Municipal sewer systems are few and far between in the rural Catskills, so chances are high that your home is reliant on its own septic system. And if that system isn't maintained, well, things could get ugly at the most inopportune time.

Thanks to some beefy financial incentives from the Catskill Watershed Corporation, there's really no excuse to delay septic maintenance, and maybe even a full system replacement. In 2023 alone, the CWC subsidized 312 septic repairs/replacements and 680 maintenance calls.

Join us for a conversation with Orville Smith, from Titan Drilling; and the Catskill Watershed Corporation's Eric Lane and Mitchell Hull, for plenty of practical advice for keeping your system running smoothly.

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Thanks to this week's sponsors: Briars & Brambles Books, Hanford Mills Museum, Ulster Savings Bank, and The Mountain Eagle.

Kaatscast is made possible through a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and through the support of listeners like you!

In 2022, four Master Gardeners were looking for a new way to bring their expertise to our region, and they did so with a weekly podcast on everything from honeybees to hydrangeas; perennials and pollinators; monarchs, chickens, seeds, goats, and houseplants. 

Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley is a production of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Columbia and Greene Counties.

And speaking of Cornell, the seed for this podcast was planted in the midst of the American Civil War. Tune in to hear how Abraham Lincoln set that ... root ball (?) in motion!

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Thanks to this week's sponsors: Briars & Brambles Books, Hanford Mills Museum, and the Mountain Eagle.

Kaatscast is made possible through a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and through the support of listeners like you!

Paul Misko is an avid Catskills hiker, who –– true to his Boy Scout roots –– is always prepared. As spring rolls in and we pull out the hiking boots (maybe shaking out some nuts and nesting material from winter mouse habitation), Paul offers a refresher on what to pack for our walks in the woods, plus some best practices for hiking with kids and leading a group.

For more, check out Paul's blog, Catskill Forest Adventures.

And if you'd like to hear John Burroughs' own account of that ill-fated hike on Slide Mountain, we just happen to have an audio edition of his famous essay -- "The Heart of the Southern Catskills" -- on our audiobook titled Afloat & Afoot.

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Thanks to our sponsors: Briars & Brambles Books, Hanford Mills Museum, Ulster Savings Bank, and the Mountain Eagle.

Kaatscast is made possible through a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and the support of listeners like you!

If you've been tuned in to local media for a while, you might Remember Paul Smart, writer for the Woodstock Times and author of the 1994 book, Rock & Woodstock. Paul lives in Mexico now, but he's still writing about the Catskills. And The Strange Recital, "a podcast about fiction that questions the nature of reality," published Paul's latest novel through their very own book imprint.

This week, I sat down with Brent Robison and Tom Newton, both of The Strange Recital and Recital Publishing, to talk podcasting, publishing, and writing. 

Following our interview, stay tuned for a "podcast takeover," and hear the full Strange Recital episode featuring Paul Smart's Overlook.

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Thanks to our sponsors: Briars & Brambles Books, Hanford Mills Museum, and the Mountain Eagle.

Kaatscast is made possible through a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and the support of listeners like you!

Dubbed the "first lady of radio," Mary Margaret McBride was a welcome voice in millions of homes in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, pulling in 6 to 8 million listeners daily! Mary Margaret interviewed 30,000 guests, from Eleanor Roosevelt to the neighborhood plumber, and produced 15,000 shows –– no repeats! Oh, and she was a radio pioneer, broadcasting some of those shows from her converted Catskills barn. When I learned about Mary Margaret, I picked up a copy of Susan Ware's biography, "It's One O'Clock and Here Is Mary Margaret McBride," and reading about her life in journalism, her passion for audio storytelling, and the heartfelt connection she made with her audience, I was awestruck. Join Susan Ware and I for a fascinating conversation about this Catskills broadcast legend.

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Thanks to our sponsors: Ulster Savings Bank, Briars & Brambles Books, and the Mountain Eagle.

Kaatscast is made possible through a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and the support of listeners like you!

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Thanks to Ray Faiola at Chelsea Rialto Studios for bringing McBride's TV pilot to light. See Mary Margaret in her West Shokan home, interviewing actor Eddie Dowling.

Will Nixon has been writing about Woodstock for decades, including a column in the Woodstock Times, and two popular books--Walking Woodstock, and The Pocket Guide to Woodstock, all in collaboration with writer Michael Perkins, who died in 2022. So when Will suggested we hike Overlook Mountain together to talk 'history,' I knew he'd have much to reveal. On today's Kaatscast: join us for a history hike, with Will Nixon. 

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From Atlas Obscura: "Overlook Mountain House: The Skeletal Remains of a Catskills Hotel That Still Welcomes Visitors"

Here's a link to the May-June 1976 edition of The Conservationist, featuring Bill Newgold's article, "My Grandfather and the Mountain"

Many thanks to our sponsors:

The Mountain Eagle and Briars & Brambles Books

Kaatscast is also made possible by a grant from the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation, and by the support of listeners like you!

When we spoke with Michael DiBenedetto for our special Ukraine report in August, 2023, he mentioned he'd consider returning in winter, when the volunteer pool was likely to thin.

Well, Michael's a man of his word, and we caught up with him this week in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city just about 20 miles from the Russian border. He's volunteering at Hell's Kitchen, where borscht, bread, and other foods are prepared daily for soldiers on the front lines.

Liuda is a cofounder of the organization, and she explained how the war in Ukraine, now 2 years running, changed the direction of hers and husband Yehor's lives (they both had careers in IT -- internet technology) before Russia's invasion.

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Bonus interview: Click here for our followup interview with volunteer coordinator Franklin Orosco.

Click here for Franklin's FAQ document on volunteering with Hell's Kitchen.

Want to volunteer or contribute? Franklin's Instagram page is a good place to start. You can also follow Hell's Kitchen (Ukrainian alphabet, though!).

Catskill Neighbors, whose mission it is to "help seniors wishing to remain safe and comfortable in their own homes," was born of necessity in the wake of 2011's Hurricane Irene. Founder, Reverend Ralph Darmstadt, died in January, 2024, but his legacy lives on in an organization that serves seniors in parts of Ulster, Delaware, and Greene counties, where social services are lacking and/or sparse.

Listen in on our conversation with organization officers Patricia Ruane and Gary Kusen, plus a visit with a very appreciative client: 89-year-old Sofie Solber Franzen.

This week, we're also celebrating the release of Rebecca Rego Barry's new book, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author. Ask for it at your local bookstore or library!

Thanks to our supporters: the Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway, The Mountain Eagle, and listeners like you!

We would also like to thank the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation for their generous support of this podcast.

Before cell phones, before touch tone, before dial tone, even, if you wanted to make a phone call, you'd pick up the receiver and talk to an operator. If that call was placed in the Catskills in the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Lula Anderson might have been working the switchboard. Lula invited me to her home in Greene County, where she recounted tales of the telephone, and growing up in the Catskills.

Many thanks to the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation for their generous support of this podcast. Thanks also to The Mountain Eagle, and to our local and listener supporters!

Plattekill Mountain, in Roxbury, is the last of the Catskills' independent ski areas, boasting 1100 vertical feet, 40 trails, and 4 lifts.

But those statistics aren't necessarily the draw at this laid-back family-run resort. Plattekill's rustic lodge, with its rough pine walls and wood burning stove, is reminiscent of other small ski areas that were more prevalent a few decades ago.

When we reached out for an interview, our email was quickly answered by none other than the owner. Join us for a conversation with Plattekill's Danielle Vajtay, with "special musical guests" and longtime Plattekill aficionados George, Foster, and Chris.

Kaatscast is a production of Silver Hollow Audio. Be sure to subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts, so you never miss an episode. You can also find us at kaatscast.com, and on instagram @kaatscast. Many thanks to the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation for their generous support of this podcast. Kaatscast is also supported by local organizations and listeners like you.