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We got into the production kitchen super early this morning because we had a couple of projects that we wanted to work on in the house. 

We quickly ate some leftovers for lunch, hit the bank and the store to pick up a few things. As soon as we got home, we dove into our projects. 

When we start one project, it turns into two, then three, and usually more. It’s one of those things that turns into a cluster-fuck pretty quickly. 

It’s very much like the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone saying. We needed to get a new fridge for our mudroom. The big bar fridge and we had and loved shit the bed a month ago. 

We had the guys from the cooling and heating place take a look.  We both know the two guys John and Joe, from our school lunch director days. Every day when you walk into a school kitchen, you would literally hold your breath and check all the fridges and freezers. It was a royal pain in the ass and costly when one went down. 

John and Joe were honest that it would be expensive to fix with no guarantee that it would work for any given time. We appreciated their honesty and decided not to fix it. We decided to keep it as a bar and repurpose it. 

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Marty took out all the innards of the bar fridge. We are going to use it as an industrial liquor/storage cabinet. I saw some for $3,000-$5,000 online. We always try to repurpose it whenever we can. I like the ones above, but not for that kind of dough!

After we designed what we wanted, we couldn’t believe there was a chain store in Albany, NY, called Metal Supermarket. Who would think such a thing existed? We went in with our door measurements, picked out the type of metal and design we wanted, and they called us in less than 2 hours, our order was ready! The metal screens fit like a glove.

We are pleased with how the doors came out; now we still have to add back the black shelves from when it was still a bar fridge and pick up some black baskets to organize things other than bottles.

When we decided not to fix the bar fridge, at first, I was like, “It will be fine.” Well, it wasn’t fine. We have many bulk condiments jars we get at Restaurant Depot, lots of sauces, jams, and pickled things. 

When we got home from the grocery store earlier in the week, I couldn’t fit my produce and meats I bought in my home kitchen fridge. I put a bunch of stuff in the walk-in refrigerator we have outside for the business. The word “outside” is the dead giveaway of why that shit wasn’t going to fly with me every time I wanted some mayonnaise. 

Marty started searching on Facebook Marketplace for a used under-the-counter commercial fridge. He found one at 8 pm last night and was in the car at 8:10 pm on his way to pick it up. Typical Irion family behavior. LOL

Marty finds the most amazing deals. He found all of our used commercial equipment for the spätzle business on Facebook Marketplace, and he sells stuff on there as well. 

He came home with a practically brand new refrigerator exactly as we wanted. He got a $1600 piece of equipment for $250 bucks. And…it works!

That new piece of equipment set off a shit show of moving things around to see where to put it. Then we moved the loveseat to another wall. We moved a sideboard table up to the loft of the mudroom. Then dug out a lamp to light the loft space. It goes on and on.

Next, I had to wash the walls; Marty had to redo all the electrical items like the surveillance system and the main hub for Alexa and a bunch of other electronic things. 

After lots of vacuuming, scrubbing, and rearranging, the mudroom is better than ever and is so much roomier. The dogs are pissed that they can’t jump up on the couch and stalk us from the windows anymore.

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The rest of the house turned into a mess because we moved stuff out of the mudroom. At one point, I had to say that’s enough. We still had our farmer’s market to get ready for. 

Friday nights, Marty packs our coolers and keeps them in the walk-in until morning. He loads the tent, weights, signs, and a giant box of stuff we need for the market. 

Inside, I make some Thai curry for lunch for us at the market. The delicious smells from vendors cooking all day during the market make me hungry the whole time. 

I also get our bank, breakfast, coffee, my clothes, and other stuff ready. We get up at 4:30 am, so I need to have everything ready. Tomorrow, we have to leave around 5:45 am; we have a delivery to make before the market. 

As I sit here typing while the calzones that I made for dinner are in the oven, the only room of the house that isn’t a total fucking disaster is the mudroom we worked on all afternoon. The rest of it will have to wait until Sunday. It kills me since we keep a pretty clean and tidy home all the time, especially since it’s just been the two of us while Sam is away at college.

Well…Happy Friday! Yes, I am having a cocktail while I am getting everything ready for market day. My calzones (gluten-free) just came out of the oven and look amazing! Yay!😜

I was excited all day yesterday that we were having in person dance classes again. 

After we got back from making deliveries, I worked on a music playlist for my Tribal Workout, a warm-up with strength training exercises before the actual classes start. 

I rested while I was working on the playlist. I was having trouble putting something together. I used to make 2 or 3 playlists with no problem, so I guess I was out of practice. Even after we used the playlist I made, it still wasn’t right, and I have to come up with another one for next week.

When I started getting my dance gear out, I was a little nervous. I don’t know why; I’ve been dancing and teaching for 18 years. It was like how I used to get nervous the night before school started again when I was a kid. 

As soon as I got to the parking lot of the gym where we dance, I saw Maria and Kat, who were also excited to be dancing together again. As soon as I started talking to them I fell right back into my comfortable dancer/teacher mode. 😊

I decided instead of starting the first night back with formal classes; we just danced for fun to a lot of our favorite music. Everyone could evaluate what they would need to work on each week. Usually, people say their arms or posture. When you think of dance, you think of feet right? But feet and footwork are only a quarter of it.

It was warm and humid in the training room of the gym where we dance. After the 20-minute Tribal Workout, my face was red, and I was sweaty; it felt good. 

Once we started dancing, it was as if no time had really passed. I’ve been dancing with these women for so long; it felt natural and easy. It wasn’t like “riding a bicycle,” but more like coming home again. 

On the way home, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t exhausted; my legs felt like rubber. Even though I’ve been working out and dancing a bit, I was completely done, a “put a fork in me” kind of done.

Next week, I will be dancing an hour more. Kathleen and I have an hour mid-afternoon before dance classes begin to keep up our skills and stay as a tight duet. Since there will be actual teaching during classes, there won’t be as much dancing for Kathleen and me because we will explain technique, demonstrate, observe, and help make corrections and lots of drilling. After all the technical stuff is over, we dance in groups and have fun.

It really felt great being back to belly dance! I suspect that some other dancers drove home exhausted as I did. I was happy I made those chili stuffed sweet potatoes ahead of time. Marty baked them in the oven while I was on my way home; dinner was on the plate in less than 10 minutes.

I walked in close to 8:30 pm, had a cocktail with our dinner, struggled to stay awake, took a steaming hot shower, and crawled in bed before 9:30. I can’t wait to do it again next week! Yip! 😊

It’s happened more than once to me; I have a moon hangover. It doesn’t happen that often, but after being exhausted and out of it all day, I realized it’s from the moon. I haven’t had a moon hangover since a couple of summers ago. 

If you haven’t figured it out yet, that Julzie person is a total wacko! I am extremely sensitive to “energy” and the effect of the moon. 

Usually, before a full moon, I have endless energy like the energizer bunny. I can’t sleep, but I’m not tired at all during the day. This can go on for days.

I’ve joked for years that I am part werewolf because I always feel like and have howled at the moon. One of my all-time favorite scenes from a movie is from Moonstruck, “Snap out of it!” I also dream of dancing around a fire during a full moon with my dance sisters.

When our boys were young, and even now, I make them and Marty come out to see the moon in all her glory. Our wedding song was Moonlight in Vermont.

When Klaus was a puppy, the two of us would walk the floors at night; he couldn’t sleep during a full moon either. He kept wanting to go outside and lookup. The two of us would sit on the back steps when it was warm enough outside. This full moon, he had Marty up 3 times in the middle of the night. 😬

This month I had trouble sleeping the night before the full moon, but I actually slept last night on the actual full moon. I woke up rested, but after an hour into production, I struggled to keep up at my usual pace. 

The funny thing about feeling like I was dragging, we actually finished up quicker than usual. I needed hard-core dance music to keep pushing me along. 

After production, we had lunch, and I took a nap. A deep nap. Marty’s phone rang twice; I woke up and fell right back to sleep. That never happens when I am catnapping. 

If I didn’t feel this way before, hungover after a full moon, I would think it was just a repercussion from work and my shots. But not being able to focus and feeling like I am going in slow motion is how I’ve felt before. 

One time on a Saturday, my usual 10-minute farmers market set up took me over an hour. It wasn’t until a bunch of other weirdos like me started talking about how strong the full moon was the night before. Then it made sense…moon hangover.

Right now, I am sitting on our back deck, recharging myself and enjoying the warm sunshine. I have a zillion things I could be doing, but those things can wait. We have 3 days of rain in the forecast, so I’m getting in my vitamin d while I can.

We are on the road again tomorrow; we will be leaving early in the morning. We have to pick up some ingredients for the business, then hit the Vermont delivery trail. Our route begins in Saratoga, NY. Next, we have to head an hour and a half to Pittsford, VT. Then to down to Rutland, Dorset, and finally Pawlet to finish the route.

We aim to be back from deliveries by mid-afternoon; hopefully, I can have time to rest a little. I want to be raring to go since I return to teaching belly dance classes tomorrow night at 5:45 and won’t be home until almost 8:30 pm. 

I’ve been waiting for over a year to be able to go back to dance classes and teach my usual Julzie way without worrying about wearing a mask. Yip!

I’m not making a formal meal tonight; we will both fend for ourselves. However,  I am making vegetarian chili stuffed sweet potatoes to reheat for us when I get home from dance tomorrow night. I’ve made the same mistake a hundred times coming in tired and hungry, then trying to cook something and getting bitchy. 

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These stuffed sweet potatoes are full of protein and flavor. They reheat fast and aren’t too heavy when I want to crash into bed an hour later. Eaten with a glass of wine and I will be out like a light!

Is it a terrible thing that I am extremely sensitive to “energy?” Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I can turn off my energy worker & psychic abilities or close the veil to the other side, but no matter how hard I try I can’t shut out the moon. Belle Luna…my beautiful moon. 🌕

Years ago, a guy I worked with would say, “When you are younger, the days are fast, but the years are long. When you are older, the days are long, and the years are short.” Kevin heard it from an older man when he was young.

The first time I heard this, I was in my 30s and had to think about it for a second. In my 50s, it rings so true it’s deafening. Scary actually.

I just said on Friday afternoon that my four years in high school felt like they went forever, but the four years since we started our business have flown by. 

In January, our son Sam left to go back to school and said he had 16 weeks straight of classes before he graduated nursing school. I was sad because I thought it would be a long time before I saw him again; we go to Delhi for his graduation and to help him move some things home in less than 3 weeks. 

The weeks are flying by. Here at VT Spätzle, we take each week, actually one day at a time. Our wholesale orders are made to order; everything that gets delivered is freshly made. 

We’ve been back to working 6 days a week, which is something that hasn’t been necessary for a long, long time. It’s great that we need to; it just takes a little re-adjusting. 

We’ve been getting up early, working in the production kitchen then trying to keep up with everything else that needs to be done. I generally take care of things in the house, Marty takes care of the outside projects. Writing is a priority for me because I love it, I am still struggling with fitting in my workouts.

Whether it’s that I am not used to working a lot again or tired in the later afternoons from my vaccinations, whatever the case, the day is so damn long! I can’t wait to go to bed! By 8:30 pm, I am literally like, “Get the fuck out of my way! I need to go to bed!”🥱

I’ve never been a person who can fall asleep early. On the other hand, Marty can eat dinner at 6 and go to bed at 6:30 and fall asleep in 7 seconds. How people like him can do that is something I’ve been asking myself for decades. 

This week I’ve been in bed before 9 pm and fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. After struggling with sleep issues for years, this is pretty remarkable. Even Marty said this morning; it’s crazy how I have been asleep so fast and early.

Sunday’s are our only day off, and I am actually thrilled it’s going to be rainy and cool. I need to rest today and rejuvenate myself for next week. If it were sunny and warm, I know I would be starting 4 projects and not “take the day off.”

Next week, I go back to teaching belly dance Wednesday night. I am so happy to be going back after 6 months. I always have a focus for our 6-week sessions. The focus is not only for me but also for everyone to build up our stamina and endurance again. Dancing for two hours pretty much straight after not doing it for almost a year will take some time. 

Next week, I will take one day at a time as we do with the business. I won’t beat myself up if I get tired; I’ll give in and not be a stubborn asshole by resting or turning in early. “The days are long, and the weeks are short” feels like an understatement these days. 

The guy Kevin I worked with also had a saying, “Another day, another dollar. A million days, a million dollars.” When I came home one night and repeated what Kevin said, our youngest son Sam who was in the 6th grade at the time, immediately piped in with his two cents. “That’s so wrong, Mama Julz. If a person worked for only a dollar a day for 365 days a year for 70 years, they would only make $25,550.” Smartass kid, who actually says, “I’d rather be a smart ass than a dumb ass.” I wonder where he gets it from? 😂

With that, I will leave you with the hope that you enjoy your Sunday…the term for Sundays, “A day of rest,” will be my mantra without feeling guilty one bit. 

Happy Friday! It was a long week with cold, miserable weather, but I think we may be over the hump. Right now, it’s Friday at 5:36 pm, and we just sat down for the first time today. We’ve been at it since 6:30 am. 

Friday nights, we love to sit on our front porch and watch the world go by. In the summertime, on Friday nights, we watch all the campers & RVs driving by to check into Camping on the Battenkill or tourists who are staying up in Manchester. 

Sunday nights, we sit on our front porch and watch them all go home. We really love living here, in a place where people want to vacation. 

We haven’t been able to sit outside for at least two weeks since the weather decided to turn back to winter. Today I said that as long as the sun is out, I will bundle up and have happy hour on the porch. 

I made some fresh guacamole to have with chips and salsa. I made tequila & key lime seltzer water for a cocktail with a squeeze of lime juice: nothing fancy, just an old stand-by.

I am freezing my ass off, but I don’t care. If I were up here for the weekend, the chilly temperature wouldn’t bother me, although I do have to hold down my chips and guacamole from blowing away. I just watched the third, fifth-wheel camper go by; we think the campground must have opened this week. 

It’s going to be an early night with a 4:30 am wake-up call. Tomorrow is my first day “working” at the Troy Farmers Market, and we leave at 6 am. I’m excited to go, I’ve worked at it a couple of times over the last two years, and it’s fun. I know a lot of the vendors and can’t wait to see them.

I never sleep well on Friday nights for whatever reason; I know why; I am a total nervous Nelly or anal Annie the night before a market or event. I plan to get everything ready tonight, so I’m not running around like a grumpy idiot in the morning. It was one thing when I was going to my market alone on my own schedule, but I don’t want to slow everything down in the morning for Marty.

Have a great Saturday and I’ll catch up with you guys later! 😉

We’ve increased our production this week because we had wholesale orders out the ying-yang. Thursday is usually a production day, so we had to double up at the beginning of the week to be on the road today. We are very blessed that the orders keep pouring in.

Packing the van with the wholesale spatzle boxes on a freezing and snowy morning is not what you would imagine for almost the end of April, but this is the Northeast, and anything can happen. It snowed on Memorial Day one year; I shit you not!

We were up at 4:30 am, guzzled some coffee, and fed the dogs. Otto and Klausie-boy were definitely not happy about the snow and being woken up at 4:45 am. We got dressed, packed the van, and were on the road at 6:02 am. Ahead of schedule!

We hit Saratoga, delivering first to Healthy Living then directly onto Four Seasons. We jumped on the highway and were at Honest Weight in a flash, it seemed, with their weekly delivery.

We had a stop to make in downtown Albany, and I got so excited when I spotted the Big RCA dog on top of an old warehouse. I’ve seen it from the highway before, but never up close or underneath it.

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Even though I was still jacked up about seeing the big dog, we both needed to stop for more caffeine. Driving to our next stop, we saw the hard cider brewery Nine Pin and got out to say hello to our friend Bill who works as a brewmaster. Worked…he doesn’t work there anymore. Dammit! 😕

We were meeting our wholesale customer and Pennsylvania distributor, The Alpine Meat and Wurst House with their spatzle delivery. We meet their delivery driver at Shop-Rite in East Greenbush, NY. It works out for both of us since he delivers a variety of their products to Shop-Rite and it’s on our delivery route.

The Alpine House’s sausages, wursts, and our spatzle are available at some Pennsylvania-based Weis Markets, a supermarket chain. We aren’t sure exactly which Weis Markets, but quite a few of them. The Alpine House is located in Honesdale, PA, and sells our spatzle from their location as well. You can call the Alpine House for more information.

We grabbed lunch and started heading back; we were delivering to a new customer today, Unihog in Hoosick Falls, NY. They are an eclectic farm to restaurant and live music venue. They are only open on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday with a burrito or two thrown in. Thursdays, the menu is whatever the kitchen is inspired by and what is available. We are on the menu tonight with schnitzel. Yay!

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Sarah, the owner of Unihog, is a fan of our spatzle which she purchases down the street from another one of our customer Hoosick Provisions.

This is what it is all about, one small business supporting another small business!

Unihog is a place we want to go to on a Thursday night for a bite to eat and listen to live music. Last year, everything was done outside, this year things are still limited indoors, but hopefully, as summer nears some restrictions will be lifted.

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Our last stop was to The Market Wagon with their spatzle delivery. We also pick up our milk order for the business from them on Thursdays. They pick up the milk the same morning the milk is bottled and nice enough to pick up ours.

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I told Steve about my blog post a couple of days ago. I explained the whole thing to him about how the taste brought me back to Caterina’s Italian Ice. I know that he would never see my blog post since Steve, his family, and all the staff are members of the Mennonite community. Most of them will use their cell phones for calls and email, but not anything online.

I picked up a few grocery items and one of those lemonades. We couldn’t wait to get home at that point, after a long day being blown around by the wind and cold, in and out of the van so many times.

After we unloaded the van and let Otto and Klaus out, we ran into the house and put on our pajamas. 😂 We each grabbed a blanket and just sat on the couches for a bit. Of course, I had to dig out my fleece pink snowflake PJ bottoms that I stored away with the rest of my winter clothes a couple of weeks ago. This afternoon I saw on my weather app that next week’s temps would be between 70 & 80! Welcome to the Northeast!

Growing pains…we’ve all had them whether we remember them or not. When you woke up with a sore leg or back, your parents told you it was growing pains, then sent us outside to play. 

As kids, we experienced physical and emotional growing pains. I was an emotional kid and remembered crying when I said goodbye to a teacher at the end of the school year because it was time for me to move up a grade or change schools.

I remember when my boys Noah and Sam were young, they had growing pains even though I’m not sure they remember having them either. 

They both entered high school as two of the shortest boys in their classes. They both grew 12 inches during one school year. They literally would come home from school tired, eat a bunch of food and go to bed. They would honestly wake up noticeably taller the next morning.

Growing pains as adults are emotional from growth and changes in our lives; the psychical pain, well that becomes part of a day-to-day thing the older you get. Throwing your back out while sneezing or trying to put on your socks are just two examples.🤦🏻‍♀️

We’ve already gone through growing pains with our business, The Vermont Spätzle Company, and we are experiencing them again right now. We were presented with a fantastic opportunity to grow our wholesale business which has always been our objective.

We enjoy doing farmers’ markets, talking to people about our product, handing out samples, giving suggestions or recipes, demonstrate how to cook the spätzle, and have loads of fun. A couple of years ago, we had to make the tough decision to discontinue our Sunday farmers market in Schenectady, NY. While it was a fantastic and fun market, we knew that working seven days a week wasn’t realistic or sustainable.

I actually cried when we sent them an email explaining why we couldn’t do the market anymore. I felt horrible, but this was a business decision that had to be made by us, the owners.

This week we were faced with the same dilemma. Our divide and conquer theory on Saturdays, splitting up and doing two markets, is no longer an option at this time. 

Yesterday we notified Emily, the Saratoga Farmers Market market administrator, that we were taking a leave of absence for the summer and fall market. 

This decision again weighs heavy on me. I really like everyone from vendors, market workers, and customers. I am going to miss some of my customers like Richard, who I wrote about last month. I keep tabs on some of my customers and worry about them, hoping they are ok when I haven’t seen them for a while. 

Yes, I had a lot of fun with my fellow Saratoga vendors and loved trying their different products, but I am not there to have fun; this is a business decision. Plain and simple.

I will be working at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market with Marty on Saturdays. As the market season picks up each week and when we can get back to sampling our spatzle, it will be busy. Before the pandemic, we were in the position that we almost needed to start thinking about getting Marty a helper. It makes sense for us to be a two-person team again at Troy like in Schenectady.

As our boys were growing up, graduating from high school, and leaving for college, I had growing pains. Every time I thought about them graduating and leaving, I would get sappy. When they would come home to visit, I would get sappy again. Before I knew it, they were men!

Now, our son Noah lives on his own here in Arlington and works as a Volkswagen & Audi technician. He’s a polite, hard-working guy, has lots of friends all over the country, and is fun to be around. The pandemic has been hard on him because he is such a social person, adventurous, and loves to travel. Noah works hard and plays hard. We are so proud of his work ethic and the man he has become.

Sam, our youngest, will graduate from nursing school next month. He will be an RN at 20 years old. He will have another year of college to finish up his bachelor’s in nursing online. He runs on two rescue squads and has seen and done more medical things people twice his age haven’t done. He has brought people back to life literally with his squad partner, and yesterday, he accomplished one thing Marty has never done while on the rescue squad for 20 years…he delivered a baby yesterday morning. Ironically he’s been studying maternity all semester; he should get an automatic A. Lol.

“Without pain, there can be no growth.” I read an article in The Ledger and this quote from Berney Wilkinson, the correspondent, hit the nail right on the head. Growth and change are good but painful and uncomfortable while you are going through it. I am sorry to say goodbye to my Saratoga customers and friends, but Marty and I are looking forward to the next chapter of our business. I am also looking forward to meeting and getting to know his customers in Troy. 🙂

When I get inspired by something that I want to write about, I do it right away. I write better when I have thoughts flowing and the words almost putting themselves together.

On Saturday, I saw on Instagram 2 photos posted by Rockwell’s Retreat, a B&B right here in Arlington, VT. They posted now and then photos of Norman Rockwell’s studio. It was amazing how similar it was!

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I’ve wanted to write a piece on Norman Rockwell for some time and have been gathering information and photos, but when I saw those photos on Instagram, I knew it was time.

I emailed Rockwell’s Retreat early Sunday morning; I have met the one of the owners Kevin before at the Arlington Village Farmers Market. Kevin and his wife Sue are spatzle customers, and Kevin cooks it often. Last year, at the farmers market, he told me they wanted to use the spatzle in a breakfast dish for guests at the inn. Spatzle for breakfast? It’s perfect with poached eggs, with maple syrup or cinnamon and sugar…taking the place of pancakes.

I told Kevin about my blog and how I was inspired yesterday by their Instagram post in my email. I asked if I could come by to take some photos. He said they would be home all day; I promised trading spatzle for photos. Lol

Kevin and Sue Harter dreamt of owning and running a bed and breakfast or inn. They looked at many B&Bs and inns throughout New England, but in November 2019, they purchased Norman Rockwell’s home in West Arlington, VT. Room by room, they transformed the wallpapered walls and ugly shag rugs from the previous owner into beautiful spaces. Everything is updated and new, including the heating and cooling system, which rooms can control. The rooms look crisp, decorated, and furnished with period antiques and a lot of love.

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I was lucky enough to tour not only Norman’s home but his studio and his son Jarvis’s studio as well. When we walked into Rockwell’s studio, I could almost feel Norman’s presence in the space. I was so excited to see where he did all of his weekly Saturday Evening Post covers from 1939- 1953. It looked just like I had seen in photos. Kevin told me he used much information from many Rockwell’s models and community members when they brought the studio back to life.

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It was important to the new owners to do Rockwell and the property justice and replicate what was originally there. I truly felt like I was transported through time and space; I was there! I could practically smell the tobacco from his pipe.

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Rockwell had his photographer photograph his models using a white screen as the backdrop in front of the fireplace. I stood in the very same spot! I didn’t tell Kevin that I had goosebumps on my arms and was almost overwhelmed when I could feel how many people stood in the same spot back in the day. The spot I was standing in is a piece of American history, where Rockwell, the great illustrator, brought life to some of the most iconic images of Americana.

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Rockwell took a lot of criticism for using photographs taken of his models, but it was necessary to capture the right light and angles. He also told naysayers that the hard-working people of Arlington had work to do and didn’t have time to sit in the studio for hours; he always paid his models $5 for their time. He insisted that real people were represented in his paintings, “I paint human-looking humans and professional models just don’t qualify.”

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When they began to work on the studio, they could fix the original gigantic chandelier that hung in the center of the room. Community members helped find items to replace the ones that were once there. The deer head mounted next to the fireplace was shot by Norman’s next-door neighbor. He met the person whose mother actually shot the deer that Norman had mounted. Since they had no idea where the original deer head went, Norman’s neighbor gave the inn another mounted deer head his father shot. Practically the same thing!

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We went upstairs in the studio where Norman stored all of his props which is now a guest room with another gorgeous bathroom. Rockwell’s darkroom is now Kevin’s office.

Next, we went inside his son Jarvis Rockwell’s miniature version of his father’s studio; the inn calls it the half-pint studio. Kevin told me how it used to have a spiral staircase in the middle of the room; they decided to remove the staircase and update the room without it. The guest room and bathroom are as beautiful as the rooms in the main house.

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I am thrilled that Kevin and Sue brought back not only a piece of American history but an important piece of Arlington, VT’s history as well. Many community members who appeared as children in his works are still alive and are still living in Arlington. The little girl who was “The Babysitter” for example was in front of me the other day buying scratch-off lottery tickets. She still has red hair too!

I urge you to take a look at Rockwell’s Retreat website. Arlington has so much to offer already for visitors, but if you like Rockwell’s work and Americana and want to take a step back in time, this is the place to stay at. The inn has plenty of comfortable common spaces with local treats for their guest waiting for them and lots of gathering areas, including outside on the inn’s grounds.

It was great meeting both Kevin and Sue today; not only do they support our small business, but they also support many other local businesses. Yes, they are flatlanders just like us, but we chose to live and work here. We feel privileged to own, operate and act as stewards to our pieces of Arlington and American history.

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I’ve included many photos and finished works for you to see, all done right in front of that fireplace in his studio. I’ve included one other piece that was not done here in Arlington, but many consider it the most well-known and important piece of all. I first saw it at our friend Martin’s house hanging over the fireplace. I stared at it for a long time while Martin explained the piece to me and all about Ruby Bridges and the trouble Rockwell received over the painting. The piece is startling at first glimpse, but the more you look at it, the more you understand why and how Rockwell painted it.

Besides not making noteworthy meals, I haven’t been in the gym for at least 2 weeks. In my own defense to myself, I really can’t work out with a terrible headache or being exhausted; that’s when I hurt myself. I’ve listened to my body and took a break after almost 6 months of dedication.

It would have been so easy not to go back to working out; I would be the only one to really notice since no one has noticed any improvement after months of working out. Marty can see the difference, but that doesn’t count. On the bright side, all of my summer clothes that I tried on a couple of weeks ago fit and looked better. That was proof in the pudding what I was doing was working, after all.

I went back to weight lifting back in October to get my strength back and feel better mentally and physically, which have been accomplished. I didn’t go back with a big goal or to drop a lot of weight, but to prove I could be strong again and have more stamina.

I decided yesterday that I am not giving up. Maybe no one notices because I wasn’t as disgusting as I thought I looked or felt. Maybe I was so disgusting that people are afraid of offending me by telling me I look better? With all of these thoughts running through my head, I know I have to go back, not for people to notice, but for me.

It’s so hard to stay dedicated to working out, especially when life is busy. It’s so easy to make excuses when life is busy. Whether I work out or not, it doesn’t affect anyone but me. I don’t have to convince anyone but myself to keep at it. If I give up now, I will never realistically be “back in shape.” When I say back in shape, I don’t mean the shape I was in 20 years ago, but the best shape I can be in now…at 55.

I got back in the gym and picked up right where I left off. I used the same weight amounts that I worked up to over the last few months and completed all the sets and repetitions. I worked out to death metal to get me pumped up. It worked! My time in the gym was pleasurable and successful. I walked down the stairs of our barn, feeling pretty proud of myself for not giving up. ☺️

We live on Route 7A in Arlington, VT; it is also called the old highway or Ethan Allen Highway. Growing up in central NJ, when I hear the word highway, I think of the Garden State Parkway, Route 1, 287, or the NJ Turnpike, aka Route 95. 

During the day, Route 7A is as busy as some side streets where I grew up. At night it’s almost untraveled from 11 pm-6 am. Since we sleep with our bedroom window cracked open almost all year, I can tell what time it is or the weather. 

I went to bed last night with a feeling of doom and gloom, hoping and praying the weather storm warning would be wrong about the 5-10 inches of snow forecasted. I got up twice in the middle of the night and looked out the window, and luckily there was no snow. 

I woke up to the sound of the birds chirping between 6-6:15 am; I knew it was around that time because of the small number of cars I heard passing by. Traffic starts picking up around 7 am for the work & school rush hour. When I say rush hour, it’s a joke because again, it’s like side road traffic in Jersey.

Besides the birds chirping, I heard the sound of wet tires and light rain, which meant wet roads not slushy or snow-covered. Yay! I also didn’t hear any snow plows going by. Double yay! I laid perfectly still in bed while Marty and the two dogs were still sleeping, listening to the rain.

At 6:30 am, almost on the dot, Klaus, our bulldog, started crying at our bedroom door. He doesn’t have to go out; he wants Marty to go downstairs to wrestle and scratch his butt; it’s become a ritual now while our son Sam is away at college.

When I finally got out of bed a few minutes later, I looked out the window and saw our lush green lawn literally grew overnight. The trees also exploded with buds after the rain. It’s been extremely dry here in Southern Vermont this spring with brush fires, red flag warnings (low humidity and wind), and burn bans.

As a young adult, I never thought I’d be one of those people who say, “Well, you know, we really needed the rain.” As an adult, I know we needed the rain and actually wished for it. I also know that I am an adult because when I drop an ice cube on the floor, I don’t kick it under the fridge; I pick it up.

Heading out to the production kitchen this morning, I looked around how beautiful everything looked, even in the rain. Low clouds covered the mountain that is always in our view, the grass was glistening with raindrops, the birds were still chirping away, and the color green was everywhere in the Green Mountain State.