Helen-Chantal Pike - The Pike Log: Random Entries About Making His Story Mine

The Pike Log: Random Entries About Making His Story Mine

I've Been Poached, and I Like It!

December 3, 2012

Tags: Gail Kimball, Tim O'Shea, Rabbit Hill Inn, WREN, LaBelle Winery, Le Rendez Vous Bakery, Upper Waterford, Monroe, nh, Moonstruck, Asbury Park

Later!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been wooed.

Though, to be honest, the ever-present beckoning of chocolate anything can make my glands go Pavlov in a nanosecond. On a magazine assignment Saturday I drove north more than 60 miles in lightly falling snow. The itinerary’s bonus was the Read More

2 Comments

How to Survive Spider Poop, and Other North Woods Tips

July 28, 2012

Tags: Sharon Payeur, Ron Beecher, Gail Herbert Kimball, Beth Kanell, Christo, Tim O'Shea, Ellen Greaves, Jane Allard Wright, Roberta Gillott, diatomaceous earth, Mr. Clean, fly tape, shims, cats, Lake Memphremagog, Merry Maids, Upper Connecticut River Valley

Tall dog or bear cub: What do you think?

If you, like me, never heard of fly tape, don't feel bad. Means you live in a well-sealed suburban-looking home with a concrete cellar floor, factory-direct vinyl windows with fitted screens, and floors at 90 degrees to their walls.

Good for you!

When I moved from the Jersey Shore suburbs to 50 miles south of the Canadian Read More

10 Comments

Comments

Jul 29, 2012 8:51 AM EDT

Sounds like you are adjusting to north country life and still keeping your sense of Humor Helen! Do I see a book coming about moving the NJ to Vemont something like Peter Mayle's adventures??

- Gail Kimball

Jul 29, 2012 9:31 AM EDT

Great piece, Helen. You are learning and doing it quickly.

- Sharon

Jul 29, 2012 11:50 AM EDT

OMG I thought you had me at the spider poop but the APB (all pests bulletin) is so apropos, too. I haven't quite done the North Woods thing, but when the reality of moving into our 1898 Victorian with stone-wall foundation sunk in, we also found ourselves taking on various multi-legged creatures so I can totally relate: from the truly petrified mouse lodged above the dropped-dining-room ceiling tiles to the mice that dared to eat my Easter candy, it was a constant battle. Our spiders were of the daddy-long-legs type which always seemed super-creepy. Shrink-wrap insulating plastic was a big help, but I'm filing your idea about the painter's tape!

- Pamela Waterman

Jul 29, 2012 12:16 PM EDT

Feel like I'm reading the Vermont Country Store catalog, stories to live by. Great, now I know what to buy you, takes the guess work out of gifts for Helen in the Great Northcountry. Having breakfast with Tim tomorrow to get the lowdown on his visit with you. Been low myself, not handling all the renovation work, and things are going well, go figure!!!

- Nancy Sabino

Jul 29, 2012 12:38 PM EDT

I love the shims! I laughed outloud. Wonderful description of North Country living! I have learned so much from you and still learning. Thank you!

- Debbie Alberini

Jul 29, 2012 5:44 PM EDT

Another tip: When you rake your lawn in the fall, bag the leaves -- and pile the bags along the house foundation. Instant insulation, a great savings on the oil bill, and by spring they'll be ready to spread in someone's garden for mulch. Isn't it fun rediscovering what "everyone knew" a generation ago? Love your post!

- Beth Kanell

Jul 30, 2012 4:03 AM EDT

Knowing you like I do, I had to laugh, but I'm very proud of all the things you are doing to solve all your pesky problems. I enjoyed reading it all! I've been thinking of you and I will call you soon.

- Traci Evans

Jul 30, 2012 2:39 PM EDT

You make the North woods sound so compelling. Sans the spider poop, by the way.

- Eugenia Harvey

Jul 30, 2012 2:43 PM EDT

Spider poop? Ugh! I of course enjoyed the part about the schnauzers. Mine killed a nest of baby bunnies the other day- double ugh. Any thoughts for ants? Our house is now infested... thinking its because it is so dry that they are coming in doors for food and water alike. I bought stock today in Terro baits- since the Pest Control company seems unconcerned at my predicament and cannot make it out for 2 more days.

- Love, your adoring neice

Nov 26, 2012 8:11 AM EST

As your cheese-making farmer next to your first Vermont home, I have to report that a different class animal on our farm has become the leading rodent killer: the goat. The cat has adopted a pet mouse in the house and plays with it until the mouse is tired and escapes again into the basement while the dogs barely lift an eyebrow. The goats, however teamed up and cornered a little shrew in the corner of their pen the other day! You know firsthand how mimble they can be and three of them teamed up and very daintily stepped in the creature's path until it was in the corner then one of them stepped right on it. I am not sure it was trying to kill it or just sort of poke it to see what it was. Another great use for the might goat!

- Roberta Gillott

Selected Works

American Studies

Spiked Boots:
Sketches of the North Country

“The new edition contains rare photographs and an insightful foreword by the author’s daughter.”

-Dr. Barbara Tomlinson, Princeton, N.J.

Tall Trees, Tough Men

This is basic history, geography, psychology, economics, and folklore all
rolled into one top-quality volume.

-The New York Times

Asbury Park’s Glory Days:
The Story of an American Resort

"The collapse of American towns and cities is now so complete that our collective memory of why they existed and how they came to be is nearly lost. Helen-Chantal Pike's history of Asbury Park is a worthy, lively, and well-researched effort to correct this cultural amnesia."
- James Howard Kunstler, author of "Geography of Nowhere".

Greetings From New Jersey:
A Postcard Tour of the Garden State

“a Jerseyana journalist”

-The New York Times

Local History

Images of America

Five volumes of illustrated history about New Jersey's North Shore communities.

Anthology

Asbury Park: Where Music Lives

"Although its rock-and-roll legacy is well known around the world, other music forms - gospel and blues, jazz and even classical - have an Asbury Park address that contribute to the American music treasury." - Bob Santelli, author of Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Business

Crossroads of Commerce

Tracks the evolution of leading industries across a 300-year span.

Historical Fiction

Spirited Ladies of Liberty Street

"In the swish of a flapper dress, the smell of the potato mash or the shape of looks-just-like-it liquor bottle, the period details are superb."
- Pamela Waterman, Mesa, AZ