| Watershed Post

This Weekend: Meet the candidates in Andes

Once again, the Watershed Post is proudly sponsoring a meet-and-greet for the local candidates in the town of Andes this Sunday, hosted by Andes Works at the Andes Hotel. (Here's video from the last one we sponsored, in 2011.)

The event will be a question-and-answer session moderated by Andes resident Jack McShane.

The election action in Andes focuses on the town board, which has been veering sharply more Democratic, and may be an indicator of a broader political shift in the Catskills, which are historically a Republican stronghold. (This shift will be tested on a nationwide scale when Democrat Sean Eldridge runs against Republican congressman Chris Gibson for the 19th Congressional District seat in 2014.)

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NewsShed: Better safe than sorry

Earlier this month, schoolchildren across the Catskills learned about fire safety during National Fire Prevention Week. Here's Gianna Muellerleile, daughter of Shandaken ambulance captain Rich Muellerleile, suiting up for the cause. Rich, who sometimes writes a safety column for us, advises sagely: "No matter what calamity you deal with, it is much more easily addressed by preventing it altogether than having to deal with its aftermath." As the kids say: True dat. Photo by Jake Millman.

It's been a gorgeous October, Catskills, but it looks like the cold weather is upon us at last. Time to break out the winter sweaters, fire up the woodstove (safely!), and make sure your kid's Halloween costume isn't too skimpy. (Remember Snowtober 2011?)

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Announcing the 2013 Catskills Farm Photo Contest

Above: Heifers at Crystal Brook Farms in New Kingston. By Julia Reischel.

The deadline looms! Submit your photos to the contest by Tuesday, Oct. 22 at midnight. Multiple entries now allowed per person.

See the competition on the Catskills Food Guide Facebook page and Flickr page.

We want your farm and farm food photos!

To celebrate the harvest season and local Catskills farms and foods, the Watershed Post's 2014 Catskills Food Guide and AgriForaging, Inc. are holding a Catskills Farm Photo Contest between now and midnight on October 22, 2013.

The contest, which is sponsored by Spillian: A Place to Revel, is open to photos of any farm, farm scene, farm food, or farmer located in or sourced from Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan, or Ulster county.

Winners will be featured in the 2014 Catskills Food Guide, and one grand prize farm or farmer winner will be featured in a specially-crafted menu by AgriForaging at one of Spillian's Soup Sundays. The winning photographer also receives a free Soup Sundays dinner for two.

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Catskills Farm Photo Contest

This weekend: Cheesemaking Workshop and Wine & Cheese Pairing

Above: Chevre from Sherman Hill Farmstead. Photo via the Sullivan County Farmers' Market website.

Learn how to make cheese tomorrow at an all-day cheesemaking workship taught by expert cheese maker Linda Smith and sponsored by AgriForaging and Spillian: A Place to Revel.

Smith, a veteran cheese making teacher, makes chevre and aged cheese with goat and cows' milk on Sherman Hill Farmstead, her family farm in Franklin. She is also the co-founder of the New York State Farmstead and Artisan Cheesemaker's Guild.

During the 7-hour workshop, Smith will use Spillian's historic commercial kitchen to teach students of all abilities how to make a variety of cheeses with cow and goat milk. Supplies and lunch will be provided, and students may also bring their own milk and make cheese from their own animals.

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Sherman Hill Farmstead

AgriForaging

This Weekend: The Arts Upstairs "Do or Die" Fundraiser

The Arts Upstairs Gallery in Phoenicia, a lynchpin of the Shandaken community and an incubator for arts throughout the Catskills, is considering shutting its doors. The gallery's owners, Gavin and Margaret Owen, say in a post on their Facebook page that tough economic times and Gavin's ongoing battle with cancer are squeezing them financially, and that staying open through another Catskills winter might be too much for them.

The gallery, which hosts monthly potlucks and a monthly show featuring a wide variety of Catskills artists, is throwing a "Do or Die" fundraiser this Saturday to raise money to stay open through the cold months. The show features art donated by the gallery's regular contributors, a wine tasting, a potluck, an art-supply swap, and a silent auction. The goal is to raise a few thousand dollars, Gavin Owen told the Times Herald-Record this week:

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NewsShed: Grand Gorge can't catch a break, and neither can Gumby

Above: The remains of Sundae's, a restaurant on Route 23 in Grand Gorge that was destroyed by an early-morning fire on Monday. It's the second time in a month a business has burned down in Grand Gorge; in the wee hours of September 27, Becker's Tire Service on Route 30 was destroyed by a fire. Investigators say neither fire is considered suspicious. Photo by Jennifer Strom.

Happy Thursday, Catskills -- and happy End Of Shutdown Day, too. Late last night, Congress passed a bill to fund the government until January 15 and raise the debt limit until February 7, so we've got at least a few months of reprieve from all the Sturm und Drang in the Capitol.

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NewsShed: Small government, big drama

Above: Sunset over a Middleburgh field. Photo by Flickr user A Man Called ACME; shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.

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This weekend is your last chance to earn a Catskill Fire Towers Badge!

Columbus Day weekend is the traditional end of the high season in the Catskills, and it's the end of our Catskill Fire Towers badge season as well. So get outside, enjoy the glorious weather, and earn your badge. If you need a few ideas for outdoor activities -- including fire tower hikes -- check out our special Lark in the Park section, with its calendar of over 50 guided Catskills activities, many happening this weekend. -- Julia Reischel

Left: Our brand new Catskill Fire Towers badge. The last day to earn yours is October 14, 2013.

Badges: They're not just for Boy Scouts anymore. You, too, can get out, do neat stuff, and earn badges for it. (And bragging rights.)

The Watershed Post is proud to present our 2013 Catskills badge: The Catskill Fire Towers Badge.

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fire towers

badges

Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower

catskills fire towers

Catskill Fire Tower Badge

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This Weekend: Fiddlers! 20

Above: The Gibson Brothers, the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Award Association entertainers of the year, are playing in Roxbury at Fiddlers! 20 this weekend. Photo via the Roxbury Arts Group.

For twenty years, the Roxbury Arts Group has been inviting anyone with an instrument to play with famous fiddlers at its day-long fiddling festival, Fiddlers!

The name says it all, really -- this Saturday, big fiddling acts like the Gibson Brothers will play, Catskills legend Hilt Kelly will call a square dance, food will be served, and the day will end with an open-invitation all-star fiddling jam.

Fiddlers! is one of RAG's most popular events, and it's a must-see Catskills folk experience.

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Green Wolf at bay: Local microbrewery on hold while shutdown drags on

Above: Ales from the Green Wolf Brewing Company, a new brewery planned for Middleburgh's Main Street. Green Wolf will have to get through some federal and state red tape before they can open for business -- and with a federal government shutdown still in effect, that may take awhile. Photo courtesy of Green Wolf Brewing Company.

The Green Wolf Brewing Company, Schoharie County's newest microbrewery, is slated to open this winter. Or at least it was, until Congressional Republicans refused to pass a routine spending bill without changes in the new healthcare law, launching the nation into a federal shutdown that is now nearing the end of its second week.

"We're kind of being held hostage by the federal government shutdown," said Justin Behan, cofounder of Green Wolf.