For a while there, it looked like they were going to have to make room on the Newtown ballot for a prison warden.

The Town of  Newtown has gotten a lot of land at Fairfield Hills from the state over the years. Even now, a land conveyance is in the works for 24 acres adjacent to the Pootatuck Fish and Game Club. The legislature approved the conveyance and as the deed was being prepared by the state attorney general’s office, someone did a last minute check on the assessor’s map, block, and lot number for the parcel and discovered that the state was on the verge of conveying the Garner Correctional Institution to the Town of Newtown for passive recreation and other municipal uses. Someone had gotten the lot number wrong in the paperwork, specifying the transfer of Lot 1 (the prison) instead of Lot 2 (the 24-acre parcel).

Instead of changing the number on the deed, the attorney general insisted that the whole conveyance package go back to the legislature from reapproval with the proper lot number, which is now in the works. Oh well, I guess Newtown won’t be offering incarceration as one of its municipal services anytime soon.

Cindy Simon announced that the recount of the Newtown election totals resulted in only one change: Legislative Council candidate Tim Holian picked up one vote. It make a difference in the outcome; Tim won reelection anyway, but he now feels a little more confident about his public mandate. I guess one vote can be considered political capital. Don’t spend it all in one place, Tim!

You probably just thought it was Paul Teutul, Sr, from Discovery Channel’s American Chopper bombing around town, but a closer look identifies the new bike rider in town as Bob LaMarche. Bob sweet-talked his wife into letting him buy a motorcycle and has been taking advantage of the pleasant, sunny days of autumn to test out his new wheels and let the wind rush through his….helmet.

Bob Schmidle could use some new wheels — or at least one new wheel. Bob’s got a tire problem on his beloved old tractor that he can’t seem to fix. If you’ve got any expertise in that area, Bob could use your help.

It must be the Full Beaver Moon that rose Wednesday night, because everywhere I look people are battening down the hatches and preparing for cold weather. Show shovels are stacked and ready by the checkout counters at the Big Y, and pickup trucks filled with firewood are driving around town. If only hibernation were an option, we wouldn’t have to worry about the oil bill.

It never hurts to find out how our ancestors coped with cold weather. One way was having a pot of hot soup simmering on the hearth. Don’t forget to stop by the Matthew Curtiss House at 44 Main Street on Sunday afternoon during the Newtown Historical Society’s “Hearth Cooking Demonstration” between 1 and 4 pm to sample some of Bill Brett’s Colonial Vegetable Stew. “My wife’s not cooking, but she’ll be showing people around on the house tour,” Bill says. Now, there’s a nice reversal of traditional domestic roles.

Speaking of domesticity, most historic homes and farms dating back to before 1900 were equipped with what were politely termed “necessaries” or privies. Today’s owners of these vintage properties have found a lot of creative ways to use the old outhouses that did not involved bulldozing or otherwise removing them, according to speaker and story-teller Bob Berthelson. “Driving down Hattertown Road with my camera, I found a lot of them hidden in back of the house or barn. The theory was, if you put the outhouse behind the woodpile, a person could bring back an armful of logs to add to the woodbin every time he or she made a visit,” he told members of the Newtown Historical Society at Monday’s meeting. “Nowadays, they have been converted to tool sheds and potting sheds, or they are used to support clothes lines.” He didn’t mention that they are also very convenient places for a cat to hide when the dog gets loose.

That’s all for now, but I will come out of hiding again next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.