August Newsletter

Stories and News From Magic Hill
August 2019

Gassing Up

When my farmer-son saw me filling my 45-year-old tractor with diesel fuel this way, he could hardly control his laughter. Little did he understand that climbing up onto the hood of a tractor with a five-gallon Jerry can of diesel fuel and pouring it all into a tiny hole in the top of the tractor is beyond the capacity of his 74-year-old father. I found this method much less strenuous, especially if no one is looking.

Steer Grilling

We all know how to grill a dozen chickens, sausages, chicken breasts or brook trout. But how does a chef grill a 1400-lb. steer over cured hard wood? Such a steer, when slaughtered and butterflied or cut into primes, yields about 450-lbs of edible meat… still a lot to handle on a grill; unless you have access to this marvelous invention designed and welded together by master welder-designer Mark Shattuck. His design is so well balanced that one person can rotate, and move up and down over the fire some 800-lbs of meat. We fed about 200 that day and had 150-lbs left over for the food shelf.

What I’m Reading Now

The Champlain Monster by nationally known cartoonist and author Jeff Danziger is a terrific book for all ages. Published by Green Writers Press in Brattleboro, The Champlain monster brings to life the classic tale of an oft-sighted large-scale monster living in the murky bottom of Lake Champlain.

Like Nessy of Loch Ness in Scotland and the stories I remember from summers on Lake Willoughby of massive eel-like creatures living in the depth of New England’s deepest glacial lake, the monster reportedly living in Champlain comes to the life through the eyes of a brother and sister living on its shore and an old ice fisherman they befriend. This is not a Disney tale. It is fraught with the realities that children experience in life and, as such, becomes a credible tale of adventure and compassion. Recommended for all ages and, of course, it has the haunting illustrations of Jeff Danziger.

Vermont Authors’ Festival

Bill enjoying the crowd at the Vermont Authors’ Festival on Craftsbury Common Saturday August 17th. Wonderful crowd of avid readers and some 25 Vermont authors.

The Schubart family welcomes a new member!

Every serious writer needs a cat. Here are some authors who felt strongly about their feline literary companions:

• Mark Twain. William Burroughs, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Neil Gaiman, Ernest Hemingway, Patricia Highsmith, Yeats, Samuel Johnson, and Jack Kerouac.

Now, these writers are way above my pay grade but our new kitten Proust is aspirational and much loved in the household. The one exception is Bridget. If you look up “hissy-fit” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Bridget.

Please support your local bookstores!

Vermont’s Hero Bookstores

I love hearing from new folks, so please feel free to forward my newsletter to your friends and family! –Bill