Bethany Garretson

PSC travels to Richfield Springs

by Bethany Garretson | Oct 18, 2015

Interest is sparked at an early age. Watch children and what they gravitate towards. As a child, I felt comfortable in the barns, gardens and woods. Trace back a few of your favorite things today and I’m sure you’ll find early roots. Whether you’re an artist, teacher, mechanic or writer. Sometimes, we know ourselves better when we’re young—before society tells us what we are and what we should be.

That’s why a component of the Osgood Pond Semester is community outreach and education. This past weekend, Andy and I traveled to Richfield Spring Central School to talk about yurt life and lead a primitive skills demonstration with two sections of seventh graders. Richfield Springs is a small town of about 1,300 people, located in Otsego County NY. Growing up down the road from Richfield Springs, in Cherry Valley, I gained primitive skills experience through working at the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown and at Hawk Circle.

Friday morning greeted us with a double rainbow stretched over my parents’ corn field. Andy and I looked to the clearing sky and hoped the weather would hold for the next two hours. From Cherry Valley, we drove the fifteen minutes to Richfield Springs and met Mrs. Rathbun, the middle school history teacher at RSCS. Mrs. Rathbun and I go way back (she’s my oldest sister). I even slipped up a few times and called her by her first name.

The RSCS seventh graders were engaged and active participants with inquisitive minds and thoughtful questions. A few had heard of Paul Smith’s College and one young man hopes to attend five years down the road.

Osgood Pond Semester instructor Bethany Garretson.

Students at Richfield Springs Central School got a taste of primitive fire making.

Fire on the mountains

by Bethany Garretson | Oct 9, 2015

‘Peak week’ is upon us in the Adirondacks. From roadside photo stops to a cool, sunny hike up St. Regis, check out a few of our favorite shots from the past few days in and around Paul Smiths.

Colors and High Peaks

Reds and greens fade to blue looking off toward the High Peaks from St. Regis.

Autumn Red

A richly-colored branch near the VIC.

VIC View

One didn’t need to stray far from the VIC’s deck to take in this sight.

Whiteface

Whiteface in the distance.

The view from nearby St. Regis.

Gallery: Homesteading & Fungi festivals

by Bethany Garretson | Oct 3, 2015

The homesteading and fungi spirit took over the VIC this weekend as hundreds from near and far explored all the ways life can be a little simpler. From fire building to draft horse plowing, good food to music, the area had a life of its own throughout the day.

Homesteading Festival at the VIC.

Bob Brehl and the draft horses preparing the fields for next season’s crops.

Bow-drill fire making, one of several primitive skills learned over the semester.

First week of autumn

by Bethany Garretson | Sep 28, 2015

Fall in the Adirondacks often feels to have begun long before its calendar arrival. But this year, summer weather carried well into September, and the cooling days and nights last week coincided well with the Wednesday equinox and the official turning of the season.

While foliage may lack some of the late-September color of years past, a reddening of the hardwoods is now taking place. With a strong apple crop, we’ve seen our white-tailed neighbors putting on their winter weight, while the loons and passing geese have started to sing their final songs.

The first weekend of autumn ended with earth’s celestial companion doing its best impression of a maple leaf as an orange-tinted blood moon rose above the horizon and soon after underwent a total lunar eclipse.

Here are some of the sights from the first five days of fall on and around Osgood Pond.

Resting on a bed of floating pine needles, this mink frog takes in some late fall sun. Thanks to Brian McAllister for the identification help!

While there’s still plenty of green in the woods, color has begun to descend on the Park.

Riding the thermals, this bald eagle never descended low enough for a close-up photo, but it was the first we’d seen in some time over Osgood Pond.

A gaggle of geese take a break from their migration south on nearby Jones Pond.

Looking out over Osgood Pond on the first day of autumn.

Eclipse of the blood moon, shot right from a yurt deck.

Video: How to make a birch bark basket

by Bethany Garretson | Sep 24, 2015

In this Yurts & Dirt video, learn how to create a basket using birch bark, sinew and a few simple tools. Bethany Garretson will walk you through several simple steps that end with a beautifully simple and hand-crafted basket made of sinew and birch bark.

Pack baskets with the Santagates

by Bethany Garretson | Sep 21, 2015

A bicycle mailbox marks the driveway of Tracy and Nick Santagate. The Santagates are Paul Smith’s alumni and well-known in the community.

For many Paul Smith’s students, visiting the Santagates is like being a kid in a candy shop. Pumpkins twist across the lawn. A lean-to surrounded by Adirondack chairs sets against the edge of the woods. Vibrant tomatoes hang from their vines.

Interested in homesteading, sustainable living, boat making, gardening, herbal medicine, compost heated shower systems, and/or basket making? This is the place to visit. And to me, it’s a source of inspiration.

The first time I toured the Santagate’s estate, I was a student at Paul Smith’s. Tracy greeted my renewable energy class with a plate of chocolate chip cookies on a snowy March day. During our visit, she told a story about going to the bank to get a loan. She and Nick were just beginning to build their home and they didn’t have much credit. So, she brought a plate of chocolate chip cookies and handed them to the banker. The message was simple: Pleases, thank you’s and small gestures of kindness go a long way.