For a hamlet of just a few hundred people, Pine Hill punches well above its weight. This week, Brett Barry visits the Pine Hill Community Center to mark its 25th anniversary — and to find out what it actually takes to keep a place like this alive.

The center's origin story is equal parts heartbreak and generosity. In 2000, a tragedy in the community prompted founders Florence and Bernie Hamling to transform Bernie's research and development space into somewhere people could simply come together. Twenty-five years later, it offers pottery classes, concerts, art exhibitions, a wellness program, a farmers market, a thrift shop, youth programs, and a weekly social circle — all out of a former eyeglass factory that was once a gas station.

Director Colleen McMurray, who joined during the pandemic amid an ongoing renovation, walks us through the building and breaks down how the center sustains itself: a mix of private donations, grant funding (including a state grant secured in 2023), and a remarkably productive thrift shop managed by volunteer Berns Rothchild.

Also featured: how the community itself has shaped nearly every program the center offers, what's coming next (a dementia social program, a second-floor expansion, and an elevator), and why Florence thinks other small towns struggle to replicate what Pine Hill has built.

More info and program schedules: pinehillcommunitycenter.org

Recorded by production intern Sierra DeVito. Transcripts by Jerome Kazlauskas. Kaatscast is a production of Silver Hollow Audio.

Brett Barry visits Anna Plattner and Justin Wexler at their 95-acre forest farm in Cairo, New York, home base of Wild Hudson Valley — an educational organization dedicated to inspiring learning and building connection through shared experiences in nature, history, and wild foods.

Justin and Anna trace the origins of Wild Hudson Valley back to 2013, when Justin, freshly burned out from a master's in teaching at Bard College, found his way back to the woods and a fledgling idea for an environmental education business. A serendipitous encounter at a master naturalist training program brought Anna into the picture, and the two have been growing Wild Hudson Valley together — personally and professionally — ever since. In 2021, they took the leap to pursue it full-time, greatly expanding their offerings to include eco camping, foraging workshops, and the Wild Harvest Box, a monthly subscription of wild-harvested ingredients for adventurous home cooks.

The conversation covers a rich range of topics: the history and cultivation of American ginseng (the plant that first brought them together), the ecology of forest farming and why it requires so much more than just planting things and walking away, the role of invasive species and deer in disrupting native plant communities, and the concept of ecoliteracy — the ability to truly read a landscape. We also draw some fascinating connections between the work of 18th-century botanist John Bartram and what Wild Hudson Valley does today, from "boxes" of natural specimens to a deep respect for indigenous plant knowledge.

Brett, Justin, and Anna also dig into some of the surprising edibles hiding in plain sight — stinging nettles more nutritious than spinach, common milkweed with more uses than most people imagine, and sumac cones their kids lick like lollipops. And they share the quiet but meaningful work of hosting Lenape and Mohican people on ancestral homeland visits to the Catskills and Hudson Valley — a practice rooted in gratitude and reciprocity. 

For information about Wild Hudson Valley's eco camp, foraging workshops, the Wild Harvest Box, and property consultations, visit wildhudsonvalley.com.

And to hear a fun podcast about the life of John Bartram, check out Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley, episode 115: John Bartram. 

Kaatscast is a production of Silver Hollow Audio. Find us at kaatscast.com and on Instagram @kaatscast.

Production intern: Sierra DeVito. Transcriptionist: Jerome Kazlauskas.

In this episode, host Brett Barry joins Jan Jaffe, board president of Wellington Blueberry LLC, outside the shuttered Wellington Hotel on Main Street in Pine Hill, New York — a 12,000-square-foot, 19th-century landmark and one of the few remaining intact Catskill hotels that survived the era's notorious fires.

Jan shares the origin story of this ambitious community-driven project: how roughly 20 neighbors pooled resources in the fall of 2022 to purchase the long-vacant building. Their goal: rehabilitate the historic structure into 10 units of workforce housing (studios and one-bedrooms targeted at residents earning 60–80% of area median income) and a much-needed community grocery store.

Four years in, Wellington Blueberry has made remarkable pre-construction progress — clearing 60 dumpsters of debris, completing environmental review, obtaining all necessary permits, securing a letter of intent from Bank of America for historic tax credits, and earning a 2025 designation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Their developer and construction manager is RUPCO, the region's leading nonprofit housing developer, and their architects are Albany preservation firm Thaler Riley Wilson.

But they're still at "the last mile" — approximately $1 million short of the full funding needed to break ground.

Topics covered:

• What workforce housing means and who it's designed to help
• How historic tax credits work and why they matter for this project
• The "Dagwood sandwich" of layered funding sources (grants from Restore NY, Ulster County, anonymous donors, and more)
• What the community has already accomplished — including two volunteer clean-up events with 40 people each
• Plans for a local grocery store serving both residents and visitors
• How prospective tenants will eventually apply via lottery

To learn more or donate, visit pinehillwellington.com. Donations can currently be made through RUPCO's website.

Hoppy Quick has been chainsaw carving bears in the Catskills since 1979 — but he'll tell you he's not an artist. He's a spiritual being who found himself through the bear.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we visit Hoppy at his home in Samsonville — a converted 1951 school bus, a canvas teepee workshop, a crackling fire ring, and a horse named Ginny — and quickly discover that a conversation about whittling wood leads somewhere much deeper.

We talk about his 47-year search for the perfect bear face, carving as meditation, and what it means to live in grace. Hoppy shares the story behind the Heart Tribe, his COVID-era community of tens of thousands, and reflects on ego, fear, the divine feminine, AI, and why he believes the path forward is exactly 16 inches — from your head to your heart.

As the world seems to be straining at its seams, Hoppy emerges like a bear from the tree line — unexpected, unhurried, and offering a wise and grounding call to our higher selves.

Singer‑songwriter Steve Koester, the creative force behind Two Dark Birds, joins Brett in the Kaatscast studio for a deep, generous conversation about songwriting, place, and the long arc of making music in the Catskills. With the band’s fifth studio album, Dreamers of the Golden Dream, Vol. 1, arriving February 27, Steve reflects on the evolution of his sound—from full‑band records to quiet, introspective work and back again—and how living in the mountains continues to shape his writing.

Steve shares the origin story of Two Dark Birds, the move from New York City to the Catskills, the band’s shifting lineup, and the role of analog recording in a digital world. He talks about the emotional terrain behind songs like “Born to Fall,” “Good Boy Good,” and “Kid, I’m Fried,” and performs several tracks live in the studio.

The conversation also explores the realities of releasing music in 2026, the joys and limits of streaming platforms, the resurgence of vinyl, and the creation of Steve’s independent label, Vfib Records. 

Music Featured

• “Born to Fall” — live in studio

• “Good Boy Good” — from Dreamers of the Golden Dream, Vol. 1

• “Kid, I’m Fried” — live in studio

• “Girl of Summer” — album track (closing)

Links & Resources

• Two Dark Birds — ⁠⁠https://twodarkbirds.com⁠⁠

• Vfib Recordings — ⁠⁠https://www.vfibrecordings.com⁠⁠

• The Woods Studio (Todd Adelman) — ⁠⁠https://thewoods.studio⁠⁠

• Bearsville Theater — ⁠⁠https://bearsvilletheater.com⁠⁠

Photo credit: Sam Erickson

In this episode, we visit Pogliani Select, purveyors of artisanal, estate‑grown olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars sourced directly from small family farms across Italy and Croatia. From the hills of Tuscany and the groves along the Adriatic to a tasting room in the Catskills, we explore how these Old‑World traditions travel across continents — and why the craft behind them matters.

This conversation is part tasting, part education, and part journey into the people, places, and practices that shape truly exceptional oils and balsamics.

What We Cover

🫒 The origins of Pogliani Select and how they curate estate‑grown oils and balsamics

🫒 What “estate‑grown” and “small‑batch” actually mean — and why they matter

🫒 How to taste olive oil and balsamic like a pro

🫒 Why the Catskills are a natural home for a Mediterranean tasting experience

🫒 Stories from the Italian and Croatian producers behind the bottles

🫒 How education shapes Pogliani Select’s mission as purveyors

🫒 Tips for choosing and using high‑quality oils and balsamics at home

About Pogliani Select

Pogliani Select partners directly with multi‑generation family farms, importing oils and balsamics that reflect place, tradition, and meticulous craft. Their mission blends purveying with educating — helping people understand not just what they’re tasting, but the heritage behind it.

Takeaway

This episode is an invitation to slow down, taste with intention, and appreciate the craftsmanship behind oils and balsamics that carry centuries of tradition — now poured and shared in the Catskills.

Cover image credit: Meigan Arnone

In this special long‑form conversation, Brett Barry sits down with legendary angler‑writer and publisher Nick Lyons, now 93, whose life has been shaped by water, words, and the Catskills. From a childhood spent catching frogs for pocket money to founding one of the most influential fishing imprints in America, Nick’s story is a rare blend of grit, curiosity, and literary devotion.

Recorded in Nick’s home in Woodstock, this episode traces his journey from the Bronx to the Beaverkill, from boarding school loneliness to the rhythms of trout streams, from early rejections to a flourishing writing and publishing career. Along the way, Nick reflects on family, loss, love, teaching, and the deep satisfactions of a life lived close to rivers.

In This Episode

• Growing up in the Bronx with Yiddish‑speaking grandparents and bachelor uncles

• Boarding school memories and discovering fishing at Ice Pond

• Summers at the Laurel House in Haines Falls — frogs, creeks, and Catskills lore

• Seeing the Hindenburg fly overhead as a child

• A difficult stepfather and moves from Mount Vernon to Brooklyn

• The Army years and the beginnings of serious reading

• Falling in love with literature at the New School, Bard, and the University of Michigan

• Meeting Mari — art, shyness, and a life partnership

• Early writing struggles and a breakthrough with Field & Stream

• Finding his voice: earthy, nimble, wry, and rooted in lived experience

• Fishing the Catskills — rhythms, hatches, freestone rivers, and memory

• Why salmon fishing never clicked

• Teaching for decades while building a parallel career in publishing

• Reviving classic fishing literature and launching The Lyons Press

• The rise of Sportsman’s Classics and the explosion of modern fly‑fishing writing

• Why he eventually stopped fishing and what he misses most

Nick Lyons is one of the most influential figures in American angling literature — but his story is far larger than fishing. It’s about reinvention, persistence, and the way a life can be shaped by curiosity and attention. This episode captures a voice that is warm, reflective, and still sharp with humor and insight.

Links & References

• Nick Lyons’s memoir Fire in the Straw

• The Seasonable Angler

• Nick's presentation at the Jerry Bartlett Angling Collection

• Mari Lyons Studio

New York State Historic Newspapers Project with Chuck Henry

Episode Overview

Dive into the largest state newspaper archive in the country! Chuck Henry, Project Lead for New York State Historic Newspapers, takes us through this incredible digital repository containing over 1,200 newspaper titles, 1.5 million editions, and more than 15 million pages—all available free of charge.

Guest

Chuck Henry

IT Coordinator, Northern New York Library Network

Project Lead, New York State Historic Newspapers

What You'll Learn

🗞️ How the project transformed microfilm archives into a searchable digital collection

🗞️ The breadth of the collection: from 1725 to 2025, covering all 62 New York counties

🗞️ Tips and tricks for searching the database effectively

🗞️ Why this matters for genealogists, historians, students, and curious locals

🗞️ The difference between this free public resource and commercial databases

🗞️ How libraries and historical societies can get their collections digitized

Key Topics Discussed

📰 The Problem with Microfilm

📰 Chuck explains why libraries desperately needed a better solution than basement microfilm readers and hours of manual searching.

📰 Building the Archive

📰 Started in 2004 as Northern New York Historic Newspapers

📰 Expanded statewide in 2014

📰 Now adds approximately 500,000 new pages every year

📰 Second largest freely available newspaper archive in the U.S. (behind Library of Congress)

What's in the Collection

⌨️ 1,200+ newspaper titles from across New York State

⌨️ Earliest: New York Gazette (February 1725)

⌨️ Most recent: Freeport High School newspaper (June 2025)

⌨️ Includes Catskills papers like the Catskill Mountain News, Delaware County Dairyman, Gilboa Monitor, and Callicoon Local Record

⌨️ Multiple languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic, and Native languages

Search Tips from the Expert

🖱️Start with county-based browsing using the interactive map

🖱️Use Boolean search operators and quotation marks for precise results

🖱️Try alternative spellings for older papers with imperfect OCR

🖱️Browse by specific dates to see multiple newspapers' coverage of historical events

🖱️Create a free account to save searches and make notes

Who Uses It

👉 Genealogists researching births, deaths, marriages, and property transfers

👉 Amateur and professional historians

👉 Students from K-12 through university level

👉 Authors and journalists

👉 Local communities preserving their heritage

The Process

Libraries and historical societies can submit their collections

Funding often available through Empire State Library Network councils

Scanning done in-house in Potsdam, NY

OCR technology makes everything searchable

Original microfilm preserved as permanent backup

Notable Finds Mentioned

Desperate fight with a bear (Stanford Mirror, 1876)

Bootleg liquor tragedy (Delaware Republican, 1926)

Restaurant ads from the 1970s

The "Spiedie Sandwich" historical marker project

Copyright and Access

Content pre-1920s is public domain

1920s-1960s content varies by copyright status

Post-1960s content requires written permission

Everything available free of charge—no paywalls or subscriptions

Resources

New York State Historic Newspapers

New York Heritage

Get Involved

Libraries and historical societies can contact the Northern New York Library Network about digitization services

Create a free account to save searches and research

Optional monthly newsletter available

🎙️ Production Credits

Kaatscast is a biweekly production of Silver Hollow Audio

Host, producer: Brett Barry

Transcription: Jerome Kazlauskas

More at kaatscast.com

Sponsored by The Mountain Eagle

🫆 Mystery Bonus

Do you know where the Mountain Eagle's missing archives are? Previous owners either destroyed them or the microfilm is languishing in an undisclosed ... basement? Contact the show if you have leads!

Prescribed Fire in the Catskills: Restoring a Lost Tool

In this episode, Brett sits down once again with Ryan Trapani, Director of Forest Services at the Catskill Forest Association, to explore the surprising ecological value of prescribed fire in the Northeast.

Recorded fireside at the Kaatscast studio, this conversation digs into the science, history, and cultural memory of fire in the Catskills, and why small, carefully managed burns may be key to healthier forests, richer wildlife habitat, and a more resilient landscape.

Key Topics

• Why fire disappeared from Northeastern land management — and why that’s a problem

• How Indigenous communities shaped ecosystems with fire

• What “pyrogenic species” like oak and chestnut need to thrive

• The Catskill Forest Association’s new prescribed burn program

• How controlled burns can improve wildlife habitat and biodiversity

• The challenges of permits, insurance, and public perception

• What early‑successional habitat is — and why we’re losing it

• Lessons from the Albany Pine Bush and Shawangunk Ridge

About the CFA Prescribed Burn Program

Ryan outlines CFA’s cautious, incremental approach to reintroducing fire on private lands — starting with low‑complexity field burns, building community familiarity, and navigating the regulatory and insurance landscape. The goal: restore a long‑missing tool to the Catskills’ silvicultural toolbox.

In this episode of Kaatscast, Brett visits Sleepover Trading Company in Catskill, New York—a new video rental shop rebuffing the algorithmic grip of streaming platforms by reviving the analog joy of VHS tapes, comic books, and sleepover culture. Owners Rob Ribar and Guido Sanchez share how their passion for collecting movies, comics, and memorabilia evolved into a retro storefront in the historic Catskill Community Theater.

Together, they explore the legacy of Video Visions, a beloved Chatham video store whose 20,000‑title collection now lives on at Sleepover Trading. Along the way, they reflect on the lost art of browsing shelves, the freedom of discovery beyond algorithms, and the nostalgia of sleepovers filled with horror flicks, trading cards, and late‑night laughter.

Highlights:

• The VHS revival: Why physical tapes still matter in an era of disappearing streaming titles.

• Video Visions legacy: Preserving Steve Campbell’s 20,000‑movie collection as a living library.

• Sleepover culture: Comics, toys, trading cards, and the perfect mix of nostalgia.

• Analog over algorithms: How human curation fosters true discovery.

• Community connections: From flea markets to local artists, building Catskill’s movie hub.

• Lost media preservation: Taped‑off‑TV VHS archives, commercials, and forgotten gems.

• Membership perks: Rentals without late fees, access to rare titles, and even VCR equipment.

Links:

Sleepover Trading Company: https://linktr.ee/sleepovertradingco

Video Visions (documentary): https://youtu.be/6h3VvS5N8g0