Barns

Log in the Water/Blade in My Eye...Thank You, Roman Polanski

According to Wikipedia, Cohocton's name "is derived from an Iroquois phrase for 'log in the water.'" Not knowing anything about Iroquois language or culture, I wonder why there is a phrase, rather than a word, for this concept? Because it is important? Or is this simply a misnomer?

I imagine a log in the water. It could signify many things: a bridge, a dam, a boat. Elliptically—kinds of water: still, rushing, deep, and—ponds, rivers, streams and oceans; ripples, currents, waves and tides. Parsing further, I think about power and ways to contain it: surmounting it, blocking it or giving in. Weight, buoyancy.

The windmills are forbidding yet compelling. I would not want to gaze at them every day from my back window. 

My family owns property nearby in Prattsburgh. Wind turbines are a hot button issue for them and many others. Cohoctonfree.com is an activist web site "Seeking to keep our hills and sky turbine-free."

Some Details

From my sister -

“Hi Amanda,
You may be interested to know that the line "Sweet Vale of Avoca" comes from a poem ("The Meeting of the Waters") by Thomas Moore. I know this because Stephanie & Kerry sang this poem at our wedding. (Thomas Moore is the same author who wrote your wedding song: "Believe Me if All These Endearing Young Charms".) As you already mentioned in your blog, the original poem must have referred to a place in the British Isles. Is it because there are (or used to be) potato farms that Avoca, NY came to be identified with the other town? Were some of the early settlers Irish or English? The identification is a bit surprising to me but I like the identification since Avoca, NY is so near where we got married.

Love,
Ellie

P.S. Here's the full stanza:

Sweet vale of Avoca,
How calm could I rest,
In thy bosom of shade,
With the friends I love best!”