It wasn’t long ago that the hillsides seemed afire and I missed fish after fish, standing slack-jawed in awe, bathed in radiant light. Continue reading
Posts Tagged With: Vermont
Halcyon, Revisited
Categories: Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont
Tags: autumn, brook trout, fall, Fly Fishing, nature, quill gordon, Vermont
2 Comments
Baffling Beavers
Once in great demand for their fur, beavers were close to extinction not so long ago but, thanks to a decline in their value, fewer trappers and more conscientious recovery efforts, they are now numerous in many places, even to the point of becoming pests. Unable to tolerate the sound of running water, they dam streams and plug culverts, flooding roads and valuable stands of timber. Their activities can threaten property and even lives when their numbers become too great.
Changing the landscape and altering the environment to suit their needs, the wetlands they create provide food and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife. Turtles, frogs, ducks and other animals take advantage of beaver ponds. Dragonflies and damselflies dart over the water, resting on cattails and reeds while native brook trout rise to take mayflies, mosquitoes and midges. Muskrats take up residence in beaver ponds, eating plants that thrive in the warm, slow water and digging tunnels into the soft banks, expanding the wet edges and increasing the potential for property damage.
There are several robust populations of beavers on the property of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society and when the road to one of the camps along the shore of Fish in a Barrel Pond was threatened by rising water and muskrat tunnels, the search for a solution fell to me. Continue reading
Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: beaver, beaver baffle, beaver dam, beaver pond, beaver problems, nature, quill gordon, Rural Life, Vermont
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The Crunchy Time of Year
Daylight lengthens but the cold deepens, even as Earth’s northern hemisphere begins tilting again toward the sun. Shadows retreat southward, slowly, day by day, and the sun peers over the ridge of the barn roof but, due to a seasonal lag, it will be some time yet before more sun means more warmth. This is the cold time.
Just how deep and vicious the cold will be remains to be seen. Whether it will be a long, protracted spell or wave after bitter wave of chill air is still a matter of conjecture but one thing is for sure: the cold is coming and it is time to get ready or go away.
Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: ice, nature, Rural Life, snow, Vermont, winter
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Ice, Ice, Baby
When it comes to brutal winter weather, one can embrace it, endure it or leave. Those who choose to embrace and endure call themselves things like the “Frozen Chosen” and remind each other that at least the mosquitoes and summer people are gone. The residents of Frostbite Falls will talk back to the television, saying, “That’s nothing!” when they see a national news story about a major city suffering through a cold snap. The good folks of Hypothermia Junction never see themselves on the national news when it’s cold there, because it’s always cold this time of year. Continue reading
Categories: Humor, nature, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: cold, frozen, ice storms, Vermont, winter
11 Comments
Without Fear or Favor of Any Person
When you register to vote in Vermont you must take the Voter’s Oath (also known as the Free Man’s Oath) where you “solemnly swear or affirm that whenever you give your vote or suffrage … you will do so as in your conscience you shall judge will most conduce to the best good of the same, as established by the Constitution, without fear or favor of any person.”
Good stuff. Use your vote for good and don’t let anyone influence you otherwise.
I have been reading about long lines to vote in many places. I think this is a good thing, although when I went to vote this morning I had to wait a few minutes because all three of the booths were in use. It’s a busy day in our little village clerk’s office.
Our Village’s Polling Place
Rock on, people.
A Postcard from Quill
Good morning!
We are just over half-way through the season, here at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Just two and a half more months of being on-call 24/7! It’s not like I have to stay awake, waiting for something to happen, but I have to be around just in case. You never know when there will be an emergency like someone running out of toilet paper or one of the kitchens getting ransacked by a marauding band of raccoons. Or someone having a heart attack. Yeah, two someones, each with a very different outcome. You’ll hear all about it after the season ends.
My point is that my work days are very long and entire days off are non-existent. I get pieces and parts of days to myself every once in a while – and nothing personal against you, my seven loyal readers – but there are places I’d rather be than in front of a computer. Like on the pond for example.
Those would be otters.
That would be a loon.
And that would be a toad that did not quite make it across the road. I don’t know why I threw that picture in here.
Anyhoo, Quill Gordon is still alive and well and he hopes you are, too.
First Trout of the Season
It is a bit of a gamble, declaring the last Saturday in April to be Opening Day at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Not only is it possible that the pond could still be covered with ice, there is also the chance that the cottages will not be accessible or have no running water due to frozen water lines. It is a mad scramble to get things up and running once the thaw sets in.
Some members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society clear their calendars months in advance, flat-out lying if necessary, to be here for the first day of fishing and the celebration that comes with it. They all know that Mother Nature has the final say but the possibility of postponement is not an option for me. I must plug away as if nothing could possibly go wrong even if it means I am still patching pipes as the last of the lake ice disappears with mere hours to spare. Continue reading
Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: fishing, Fly Fishing, Humor, nature, quill gordon, Rural Life, trout, Vermont
6 Comments
Where the Hell is Quill Gordon?
A Somewhat Disjointed and Not Quite Complete Accounting of My Whereabouts for the Past Few Weeks
The transition from snowbound no-man’s land to lively, functioning, family fishing camp took place quickly this year at Fish in a Barrel Pond. It did not happen in the blink of an eye, or even overnight, but it happened fast, the rapid progress seeming even more so because of the tremendous amounts of ice and snow remaining at the beginning of the month. Small patches of ice remain, tucked up against the north sides of buildings, and snow can still be found in some shady, deep-wood recesses, but no other vestiges of winter are seen. Continue reading
Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: Fly Fishing, nature, Rural Life, Vermont
12 Comments
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 