It's the tradition. Every year, at 3PM the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Pine Plains decorates itself with Christmas Lights. And then, at 5, just when it is dark, Pine Plains becomes...
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I came to Pine Plains by choice, not by chance of birth.
But the small-town rural community I chose is changing. The farmers have, for the most part, sold to people from the city and fields are becoming lawns.
And, like the land, people, too, are becoming subdivided as difference breeds distance rather than discourse.
I have been making these videos to preserve and reconstitute what I can of a changing way of life and to share it with others.
On a more personal level, I am making this website as a way of holding on to the reasons why I came here.
Chads Don’t Hang in Pine Plains
The 2015 Town Board election was very close. Even for a small town like ours, only 3 votes separated the 2nd and 3rd place candidates. Absentee ballots could change the...
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Sheep and Alpacas and Llamas and Goats and Wool and Food Festival
Seems like they had everything! Particularly, a large crowd on a sunny October day at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
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Picking Pumpkins on a Fall Day
A fun way to get some fresh air, some good food, and get to know a local farmer -- visit a local farm! Here, at Rocky Reef Farm, the public...
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Love Where You Live: The Story of Hammertown
Because it sets itself apart from the ordinary by striving to do things better and living up to its motto: Love Where You Live, it was able to invite its...
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A Touch of Country: The Fall Fair
Every year the Stissing Mountain High School chapter of the Future Farmers of America runs an ag fair. I've filmed different parts of it before, but this year I've pretty...
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For the Sake of History
It's great when a community pulls together for a cause. In this case it was pulling pork as a fund-raiser for the local historical society. Two hundred tickets were sold...
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Wednesday Jam
Local folks who like to play bluegrass, they have been getting together on Wednesday nights for over 40 years. They never had a name for their group so I just...
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The Porsches Have Landed!
Right here in Pine Plains! A fleet (what do you call a flock of Porsches, anyway?) of all vintages of Porsches as the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Porsche Club...
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Scenes and Behind Them at Lime Rock Park
Although it is a race course, it really is a park where the public can watch from under the trees and on the hills without the confines of grandstands. They...
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Chop Shop Suey
They're always talking about what we import from China. Well, here's what we export to back to them. WARNING: Not for the mechanically squeamish!
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Roll Your Own — Chinese Dumplings!
For those of us in Pine Plains who crave good Chinese food it means hitting the road. But we are fortunate that just up the road is a chef and...
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Meet the Candidates Night, 2017
What I hope will become a tradition in the future, the Pine Plains Free Library hosted an evening for the community to hear candidates for local offices discuss the issues. ...
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Time Marches On…
A great introduction to Pine Plains is the Memorial Day Parade. If they're not actually in it, they're watching it! This was in 2000. The rest of the world, but...
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Food For Thought
Field work -- literally -- when Vassar College students milked cows, fed turkeys, picked fruit, mucked stalls and wrote ethnographies as part of an anthropology course.
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Farming the Future
The 4- H Club dairy cow competition was a proud event for Pine Plains at the Dutchess County Fair. Gina Brooks and her brother, Patrick, showed two of her cows,...
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That Old House
It's often referred to as "that old house by the bank parking lot" by people who do not remember the name, Louis Graham/Brush House. I confess that I was, up...
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The Family Farm
This is about a dairy farmer, Barry Chase, who is about to sell his herd of milking cows. I visited with him and his wife, Rosey, a few days before...
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It Takes a Community to Run a Race
The first triathalon of Pine Plains. The race itself was the shortest part of the story. It took months of planning, organizing, recruiting and training local residents to be part...
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“Those Gangsters Were No Dummies”
If this looks as if a man is trying to disappear into that hole in the brush, well, that was the whole idea. It leads to where a huge moonshine...
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A House Moves Home
An old farmhouse was resting on a warped frame that could no longer support it. But this house is not going to be torn down. It will be restored after...
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What IS Community, Anyway?
It was a large red barn right by the side of the road. It was so well-known it was a landmark for directions. Then, on a Tuesday morning, if you...
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The Tree Couple
WARNING: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! We had this tree... well, up until recently it had been 3 trees, a triple crown, but when two of them came down in...
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Chopping Rock
A video visit with Verne Tower, stone-cutter, as he re-creates an elaborate marble stoop for a historic mansion in Hudson, NY. While Verne may be doing wonderful restoration and preservation...
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Power and Authority in a Rural School District: A Study
I met the author Carol Ascher at a social function where we were table mates. When I mentioned that I was from Pine Plains, I was surprised that she expressed...
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On the Steps of the County Court House…
They said it would be sold on the court house steps. They were not exaggerating. Just not the front steps, the back ones. Wherever. I just had to see it...
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Yikes! They’re Packing up the Library!
Yes, packing up the Library to move to.... the Library! What's happening here? Don't ask me, I haven't the slightest idea and I don't think anyone else in Pine Plains...
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The Long Haul Home: The Library Returns!
Talk about returning overdue library books... In what we hope will be the resolution of a long and complex story, books are coming out of storage and the library will...
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“Going… Going…. Wait! It’s Coming Back!
So long known as "That" building", Memorial Hall -- or whatever you called it in the past -- now has a new future. And one that will help Pine Plains...
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The Next Chapter: The Library Moved. The Story Goes On…
You know you're from Pine Plains if you have an opinion about this library situation. And if you are wondering why I am covering this story as it drags on and...
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Wynton in Pine Plains
I was not permitted to shoot any video of Wynton during his stay in Pine Plains. I was only granted permission to shoot the still photographs in this gallery of...
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