Archives of Monkton Chronicles

archiving old entries...

a town with no newspaper

at least in the traditional sense...

is there tradition anymore?

meg 2.6.2015

December 2014

12.15.14

It started snowing last week and plastered heavy snow and ice over trees and power lines. We lost power a few hours and others were not so fortunate. Even with all the cold, rain and snow, Been fired up about the town oh so powerful ones. Tax sale scheduled by the town again...when can this end? how? Meanwhile Fred got me some kefir grains. Now I am a dedicated kefir maker and drinker. My sister gave me some a long ago. It has a delightful taste. Lately, looking to buy some kefir in the store, the price is prohibitive. So here we are, making our own, or growing, ? raising? is that the proper verb? We need a cow, or a goat, that is for sure. More on kefir later. Suffice it to say it is a Pro-Biotic/Beneficial organisms. Fred made some sourdough bread from kefir starter...oh man, our new favorite food obsession.

Hope your Christmas or other Holiday of your choosing is pleasant. The days will soon be lighter. For now, lights adorn homes and trees. Not so much shopping going on...did anyone notice? meg

November 2014

11.30.14

November winds down in Monkton, Vermont

With temperatures fluctuating around freezing,

winds either straight north or straight south.

In a few weeks the daylight will start gaining again.

Christmas already being marketed heavily.

The VT prop tax bill still stuck in my craw...a big ouch. Then Fred talked to people with greedier towns..others pay 9 grand a year? more?

Wanted to post something to mark the end of the 11th month, Stick season, Thanksgiving, Hunting season, now shop until you drop or are trampled...

Keep warm...hey why aren't gas prices falling like the news people tell us???

Food, produce all high...if oil prices crash will all the prices go down?

Not if they keep printing money.

Oh, forget about it....Gray, Brown, Stick season....That is November. meg

11.10.14 What will we do when we run out of dinosaur bones?

You know, Fossil fuels?

The time change happened last Sunday. Many on Earth cannot fathom, no matter how oppressed, repressed or depressed and most present day humans don't have to deal with so called daylight savings time. If the US cannot fix that, no matter which major money sucking party is in power, we are doomed.

My pineal gland is throbbing. Then today, 8 days later, our older atomic clock decided to change the time...we had done it manually...so now it must be resert again. What a waste of my finite number of life moments.

Cold weather is seeping in. A huge storm over Alaska is spinning. We covered some of the windows with plastic, a petroleum product, used to prevent burning petroleum products. Gas prices still $3.30+...Fast to rise, slow to drop. Food prices spiking...once blamed on fuel, you will not see prices ever go down.

Zen Tangling, up to lesson 2 after 8 months...slow learner ;<}

As I do these trying not to be skeptical, following the ruleswhich I find difficult, I start to see, or sense or conceptualize a relaxed place, a meditation. The image that emerges from this exercise surprises me, pleases me, relaxes me. My blogger friends, Twitter people I follow or are followed by, FB binds me to the outside world. Every day a new app, a new image, a new view. Google, Blogging, all chronicles of the current day. Most might be irrelevant in the future world. In the future, If we do research the past, will all of this twitter feed be like the Zentangle, like a Test pattern to Calibrate the current events, painting the future we are powerless to predict?

meg

October 2014

10.31.14 Hallowe'en

October winds down with fairly mild weather overall. Soon to change. I blame the recent impressive solar flares for a little warming spell. Oh, and snow possible for tomorrow..not much.

The leaves all nearly gone now. A few golden leaves left.

The elections are Tuesday. We hope for property tax reform/relief. I am disappointed the price of gas stays so constant in Vermont...down a little, but not like the other areas. Same old song I know. Hoping for the proposed gas pipeline to be stopped. Neighbors have been spreading the word. Hope you have a great November wherever you are. meg

10.15.2014

Already halfway through October. Has been cold and now a few warm days. The leaves are turning fast and falling, The winds and rains, gloomy skies, diminishing sunlight...are all a part of the Fall experience.

The tax bill will be paid by my retirement savings. Having a hard time thinking of how hard I worked to earn that money. Now will pay taxes on it and pay taxes with what is left. No fancy vacation, no pay for 6 months, taxes on taxes.

The town casually mention tax sales in December...maybe. Getting stuck on this again. Lack of consistency, targeted property takings, constitution taking the back seat. No wonder I wrote nothing so far this month. meg

September 2014

September 29,2014

If I blink it will be October. Time does fly.

We received several more tax bills-the dreaded floating number...Trying hard not to let it detract from the beautiful

fall foliage. Originally taxes were the town's cut from the harvest. Now the town state, schools, civic groups all want a cut.

Have enjoyed listening to good old fashioned play by play-NY Yankees on #WVMT 620 am Vermont. My home team is The St. Louis Cardinals, and they are going to the playoffs. I drew a pic for Derek Jeter and will twitterize it.

Tommy our last cat is on my lap and gaining after being sick.

Glad to see Herrad: AccessDenied blogger is back online. A welcome friend.

September 18, 2014. The property tax bill arrived, second version, revised for our 2013 income. Guess they don't care I had no income for 6 months this year, 2014, due to disability waiting period for social security. Back in 2007, I told the town that $10,000 for 1 year for taxes, late fees, penalties for 1 year on our sad looking farm should be forgiven. The account they demanded was earmarked for my eventual disability. Now I am here, and the hungry town wants more of my bread. FYI the tax system has victims like us and beneficiaries like #NFL non profit?? Or the tax collector who I paid 8% of $6k and he never spoke to me or the town attorney, who got $1k and never spoke to me except later, after the shakedown, after $10k vanished...

I know, I know, you grow tired of my intolerance to being treated this old way. I see it as an ever-current issue. Tax sales being talked about on monkton, vt minutes...cryptic, better stay on top of it. No set schedule, rotating attorneys, sales of real property at the whim of town officials. No properties listed by name, thieves in the night.

On a lighter note:

We had a pleasant sojourn to Virginia. It looks like Vermont,

and so similar at first. Then the southern culture shows us our conditioned responses, local vernaculars and different foods, roads, rules. The weather much more tolerable than their summers, early fall a beautiful time.

Have a great day fighting your battles and counting your blessings. meg