Monday, December 22, 2008
We see each other in Henryville in the summer: let’s stay connected for the rest of the year. In 1995, 40 relatives spanning four generations sent me their “typical good day,” which I collected into a booklet. Torrey Salmon was 5 then: time to do it again! Please write YOUR ordinary day and send it to our our webmaster Adam Weiss. He’ll post it and notify us all so that we can read it. - Barbara (Bobbie) Shutt Beckwith
(p.s. – If you want to read the 1995 ordinary days collection, or check out which relatives are in it, email me at CLICK TO REVEAL ADDRESS)
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
After our family reunion, I looked through letters from a suitcase my sister Joanne Shutt Weiss had saved after our mother, Marian Hunter Shutt died three decades ago. I found these memories with “Marian Shutt” written at the top. But I suspected that it was my cousin Ann, not my mother, who wrote them, so I emailed Ann to ask if she written them and if so, could we post them on the Hunter Family website. She said yes, but “with the proviso that it has lots of imperfections that we know of but are too lazy to change!”
Barbara (Bobbie) Shutt Beckwith
When we were children, summer vacations began with the early spring trip to the farm to check on the summer cottage in the wooded mountain overlooking the valley. We would walk through the woods with our mothers, pushing aside the soggy brown six-months dead leaves to find the tiny palest pink spring anemones, and listen to the screech of the blue jay in the spruce tree, and follow the deer trail through the woods to the ravine and wonder if school would ever be over and vacation would ever begin.
And school did end, and our mothers and maids would pack up the winter houses, and store away all the heavy woolens, and lock up the good silver and pack up all the summer clothes and we would pile into our cars with the suitcases and the cat on someone’s lap, and drive two hours to the farm and feel joyously free in old shorts and shirts, knowing all the routines had been left in the city.
Summer brought the early morning hours, (Continued)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Here’s the family everyone has been waiting for. Click on the picture for a larger version, or email me for a really big version for printing.
If you have your own photos, you can email them to me for posting to the website. I’ll come up with a better way to handle that automatically soon…
Adam
Friday, August 3
9:00 AM Help clean up Old Camp
(please contact Jennifer if you can help: CLICK TO REVEAL ADDRESS.com or 570-629-0644)
12:00 Noon Hike to Red Rock (meet at Stowie’s)
6:30 PM Potluck picnic between the houses (We need volunteers to start fire and bring charcoal grill.)
Followed by: Ice cream (provided), games and Old Chrysler rides
Evening Kid’s camp out on the hill
Saturday, August 4
10:00 AM Memorial service for Drew Hunter
Afternoon at the lake
8:00 PM Square Dance at the Old Camp
Sunday, August 5
10:00 AM Brunch at Andy & Marcia’s
11:00 AM Farm owner’s meeting (location TBA)
12:00 PM Family Photo at the Summer House (aka the Pavilion)
Afternoon at the lake
8:00 PM Outdoor movies at Andy & Marcia’s
Obviously this is only a summary listing. We want to leave time for cocktails Saturday on Bibsy’s deck and impromptu gatherings.
The Hunter Family Reunion 2007 t-shirt, designed by Torrey and Rachel Salmon (with technical help from Eneida Hassrick) is available at this link:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/saved_products.aspx
If needed, email Jennifer for login information.
Click on See All My Custom Products. There are four pages of t-shirt designs (3 to a page).
Use the back arrow to stay within these products. If not, you will see all of the stuff for sale on Cafe Press but not our reunion t-shirts.
Follow the directions for ordering. They take 2 business days so don’t wait until the last minute.
If you need to mail it to Henryville but do not have an address, you may mail it to (please order by 7/31 so they arrive on time):
YOUR NAME
c/o Salmons
RR#1 Box 1655
Henryville, PA 18332
Dear Hunter Family:
We are looking forward to joining with you at the reunion in less than two weeks. We will get a chance to spend time at the farm—and may have more activity there in a weekend than in all the rest of the year combined! We hope everyone gets to explore and enjoy the farm and surrounding land but also want to make sure we are safe and that we are mindful of Stephanie and Leo’s privacy at the farmhouse and not interfering with Stephanie’s horse boarding business. Obviously we should all keep our eyes out for the smaller kids. We have listed below some other thoughts to keep in mind:
Farm roads
- When driving on the farm please try to limit speeds to 10 mph
- Between 9:00 pm and 9:00 am please avoid driving or walking on the back entrance road from Hulbert Hill Road which runs right alongside the farmhouse.
- We want to help protect the hay in the field at the top of the hill so please park on the house side of the road.
- Please don’t drive on the fields where Stephanie and Leo are growing hay (top of hill, behind red houses, large & small rye fields) even if they have been cut — it affects the use of those fields
- Watch out for speeding cars on Hunter Farm Road — there is more traffic than in the past
Horses
- Please be careful around the horses.
- The horses should not be fed anything, even grass—they can bite!
- Stay out of the horse fields
- Do not climb on fences or gates (beware-many of the fences are electrified!)
- The horses are not used to bicycles or some dogs—we suggest that new or visiting dogs stay on leash around the fields
Farm buildings
- Certainly no smoking in or near any of the farm buildings
- Children should be accompanied by adults inside the buildings.
- The 3 shed bays closest to the barn are used by Stephanie and Leo and we should avoid going through that side of the shed.
- The chickens are raised by the Stocks. Colorful eggs are for sale in the refrigerator in the front room. Please avoid going into the rooms with the chickens. (Fresh veggies from the Stock’s garden may also be for sale in the Chicken House.)
- In the lower floor of the barn please be careful and limit visiting—and stay clear if a horse is being worked on. The barn is leased by Stephanie for boarding horses
- The hayloft is dangerous—please stay outside it
- No climbing on tractors or equipment
If kids are interested is meeting horses or chickens up close Stephanie will be happy to introduce them. Feel free to call Stephanie and Leo to arrange a time or for other questions (570-629-1410).
Thanks,
Andy McKey & David Weiss
Although I have a lot of strong memories as a kid growing up at the farm, I have a whole separate group of thought as a parent . We have lived in Central New York (up near Syracuse) ever since we have had children (1980 on). We have also always gone “to Henryville” for the majority of our vacation times, just as our parents had always brought us there from New York and New Jersey. We now own the house that was my parents’. I have always felt that this was a great place to come and relax…and I shared all of the things I did and my younger memories with my kids ( well, most all of them…). (Continued)
First off, look over on the right side of the page. There is now a box where you can enter your email address to be notified when there is something new on the site.
Above that, you will also see a new Family Members’ Websites link. This is a place that I hope will be a directory of those of us who have websites. There are only two there now, but you can email me links to add (that’s the request part).
Thanks!
Adam
I have a tremendous number of memories that come from not only the farm but all around that whole area. I have spent many many whole summers there as a child as well as many short periods ( weekends and short stays from when I was very little right through to the present time ) I even lived there for more than two full years in the early 1950s. That whole span of my connections happens to involve over 60 years. I inherited my family’s house on the farm and still spend the majority of vacation time there.
I was very young when Granpa Hunter was still alive (Continued)
I just added a batch of picture that came from David Hunter’s albums. You can see them here, or use the link on the right side of the home page.
