Winter in the late 1930’s and the 1940’s (#1)

By Ted Tyler

What do I recall about winter at Missisquoi Farm, the appellation of the future T.P. in the early 1940’s? Well, first of all if school was ever closed for snow days, I don’t remember it. My memory is we waded through whatever nature had to offer.

Living on Missisquoi Bay was central to the winter experience. While it took until mid winter (if even then) for the deep, main lake off Burlington to freeze, relatively shallow Missisquoi Bay, large as it is, iced over early and by Thanksgiving there could be smooth black ice skating parties around Bandstand Island. Depending on snow cover, by January the ice would be two to three feet thick, quite safe for heavy truck traffic. Why was snow cover a factor? Because it’s a great insulator and a dump of snow when the ice was still thin protected the water beneath from continuing to freeze, until high winds or the occasional thaw partially or completely removed this natural blanket.

We skated a lot. If snow covered smooth ice, we would expend considerable energy and time in shoveling ever-increasing streets, avenues and cul de sacs through it. The snow scoop was an excellent device for this purpose.

The quality of the ice depended on wind and ambient temperature. Best were the sudden steep drops of temperature to well below zero F. on a still clear night, with the stars creating all the light needed. Inches of perfectly clear black ice formed quickly and you knew the booming noises all around you weren’t something to be afraid of – just the sound of the expanding ice. In such conditions, before the next snowfall we (and by “we”, I mean family of all ages) could skate all over the Bay, into Canada or wherever the urge took us. So much more fun than rink skating – and if such a thing as artificial ice existed in those days, that was beyond our ken.

Currently the main winter activity on Missisquoi Bay – by far – is ice fishing. There are whole villages of shanties and vehicles, snowmobile and ATV traffic going and coming constantly. I don’t remember very much of that as a kid, although it existed. There was sliding and tobogganing, but not much skiing (too far from a source – only Stowe in those days within our reach). There was snow tunneling thanks to the west facing bluffs – a natural snow fence which would often pile up a 10-foot drift on the lake in front of Bluebill.

So I’ll end this initial reportage on winter activities with a little story about skating and my sister Pixley, 6+ years younger than I. Pixley wasn’t skating – or even walking – she was only a few months old. However, as someone still getting the hang of ice skates, I was using the handle at the back of Pixley’s box sleigh with curved runners as a skating support. It was one of those days previously described – smooth, beautiful ice all the way to the Canadian shoreline – some four or five miles away. There was also a fairly brisk south wind blowing. My system was to give Pixley’s sled a push and then skate up to it and repeat the process. Well, either the wind picked up or I pushed too hard – and off went Pixley’s sled to the north at a pace beyond my capabilities to match. Not a peep throughout out of Pixley, all bundled up with only her eyes in view. The various adults and teenagers within my vicinity quickly caught on to the situation and raced northward – and somewhere around the Canadian border caught up with and retrieved Pixley.

To be continued.

“Apple Sticks and Other Activities of a T.P. Youth”

By Ted Tyler

As reflected elsewhere in these reminisces of a T.P. childhood in the late 1930’s and the 1940’s, “safety” was not the operative word it has now become. I’m not sure the concept even existed. Seatbelts were unheard of: the back of a pick up sufficed for carting any of your kids considered old enough to hold on (which wasn’t that long after weaning). An uncle provided me with a .22 rifle – at age seven, as I recollect - which I was allowed to use unsupervised. Once out of kindergarten I don’t believe there was any supervision, and even before that, responsibility was delegated to siblings or cousins not much older (or more sensible) than you were. And it was a wonderful life! I remain a firm believer that just as farm kids don’t have allergies because their immune systems are constantly put to the test, you can’t learn how to protect or save yourself unless you get plenty of practice in survival skills from the get-go. So in addition to long swims in the lake without a life jacket, climbs to the tops of 60-foot trees – or along the cliffs (there’s more on the joys of those activities elsewhere), here’s in part how I and my companions amused ourselves:

Apple Sticks. Anyone who has been at the T.P. knows that there are scrub apple trees all over the place. From July until September these were used as projectiles, the smaller and harder the fruit, the better. First you needed to prepare your apple stick, lithe, approximately three feet long, thumb-size at the base and progressively slimmer toward the point. Actually the new growth withes from the apple trees themselves were perfect for this purpose. Your always- present jack knife sharpened the end. Some theorists considered the stick unfinished until the point had been hardened briefly in fire. Next, you collected a bunch of apples and looked for a place out of sight (and out of reach of angry adults) for a launch pad. The roof of the old barn (where the outdoor pool is now located) was perfect for this – its great height was a benefit and you could disappear over the apex of the roof. (I’m not sure adults even knew how - or were slim or foolish enough – to access the roof through its cupola.)

You’d now survey the terrain for an appropriate target – perhaps a cluster of adults enjoying themselves at the waterfront. The next step was to impale an apple on the stick, not so hard it wouldn’t come off, but not so lightly that the apple would dislodge before the full force of your throw. The distance an apple properly flung could travel was amazing. And the distance provided protection from retribution: the bombarded adult (unless he’d grown up on a farm, too) would search only a radius of 200 feet or so for the miscreant – who by this time would be on the other side of the barn roof doubled up in evil laughter.

To be continued.

"Unplugging" at the TP

By Ted Tyler

How do we balance the modern* demands for more or less constant contact with the work world – with the reasonable interests of those to whom the nearby use (while on vacation) of a cell phone, Blackberry or even laptop is anathema? Following the Golden Rule principle of the T.P., clearly the former should not take place within the hearing of the latter. Ideally, it shouldn’t occur within eyesight, either, because we have all become so conditioned to feeling guilty if we’re not catching up our work – or doing something useful for our children – that even just seeing someone else on one of these electronic devices is a downer.

The T.P. really doesn’t want to add to this guilt – or drive still more guests to a computer – by creating some sort of a computer work area found in so many establishments. We are quite successful in keeping the kids happily divorced all week from TV’s and electronic devices – why not their parents? However (in spite of our rural location – and all the big trees that block signals), we have increased the number of locations where there is wireless access, and we respectfully ask guests (where possible) who communicate electronically to do so from their accommodations.

*It wasn’t always this way. Forty years ago (heck, in most cases ten years ago) a vacation was sacred and not to be interrupted by anything or anyone. (The Tyler Place assisted this principle – and still does – by choosing to omit telephones and TV’s from all its accommodations.) What a downside the electronic revolution hath wrought! Instantaneous communication in quantity unlimited by cost of transmission has somehow kept us all hitched to the plow, if I might be allowed a ruralism appropriate to our fair state. Why no insurrection has occurred against what this has done to peoples’ lives is a mystery to me.

Want to be a TP Blogger?

Everyone loved our first guest blog post "Nature Dave Meets Nature Boy." Now we want to hear from you! How about sharing one of your "family-friendly" Tyler Place stories or memories? All submissions should be sent to facebook@tylerplace.com.

Guest Blog: Nature Dave Meets Nature Boy

By Elaine Chase

This year marks our 2nd Annual Chase Family Reunion at Tyler Place. And yes, we are hooked and booked for next year, 2011!!!

Speaking of hooked, that is exactly what our 6 year old son is when it comes to fishing and nature exploration with Nature Dave. Blake has always been interested in the outdoors and Nature Dave has helped to foster this interest, especially when Nature Dave nicknamed Blake,” Nature Boy”, this year during the pond exploration field trip. Blake’s enthusiasm was contagious!

After our 1st year at Tyler Place, Blake spoke of the “2lb small-mouth bass” that he caught until we returned to Tyler Place this year. Now he has marked a page in his photo album that contains his favorite photograph, a photograph of himself with the “biggest catfish ever!” Coming in a close second is his Dad, Chris, with a small-mouth bass.

Blake enjoyed these fishing adventures with Nature Dave so much that he would beg his Grandpop to take him to the dock to go fishing before heading to the Clubhouse. Luckily Grandpop is an early riser! In the following photograph, sharing his enthusiasm are his cousins, Natalie and Ella.

Thank you Tyler Place and Nature Dave for reeling us in each year for awesome times and everlasting memories!

Check out our website for more information about planning a family reunion at The Tyler Place.

If you want to be featured as a guest blogger submit your blog ideas and stories to facebook@tylerplace.com with the subject "Guest Blog"!

TP Tradition: Staff vs. Guest Softball

By Sam Tyler

Here at the Tyler Place we keep this most American of traditions alive with our weekly Staff vs. Guest softball game at the TP diamond. Every Thursday afternoon, dozens of Staff and Guests from across the TP assemble to compete in this timeless event. Kids of all ages cheer for their parents and play catch along the sidelines, while Moms and Dads alike square off against the young men and women to whom they have entrusted the safety and well being of their children. As the fielders squint in the Northern Vermont sun, and the first guest steps into the batter’s box and squares off, the pitch is thrown and the game is under way! For the next two hours, the world shrinks to a couple of acres of sand and Kentucky Bluegrass in a remote corner of Franklin County. Tense minutes of silence, as beads of sweat begin to form across the brows of the competitors, are interrupted periodically by the sharp metallic cling of a clean hit and the roar of a crowd shouting instructions. Bare feet pound across the grass as the throw launches into the air, heading for second and the third base coach yells “Down!” A cloud of sand and dust erupts, closely followed by the dull ‘thwack’ of the ball striking leather. “Safe!”

It’s moments like these that make the summer what it is. As we approach the end of the season, the past weeks’ memories begin to take on the glow of a time not soon forgotten. I know that in three weeks’ time, today’s softball game will be added to the long line of summer games staged over the last 22 years of my life. Memories of my father helping beat the Staff, while I hugged the fence with my Mom, unable to sit down or look away. Of five years later, when I was old enough to understand the game and had begun to play in Little League back home. I manned the score board and brazenly called plays -- always in favor of the Guests. Of another five years, down the line, when I could finally join in, and despite a defeat at the hands of the Staff, I could walk away from the pitch knowing that I’d made no errors and brought in 2 RBIs. And then the memories of the last two years, when I joined the ranks of the TP Staff and was able to play, not just one hallowed game a summer, but every week for 13 straight weeks.

Win or lose, softball has remained one of the highlights of my summer. How could it not? Staff and Guests uniting over a friendly competition, enjoying a national pastime, reveling in the camaraderie and the rivalry, and later swapping stories over an evening of music and drink at the Inn. I would be hard pressed to envision a more perfect climax to any week. Though this summer’s season will soon join many others in the recesses of my memory, I know that I can look forward to seeing you all back on that diamond in a few short months.

The Family Show

By Becky & Jes (JD) Dean

There may be 16 Tylers and Hills working at Tyler Place this summer but there are some other families represented amongst the staff. This post is from JD and Becky, our favourite look-alike sisters.

Did you see JD leading the Highgate Loop bike ride? Or, Becky answering phones from behind the desk? Well, don’t worry. You’re not the only one who confuses us. On a daily basis, guests either use the wrong name, think we’re twins or become convinced there is one very busy person doing it all. It probably doesn’t help matters that we switched jobs this summer. Good thing we don’t mind being confused for each other. The most common question: which of us is the older sister?

We hail from Ontario, Canada where we grew up going to a family resort similar to Tyler Place. We are the middle children, with an older brother, Eric, and a younger sister Alex (TP ’11?). Our fondest childhood memories are jumping off the dock in the lake, playing in the woods and going waterskiing (Hmm… starting to sound familiar?). During our “resort days”, our friends (the owner’s children) would sneak us behind the scenes, where all the magic happened.

After JD’s second year of university, she couldn’t resist applying to work at another family resort, Tyler Place! She is currently on her fifth summer (and counting) and has worked as a counselor, directed the Clubhouse, put in a year with the grownups, and now works as a co-director of the Inn and on the front desk. In between it all, she regularly runs down to help out at the Red Clover Inn, our sister property in Killington.

After three summers of hearing about all the fun JD was having at the TP, Becky joined the team and is currently on her third summer. She began as a lifeguard/cocktail server, worked one summer as a counselor and fitness instructor, and this summer is a part of the Adult Sports & Activities team.

While we may look alike and have identical mannerisms, we have very different interests career-wise. JD has a degree in business management, and one in recreation and leisure studies. Meanwhile, Becky is in the last year of a kinesiology degree and on her second year of a mechanical engineering degree. (Our mother is currently starting her fourth degree so we are just trying to keep up with Mom.)

We plan on going into business together someday. Until that day, we are enjoying every magical moment in beautiful Vermont, meeting new people at the Tyler Place and creating confusion for staff and guests alike. We encourage all of our new friends, staff and guests, to keep in touch! (And, if you hadn’t guessed, JD is older.)

Yummy Desserts

By Misha Lebell (TP Pastry Chef)

I like white nectarines, dark chocolate, dill, meatballs, hot sauce, quail, cinnamon toast, browned butter, and ice cream.

Baking at the Tyler Place is a demanding yet rewarding experience. All the hard work is worth it when I hear that a piece of my cake made someone’s day, when I finally get a finicky recipe just right, and when everything that could go wrong does and I’m able to keep a sense of humor about it. Desserts make people happy and it makes me happy to be the one dreaming up and baking sweets that will bring people joy.

The Tyler Place is a unique baking job for several reasons. I get to make a variety of baked goods from muffins to cakes to bread, which is relatively rare in the pastry world and keeps me from getting bored. I also have a great deal of creative freedom; I can pretty much bake what I want as long as ya’ll seem to enjoy it. We try to use local ingredients when possible including butter, flour, milk, rhubarb, and strawberries to name a few. Like the rest of the Tyler Place staff, the kitchen staff is largely international, which adds to the kitchen environment in interesting and fun ways.

I hope you find the baked goods delicious and memorable this summer. Feel free to contact me with feedback/suggestions/questions by visiting my personal blog at http://mishapiece.blogspot.com/.

Misha's Key Lime Pie

Servings: Serves 8

Ingredients:

Graham Cracker Crust:

2 cups ground graham crackers
2 Tbsp. honey
1/3 cup butter
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Filling:

4 egg yolks
1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk
2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice
1 lime , grated zest

Topping:

1 cup heavy or whipping cream , chilled
2 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make graham cracker crust: Preheat the oven to 325°.
Break up the graham crackers, place in a food processor and process to crumbs. Add the melted butter, honey and salt and pulse until combined (or mix by hand). Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan, forming an even layer on the bottom, sides and edge. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the crust to cool.

To make filling: While the crust is resting, in an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and lime zest at high speed until fluffy, or 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until the filling has just set. Cool on a wire rack, and then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

To make topping: Whip the cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until nearly stiff. Evenly spread the whipped cream on top of the pie, and place in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to serving.

Edible Flowers (updated 6/24/2010)

By Claudia (The TP Gardener)

As you stroll around the Tyler Place you will pass many areas of flowerbeds and cross many grassy patches. Did you know that some of the plants are edible? Here is a list of the edible flowers you could find right here at The Tyler Place (or even in your own backyard).

1. Nasturtium: Leaves and petals have a distinct peppery taste and are a great asset to any salad. Leaves are best picked and eaten when still quite small and young.

2.Daisies: the petals are edible and look lovely scattered over a salad. These flowers are perfect for a wonderful flower soup.

3. Roses: the petals are edible, though the white base of the petal tends to be bitter, so is best removed. Rose petals are really lovely when iced and used as decoration on top of birthday cakes or summer flans. Red rose petals are the tastier ones.

5. Sunflower: we all knew that the seeds were edible and delicious, but the buds are also edible, as are the petals which have an interesting taste somewhere between bitter and sweet.

6. Dandelion: Leaves, roots, flowers and buds are all edible. The leaves can be used in salads or brewed into a tea, the flowers and petals used for garnish and in salads. Pick as fresh and young as possible, as they taste more bitter with age.

7. Violas and Pansies: the flowers and petals are pretty when sprinkled on top of salads - or even as decoration on top of fairy cakes.

8. Clover: The whole flower is actually edible and a high source of protein - though better digested when boiled lightly for 5 - 10 minutes. Rabbits and guinea pigs love to eat clover it too.

9. Lavender: really an herb so it is not surprising that the flowers are edible as well as the leaves. The flowers can be used in a similar way to the leaves (needles) and are especially recommended for adding to lamb before cooking. Flowers look beautiful and taste good too in a glass of champagne. But another great thing about lavender is that insects and slugs don't like the scent, so spreading a stem or a few flowers around the deck or picnic area can help to keep annoying gnats away!

11. Peony: In China the fallen petals are parboiled and sweetened as a tea-time delicacy. Peony water was used for drinking in the middle ages. Add peony petals to your summer salad or try floating in punches and lemonades.

12. Impatiens: The flowers have a sweet flavor. They can be used as a garnish in salads or floated in drinks.

13. Geraniums (not the lemon-scented variety), carnations, and the blossoms from apple, cherry and pear trees are also edible

Warning: Before eating any flowers be sure that you can identify what the flower is and that it is indeed safe to eat. People with allergies such as asthma or hay fever are better off avoiding eating edible flowers as it can set off a reaction.

Pre-Season

By Sam Tyler
(one of the third generation)

(Sam is from Boulder, Colorado and will be a Senior at St. Lawrence University majoring in Philosophy and Outdoor Studies. He’s Cam and Karen’s Tyler oldest son, and this will be his second year as one of the Adult Entertainment & Sports staff, another is Becky, JD's sister.)

The lawns are glowing green up here at the Tyler Place, and the pre-season 2010 staff are arriving to take our place next to the 30 year-round staff and family members who’ve been renovating, roofing, decorating, purchasing, program and menu planning, planting, pruning (you get the idea) since last fall.

There is something definitively special about being here to open up the resort before everyone else arrives, a bond that is built between you and your fellow pre-season staff that lingers through the rest of the summer. This past week we groomed the bike trails. “Groom” does not quite cover the clearing of 40 major tree falls, the 11 shin-deep puddles, 2 broken bridges, innumerable mats of matted leaves and sticks, 1 broken pair of clippers, and 15 miles of hauling a chainsaw, 5 gallons of gas, a backpack blower, signs, nails, hammers, and rakes that have pretty successfully put us in our place next to Mother Nature.

But hey, nothing like some good old manual labor to bring in a little team bonding right? Every black eye from taking a branch to the face (thanks Becky…) makes our team a little tighter. Every bruise and pulled muscle hauling the docks into place, or sunburn earned assembling the climbing wall adds a certain measure of pride at our part in prepping and polishing the myriad of details that prepares The Tyler Place for our opening Memorial Day Weekend.

This weekend the rest of our pre-season staff arrives and the buzz around the resort will quickly turn into a dull roar. Staff members have begun to roll in from all over the United States—and the world. You can’t help but feel the energy building. This year we will have the largest number of returning staff the TP has ever seen so prepare yourselves for a lot of familiar faces along with some good new ones. We’ve all been in contact throughout the off-season and have some great new ideas and activities planned for you along with all the old favorites (don’t tell anyone I told you this, but karaoke’s going to be back and bigger than ever). But for now, we’ll enjoy the quiet, the hard work, and the smell of Brett’s BBQ wafting up Old Dock Road. And man, if I could get a dollar for every time Becky Dean said “I freaking love pre-season!” I’ll be a wealthy man by the time you begin to arrive in two weeks. Can’t wait to see you all then!

Spring & Summer Vegetables

MORE REFLECTIONS FROM A T.P. CHILDHOOD By Ted Tyler

Claudia’s new raised beds garden (west side of the clay tennis courts) brings back memories of the late 1930’s and early ‘40’s when the T.P. was still Missisquoi Farm. (It’s been that long since we’ve had a real vegetable garden contributing seasonal herbs and produce to the table.) In those days a large garden occupied the area between the barn with its out-buildings and Old Dock and Shipyard Bay roads, subsequently displaced by a horse/pony riding ring and now by the soccer field southeast of the Pool Complex.


No one born since World War II can fully appreciate the mouth-watering succulence of each crop of vegetables as it matured in a rural area. In those days Boston, New York and other cities received some produce as vegetables ripened in more southerly states, but these didn’t percolate to the “sticks”. Vermonters’ tomatoes, properly tended, provided the real thing into October, but for all intents and purposes the only fresh vegetables after that month until the following June were root vegetables kept in sand or otherwise in the cellar. Of course everyone “canned” in mason jars, but preserved green beans (or pretty much anything else) versus the real thing, freshly picked, offered no comparison at all.


The earliest spring “vegetable” was horseradish. As far as kids were concerned, this was not considered a plus. An earlier entry for those who knew to dig when the ground had just begun to thaw, but not too late, was parsnips, amazingly sweeter than if they had been harvested and consumed in the fall. However, the first real green vegetable was asparagus – hugely delicious and available in early May, a good month before anything but the salad vegetables (chives, lettuce, radishes and the like). And then that marvelous feast: the peas had come in! Plate after lip-smacking plate, unadorned except with salt, pepper and plenty of butter.


By late June and for the rest of the summer, life was good. Green and yellow beans (limas took the whole summer to mature) picked young and seedless. Summer squash. Beet greens with young beets attached. I smack my lips in recollection. The two best came midsummer and were the subject of substantial competition: who could bring in the first sweet corn or ripe tomato before August 1st? To this day at any price I’ve never found a tomato in the off-season that tastes like a tomato. And in those days (unlike today) corn-on-the-cob was overripe (or absent) with the exception of two months – August and September. August had meals with just one entrée – corn (plus butter and salt) - and finishing off eight to ten ears at a meal was no major feat.


I’ve excluded from this exposition the produce of the land – which was a major supplement in the decades referred to. Fiddleheads (yum!), cattails, young dandelions all were part of the spring larder, as were strawberries, cherries, red raspberries, black raspberries and blackberries in the summer, and puffballs and butternuts in the fall.


So getting back to 2010 I hate to give away Claudia’s secrets, but here are some of what you may find in her new garden: asparagus, beans, beets, cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, herbs (many varieties) flowers (for dining room), lettuce, onions, peas, peppers (a variety), potatoes, radishes, summer squash, tomatoes, zucchini. How sweet it is!

Do you know the Ropes?

If you've ever tried the TP Low Ropes Course you know it takes focus, teamwork and some trusty sidekicks. To keep the activity fresh, Children's Program Director Gen Morley, along with Chad Tyler, enjoyed a Low Ropes training class a few weeks ago at the Petra Cliffs Group site in Burlington. The program featured acclaimed presenters Mike Anderson, M.Ed, Jim Cain, Ph.D., and Jen Stanchfield, M.S., who’s years of experience in teamwork and teamplay taught our TP twosome a few new tricks of the trade!

Gen & Chad participated in twelve activities. "Everything they did was new to us," says Gen who gained a few fresh strategies for the kids program. From detangling ropes to carry cans on their feet, the class offered strategies for how to promote problem solving exercises and fun positive play, with something for everybody. So check out the newest features of the Low Ropes course this summer. “It’s so fun,” says Gen, “The biggest danger is that you might pee your pants laughing!”

Fung Shui Anyone? By Chad Tyler

It looks like our housekeeping staff are keeping their towel origami skills sharp by creating an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture using the books in the sunroom. We have just touched up the lobby and lounge and this is what I found after Lori (our head of housekeeping) came through to clean. Who knew most book spines came in six basic colors? What would be really interesting is to see if the content is similar as well. Maybe some enterprising couch potato amongst our guests can do the research.

You too can be the Big Kahuna! by Quintin

Last summer, Sean “Captain Sand” Hutchinson (one of our waterfront instructors from South Africa) took a dinged adult kayak paddle and cut one of the blades off. He proceeded to spear on a tennis ball as a handle and started using this newly crafted, extra-long devise in a strange way. Sean would hop on a big windsurfing board without the sail, stand up and paddle all around the resort’s shoreline. We would look at each other, scratch our heads and say: “What is he thinking?” Well we now know. He was doing what has become increasingly popular back home and around the world, stand-up paddleboarding.

Here at the Tyler Place Family Resort, Kingfisher Bay may soon be nicknamed Waikiki Bay. The stand-up paddleboarding craze has hit our shores! Sean, who is coming back this summer, will be glad to know the Tyler Place has purchased a couple of new Liquid Shredder paddle boards. These are large and soft and have a no-slip surface. You can go alone or take your kid along for a ride. A child can even get his or her own small paddle.

Get the feeling of walking on water (and a great work out) as you explore about. Be one with the turtles and ducks as you glide across the surface. The stand-up stance gives you a unique perspective, with a good view of the landscape above, as well as the schools of minnows (and perhaps a northern pike) lurking below in the shallows. On a windy or big wave day, see if you can catch a ride. Being swamped by a huge Mastercraft wake will never be so much fun. Yes, you too can be the Big Kahuna!

Sardines

More Tales of a Tyler Place Youth
By Ted Tyler

Sardines are not to be found among the eighty-odd fish species in Lake Champlain. Nonetheless they, or more accurately “it”, was a frequent nighttime presence (and pleasure) from my early childhood on.

Sardines is a game – played inside and after it is quite dark. Like many games, it started with a deck of cards. Highest card drawn had the privilege of being the first hider.

The approved venue was a large house, the more floors and rooms and closets and nooks and beds to crawl under, the better. One with two sets of stairways and a fireplace with a smidgeon of light – perfect. In those days Farmhouse Up and Down were one unit occupied by the Wristons – and that was often the locus, Farmhouse West being included in later years. When the Old Inn (the Franklin House) was purchased near the end of World War II – four stories including the huge attic, staircases at either end – it was baptized with a (completely terrifying) game of Sardines.

Getting back to the rules of the game, almost all light in the building was extinguished. Everyone but the hider would retreat into a bathroom and stay there, giving the hider (who after all, had to navigate in the dark) sufficient time to secrete herself. After three minutes or so, the group would stumble forth.

Now as you have surmised, this game was like hide and seek in the dark, but there was more to it than that. True enough, whoever found the hider first got to be the hider for the next round – so it was quite competitive. But when the hider was found, you didn’t announce it. Quite the contrary, you ever-so-quietly slid under the bed (or wherever) next to the hider and waited for the next searcher to find the two of you, and so on and so on until one poor soul might be left wandering around the house wondering where everyone had disappeared to. Actually this last happened rarely, because by the time six or seven people were crammed together under the bed, the giggling got sufficiently intense so only the stone deaf couldn’t find you.

Three short anecdotes of “Sardines games I especially remember” – in chronological order:

1. Like many of our games, Sardines was “family” and for all ages. Once when I was five years old or so, I was the hider. My six foot plus uncle, Deke Wriston, assisted me in hiding and placed me seven feet up on top of a large wardrobe. No one ever found me.

2. At law school age we played a game in the old Inn where the rooms had twelve foot ceilings. I dreamed up a perfect place to hide – on top of a door in one of the guest rooms where there was enough space to crouch and (because the door was in a corner of the room) I could balance myself with a hand on each of two walls. Searchers could enter and leave the room (as long as they didn’t close the door completely shut) and I could simply swing with the door. It worked great – but (there must have been some connection) an hour or so later I was being driven to a Burlington hospital at 70 miles per hour (that was fast then) with my first and only kidney stone.

3. Fast forward to just twenty years ago and the stone house in Swanton. Cathy and I had recently begun our relationship. My niece Pixita’s connection with Luke was new as well, or at least we didn’t know each other well. It was Christmas time and a game of Sardines had been underway, from which Cathy and I snuck out and went to bed. A short while later Luke opened the door, felt around a bit and got in bed with us. We chatted a bit (quietly of course). Luke became silent for a moment and then said, “You aren’t playing this game, are you?”

Springtime, Maple Syrup, & Salad Dressing! by Quintin

Hector is on his way back from his winter gig in Los Angeles. Tasney is busy sending out staff employment and housing contracts. The rush of warm weather has Tyler Place flowers tentatively poking their heads out their winter beds. The last fishing shanty is off the lake. And, of course, maple-sugaring season is in full swing.

Lots of Vermont dairy farmers cheerfully supplement milk production with this seasonal “gold rush” from their maple

tree groves. Many have invested in complex mazes and networks of tubing, new-style plastic taps with valves for more output, reverse osmosis systems that remove much of the water from sap before boiling, and large, gleaming, gas or oil fired evaporators that produce barrels (not quarts) of maple syrup daily during the fickle sap run.

Other entrepreneurs go at it the old fashioned way of tapping trees with metal taps, and hanging those iconic galvanized-metal buckets with the roof-like covers for daily collection. Yes, some still use horses drawing a sleigh with a collection tank, but realistically, most use a trusty tractor towing a wheeled wagon tank, (much more effective when the track turns from snow to dirt). And of course, many still stoke the ‘ole fire from a massive pile of seasoned firewood. (I suppose some of that burning wood is actually maple, so there is a cyclic thing going on?) Upon initial appearance, some of these more primitive set-ups, located in tucked away places, with sap tanks, fire and distilling, sort of resemble a moon shining operation, only legal.

Some folks sort of do a mix of all harvesting options, as is the case with the Reed Farm in Sheldon, a nice blend of new school and old school. My daughter’s pre-school took a field trip there to get at first-hand look at one of Vermont’s prized assets.

And to get your really in the mood for some Maple Syrup deliciousness, here's a favorite TP recipe!

Tyler Place Balsamic Salad Dressing Recipe

In a pint jar, combine:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. oregano

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 heaping tbsp. finely chopped garlic

Add 1 cup good quality olive oil to jar. Screw on the lid tightly and shake like crazy!

Hector Explains Nei Kung

One thing I always loved about growing up around the Tyler Place—and later working there—was the wide range of different things you found yourself doing. One moment it might be teaching someone to water-ski; the next it was building a bonfire. It could be leading a bike trip or mixing up a mojito. Ask Chad or Q or Tasney or anyone else in the family and I bet there’s not much they haven’t done at the TP. I don’t know what their first gig at the Tyler Place was, but for me it was when "Mrs. T," our grandmother, ‘contracted’ me out as a cigarette-butt-picker-upper. Going rate for said job? 10 butts earned you a penny. Now, in health-conscious 2010 a 7 year old kid would be hard pressed to make even that first penny. But the late 70’s? Let’s just say I was able to make more than my share of candy runs up to Martin’s Store.


The past couple summers I’ve added another gig to the list. Nei Kung. For those of you who haven’t signed up for this Sunday morning workout, here’s a brief description to hopefully tempt you into joining me…


Nei Kung is a yoga-like workout consisting of 10 forms. Some you simply hold a pose; some you move slowly in a manner similar to Tai Chi. There are no weights and very little cardio, but the workout can be strenuous. By aligning your body in certain ways, it gets the chi, or energy, flowing and really gives the body a great kick start to the day. It addition to strengthening the body, it also can be meditative and leave you (after the hard work) with a general calm. For guys that haven’t done anything like this before, I know you may be a little dubious. But take it from a longtime basketball/baseball/football guy…it’s a great complement to other workouts.

Some of you would probably prefer your Sunday mornings sipping coffee and plowing into Chef Jeremy’s tasty breakfasts. Hey, I don’t blame you. But if you’re up for something new to start the week, drop on by. You can always make up for it at lunch…