Latest news with #Esopus
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
NY community 'heartbroken' by loss of father and daughter who died hiking in Maine
The Ulster County community is mourning the loss of a father and daughter from Ulster Park who were found dead on a mountain in Maine, where they had gone hiking on June 1. They were identified by authorities as Tim Keiderling, 58, and his daughter, Esther Keiderling, 28. USA Today reported the father and daughter were last seen leaving their campground in Baxter State Park, on their way to the summit of Mount Katahdin, around 10 a.m. June 1. Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, is located within the park. A search and rescue mission for the Keiderlings began on June 2, after their car was spotted in the mountain's day-use parking lot. Found guilty: Monticello man convicted of predatory sexual assault against a child Park rangers, K-9 crews, game wardens and the Maine Forest Service were involved in the extensive ground and air search. The Maine National Guard used two helicopters, a Blackhawk and a Lakota, in the search. A Marine Warden K-9 search team found Tim Keiderling's body near the summit around 2:45 p.m. June 3, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Esther's body was found around 1 p.m. June 4 in a wooded area of Katahdin's Tableland, according to Baxter State Park officials. Their deaths are being mourned on social media by many who knew them. "All of us at the Town of Esopus are heartbroken by the loss of Tim and Esther Keiderling," the town said in a Facebook post. "They were a cherished part of our community and we grieve alongside their family and our friends at the Bruderhof." "Through their work on our Parks and Recreation Committee, Tim and Esther brought joy to so many," the Esopus Facebook post continued. "Their warmth, kindness and dedication were unmatched and will be deeply missed." "We will continue to honor their memory by serving our community with the same spirit of dedication and generosity they shared with us," the Esopus post concluded. Heinrich Arnold of the Bruderhof Communities said in a Facebook post that the community is "grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support." Three dead: Goshen community mourns loss of father, two sons in 'devastating' house fire "This afternoon we heard the anticipated — but nonetheless deeply painful — news that the search team on Katahdin Mountain in Maine found Esther, who also succumbed to exposure near where Tim was discovered," Arnold said in his Facebook post. "This is a heartbreaking tragedy, difficult to fully grasp," Arnold continued. "Both were taken from us far too soon, and we are all left asking: 'Why?' Only God knows the answer. One comfort to the family is that Tim and Esther were doing something they both were passionate about: being near to God, surrounded by expansive views and visions, immersed in nature, in the raw and wild beauty of creation." "We will face this tragic loss together, with tears and also with faith in Jesus and the resurrection," Arnold's post concluded. The Keiderlings also were being mourned at Rifton, a company that makes adaptive equipment for people with disabilities, where they both worked. Tim Keiderling worked for Rifton as a sales and customer service representative since Sept. 2020 and Esther Keiderling joined the company in 2023, and worked as a product trainer and educator. "Tim presented hundreds of in-service and product trainings to customers all over the United States," Rifton said in a Facebook post. "Esther joined him on some of these. Anyone who attended one of these sessions can't help but remember Tim's lively presence and the joy and fulfillment both he and Esther found in helping all of you serve the children and adults in your care." "Thank you for your concern for their family and your prayers in these difficult days," the Rifton post concluded. Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrandall@ This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Father, daughter found dead on Mount Katahdin 'brought joy to so many'
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A ‘Romantic Idealist' Renovates a Derelict House on an Artist's Budget
Standing in his kitchen, with walls the color of green tea, Peter Daverington stops, closes his eyes and surrenders to Nina Simone's melancholy rendition of 'Mr. Bojangles,' a haunting lullaby of love and loss. He plays it twice. 'This song is about taking on hardships with grace,' he explains. 'Turning something ugly into something beautiful.' He understands this well. As an Australian-born street artist turned landscape painter, and an accomplished Turkish ney — flute — player, Mr. Daverington, who is an acquaintance of mine, has dedicated his career to the enrichment of space and the pursuit of the sublime. As a recently divorced 51-year-old man, he has rebuilt his life by rehabilitating a derelict old house on a small lot in Esopus, N.Y. 'This house is healing medicine to me,' he said of the 1897 three-story vernacular just steps from the Hudson River. 'It is my deliverance from the darkest of nights and it's my phoenix rising.' Mr. Daverington, known for his public works fusing old master sobriety with new urban swagger, renovated the house with the eye — and the wallet — of a working artist. Enlisting a contractor and designer was out of reach, so he did most of the work himself. Sourcing his materials from accessible vendors like Home Depot and Facebook Marketplace, he remodeled his home from a blank canvas of beams and studs to a historically detailed live/work studio. Purchased as a two-family fixer-upper with his ex-wife for $60,000 in 2020, the house remained uninhabitable until the marriage ended two years later. With no other place to live, he moved into the owner's unit in 2022, camping out on the floor for a full year while struggling to work and pay bills. 'For a long time, I didn't know where my next dollar was coming from, because I rely on periodical sales of my paintings,' he revealed. 'I had to live like that and just felt defeated.' With little savings, Mr. Daverington needed help with the down payment during the marriage and the equity buyout during the divorce. Simon Ford, a retired investment banker and longtime super-patron in Sydney, came to the rescue by commissioning a painting to provide funds for the initial purchase of the property and mobilized other Australian patrons to follow suit for the buyout. 'Artists particularly have trouble buying a house because they can never put the deposits together,' said Mr. Ford on a video call. In the background hung one of Mr. Daverington's commissions: a colossal $40,000 quadriptych based on Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th-century book The Decameron. 'Everyone needs a home, and we were happy to help.' At the time of purchase, the house was covered in beige siding and dead vines, and the inside housed a warren of bleak rooms and fixtures awaiting demolition. 'The rooms had all been cut and chopped up, and I had to put all the character back in,' he said. Out of necessity, Mr. Daverington addressed the kitchen and bathrooms first. He moved the location of the kitchen and installed basic white cabinets with butcher block countertops from Home Depot. He later painted them green. To complement the warmth of the laminated surfaces, he exposed and varnished the wooden beams in the ceiling, which raised the room height by several inches. He added visual interest to the kitchen with a set of arched corner cabinets flanking a widened Greek Revival-style architrave enhanced by a pair of fluted columns. Having collected these elements from various thrift stores, lumberyards, and Facebook Marketplace, he unified the decorative pastiche with several coats of white paint. For the primary bathroom, he wanted early 20th-century mosaic flooring but found the cost prohibitive. Instead, he bought sheets of black-and-white penny tile and methodically sequenced each tessera to form diamond-shaped patterns. The process took months. He also mounted a vintage pedestal sink that he bought from an online seller for $100, and swapped the baseboard heater for a functional antique radiator, which required an overhaul of the plumbing system. Maintaining aesthetic consistency was worth the extra effort. 'I'm not a practical person,' he confessed. 'I'm a Romantic idealist.' This philosophy is most evident in his upstairs hallway, which is being transformed into a panoramic, Zuber-style scene of the Hudson River Valley at sunset. With exacting detail and astonishing depth, his hand-painted mural evokes the landscapes of the Hudson River School, a deeply Romantic collective of 19th-century landscape painters who celebrated the intensity of emotion and the splendor of nature. For a maximalist like Mr. Daverington, plain white walls beg for color, texture, and pattern. He has lacquered walls in phthalo green, burnished ceilings with Venetian plaster made of marble dust and lime, stretched old painted canvasses as wallpaper, and is currently hand painting a second bathroom in a repeating pattern of kookaburras, kangaroos, and koalas in a style he has named 'Australasiaoiserie.' Walls also tell stories about the house's past. In what is now the guest bedroom, original lath and plaster smoothed over a rough brick insulation called nogging, had decayed in sections, and was coated in five layers of paint. Gentle application of a scraper revealed a floral lattice wallpaper, which he left as is, creating a distressed cottage-core atmosphere. In addition to painted walls, he taught himself to make bluestone ones using the historical abundance of materials quarried in Ulster County. Inspired by Harvey Fite's Opus 40 in Saugerties, he used traditional techniques — no mortar — to build retaining walls, curved steps, garden niches, and a flagstone patio. Avi Gitler, an art gallerist in Manhattan and neighbor in nearby West Shokan, N.Y., saw Mr. Daverington's masonry and hired him to build a sprawling stone terrace and fire pit to accommodate 'en plein air' retreats for artists at his home. 'Peter is such a Renaissance man,' said Mr. Gitler. 'He's a great musician, a great painter and street artist, and a hell of a builder.' To date, Mr. Daverington estimates that he has spent $300,000 on his ongoing project. 'When I sell another painting, I'll put in reclaimed vintage flooring,' he said. Since the job in West Shokan, Mr. Daverington has landed several more commissions to paint residential murals upstate, allowing him to carry on the ideals of his artistic predecessors in addition to paying for new renovations on his house. 'I have discovered my own America here in the Hudson Valley,' he said. 'I came here to pursue a career in contemporary art in New York City, but what I really discovered was New York State.'
