haylee Carl

Miss Blue Ridge

ueen

Miss Bucktail

Miss Cameron County

Miss Central Mountain

Miss Cowanesque Valley

MIss Daniel Boone

Miss Montgomery

Miss Montoursville

Miss Mount Carmel

Holly Geyer

Jocelyn Renninger

Kennedy Marsh

Angela Intallura

Rylie Walker

Lydia Barbour

Kaelee Bresslin

Zoe Sweet

Lauren Shedleski

PA State Laurel Festival June 12-20, 2021 14

C

andidates

Miss New Covenant

Miss North Penn-Liberty

Miss North Penn-Mansfield

Miss St. John Neumann

Miss Smethport

Miss South Williamsport

Chloe Heck

ZuZu Shanaway

Ryann Upham

Kaleigh Sanderson

Aubrey Griess

Paige Kistner

2021 Miss Port Allegany

Miss Saegertown

Miss Troy

Miss Wellsboro

Mallory Causer

Adelle Confer

Amber Costello

Alexis Banik

These pages brought to you by:

Miss Williamson

Madisen Cody

Miss Williamsport

Alayna Dake

15

Michael Capuzzo Defending nature: Gale Largey stands next to the headstone of Nessmuk in Wellsboro Cemetery.

Two Pennsylvania Guys

Professor Largey’s New Film Chases Nessmuk’s Ghost

By David O’Reilly

G

ale Largey insists he knows “nothing” about filmmaking. “Some people want to say I’m the Ken Burns of Wellsboro,” he says with a laugh. “But I never had a film course. This project was a seat-ofthe-pants effort with a lot of help from my friends.” The rushing waters of Pine Creek make it a challenge to catch every word the retired Mansfield University sociology prof is saying. But those boisterous kayakers and solemn fly casters below his rustic, stonefloored cabin make a fitting background. His latest documentary film—ninety minutes long and four years in the making—is a tribute to the pioneering woodsman and visionary conservationist George Washington Sears, better known as Nessmuk.

Born in 1821, “Nessmuk almost certainly fished right out here,” says Gale, gesturing from a slender, fenced deck that juts fifty feet above the gorge. Stacked on his picnic table are a half-dozen vinyl-jacketed CDs; each contains one of the acclaimed documentaries he began making in 1997 about the worthy men and women of upstate Pennsylvania.

16

Here’s one about the dam collapse that devastated Austin, Potter County, in 1911.

Another visits the Catholic nuns who taught Gale in St. Mary’s, Elk County. People of Honor tells of the local men and women who served “in battle and on the home front” during World War II. Another celebrates William B. Wilson, a coal miner and labor organizer from Arnot, Tioga County, who became the nation’s first secretary of labor. “A man of tremendous integrity, dealing with the social problems of his day,” says Gale.

Is it any wonder he’s now shining a spotlight on Nessmuk, who lies buried in Wellsboro Cemetery? Gale passes the grave daily on his morning walks.

“What I admire is his freedom-minded thinking,” he explains. A widely published poet in his day, Sears also “spent years in the woods, and as a kid I spent time in the woods, so I can relate.” While he prefers Sears’ 1887 book of poetry, Forest Runes, because it “reveals more of Sears,” he shows off a first edition of Woodcraft, the first American book on forest camping. Sears published it in 1884—about when loggers built this cabin— “and it’s never

been out of print.”

Sears “was a hunter, but also an early environmentalist, or naturalist, concerned about the destruction of habitats, deforestation, the invasion of non-native species, the purity and free flow of water,” says Gale. “He was also a strong critic of social injustice. He cared like I do about the laboring class, and he wanted poor people in the cities to have opportunities to enjoy nature.”

He hopes the film, titled Nessmuk: In Defense of Nature in the Pennsylvania Woods, will help “reestablish” Sears.

“Once I started looking into him,” Gale says, “I got to like him more and more.”

Gale Largey’s documentary will be shown at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, June 14, at 7 p.m. and at the Arcadia Theatre on Saturday, June 19, at noon (before the Laurel Festival parade).

Award-winning journalist David O’Reilly was a writer and editor for thirty-five years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered religion for two decades.

BRADFORD CO. how do you build your walls?

welcome to

SAYRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

When you build your walls you should expect to get more out of a building product. Buildings today demand reliable, energy efficient building envelopes that provide superior performance benefits to minimize energy costs, reduce carbon emissions, and maximize property value. NUDURA structures offer greater strength, sound, and fire resistance and are why developers and contractors across the world continue to choose NUDURA’s Integrated Building Technology as a proven alternative to traditional building methods.

New exhibit—The Gauss Collection

Follow us on Facebook for rare photographs, stories and more from the historical society’s collection and for updates on the re-opening of the museum.

www.sayrehistoricalsociety.org 570-882-8221 103 S. Lehigh Avenue, Sayre, PA

With NUDURA’s 6-in-1 building step, you can build faster and more efficiently, while offering your clients an eco-friendly structure with substantial benefits that contribute to long-term energy savings.

Change the way you build your walls.

HOOVER INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

Hoover Hardware 570-297-3445 • 800-251-2156 816 CANTON STREET, TROY, PA MON-SAT 7AM- 5PM

ndura.com 866.468.6299

Funded in part by the Bradford County Tourism Promotion Agency

nudura.com 866.468.6299

Resources WeWe invite everyone from everywhere to come invite everyone from everywhere to comefor Development. Progress for People.

Coordinating Business “Experience Bradford Bradford County!” County!”

“Experience

Opportunities and Community Development throughout Bradford and Susquehanna Counties.

Adventure Awaits Awaits

PostcardLike Streets

Adventure Awaits

History & Heritage Fairs & Festivals

Enterprise Center Suite 109 703 S. Elmer Avenue Sayre PA 18840

1 Elizabeth Street, Suite 3 Towanda, PA 18848 570-265-0937; fax 570-265-0935 Email us at cbpa@epix.net or visit our website www.cbprogress.org

Dine, Stay or Just Get Away

History & Heritage

Kayaking & Hiking PostcardLike Streets

35 Rooms Restaurant and Tavern

(Traditional American family style)

Fairs & Festivals

Catering

Kayaking & www.visitbradfordcounty.com •Hiking 570.265.TOUR Follow us on www.visitbradfordcounty.com • 570.265•TOUR Follow us on

Wyalusing Hotel

Great Rates, Great Food, Great Attractions 54 Main Street, Wyalusing, PA

570-746-1204

www.wyalusinghotel.com 17

Courtesy Mike and Angel Goodwin

Here a chick...there a chick: Mary Ingalls Cote’s artwork depicts Stuart Goodwin with his special pheasant friend, Chick-Chick.

Animal Magnetism

By Patrick Bernethy

T

he relationship between humans and animals, be they domestic or wild, has a long and complex history. Animals have been our source of labor, transportation, food, shelter, and companionship. Let’s face it, we may not deserve the companionship they occasionally offer given the nature and history of that relationship.

Yet, people have befriended every manner of creature from octopus to grizzly bear. You could lose yourself for weeks in cute YouTube videos of people and their “pets,” and the definition of pet doesn’t have any set criteria (remember pet rocks?).

This story took place on a rural Pennsylvania farm some years ago. It involves an elderly farmer named Stuart and a rooster pheasant named Chick-Chick.

Stuart, or Daddy, as the family called him, had a special gift, a calmness and connection to the outside world. As a farmer that comes with the job description, but Stuart’s connection to wild animals was uncanny,

18

uncanny to the point that a rooster pheasant flew out of the field to suddenly befriend him one day.

This wasn’t just a one-off occurrence.

Chick-Chick, as Stuart dubbed him, came to visit on a daily basis. Stuart would amble out the kitchen door early in the morning with a low whistle, while all the farm stock came to life to greet him and to start the new day. This was underscored when ChickChick came flying down from the upper fields, landing in front of Stuart and walking side by side with him, following him out to the mailbox and then everywhere he went through the routine of daily chores around the farm. One of Chick-Chick’s favorite things to do was fly up and land on the front of the Gator—that bird loved riding around with Stuart on the four-wheeler!

Sometimes the relationship became a bit difficult to handle. When Stuart wanted to head to town, Chick-Chick would chase the truck down the drive. When the vehicle picked up speed, he’d take off and

fly alongside. It got to where Stuart had to try to sneak off the farm to get his errands accomplished!

This went on throughout a whole summer and into the fall, when the bird suddenly disappeared. No one knows what happened. You can create alternate endings, happy or sad, but the truth is that pheasants don’t live that long. Truth is, humans don’t live that long either. What does live on is the story of a unique friendship between man and animal.

Stuart passed away three years ago at age ninety-six. His family and the people he loved will always remember the special touch of a gentle man, and that brief friendship he had with a bird named Chick-Chick.

Patrick James Bernethy moved to Wellsboro six years ago with his wife Jan from Pinedale, Wyoming. He enjoys the Outdoors and playing guitar to his dog Winston.

welcome to

BRADFORD CO.

All Under One Roof...

W WHITE MOUNTAIN

SMALL ANIMAL • LARGE ANIMAL

W W W. T R OY V E TC L I N I C . C O M

SERVICES OFFERED: Healthy Wellness Exams Exams for Sick Pets Laser Surgical Procedures Portable Digital Radiology Acupuncture In-House Bovine Pregnancy Testing Customer Pet Portal • Online Store House Calls Available Pet Cremation Services Fully Stocked Pharmacies Pet Suplies: Flea & Tick Medication Food, Toys & Treats

Kids Apparel

754 Canton Street, Troy PA • 570-297-7770 HOURS: Monday-Saturday 8am-5pm hooverclothingstore.com 19

Gayle Morrow Spinning a yarn: Linda Voss-Plummer takes a turn at one her spinning wheels as she prepares for World Wide Knit in Public Day in Galeton on June 12.

Knitting Communities Together Galeton Hosts World Wide Knit in Public Day

By Gayle Morrow

T

here are some things you may not think about doing in public— knitting, for instance. Why might a person want to do that? Well, if your mission is “better living through stitching together,” then taking the time to “knit one, purl two” with a group of friends in a park—John J. Collins Park in Galeton—on a nice day in early summer—June 12—is an excellent reason.

Just ask Linda Voss-Plummer. To say that Linda, a life-long knitter with family firmly rooted in Galeton, is enthusiastic about all kinds of fiber arts is a bit of an understatement, just as it is to say she is community-minded. She’s managed for the past nine years to weave the two together, helping communities in and around picturesque Potter County celebrate World Wide Knit in Public Day. A designer named Danielle Landes (you can see some of her work on ravelry. com) started World Wide Knit in Public Day in 2005, “as a way for knitters to come

20

together to enjoy each other’s company.”

Copenhagen’s Astrid Salling has been the organizer since 2011. Knitting, like other creative endeavors, can be a solitary activity if the folks involved don’t make some effort to find like-minded people to share the fun.

Each event is hosted by a local volunteer or group, and is meant to be inclusive for all fiber lovers (and those who might want to be). There were twenty-five in various locations on the first Knit in Public Day (always the second Saturday in June, everywhere) or KIP, as they are affectionately known. The most recent tally shows over 1,000 KIPs in over fifty countries.

Having read about WWKIP, Linda decided to try her hand at organizing an event under the auspices of the Galeton Public Library. There were eight people at the first KIP. By 2019 there were about eighty-five. There are guidelines, but event organizers can plan their KIP how they like. Linda, with her love of community, has made it her mission to involve all kinds

of folks and to support fiber businesses and shepherds. The service projects for this year are knitting hats for school children and shawls or lap robes for residents at UPMC Cole Extended Care.

“It’s a community event, not just about knitting,” she says. In 2019 the event included a baker, Nancy Lubera from Crossfork, who Linda says “bakes as an avocation,” to make a special cake for the day—it was a bunny cake with a knit blanket; a youth group from the Pine Creek Valley United Methodist Church in Gaines; Cinco Cs, an alpaca farm in Roulette; Nistock Farms from Prattsburgh New York (with a focus on endangered species of sheep); Glenfiddich Farm near Mansfield; Stephanie Cornell of Genesee and The Wool Collectors’ Shed brought her angora rabbit whose wool was spun. Local businesses provided refreshments.

At these events, she continues, “it’s wonderful” to see people enjoying the company of others they hadn’t seen “for

welcome to ages.” There are old friends and new friends; history lovers, even laundry lovers (read on for more on that). Of course she hopes they’ll all show up for this year’s happening, which will make the 2021 KIP even more poignant, as the 2020 event, like so many others, couldn’t happen as planned.

“We had to cancel, but we wanted to do something,” Linda says. That “something” was Laundry Camp—it came to the event via Zoom. Laundry Camp’s host was Patric Richardson, AKA the “Laundry Evangelist,” star of HGTV’s The Laundry Guy, and author, with Karin B. Miller, of the book Laundry Love. Karin, as it happens, grew up next to Linda’s parents in Horseheads, so that’s one more community connection for Linda to notch on her knitting needles.

Karin and Patric will be back on Zoom on Thursday, June 10, at 7 p.m. Find the Zoom link on Galeton World Wide Knitting in Public Facebook page. Ever mindful of local history (she lives in the home her great-grandparents built in Galeton in 1902, so there’s that), Linda asked Julia Kolat and Donna Batterson, volunteers at the Potter County Historical Society, to choose some pieces from their fine collection to highlight. They chose a gorgeous wedding dress and a child’s romper. Patric will talk about how to safely clean these treasured antiques.

As a second precursor to Galeton’s KIP, the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum is offering a virtual program on (what else?) laundry in Pennsylvania’s lumber camps.

Josh Roth, museum site administrator, and Josh Fox, museum curator, stepped up to the plate and designed this program for the event. The Lumber Museum’s program is set for Friday, June 11, at 7 p.m. To register for that virtual event, contact the museum via email at palumbermuseum@gmail.com or call (814) 435-2652 or visit their Event page or that on Galeton’s WWKIP Facebook page.

World Wide Knit in Public Day is from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 12, at the pavilion on Park Lane in John J. Collins Park. Access Park Lane from either West Street or Germania Street.

They are banking on good weather, but the virtual events will be held regardless.

BRADFORD CO.

CANTON LIONS CLUB PRESENTS

2ND ANNUAL

FALL FOLIAGE TOUR OF THE MOUNTAINS ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLE RIDE 2021

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH Motorcycle Expo and Sign-up • Noon

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH Sign-up & Start of 80 mile ride • 10 am

A mix of paved & dirt roads through the scenic Endless Mountains, starting in downtown Canton, PA!

Lunch served by the Canton Lions Club

TO BENEFIT CANTON LIONS CLUB & LOCAL CHARITIES

www.cantonlionsmcshow.com

570-250-0174 21

Lilace Mellin Guignard

Striking back: Robert and Susan Bucco of Malvern, PA, stop to read a message explaining the covered doors and windows and the Tiadaghton Audubon Society’s bird-strike prevention program.

On a Wing and a Prayer Helping Little Birds See What’s Real

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

O

ne October morning in 2020, a sad and gruesome sight greeted employees at the Visit Potter-Tioga Visitor Center when they came to work.

Nine black-capped chickadees lay dead on the sidewalk. “It was almost like a scene from The Birds,” administrative assistant Kirsten Tellgren says, referring to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic. These small creatures are year-round residents in Pennsylvania, their cheerful cheeeeeseburger call familiar to many.

Board President Curt Schramm says he received a call saying “There are birds lying here dead!” “ We really do care about our environment and nature,” he says, “even if it’s just a little bird.” They had to get to the bottom of this mystery, especially since Wellsboro is an official Pennsylvania Bird Town, the first outside of the southeastern part of the state.

They called the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and

22

were referred to the local chapter of the Audubon Society, specifically to Sean Minnick, who’s been a member of the Tiadaghton chapter since shortly after he and his wife moved here in 2014. “Back then I didn’t even know what a warbler was,” he says, “but they took us under their wing.”

From his tone, I’m not sure he intends the pun, but it’s clear what his intentions are toward birds. He is currently the chapter’s treasurer, and the secretary is his wife, Robin. (I swear that’s her name.)

So, Sean headed out to the scene of the crime. By the time he showed up, another chickadee lay there. As he studied the carnage he noticed that a lone birch tree across the parking lot was clearly reflected in the building’s glass door. Nothing like this had happened before, but for some reason a flock of chickadees had started mistaking the tree in the door for the real thing. “They were flying full speed,” Sean explains, “and couldn’t survive the impact. We think of

those types of fatalities being caused by high-rises, not one-story buildings in the middle of nowhere. But this is not just a big city issue!”

A study published in the October 2019 issue of Science magazine, “Decline of the North American avifauna,” finds that we have 2.9 billion fewer breeding birds than in 1970. That’s a loss of one in four birds, with the greatest losses among the most common bird families. The website 3billionbirds.org calls this loss “huge”—29 percent over the last half century.

The main reasons for this decline are habitat loss and degradation, but windows are right up there (even if only on the first floor). A 2015 study of annual human-caused bird mortality found that cats are responsible for 2.6 billion deaths, windows for 624 million, vehicles for 214 million, and industrial collisions for 64 million—including power lines (57 See Wing on page 26

welcome to

FRY BROS. TURKEY RANCH Established Business Since 1886 Off of Exit 155 on Rt 15 (Steam Valley Exit)

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner - Call for Hours

27 State Route 184, Trout Run, PA 17771 Phone

(570) 998-9400

www.frybrosturkeyranch.com

Textiles in Translation

Presented by Studio Art Quilt Associates of Pennsylvania A juried exhibition of artwork by Pennsylvania regional members of SAQA showcasing a diverse range of styles and techniques.

gallery.pct.edu

MINI-MART

SUN: 1 – 4 p.m.

June 1 – July 22

Gifts • Souvenirs • Catering • Takeout Available!

WILLIAMSPORT

TUES / WED / THUR: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. closed July 3 – 6

An excellent destination for your motorcycle ride!

Share an evening together as a community sampling a variety of domestic beers and wines and meet local brewers and vintners.

— Friday, August 13, 2021 — 7 pm – 10 pm 858 W 4th St, Williamsport, PA 17701

(570) 326-3326 | www.tabermuseum.org $35 members | $40 non-members 23

welcome to

PINE CREEK VALLEY

L1 East iberty book Shop Park St., Avis, PA 17721 • 570-220-2947 www.TheLibertyBookShop.com

3 DAY SALE: JUNE 10-12

All books 20-50% off Huge selection of books at $0.25 to $1!

Used, Rare and Out-of-Print Books.

Your source for unusual books on any subject.

Browse our in-stock selection of over 40,000 hardcover books and paperbacks.

&

te Run a l S

Tackle Sh op

Wolfe’s General Store A unique store nestled among the steep mountains and gorges of Pine Creek!

Remarkable Gift Shop Fully Stocked Orvis Fly Shop Fabulous Deli Hundreds of great gifts for the whole family!

Located at the top of the 2.8-mile Pine Creek Catch-And-Release “Stretch”

Free National Search Service for books not in print. Worldwide shipping!

HOURS: Thurs & Fri 10-6; Sat 10-3

(or by appointment, feel free to just call)

121 W. Church St. Lock Haven, PA 17745

Davis Real Estate, Inc. 570-748-8550

Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Seven Days a Week (Deli closes at 4:00 p.m.)

E-mail: info@slaterun.com

Rt. 414 • Slate Run, PA • (570) 753-8551 • slaterun.com

MILLERS GUN SHOP, INC

are the mountains and valleys of north central pa calling? see the latest properties available for your outdoor adventures!

RecreationalPropertiesPennsylvania.com

you are here!

LISA LINN 570-660-0626 Recreational Property Specialist lisa.a.linn@gmail.com Pine Creek, Tioga County, Potter County & More!

24

6945 Nittany Valley Dr., Mill Hall, PA

570-726-3030

www.millersgunshopinc.com

—WE ARE YOUR ONE STOP HUNTING HEADQUARTERS—

Gillian Tulk-Yartim

Anne Barnett

“All in June” Today the fields are rich in grass, And buttercups in thousands grow; I’ll show the world where I have been – With gold-dust seen on either shoe.

Jerame Reinhold

~ W.H. Davies (1871-1940)

Sarah Wagaman

Michael Johnston

Mia Lisa Anderson 25

Draper’s Super Bee Apiaries, Inc. Honey...How sweet it is!

We produce and sell high quality, natural honey products and much more.

Try your Fresh Fruit with Honey!

Monday-Friday 8am-5pm Saturday 8am-1pm

www.draperbee.com

32 Avonlea Lane Millerton, PA 16936 800-233-4273 or 570-537-2381

Open daily 7am to 9pm!

570-662-2972

2103 S. Main St., Mansfield, PA

We wish you well during this challenging time and hope you are safe and healthy.

LISTED AT $ 48+ ACRES WITH

477 Tioga Street Wellsboro, PA Office: 570-723-8484 Fax: 570-723-8604 Licensed in PA & NY

615,000

FENCED IN PASTURES & AMAZING VIEWS. Outdoor patios with built-in fireplace, front porch and amazing views of this beautiful country setting. 5 bedrooms with first floor bedroom as well as a large second level master suite, spa soaking tub and walkin in closet. Large kitchen with hardwood cherry floors and attached dining nook as well as a huge great room and dining room, both with fireplaces. Close to Route 15 that conveniently gets you to Williamsport, Mansfield or Corning!

MLS R31711264A

www.mvrwellsboro.com We’re Here For All Of Your Spring Project Needs.

Give Us A Call Or Stop In! T&G Flooring • Log And Shiplap Siding Solid Wood Counter Tops TCS Accents (Use For Backsplashes, Wall Paneling, Table Tops, Flooring, Etc.) • Framing Material Rough And Surfaced Lumber Over 1,000 Molding Profiles (Sale Rack Is Loaded With A Variety Of Moldings) We Carry Both Domestic And Exotic Species

2228 SR 49 West • Ulysses, PA

814-848-7448

TheCarpentersShopInc.com

26

Wing continued from page 22

million), communication towers (6.8 million), and wind turbines (140,000 to 679,089). As 3billionbirds.com points out, each of us can make a big difference by keeping our cats indoors (or walking them on a leash) and making our windows safer.

But how does one make windows safer? That’s what Bob Ross, thirty-year member and twice president of the Tiadaghton chapter, wanted to know after having just about every type of bird living in the woods near his house strike his windows trying to get to the reflection of his happy trees. The last straw was when he found a dead wood thrush under his window one summer day.

“These birds have the most beautiful song in the forest, and they are also declining,” Bob explains. “My heart was broken, and I was not going to let this happen again. I was tired of killing birds because of my great views—purple finches, goldfinches, catbirds, yellowthroats, veery, most of my woodpeckers, on and on.”

Most of us have heard that sickening “thud” of feathered bodies against glass. The fact is that many of the birds who seem only stunned and later fly away suffer from internal injuries and die, and half of bird-window collisions leave no evidence at all.

Maybe, like Bob, you stuck decals on the inside of your windows hoping to keep the birds from slamming into them. “Those stickon profiles of raptors you may find available are useless because the bird outside sees reflections of my woods, not something pasted to the inside of my window,” he says.

After doing research, Bob went with acopian birdsavers, a type of screen made from dangling paracords outside of the window about four inches apart. Birdsavers.com has them for order, as well as directions for making your own. Bob, who lives near the Muck north of Wellsboro, says he enjoys his views even more since installing these five years ago because he experiences 75-90 percent fewer bird strikes. “For those who’re skeptical of losing their view, not really,” he notes. “You habituate to them and because of the narrow diameter, they don’t really affect my view.”

Sean researched options for the Visit Potter-Tioga Visitor Center, helped by a brochure created by the Bird-Window Collision Working Group of Audubon Pennsylvania, which lists many approaches. The main thing the best choices have in common is that the screen, tape, or film is applied on the outside of the glass where it disrupts the reflection. The visitor center chose to use the film made by CollidEscape, which can be custom printed. Heckler Design created the graphic using the logo and providing information on their bird strike prevention program so all visitors can learn about this problem.

“It’s amazing how it seems opaque from the parking lot and only slightly shaded from inside,” Sean says. “You don’t even know it’s there.” If you want to learn more about bird strike prevention you can head to the visitor center at 253 Route 660 in Wellsboro, or check out the Tiadaghton Chapter online at www.facebook. com/TiadaghtonAudubon. Better yet—become a member! Sean will be glad to take you under his wing.

Lilace Mellin Guignard raises her kids in Wellsboro where she plays outdoors, gets wild with community theatre, and shakes things up at Sunday school. She’s the author of When Everything Beyond the Walls Is Wild: Being a Woman Outdoors in America.

Welcome to

MOUNTAIN HOME

WEDDING

S

Loraleah Marie Photography

napshots Photo Bus & Booths added the perfect touch to Courtney and John’s boho/rustic wedding at The Barn at Hillsprings Farms. With carefully crafted details, a beautiful layout, and a backdrop made for photos, this was the ideal choice for their special day. ~Loraleah Skinkle

27

Deziree Rosenberg Photography

Attention to detail: Casey and Kelly Magargle not only enjoyed this historic landmark for their special day...they enjoyed the “extras” that came with it.

Lewisburg’s Iron Lady

New Life, Including Nuptials, for Old Downtown Building

By Karey Solomon

A

historic downtown building, designed and built for the three Chamberlin brothers in 1868, has served many generations of Lewisburg residents. For many of those decades, its lower floors hosted a succession of stores selling groceries, shoes, haberdashery, appliances, and other everyday needs. Its upper floors were home to fraternal organizations like the Odd Fellows, and later, small, dingy offices with cubicles and dropped ceilings. A landmark loved but taken for granted, the Chamberlin building at 434 Market Street has, in recent years, taken on a new life and a new name. With its unusual Italianate iron façade restored and the insides intensively renovated, the Iron Front has become a place of milestones and new beginnings.

Mike Matukaitis, the building’s owner, spent five years on its renovations.

When he first saw it, he says, it was in really poor condition. “It was structurally good but neglected. There were cobwebs everywhere…” Because the 21,000-squarefoot building is on the National Registry of Historic Places, the renovations had to be 28

done with particular care.

At first on his own, later working with contractors, Mike ripped out the dropped ceilings to reveal old tin ceilings and beautiful vintage beams. He sandblasted brick walls, refinished floors, hired electricians and plumbers to modernize the building’s innards. An architecture buff, he learned about the period, reviewed other renovations, gathered ideas.

If this sounds like someone with unusual amounts of energy and a propensity for thinking outside the box, it is. “It’s fun to see the passion he has for doing great things,” says Dennis Hummer, who works for the Small Business Development Project at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.

The two men came to know each other when Mike, a former classroom teacher, developed a software company providing online training for educators and service providers. He purchased and occupied part of the Chamberlin building for his business, Brighton Training Group, and in October 2019 purchased the rest of the building.

Part of the Iron Front was and still is used

for co-working space—Mike provides coffee, printing, and mail services, free WiFi, and a bike-share program for the twenty current participants. As spaces were renovated, he also saw the potential for offering them as a venue for events, with complementary services already in place to make party, corporate gatherings, and weddings streamlined.

“I fell in love with the idea of open space, tall ceilings, hardwood floors, cool architectural elements…” Mike says. He sourced vintage replacement elements, where those were missing, at architectural salvage stores from Scranton to southern Virginia.

The result is a minimalist décor based on the simplicity of long-lasting materials. Some describe it as “industrial chic.”

He currently has enough tables, chairs and space to host 135 sit-down guests (or 200 for gatherings without a sit-down meal) in one part of the building, while in another part a smaller party might be taking place.

There are eight suites on the upper two floors.

An elevator makes them all accessible spaces.

A fully equipped kitchen, with tableware, flatware, everything needed for beverage

service, even silk flower table decorations and linens are also available as needed. “We try to make it super easy to book with us so people don’t have to deal with thirty different vendors,” he says.

Those who’ve attended events here describe it as a magical, airy space whose minimalist vibe allows guests to focus their attention on each other—or the happy couple getting married. Tall windows let in a lot of natural light, which in a daytime event, is especially appreciated by photographers.

Kelly Magargle and her then-fiance, Casey, serving in the military, planned to marry in 2020, but when they learned his deployment had been moved forward, they decided to accelerate their wedding plans by a year. Choosing to marry at Iron Front took away a lot of the stress.

“It was a last-minute thing, but they were available the weekend we were looking for and the price was pretty good for us,” Kelly says.

“They have a bridal suite on the second floor, we could have the ceremony and reception in the same building, they said we could have any caterer we wanted, and they have the kitchen there. It was just the right atmosphere. They have those big beautiful windows that let in so much light! We got married at three in the afternoon and got this beautiful light coming in.”

Kelly also has high praise for Mike. “Mike was so wonderful, he communicated so well. They gave me a wedding coordinator for the day. Everyone was so helpful and amazing. I could see they really care about being there. I got everything I wanted and I felt very spoiled.”

Although Iron Front hosts more corporate events than weddings, for Mike and his staff the weddings are “just magical.”

“It’s a historic space that’s been through a lot, and the lighting and tall windows make it really special, just incredible,” Mike says.

He’s noted his staff, watching the ceremony from the back of the room, are often as moved by the magic of the moment as their guests.

“It’s neat to see how excited they are about it.”

And while he initially thought those wanting the space would be mostly locals, he’s been pleasantly surprised by how many people contact him from out of town. “Because we’re centrally located, we get a lot of weddings where part of the family might live in Pittsburgh, part in Philly,” he notes. The website explains everything Iron Front offers, with a fill-in form where brides and event/party planners can describe their projected needs, submitting the form for an estimate.

Mike or one of his staff quickly responds. Communication is important.

“We often get back to them within an hour from when they submit their estimate request,” he says.

When was he finally able to take a deep breath and say it had all come out the way he’d wanted it to? “Probably today, actually,” he laughs, explaining the carpenters had just finished the last part of the third floor’s renovations, all done except for the barn-style doors yet to be hung at the last room’s entry.

The changes to the building, though almost complete, are not yet fully realized. This fall the ground floor will enter a new incarnation as a 5,000-square-foot full-service restaurant and bar.

“His ideas are endless—and it’s so good for the community,” Dennis says.

See more of the space at ironfrontevents.com; reach them by phone at 800-870-8830.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and needlework designer who teaches internationally.

50 BALLARD STREET • TROY, PENNSYLVANIA 16947

Weddings • Private Parties • Events NOW BOOKING

For more information or to see if your special date is available, visit

WWW.TROYSALEBARN.COM Funded by a grant from the Bradford County Tourism Promotion Agency

607-857-3637

Weddings • Showers • Private Events

Romantically Wild, Earthy, and Vintage Elegance

Using Natural Elements to Create Your Timeless and Effortless Look

232 Main Street • Blossburg Pa Hours-10:30 to 6:30 TUES-Fri; Sat by Appt.

Bridal Makeup & Hair On Location!

HAIRSTYLING • COLOR • MANICURES • PEDICURES 29

Courtesy Fainting Goat Island Inn

Succumb to serenity: Marnie, Bill, and dog Stanley welcome guests into eclectic decor, a stunning setting, and beautiful gardens.

Fainting Goat Island Inn

Find Ghosts, Goats, and Love On the Banks of the Susquehanna

By Gayle Morrow

T

here are some ironies here at the Fainting Goat Island Inn in Nichols, New York. One is that Porkchop, the resident pot bellied pig, lives in what was once a smokehouse. It was her decision—she had other options, but she seems content in this cozy conversion. She also seems to know there is no danger that her home will ever be, uh, put to its original use, at least not while she is in residence.

Then there are the goats. When inn owner Marnie Streit is questioned on whether the goats enjoy the seventeenacre island that is part of the property, or if she worries about them escaping via the Susquehanna, which flows just beyond the inn’s back yard, she laughs.

“They’re fainting goats, and they’re afraid of water,” she says.

As for the Inn’s alleged spirit residents, Marnie confesses to not being a true believer—or at least she wasn’t at first.

30

But, “stuff has happened that I really can’t explain,” she says with a smile and a shrug.

And even though, when she bought this 1850s-era former railroad hotel a dozenplus years ago, she really had no thoughts of turning it into an inn, let alone one that might be haunted…well, it’s possible, isn’t it, that the inn had its own plans?

Marnie, who grew up on a farm in Pierrepont, New York, way up in St. Lawrence County, has been a physical education teacher at Sayre High School for twenty-one years. One day she was on a Susquehanna float trip, enjoying the water and a few beers, and saw the house as the river carried her past. It was love at first sight. And it was for sale.

“I didn’t think I could afford it,” she says, but “it worked out.” So there she was—“I bought it myself, it was my house.”

It wasn’t in great shape, she continues.

There were no porches, the ceilings were

all dropped, there was a summer kitchen with servants’ quarters above, but she started making changes, working on the renovations and remodels nights after school.

“When I came in the house, I actually kind of saw it done,” she recalls. And she wondered: What am I going to do with this huge place?

“I wanted to share it,” she says.

That desire was the beginning of Fainting Goat Island Inn. The fainting goats would come later, the ghosts were probably already there, but, in the interim, Marnie continued cleaning, painting, and decorating. Ah, yes, the décor—it is gloriously Victorian-ish, with couches and chairs sporting engraved, curling backs and armrests, austere-looking ladies and gentlemen staring out from ornate carved frames (Wait, are the eyes following me?), high headboards and even higher ceilings, See Fainting on page 32

Wedding Gowns • Bridesmaid

Mother-of-the-Bride • Flower Girl Dresses Alterations are Free with Wedding Gown Purchase.

ALTERATIONS & CLOTHING REPAIR OFFERED.

121 Main Street, Blossburg, PA 16912 • 570-638-3324 Mon-Sat 10am-4pm or by Appointment

&

Custom Design Printing We’re not just your favorite local magazine anymore....

We can also design and print your custom invitations, RSVP cards, Save-the-Dates, and more!

Call (607) 329-0329—ask for Gwen

Linens, Napkins Tables & Chairs Bistro Tables, Bars Fill ‘N Chill Tables Dance Floor & More White Frame Tents 20x20 to 20x40 30x30 to 30x105

Simple Elegance Since 1987

607-962-0830

Custom Centerpieces

ccPartyCenter.com ~ ccPartyCenterTents.com

Sew Much More New & Gently Used Formal Wear

BRIDAL • MOTHERS • FLOWER GIRL • PROM • ETC. Janice Darrah ~ Seamstress 127 N. Main Street • Coudersport, PA

814-335-8681

39 Water Street • Wellsboro, PA www.mountainhomemag.com

sewwhizz@yahoo.com Tues, Thurs. & Fri. 9am-5pm; Wed. 9am-3pm or by Appointment

ALTERATIONS AVAILABLE 31

Fainting continued from page 30

(3) Courtesy Fainting Goat Island Inn

sideboards and free-standing cupboards of various shapes and sizes, cozy corners, and an elegant entryway that makes you think high-button shoes and a starched shirtwaist could, perhaps should, be standard attire.

And while an allegedly creepy attic is not strictly a part of the décor, there is one of those, too. The drop-down stairway for it is in the Alpine Room. Each of the five guest rooms, by the way, are named for goat breeds—along with the Alpine there is the Fainting Room, the Angora Room, the Nubian Room, and the Toggenburg Room. On a Friday afternoon, Marnie is welcoming three guests—a mom and two teenaged daughters—who are there for the weekend and, specifically, for a night of ghost hunting, and she explains to them how to pull down the stairs for attic access.

“There are lots of stories with this room, but I’m not telling you anything ahead of time,” she says to the spirit seekers. She tells the ladies that “we do have ghost equipment downstairs.”

The guests, however, have brought their own.

The haunted side of the Fainting Goat Island Inn was nothing Marnie or her partner, Bill Gamble, planned or initially thought about promoting. But, as Marnie acknowledges, stuff has happened—to her, to Bill, and to guests—including the sound of footsteps where there are no people, the sound of footsteps on stairs where there are no stairs, furniture moving, disembodied voices, and glimpses of what one might presume are spectral shapes. It is deliciously spooky to think about, and has, Marnie says, “really been kind of fun.” The inn Be overcome: Fainting was eventually featured on a program called Hotel Goat Island Inn offers Paranormal, and was named by USA Today readers in an array of supernatural 2019 as the second most haunted hotel in America. beauty. Lush gardens, As for the fainting goats, they arrived several the Susquehanna River, years ago after Marnie’s sister died. and yes, fainting goats “When my sister passed away, I lost my smile— just to name a few. for probably a good year,” she reflects. At one point she saw a special on television about fainting goats and “I laughed ’til I cried.” (The goats don’t actually faint. They have a genetic mutation that causes them to stiffen up or fall over when they’re startled.) She has since made Buttercup, Bonnie, Clyde, Laverne, and Shirley part of her animal family. Guests at the Fainting Goat Island Inn can commune not only with the ghosts and goats but with Porkchop, ducks, a couple of cats, and four Great Pyrenees who are so, so happy if you’re willing to spend a few minutes or a few hours petting them.

If you happen to be a bride-to-be, or you’re headed in that direction, you might think that this beautiful inn with the eclectic décor, an expansive side yard, and the flower gardens that Marnie swears have had otherworldly help from the muchloved sister, might all combine to make the perfect spot for a shower, a bachelorette party, or a wedding. You might be right.

While Marnie admits that “I can do the house, the goats, the gardens, but not weddings,” she is up for letting someone else do the weddings. That’s what’s happening on Halloween, when Fainting Goat Island Inn will host its first nuptials. The bride is planning to wear black.

To make your own arrangements for a stay at Fainting Goat Island Inn, call (607) 972-9849, (607) 414-1013, or visit faintinggoatislandinn.com.

32

GAFFER

DISTRICT

THE

ROCKWELL MUSEUM

Smithsonian Affiliate

EX PE RI EN CE AM ER IC AN AR T

Nathan Benn. Parade spectators (detail).

Farmington, NY. June 14, 1975.

SPECIAL SUMMER EXHIBITIONS FLX KODACHROME: National Geographic Photographer Nathan Benn May 28 – September 7 FROM THE SHADOWS: Photography by Chris Walters June 11 – December 31 WHAT’S IN YOUR WORLD? May 29 - September 7 at the KIDS ROCKWELL Art Lab Masks and temperature screening required for Museum entry. Masks provided upon request.

V I S I T T O D AY 111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY 607.937.5386 @RockwellMuseum #RockwellMuseum

Chris Walters, Gerard Burke, Delta Blues Musician, 2020.

Summer Hours, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Kids/Teens 17 & Under FREE Local resident rate: $5.50

Gustin’s Gallery Goldsmiths

6 0 7 . 9 3 6 . 3 5 6 8

71 E. Market St. Corning NY. 14830 g u s t i n s g o l d s m i t h s @ y a h o o . c o m

33

Courtesy Organic Valley Founding farmers: Kevin and Lisa Englebert celebrate their century farm and being the first farm to bring organic farming to the Finger Lakes.

The Dairy Queen

The First Certified Organic Milk Flowed at Englebert Farms

By Alison Fromme

O

n a recent spring morning at Engelbert Farms store, Lisa Engelbert discussed renovations with a representative from a local paint store.

The 100-year-old walls have original paint on them and Lisa needed advice on how to preserve it. She’s planning to turn a small space within the shop into a place where customers can relax, enjoy some food, and maybe encounter a neighbor before picking up their groceries.

“When people come in for a cup of soup or a coffee and baked good, we want them to have a place to sit and enjoy it,” explains Lisa. Right now, she offers all kinds of grab and go items, like cheeseburger soup, pork spring rolls, rice pudding, muffins, and coffee—in addition to organic and local vegetables, fruit, honey, cheese, and more. It’s all produced by her farm and other businesses in the area.

34

The rustic store is part of Engelbert Farms in Nichols, New York, which has been in the family since 1911. During the early 1980s, Lisa and her husband Kevin (now the town supervisor) took charge. Before that, Kevin’s dad had farmed intensively and taken advantage of the technology available—he sprayed chemicals to kill the weeds and crop yields rose. But the good fortune brought by chemicals didn’t last forever. Kevin recalls that he was plowing in third gear because the soil was rock hard. He found three earthworms and corn from three years prior that had not decomposed. The cows were sick. The cost of chemicals and the vet bills were rising.

To turn the farm around, Kevin and Lisa turned to organic and brought the land back to life with rotational grazing and other practices. The certifying agency, Northeast Organic Farming Association of

New York, NOFA-NY, did not even have organic standards for dairy farms at the time, but they reviewed the Engelbert’s practices and approved them. Later, Kevin joined the NOFA-NY standards board to help write the guidelines and Lisa worked there as an administrator. Engelbert Farms became the first certified organic dairy farm in the United States, before there was even a market for organic milk.

At first, their milk was mixed and sold as conventional milk. The couple wanted to put in their own processing equipment, but the bank would not provide a loan because of the risk. In 2001, they joined the CROPP Organic Valley milk co-op and brought in a profit for the first time. Now the land is farmed primarily by two of their three sons, John and Joe. When the pandemic hit last year, there was so much uncertainty. Lisa had to limit

the store to six customers at a time and put chairs out front for those who were waiting their turn. Then, when local lockdowns were enacted, the store could only accommodate two shoppers.

On the farm, the work still had to be done, and between the dairy cows, beef cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, vegetables, there was plenty of it. “The cows still needed to be milked. The crops needed to be planted,” she says.

During the pandemic, big grocery stores ran out of meat and other products, but at the Engelbert Farms store, the supply of food was never a problem. Beef, pork, and veal come straight from their farm. The milk they produce is processed by their co-op, Organic Valley. Another local farm, Lively Run in Interlaken, New York, processes their milk into cheese. Other products like maple syrup or berries from Terry’s Berry Farm are locally sourced. Many of the new customers gained during the pandemic have kept coming back, even as supply issues have returned mostly to normal. “This is a silver lining for us, if there is one,” Lisa says, adding that the pandemic did reveal something about the food system. “Our food system is made up of a lot of big companies, and when one has a problem, it causes a big disruption. If we had a local and regional food system like we did in the past, our society would be a lot more resilient.”

The Engelberts know something about resilience. In 2011, their farm flooded catastrophically. Water nearly reached the second floor of their barn, and, when it receded, deep mud covered everything, including pastures and fencing. They had just started the on-farm store a couple years earlier. Their sons had just taken on joint ownership in 2010. How does a farm family survive such a disaster?

“I guess you just have a strong backbone, determination, and friends,” Lisa says. “The amount of support we received was mindboggling.” Hundreds of people came to help during the aftermath.

And, despite spending those early years recovering from the flood, her sons are still farming.

In 2019, the family bought the old creamery on 263 West River Road in order to expand their store and their business. “Our whole focus is local and organic,” Lisa says. “If I won’t eat it, we won’t bring it into the store.”

Recalling their transition to organic during the 1980s, Lisa says she and Kevin knew that going organic was the right thing to do, even though the bank and processors laughed at them, telling them they couldn’t do it. “Well, here we are,” says Lisa.

They may not have been able to get the milk processing equipment back then, but it’s still a goal. Lisa plans to eventually process their milk into yogurt and fresh cheeses right at the farm store, next to her commercial kitchen where the prepared foods are made.

For now, on a spring day, Lisa might be planting broccoli or brussels sprouts or potatoes, managing the wholesale meat business, or greeting customers alongside her granddaughter. And on Saturday mornings, she’ll be baking cinnamon rolls from scratch, ready in time for eager customers.

The store is open Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (607) 699-3775 for more information. Their products are also available for home delivery through Delivered Fresh.

GAFFER DISTRICT Let The Music

RESOUND!

SOUTHERN FINGER LAKES TOSHIYUKI SHIMADA

Music Director

& Conductor

Transitioning back to the stage...

Sponsored in part by Dick & Judy Sphon

Thursday, June 10, 2021 7:30 PM • The Park Church • Elmira

TRANSITION POINTS: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC FOR TWO VOYCES

The English-Tobin Duo

Ashley English Tobin John Paul Tobin Performing on Historical Violins and Violas

&

Tickets—$30 Adult, $10 Child • Limited Seating ALL COVID SAFETY REQUIREMENTS WILL BE FOLLOWED.

(607) 936-2873

osfl.org

Alison Fromme is an award-winning freelance writer in Ithaca, NY.

35

Biding My Time

Binge Watching with Soup, Wine, and Green Beans

By Cornelius O'Donnell

H

ave you been watching more television these past several months? I have. And I found myself enjoying HGTV even though I am longer interested in pulling up stakes and moving—anywhere. Specifically, I have tuned in to a program called Home Town. And I found there is more than one remodeling show that presents “before and after” solutions to making a house their home. In this variation, with the time frame shown at warp speed, a youngish couple have developed a construction business that focuses on remodeling houses in their Mississippi home town of Laurel. He’s a big burly guy named Ben Napier and his wife, Erin, is a cheerful, cheerleader type, and an artist with a real sense of style. I mostly agreed with her choices but with at least one glaring exception. Read on for an explanation below.

I found this program, in its fifth season, to be a real charmer thanks to the obvious

36

affection between the two principles. Their interaction is believable and winning. In each segment, the house-hunting guests are presented with a small painting by Erin of what the house will look like if her and Ben’s ideas are implemented. Prices of the homes seem mighty reasonable, and Ben details the estimated refurbishment figure based on the work he feels needs to be done, with costs agreed to before Ben takes his axe to the places. He usually comes up with his own gift that adds to the joy as the happy new homeowners tour the remodel. In one episode, Erin found four antique, discarded, and bulbous table legs during an under-sink crawl, and Ben fashioned a unique coffee table out of them. It was such a sweet touch.

Over the years, I occasionally looked in on This Old House, since I’m familiar with the Boston locations of these fixer-uppers.

Essentially the program is a primer on construction, with experts showing, over several weekly episodes, how and why they

are upgrading the sites. Lots of time passes between the “before” and “after.” Home Town gets to all of this in a one-hour format.

Instant gratification for the viewer!

Oh No, Not Those Tiles!

Unless you are well over sixty or have heard those wonderful yearly series of radio dramas that Gary Yoggy used to produce for Elmira Little Theatre, I doubt if most of you readers remember those radio announcers who were such a part of the comedic programs of yesteryear. “Don’t touch that dial!” they would say between programs, as it’s time for Fibber McGee and Molly, or Burns and Allen, etc. Each show had a personality-plus announcer. Watching Home Town, I found myself yelling, “Don’t touch that tile.” Why? Many years ago, I worked on the Major Appliance program at Corning, so kitchen design utilizing smooth-top ranges were See Time on page 38

Fresh-never-frozen seafood!

Inside or Outside Dining

Events • Catering • Merchandise

Hours: Sunday-Wednesday 11-9 Thursday-Saturday 11-10

107 11th Street • Watkins Glen, NY (607) 210-6080

WWW.KOOKALAROCS.COM

412 N. Franklin St. • Watkins Glen, NY 14891 Open 9am-8pm • Sun 10am-8pm 412 N. Mon-Sat Franklin St. • Watkins Glen, NY 14891

Open Year ‘round www.famousbrandsoutlet.com *Subject to change based on NYS regulations.

607-535-4952 607-535-4952

www.famousbrandsoutlet.com

Come experience Watkins Glen & Schuyler County, New York

Plan your trip today! Visit explorewatkinsglen.com or call 800-607-4552.

Famous Brands began in 1983, offering “famous brand” Famousand Brands in 1983, offering clothing footwear atbegan below retail prices. Since that humble beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to “famous brand” clothing and footwear at 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a city block, becoming abelow destination store for millions of Since visitors and localshumble alike. retail prices. that

beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a

37

La Bourgade On Seneca

Time continued from page 36

Photo by Jenn Morris

Perfect for your 1st or 2nd home!

YEARLY RENTALS Starting at $1,595/month

607-227-4791 • LaBourgade.net La Bourgade Lane, Burdett NY

3600 State Route 419 WatkinS Glen, nY 14891 607-535-2014 Want to experience a relaxing and fun atmosphere?

Come join the sounds, sights, and tastes of SENECA LODGE.

Craft brews made on site, can be enjoyed in our world famous, fully stocked “Tavern Room” bar offering 6 of our craft brews on tap. To-go craft brew available in Growlers and 6-packs!

Our spacious dining room and patio serves dinner from 5 - 9 daily. Enjoy local favorites like Prime Rib and London Broil. Burger night on Wednesdays (Burger menu only!)

Lodging is also available.

Come stay in one of our many cabins or motel rooms at a reasonable price.

Visit us at www.senecalodge.com 38

my life. I’d work with the ad agency’s art director and freelance kitchen designers to make sure the photos displayed our upscale products in upscale shelter magazines (think the now-vanished House & Garden).

For one ad, the agency’s art director suggested using a ceramic tile backsplash decorated with wonderful designs of fruit and vegetables. This would form an attractive background for the stove we called the Counterange. An easy to love design element for la cocina. I lusted after those. I vaguely remember that we rented the tiles from a firm called Country Floors, located on the upper east side of Manhattan and catering to the Park Avenue crowd.

These squares were “installed” using double-faced tape above the range. They were pretty and pricey (and back to the store’s stock room the next day).

Anyway, I was happily binge-watching several Home Town segments. This one showed the kitchen in a Craftsman-style early twentieth century home, chosen by the happy new homeowners out of two that they toured (the usual scenario) and in their budget range. Ben explained that the place was first remodeled in the ’60s or ’70s, and, as the camera panned the room, I immediately recognized that favorite set of tiles—colorful and elegant fruit and vegetable motifs, nearly life-sized—centered over the cooking area. Smaller tiles with individual fruits and veggies were scattered over the surface to continue the garden theme over a larger area.

It was a quick shot, and neither Erin nor Ben mentioned this design feature. I did hear Ben say to his workmen something like “…we’ll move this over there, lose the tiles and make a new entry door here…blah, blah, blah, paint the wall…” Folks, to this viewer that was like as tossing an eighteenth century chair in the dumpster. Desecration!

I searched online and found there are now many branches of Country Floors throughout the country. But in none of their online catalogs were the “colorful ingredients” version. You won’t be surprised to learn that I still have laminated copies of the print ads.

But, back to cooking. I’ve already confessed to being a paper pack rat, and am amazed at the treasure trove of tested recipes that I have accumulated over the years. Here are a couple of good ones that are perfect for summer entertaining—now that we are vaccinated and can be (and longing for) spending time with friends. Here’s something different—a chilled soup that I first tasted at my friend Sylvia D’s. and subsequently made several times. It’s pretty to look at, too, far better than four walls. Sylvia got the recipe from a friend in Rochester who got it from…

Regardless of its origin, I now present it for you, rescued from obscurity in my files.

Sylvia’s Soup 1 apple peeled, cored, and chopped 3 Tbsps. fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp. water 1 ripe tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped 2 c. defatted chicken stock, homemade or canned* 3 small or 1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced 1 ripe (not too ripe) banana, sliced (plus an additional one for garnish) 1 c. heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. curry powder (preferably Madras) or to your taste 2 Tbsps. chopped green onion or chives Drop apple pieces in a mixture of lemon juice and water, then refrigerate for 30 minutes or so. Place tomato pieces in a bowl of ice water and refrigerate for the same time. In a 2.5-qt. stainless or non-stick saucepan, heat the broth to boiling. Add drained apple and tomato. Add the banana.

Reduce heat and simmer mixture about 25 minutes until the onion is tender. Increase heat and add cream mixed with the curry powder and bring just to the boil, stirring, then remove pan from the heat. Let cool and then chill in the refrigerator. Stir from time to time to speed chilling.

Serve topped with the chives and a slice of banana dipped in lemon juice.

Serves 4 and may be doubled. *If using canned broth, refrigerate the cans for an hour and you can simply remove the little bit of hardened fat from the surface when you open the cans.

Horseheads Mill Street Market 117 East Mill Street, Horseheads NY 14845 607-739-2531

Featuring 3 Floors, over 9,000 sq. feet, 50+ Vendors, An;ques, Country, Home Décor, Local Ar;sans and More “Like us on Facebook” to view dates Monday - Saturday of our 10am to 5pm upcoming sales and Closed on Sunday events www.facebook.com/HorseheadsMillStreetMarket.com

SUMMER HOURS

NATIONAL SOARING MUSEUM

Open Daily 10-5 51 Soaring Hill Dr. Elmira, NY 14903 607-734-3128

Ginger Wine Spritzer Here’s a refreshing beverage perfect for a warm summer day.

6 c. of “good” water—bottled if your tap water has chlorine or off taste 6 oz. of peeled, chopped fresh ginger (I use a box grater or Microplane) ½ c. of granulated sugar Ice 2 bottles (750 ml each) chilled New York State Sauvignon blanc 1 to 2 quarts chilled sparkling mineral water

Featuring one of the largest collections of Gliders and Sailplanes in the world.

Soaring Capital of America info@soaringmuseum.org

Exits 48 or 51A off Route 17 & 86

Combine the water, ginger, and sugar in a 3-quart stainless pot. Boil over medium-high heat for 15 minutes without stirring.

Cool and chill. Strain just before serving.

To serve, fill wine glasses with ice. Half fill each glass with wine, add 4 to 6 tablespoons of the ginger syrup to each glass, top with sparkling water. Stir and serve immediately.

Serves about 16.

A Favorite Snack Crisp-tender green beans are a favorite of mine. Easy to do and easy to pass and eat while enjoying a wine, a spritzer, a beer, IPA, or a cocktail. Here’s what you do: bring a good-sized glassceramic or stainless pot of water (the afore-mentioned “good water”) to the boil. Snap off just the stem end of the fresh green bean, leaving the cute “curl.” Generously salt the boiling water and throw in a couple of handfuls of beans. Stir and allow water to return to the boil. After a couple of minutes, test a bean. It should be just tender. Snappy, y’know? Drain and run the beans under cold water for a second to stop cooking. Toss in a dry dishtowel and place in a serving bowl. Toss some kosher salt over them, or pass a small container of said salt for dunking.

Enjoy this treat and you’ll have room for that tasty shrimp, paté, or the cheese board.

Bon appétit.

Chef, teacher, author, and award-winning columnist Cornelius O’Donnell lives in Horseheads, New York.

Open 7 days a week 10 AM—5PM 8231 Pleasant Valley Rd. Hammondsport, NY 14840 Follow us for Pat II Launch information!

(607) 569-2222

www.flbm.org

info@flbm.org 39

FROM POPS TO PAGANINI THE VARIETY IS ENDLESS!

e t a br e l e C

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/CELTIC/BLUES CHORAL/PIANO/TANGO/BRASS/POPS

july 16 - August 1, 2021

Tickets Now On Sale! and 8 emerging hollywood film composers!

WELLSBORO H MANSFIELD CHERRY SPRINGS STATE PARK KNOXVILLE H ELMIRA H TIOGA

www.endlessmountain.net 570-787-7800 40

Mountain Home SERVICE DIRECTORY

Near the top of Left Asaph, I hang a left on Old Supply Trail and head over the mountain northwest of Sears’ favorite camping spot. Topping out around 2,200 feet, the mountain doesn’t have a name, and trails run off it in every direction. I stop in a clearing below the highest point. To the south, scattered trees stand in thick underbrush, signs of a former logging operation. To the north, hardwoods interspersed with evergreens form a canopy over mountain laurel and snowmobile trails. I imagine what the mountain looked like back in Sears’ day and wonder whether he would understand that my carbon fiber bike is my Sairy Gamp.

I pull on my vest and pull up my arm warmers for the chilly 1,000-foot descent back to Asaph and remember the black bear I saw on this trail one day, the timber rattler I almost ran over on another. This unnamed mountain feels out there, even though I’m a thirty-minute ride from Asaph.

Then I realize I can’t hear anything. No birds, no squirrels, no wind rustling the leaves, nothing. The silence is almost deafening. The silence sands some of the edge off my hurried, worried life. I see parallels in the effort I made to get here with Sears’ work to make comfortable camps. We’ve got to give these moments a chance to happen. Put this life in context.

I push off down the trail, thankful, like Sears, for the “thousands of cool, green nooks beside crystal springs [and the tops of unnamed mountains], where the weary soul may hide for a time, away from debts, duns and deviltries, and a while commune with nature in her undress.”

Happy birthday, Nessmuk. I’ll keep hunting.

Born in North Carolina, Jimmy Guignard teaches at Mansfield University and tries to keep up with his family. North-central Pennsylvania reminds him of the North Carolina mountains, though with more bears and bald eagles and fewer barbecue joints.

Fa

rm

t s Marke

c.

-Omar g a P

Nessmuk continued from page 12

In

B I

Buildings of All Kinds Since 1971

BUILDINGS, INC. Business Route 15, Covington, PA (570) 659-5103 • (800) 839-7438

LARGE... or Small

JF Martin Meats • Subs • Salads • BBQ’s Hershey’s Ice Cream • Bulk Foods Soft Custard • PA Produce In Season

222 Butler Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901

570-724-3333 North End of Rail Trail

We Do It All! WWW.BUILDINGSINCPA.COM

BEST EXCAVATING Driveways • Basements Septic Systems • Retaining Walls Patios • Stone • Gravel

814-367-5682

Westfield Pa WWW.BESTEXCAVATING.COM

SHOP AT POP’S and ONLINE, TOO!

Dining Room, Bedroom, Sofas and much more!

morrischairshop.com

54 Windsor Lane Morris PA 16938 (570) 353-2735

You could promote your business here!

Give me a call today.

25 Main St. Wellsboro, PA • 570-723-4263 www.popscultureshoppe.com

Hauber ’s Jewelry • Diamonds & Quality Jewelry • Bulova & Seiko Watches and Clocks • Fenton, Charms, Trophies and Engraving “We do watch batteries!”

Shelly Moore

Account Executive Mobile (570) 263-2693 shelly@mountainhomemag.com

Proud publisher of: Mountain Home • #ExploreCorning Explore Wellsboro Experience Bradford County The Unofficial Route 6 Guide 41

B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

There’s No Place Like Home

I

By Roger Kingsley

t’s a three-plus-hour drive north from the southern part of Pennsylvania for our oldest daughter, Jennifer, to reach the farm where she grew up. Her visits to the farm now include a husband, two kids, and a dog. With 935 acres to roam, there’s no shortage of woods, fields, roads, trails, and lanes to walk on. One beautiful summer day, I took this picture of the grandkids with their dog, heading back to the barn through a soybean field.

42

A “Wonder-ful” Place to Experience!

The Town Located along scenic Route 6, quaint and quiet Wellsboro offers a unique experience to all visitors. The town boasts distinct shops that appeal to all ages and genres, eateries that cater to all tastes, and lodging provided through hotels, motels, beautiful Victorian style bed and breakfasts, and various rentals.

The Canyon Minutes from town, one can enjoy Pine Creek Gorge; a Natural National Landmark. The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania provides 47 miles of scenic beauty within two State Parks (Leonard Harrison and Colton Point), hiking, backpacking, bicycling, rafting, canoeing, kayaking, and birding. There is something for adventurers of all levels and interests.

The Rail-Trail The canyon also hosts the Pine Creek Trail; 62 miles of flatgrade surface, the length of the canyon. USA Today named the trail a Top 10 Bike Ride. The trail offers year-round access through cross-country skiing, horse-drawn wagon rides, and an equestrian trail. The nearby Asaph area offers intermediate and advanced mountain biking.

For more information visit www.wellsboropa.com

Cancer. A word that can strike fear.

But what if we could strike back with robotic precision?

The treatments that will travel the world tomorrow are being developed today by our team of experts and researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

Discover the future of cancer care at UPMC.com/HappeningToday.

44