schmolze studios

Here are some photos from my Spring break a week ago. I decided to pass up offers for Mexico and Florida, and instead spent the week lounging about in Great Barrington.

I stayed in Worcester Friday night, and picked my Mom up at IMS in nearby Barre, where she was doing a meditation retreat.

It started raining on the ride home, and the high winds and torrential rain didn’t let up until late the next evening, when Steve went out to pick up a friend’s daughter at the Steiner School. A few minutes later he was back empty-handed, and explained that he had met someone who told him the road was blocked by a fallen tree, and by the flooded Green River in the other direction. He grabbed his chainsaw, and he and I set out, all pumped up for some manly road clearing. Unfortunately, someone with a snow plow had already pushed the tree out of the way, so we made it to the school without incident. Disappointed, we collected the girls and headed home, only to find that in the meantime another tree had fallen across the road. Hurray! We got to work, and with the help of another motorist, we had the road cleared in short order.






The next I set out to check out the flooded river. It had already subsided substantially, and the road to the school was now passable.






Here you can see the water line from the night before:

Mom and I took a walk. Here’s the result of our handiwork from the previous night:






Later we went to Bartholomew’s Cobble (in before the ticks!).

We had one really gorgeous day, and Mom, Ben and I walked to the brook.

Other random pictures of the neighborhood:

The water did plenty of damage to roads and driveways. Case in point:

One day Mom and I did a little bushwhacking through the woods, and had to cross a stream using a fallen log. Mom took off her shoes and crawled, and despite a minor freakout at the end, managed to make it.

Progress on the barn workout studio conversion project continues. Ben and Gio finished up the sheet rocking, so all that remains is spackling, painting and installing the floor.