Innehållsförteckning för October/November 2019 från Country

All Aboard! One year, I spotted a steam locomotive taking passengers across a high trestle bridge during a fall color tour of Boone County in central Iowa. Pairing the season’s foliage with the train and its billowing steam was a match made in heaven for this photographer! Because the steam locomotive is due for a costly inspection, it isn’t running this fall. The Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad, based in Boone, is trying to raise funds to pay for it. If you would like to help save this piece of history, visit bsvrr.com for more information. You can still catch a ride on one of the railroad’s electric or diesel train tours for a thrilling and scenic view of Iowa’s striking fall colors. Ankeny, Iowa…

IT WAS OCTOBER. The harvest moon was creeping through the trees and rising to a magnificent glow. I was thrilled because in one week I would be in Vermont to see fall color. But this wasn’t just any trip. My goal was to find a farm that took my breath away 29 years ago when I was thumbing through the pages of my Country magazine. As a child I lived in Florida but dreamed of being at the base of the Rocky Mountains with valleys of wildflowers, or in a little historic New England village with its decorative church steeples, red barns and rolling farmland. On one trip through Country, I caught a glimpse of Sleepy Hollow Farm in Vermont. I was enchanted. I ripped out that page as the…

The rugged beauty of Montana’s Bitterroot Valley is simply unfathomable. Photographers and writers dream about it. Romantics long for it and adventurers crave it. The scenery whispers of the past and reminds us that a brighter future is on the horizon for those who aren’t afraid to work for it. The call to move out west came four years ago when my husband, John, who is a physical therapist assistant, got a job offer. At the time we were living in Missouri. John had always wanted to be a mountain man, and I grew up in Washington state, surrounded by peaks. The move made sense. Our home in Victor lies between the rolling tops of the Sapphire Mountains to the east and the jagged peaks of the Bitterroot Mountains to…

It’s mid-October and signs of fall are all around. The days are dry, cool and noticeably shorter. Apple orchards are open, and big orange pumpkins appear in farm stands everywhere. My experience with pumpkins began on a warm day in the spring of 1946. We lived on 2 acres of land that was part of my grandparents’ farm. They lived next door and were hearty farmers. I loved the farm. From the time I rolled out of bed in the morning until Mom called me in for supper, I was Grandpa’s shadow. One spring day, Grandpa arrived at our back door on his tractor to take me to plant pumpkins. With me sitting on his lap, he drove the tractor, a little gray and red Ford 8N, to the field…

Imagine a quintessential New England fall in which forests full of birches, oaks, maples and other trees become awash in brilliant colors. Colonial villages, connected to each other by curvy country roads, dot the landscape, and their town centers brim with history and attractions. This is Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, a region in the northwestern corner of the state known for its rural scenery. Exploring this area in autumn is a delight to the senses. With no particular agenda in mind, my husband, Paul, and I simply open our atlas or turn on the GPS and wander up and down the back roads. We’ve encountered babbling brooks, quiet ponds, hillsides of color and picturesque farms with well-kept barns and covered bridges. This is autumn in New England at its best—gorgeous and…

The best part of visiting Grandmother was exploring her sewing room. It was piled to the ceiling with more fabric, thread, zippers, buttons and pieces of half-finished garments than I had ever seen. As a full-time working tailor, she made dresses, suits, wedding dresses, bathing suits and even drapes. But when Grandmother visited us, it was even more fun, because I knew she was going to sew for me! She sewed lickety-split as I sat nearby watching, and delighted me by telling funny stories of my mother when she was a little girl. Then she’d present me with a new dress, or frock, as she called it. But the best thing Grandmother ever made for me was my crayon apron. It had a pinafore top, ties at the neck, a…

My husband, Hans, grew up in a family that not only knew the names of lots of weird veggies, they knew how to cook them all. When they say they’re having salad for dinner, they mean salad IS dinner—it will be healthy, with sprouts, nuts and three kinds of vinegar dressing. We are more of a meat-and-potatoes crew in my family. We have veggies with every meal, but they are side dishes: Corn with the chicken, broccoli or green beans alongside the ham. My then-fiance didn’t know this. I led my future husband to that minefield known as the meet-the-family dinner. My young son, my parents and sister, my aunt, uncle and cousins, my 90-year-old grandmother, and my patient fiance and I all gathered around a table together. We indulged…

The box was nothing special, nothing decorative. I don’t know why it caught my eye at the flea market. It was just a plain green metal box, covered with scratches, somewhat bent and a bit rusted. As I looked at it, my first thought was Who would get rid of their mother’s recipe box? But you know the old saying about one woman’s trash. I was the lucky one who bought the treasure for $2.50. I discovered you can learn a lot about a woman from her recipe box. As I took each of the faded, folded and worn items out of it, I got a peek into the life of the woman who once owned the box. Her name was Mary Anne, and she was from a small rural…

My husband, Ron, and I were surprised when we saw the Mystery Photo in the June/July issue. We had just been to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse on May 6. We enjoyed this visit and took quite a few pictures, including this one. We had taken a tour of all of the northeastern states, and our tour guide was the old Country Discoveries magazine you used to print. CAROLYN JAVAUX Middleton, Idaho SHORTLY AFTER WE WED 51 years ago, I talked my husband into getting a calico kitten we named Penny. Reading Connie Thompson’s story “Pick Extra for Daisy” (June/July, page 64) put a big smile on my face. Like Daisy, Penny loved to eat sweet corn! Once, I came home from work to find that my husband and mom had left sticky corn…

ONE LUMP OR TWO? Briley, 6, serves a spot of “tea” to Meghan, 4, who isn’t impressed with the bug she found in her cup. KIRSTEN BERGER Friendship, Wisconsin PUMPKIN PICKERS My husband’s brother plants pumpkins at our farm every year, and he always needs help harvesting. Our crew usually consists of the adults and quite a few grandchildren. DAWN GREEN Grand Mound, Iowa Thanksgiving Grace IN OUR FAMILY, Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t dinner at all. It was preparing a lunch that was served at 1 p.m. to accommodate plans arranged with other families. Thanksgiving morning felt more like working a lunch rush at the local diner than a day of reflection and gratitude—until the year we declined an invitation from the standard crowd and hosted out-of-town guests. For our visitors,…

WEST CORNWALL COVERED BRIDGE Located in Cornwall, this covered bridge is one of only a few left in the state. Since 1864, folks have used it to cross the Housatonic River. Made of sturdy spruce, the bridge features a lattice truss design and is considered a New England icon. LITCHFIELD Set aside a few hours to explore the village green, museums, historic homes, churches and shops. townoflitchfield.org FALLS VILLAGE The railroad depot, bank, churches and homes give history buffs a glimpse of village life in the 19th century. Meanwhile hikers catch the Appalachian Trail, which runs through town, and follow it to natural wonders. canaanfallsvillage.org ARETHUSA FARM DAIRY The dairy store is a popular place to stop for a scoop (or maybe two) of old-fashioned ice cream crafted with fresh…

In 2017, a year after a medical discharge from the Air Force and after years of treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder, I felt restless. I was studying to become a therapeutic riding instructor, but I was searching for something more to challenge me physically and psychologically. Then I found No Barriers Warriors, a program that helps veterans with disabilities experience the rugged outdoors at no charge. Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit Mount Everest, co-founded the program, which offers different options depending on a person’s physical abilities. I was selected to climb the 13,370-foot Mount Guyot in Colorado. I was ecstatic and afraid because I wouldn’t be able to bring my wife, Leanne, or my service dog, Aniko. I was worried that no one would recognize when I…

During a board meeting in 1989, Pastor Jane Knight said she thought that Wells United Methodist Church’s benevolence giving was a bit lacking. Though we were a small congregation of only 15 to 20 regulars, we took up the pastor’s challenge, and our Mission Event was born. We had some good cooks back then, so we thought we could raise about $500 selling food. For starters, the department store in Granville, New York, let us set up four sales per year. Then the pastor suggested we sell food to campers at Lake St. Catherine, so we ran a potato and salad bar every two weeks. To our surprise, we raised more than $2,500 by December! These efforts continued through the 1990s. For several years, we held a strawberry festival in…

My dad, Glen Berens (far left), excels at growing Atlantic Giant pumpkins. He held a local record several years in a row. Dad says his favorite part of growing them is seeing his grandkids’ amazement when they fit inside one! REBECCA LAMAR Holland, Michigan Adam Kennedy’s 347-pound pumpkin won a local contest. He could barely keep it on the scale! DAVE LOGAN Port Angeles, Washington My good friend Brittany was very proud of her biggest pumpkin. This was from her first-ever garden. DARLENE GRENIER St. Leon, Manitoba “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”HENRY DAVID THOREAU Record-Setter The largest pumpkin recorded in the U.S. weighed in at 2,528 pounds!…