The Berkshires

The Berkshires - Western Mass 

Crouch Family Vacation

My parents won a week at a timeshare in a church auction, so they were looking for a place for a family get together this summer. Since we were going to be in the Northeast and Nadine, my sister-in-law, went to school at Cornell and has some really good friends up here they wanted to visit, it seemed like a great place to convene. So the Berkshire "Mountains" of Western Mass became our home base for the next week. 

Mostly we ate, read, slept, explored the local area, ate, played Yaniv, and then ate some more. It was awesome! 

Meet our adorable niece Kaya! Kaya and Hudson share similar interests, including liberating all of the tissues from their confinement in a box. Great fun! 

Shaking it up at the Hancock Shaker Village! While not an active community of Shakers (there's only one of those left, and it's in Maine), this historical village depicted what life was like for the Shakers. I didn't know a thing about Shakers, so it was really interesting to learn about them. Here are some quick facts: 

• they were founded in England in the mid 1700s by a woman named Mother Ann Lee
• they are a Christian based religious sect that dissented from the Quakers
• they get their name from the dancing and singing they did during their worship
• they embrace the use of technology, so in that way are completely different from the Amish
• they believe in living a celibate life and lived in gender segregated dormitories, which might explain why there are so few of them left (they had to rely on conversions and adoptions)
• they are famous for their woodworking craftsmanship and medicinal herb production
• they believe that all work is Godly, and one important way to commune with God (who was both male and female)
• they believe in gender and racial equality

The picturesque Shaker village. The yellow barn in the background was circular, and like no other barn I've ever seen. Because of the unique circular shape, creative architectural and design details were implemented, like a huge open central duct to encourage air flow and prevent fires, and a sunk in lower level so the hay could be loaded on the ground floor and just pushed over the edge to the animals below. 

Mom and I admiring the chicken coop and sheep and trying to avoid the turkeys. It's in the plans to build a chicken coop when we return to Austin, so I'll take any chance to do some coop research. 

Mom and Dad in front of the community garden at the Shaker village. The Shakers specialized in useful herbs, so their herb garden was mind blowing. They were also the first to invent packaging seeds in little paper envelopes to sell, which was one of their main sources of revenue, in addition to selling homemade wood furnishings. 

The Shakers were masters of simple machines, and the water pump driven shop was definitely the coolest physics demonstration I've ever seen. It ran off a water turbine that they ran water to using hollowed out logs from a reservoir up the road. The pump would power all of the belts you see in the foreground, and certain machines in the shop could be turned on or off simply by moving the belts around to different wheels on the axles. 

Another highlight at the Shaker Village was a woodworking demonstration. We learned about some of the tools they used and, most amazingly, how to create hidden dovetails joints that join together two pieces of wood with no screws, glue, or nails. It takes a whole lot of time and money, but woodworking would be a really awesome hobby. 

The Norman Rockwell museum is in the nearby town of Stockbridge, MA, so we made an afternoon excursion to check it out on our second day there. I was impressed, especially since most of my experience with Rockwell was from the decorative plates lining the walls of seemingly all Arkansas residences depicting perfectly coiffed 50s housewives pulling cookies from the oven and mischievous young white kids engaging in patriotic hi jinx. Turns out there was a lot of that, but it put his work into better context with the times. He designed the covers for the Saturday Evening Post magazine and during WWI, the Great Depression and WWII he was given clear directives to keep his covers light and fluffy since people had enough to worry about. 

It doesn't get much more light and fluffy than a boy scout with a bunch of puppies. I love Irish Setters! 

But later in his career he did some powerful pieces that took on race relations, including this one entitled New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967. 

This painting, done in 1963 and entitled The Problems We All Live With, depicts a six year old named Ruby Bridges who had to be escorted into a New Orleans school during desegregation. With the current climate, it's no coincidence that President Obama chose to display this painting in the White House in 2011. 

Nadine, Andy, and Kaya outside of the Norman Rockwell Museum. 

The last day, we picked up Hudson from the kennel and ventured out into the surrounding hills with my mom and dad. 

Mom and I on our first short hike at Rounds Rock in Mt. Greylock State Reservation, which took us through a ton of blueberry patches. No black bear sightings, unfortunately. 

Mt. Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts, at a whopping 3,491 ft! There's a war memorial at the top, and a nice view of the surrounding Berkshires. 

Beautiful waterfalls abound in the Berkshires, and our second short hike was to a nice one. 

One night we had a wonderful tapas dinner in Pittsfield with my parents where they told stories I'd never heard about their young married life. It was awesome to hear them talk about their early adventures together in poverty, college, the Navy, and disastrous attempts at drinking alcohol. The very last night we binged on Malaysian food, which was awesome and I certainly need to eat more of. I wish I had a picture of our spread; it was impressive. 

It was a wonderful week with family, full of love and laughs. It got us excited to spend time with much of Mike's family at his cousin Emma's Bat Mitzvah in Newport News, VA in a few days. But first, a pit stop in Lewisburg, PA to hang with Katelyn and Joe!