data backup with stereo laser encoded viewmaster tb8000 system

The Artwork of Matt Hausmann

We recently had the chance to meet and see some of Matt Haussmann's fine sculptural work over in Oak Hill NY.

Using highly skilled woodworking technique and materials re-destined from past uses, Hausmann crafts neo mechanical electronic circuit board of synapses in woodgrain with a William Gibson vernacular of technological cobbling and futuristic form... it's real cool!

link to Matt's work

Strange and ancient looking stone structures found on artist Jim Sullivan's Schoharie County NY property... are they inspired by Irish stone hut structures, particularly beehive huts or clocháns?  Theunique dry-stone constructions, often found in the southwest of Ireland, including the Dingle Peninsula.  These structures are characterized by their distinctive beehive shape, built using corbelled stone techniques without mortar. They were likely used as monastic cells, shelters, or secular dwellings, with some dating back to the early medieval period.

 

EXCITING NEWS! We're Back!

 Dear loyal and enthusiastic Farmhouse Punk reader, it has recently come to our attention that the 

worldwide plague that has shutdown cultural, social & working life as we've known it is finally over! 

The Newnormal has reverted back to Oldnormal... mostly and it couldn't have come sooner.

Actually truth be told this happened it happened a while ago but since we've been living deep underground in an undisclosed cave like place we just found out.....

Stand by for a renewed FHP blog as we're once again back a'pecin 'da keyboard!

 On an update of a previous post the Flick-Smart estate in Westkill NY is again on the market.

The sellers hope the hipster black paint on the asbestos siding and Birchfield lite wallpaper + Ikeaesque furnishings will lure (fishing pun) a new generation of well heeled neo-homesteaders.

The zany price history's lofty aspirations of windfall profits as the remote work from farmhouse crowd scoured the countryside for suitable lairs...

let's dig in to those numbers!

2001  sold for $53,000 

by 2010 they were ready to cash out and listed it for 

$175,000 but no takers... they had to tough it out for another 

seven years until in  2017  they found some new dreamers with $154,000

now eight years later those folks are ready to hit the road and are offering this 

hip lifestyle lodge for a whopping $799,000 ! 

we say good luck buddies!

Spruced Up near Spruceton- Legendary Lair Revived!

On a recent drive down to Westkill we were happy to see this stately old boardinghouse with deep literary roots revived once again with a new front porch & fresh coat of paint. The legendary location was once home to Art Flick a superb fly fisherman and an ardent conservationist, Mr. Flick was probably best known for his ''Streamside Guide,'' which was first published in 1947. That tiny book is a warm, witty, direct and authoritative guide that cuts through much of the mystery surrounding the art of catching trout on a fly. In later years another chronicler of Catskillian pursuits Paul Smart made his home here. Smart, noted newspaperman and author of the 1994 book, Rock & Woodstock hosted many a fine dinner party here during his tenure in the late 1980's and through the '90's. Tragedy & freaky catastrophe happened upon the houses historic walls on a dark and icy night a few years back

 when a dumptruck lost it's brakes and crashed through the front of the house only to be followed by a second truck coming down the same hill taking out the garage. The house then sat boarded up for several seasons until now when it's been spruced up once again.

Studio Visit-FH Burdock

We recently stopped in at the remote hillside barn studio of assenblagecobbler Freehand Burdock.

Freehand Burdock, Studio Visit from Mudweed Productions on Vimeo.

Bilboian high style in Oak Hill

those fine folks at the Yellow Deli whose generosity is only matched by their culinary skills have crafted  

a an interior to make Bilbo Baggins feel right at home, check out their onion soup

Bob Wyler's photography of Delaware County, Mid 20c

 handcuffed man with wife he just murdered

 cleaning the river

 1939 milk strike

confiscated from bootleggers

Bob Wyer (1908-1982) documented life in Delaware County as photojournalist and studio photographer from the early 1930s on through the 1970s. He photographed the mundane: graduating seniors, weddings, family portraits, funerals, etc — through the sensational: accidents, floods, strikes, murders scenes, etc.  In the late 1970s, Bob and his wife Billie Wyer generously donated their collection of over 150,000 negatives to the Delaware County Historical Association.
on exhibit at the DCHA

strange but beautiful mushrooms

James Harold Jennings, Pennville N.C.

one of the original farmy punkers, crack brained backwoods art cobblers turned folky hermit artisan before his untimely death in 1999  who lived "kinda Low" in a compound of shacks and decrepit church buses, visitors beware.

Went up to the beach in Ct. on a warm December day. Found some mysterious witchy sculptures someone or something made.

Solstice Eve

A great Solstice party at P&J's magical environment, great food, bonfire, fireworks & dance party in the art barn. Speaking of fireworks, artist, musician and now herbal distiller Cornelius brought a jug of his new batch of real absinthe. Of course in true catskillian style it was served over maple syrup, (see earlier post) We tosted to Mr. Poe who was presiding over the event.
*note green fairy over shoulder

most excellent Whirl Giggery

driving southbound again, detour Wilson N.C. seeking barbeque.......

stop car, what's dat?

New whirly gig park, the work of Vollis Simpson, N.C. legend, "visionary artist of junkyard art" who died at 94 in 2013  

farmhouse kitchen tips!

We stopped over to see our pals on Heart's Content Rd. and got some more of that excellent smokey maple syrup. Besides pancake dribbling it's just the thing to add to the chipotle glaze for grilled salmon!  The've got quite the collection of watering cans too.  

more barn music

We went up to Charlotteville to dine in MK's fine mid 19c barn. After a sumptuous late summers meal of salmon cooked on a cedar plank with fresh corn and some golden beet salad, Len Brunson treated us to some fine guitar picking and singing. When he passed his baby Collings guitar to Jeff Wilkinson we were further entertained with some of his original Americana roots inspired songs.  

lawn chairs

Freehand Burdock was driving by in his truck when I was unloading these old lawn chairs I got at a yard sale. He said he could re-webb them in no time. Sure enough a week later he dropped them off. Looking like new with a bit of Ho Jo's revival look, he said he got 4 packs of Frost King webbing at the local hardware store and was able to re use some of the original orange and nifty robins egg blue tweedy strips.  Not bad for  a couple of  lightweight chairs that had been deep underwater in the last big flood and who knows what else in their 50 odd years of backyard fun.

some friends up the Huntersland rd have a new addition to the herd

went fishing and caught this beauty. fried it up with some nettles and mushrooms from the store

Freehand Burdock finally finished the tv cabinet we ordered. seems he had to wait for the chicken coop to be repaired, he used the old roofing tin. he also pulled a hood ornament off a '47 chevy and lit it up.

thanks FB

springtime means RAMPS!

stump castles

Some fellas been busy chopping and stacking these loggy bits

old portraits from Schoharie County

The Plant & Sing festival at Sylvester Manor

We took the run-a-bout out to Shelter Island to the Plant & Sing Fall Festival at Sylvester Manor.

Scyther,  Lau Gillam

 Musician, John Gawler from Maine

 Steve & Bennett

Edith Gawler & Brian Dolphin

Freehand Burdock Wall Climbing Tractor Nightlight

We went over to Freehand Burdock's to pick up the nightlight he was building us for Joe Haske's birthday present. He was in his workshop down by the creek putting the finishing touches on it.

He really went all out using twin Motorola Mighty Midget dry electrolytic capacitors he pulled out of a 1965 Zenith B&W TV as well as a photovoltic "on at dusk off at dawn" system. It was topped off with a really nice  Whitall Tatum telegraph pole insulator covering a ruby red 7.5 watt bulb. He had it wired up  with a nice length of #18 gauge Westinghouse waffle iron cord with a snakey blue black braid.

Geez will he be surprised!

the end of the road in the world's oldest forest

portraits of the world famous GILBOA FOSSILS

An international research team has found evidence of the Earth's earliest forest trees, dating back 385 million years. Upright stumps of fossilized trees were uncovered after a flash flood in Gilboa, upstate New York, more than a century ago. However, until 2007, the crowns of the trees and overall morphology were unknown. These  have helped to determine that Eospermatopteris belongs to the Cladoxylopsida class, which were big vascular plants with spectacular morphology for their time. One reason scientists are so fascinated by these trees is that they were part of "afforestation," the original greening of the earth. That process had a major impact on the planet's climate, carbon cycling and, ultimately, what kinds of animals evolved in these ecosystems.

Dr Berry, of Cardiff's School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, said: "This was also a significant moment in the history of the planet.