2010

By Anita Rafael

Photography by Hubert Schriebl 

For the past fifty years, the Vermont Nature Conservancy has been an active and important partner backing the Green Mountain Club's mission as stewards of the Long Trail System, and they have put their money where their pup tents are. The largest of these land protection deals involving the two organizations closed in 1986 when the VTNC stepped in as the go-between to buy 12,000 acres from International Paper for $3.1 million. When the U.S. Congress made appropriations for it, the parcel, Long Trail and all, was incorporated into the Green Mountain National Forest. This meant that private lands that had been open for development were now preserved for habitat, as well as for public use. This particular acquisition allowed the rerouting of the Long Trail directly to the summit of Stratton Mountain, win-win-win all the way around.

Over the past half-century, the land trust has preserved and helped to protect more than 180,000 acres in Vermont-that averages out to 3,600 acres a year, which is equivalent to about 140 super-stores with parking lots. Some of the Nature Conservancy's land acquisitions have come as gifts, but most were purchased at appraised fair-market value. Buying land not only takes money, it also requires supreme patience. Eight years in the making, the conclusion of a 312-acre land deal announced by the VTNC earlier this year resulted in the protection of a prime example of a rich northern hardwood forest-one of the largest parcels in all of New England. Right in our own backyard, it is part of the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester Center. » read more

By kathleen James

Photography by lee Krohn 

When the ice melts and the indoor soccer season starts at Riley Rink in Manchester each March, James and Kennedy Moore come down with a serious case of the No More Hockey Blues. The brothers, both of whom attend the Dorset School, are so passionate about hockey that their moods ebb and flow with the indoor ice. "When they start making the ice in October, James can't sleep," says their mom, Debbie. "He just gets so excited when he thinks about it starting to freeze. And the boys are extremely sad on meltdown day in March."

Luckily, the brothers Moore don't suffer for long. Since 2005, Riley Rink has offered a summer ice program in July and August, with national-caliber hockey camps that attract skaters from across the country, plus day camps for local kids, public skates, private parties and more. "Each year, the program has grown," says executive director Susan Marmer. "And it's a great way to cool off on a hot summer day."

In the early 1990s, local business leader Susan Sargent founded an exploratory group called Friends of Hockey. The goal: to find land, raise money and build a community skating facility for Manchester, Dorset and the surrounding towns. At the time, local hockey players and figure skaters had to make do with pond ice or commute; the Northshire Hockey Association, for example, traveled to a rink in North Adams, Massachusetts, for practice and play games.

Joined by founding board members including Joe Miles, Perk Perkins, Paul Schwindt and Lee Romano, Sargent spent five years making the dream come true. Riley Rink at Hunter Park-a 35,000-square-foot facility with an Olympic-sized skating rink-opened on land formerly used as a gravel pit in the fall of 1997. » read more

One of the charms of country living is being surprised by people who just come by and let themselves in. Like most people around here, we don't use the door lock much. There are people who know this and will stick their heads inside and shout "anyone home," instead of knocking or using the doorbell that goes months without ever ringing.

If I hear them, I'll shout back, "Come on in. I'll be out in a minute."

That's the usual routine but there are people who have higher privileges and they just come in. My daughter and her kids, of course. I'm forever being surprised at my desk by the sound of tiny feet and then a hand touching me on the arm.

When my car isn't in the garage but my husband's truck is parked outside, people know he is here and working and some of his buddies just walk in and take the stairs up to his office. This happens a lot during turkey season when the boys are swapping stories.

Some of the people we call for help with the house-plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.-will come in and just start fixing whatever needs to be fixed. My husband says there are times he doesn't know anyone is even in the house with him until "the hammering starts." » read more

By Anita Rafael
Photography by Hubert Schriebl
Historical Images courtesy of Green Mountain Club

Stratton was a perfectly fine mountain, with good views across to several other well-known peaks-Equinox, Ascutney, Snow and Monadnock-but I couldn't say that it was a summit that would have inspired me to grab a hatchet and start clearing a trail from Georgia to Quebec.

That's what Bill Bryson wrote in Chapter 16 of his laugh-out-loud trail diary A Walk in the Woods, still a travel classic twelve years after it first went to press.

Bryson‘s hike, which began at Georgia's Springer Mountain on the Appalachian Trail, took him along a section through Vermont, where it is,
in fact, the older Long Trail. Wisecracking and full of foolery every step of the way, he walked up and over the top of Stratton Mountain one "overcast, mercifully cool day in June," staying on the Long Trail until the fork at Willard Gap set him eastbound on the AT. » read more

Rockwell modelsBy Nancy Boardman
Photography by Hubert Schriebl

The town of Arlington is hosting a special event to showcase the close tie between the town and its most famous resident, Norman Rockwell.

They could have called it Ethan's Attic, or Ira's Attic, or Dorothy's Attic. Instead, the organizers of the first Arlington Craft Fair and Town-Wide Tag Sale, which kicked off 16 years ago, chose the overall moniker Norman's Attic. That's because, of all the notable historical figures, artists and writers who have lived in Arlington-the Allen brothers, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Rockwell Kent, Carl Ruggles, and even Grandma Moses, who spent a lot of time in town even though her home was over the New York border-it was Norman Rockwell who has become Arlington's most famous resident. 

Norman's Attic takes place on August 7th. As in the past, its main focus is Arlington's Main Street, otherwise known as Historic Route 7A. Lining the road will be vendors showcasing a panoply of handmade crafts, jewelry, pottery, photographs, artwork, antique textiles and woodware, along with woolen hats, scarves and mittens, goat's milk soap, fresh vegetables and other offerings from local farms. On Arlington's side roads, townspeople will hold their individual tag, barn, yard, garage, lawn and moving sales. For a nominal fee they have had their homes listed on a map that bargain-hunters can use to find them. » read more

By Susanne Washburn 

Photography by Hubert Schriebl 

Whatever the historic ups and downs of the sheep population and its attendant industries in Vermont, the activities of the shepherd are alive and well in the Green Mountain state in the 21st century. In fact,Merck Forest and Farmland Center celebrates those skills at the annualSheep Dog Trial, which will see its sixth round on the weekend of July 10/11. This competition, designed to single out the best shepherds among the handlers of the dogs that traditionally do this work, is the first in the series of events that make up the Vermont Triple Crown Championships. The main job of the Border Collie is to gain the trust of the ewes and rams as he herds the flock according to his master’s wishes.

Originally a Scottish breed, the Border Collie is considered the premier herding dog, expected to meetthe highest standards. These include being able to cover a hundred miles a day—day after day—and to outrun a 200-pound ewe downhill, and turn her around. » read more

By Geoffrey Norman

In the mid-part of April around here, you begin thinking about yard work and start laying in the necessities.   Once the last scraps of snow have melted away, things happen fast and you can quickly fall way behind the curve.  And the part of the whole equation that requires the greater part of your time and attention is, of course, the least interesting.  That would be the grass.

Everything about a yard is more beguiling than the grass, which doesn’t do anything but grow.  And there are no guarantees on that. 

You have to coax it and baby it and feed it special formulas.

But first you have to rake it.  

Because the grass has been buried under snow and scoured by sheets of ice, it is brown and matted and to bring it back to life, you must scratch it briskly with a metal lawn rake.   This removes the old dead grass and, evidently, invigorates the surviving roots and blades.  It is also tedious work that consumes time you could otherwise spend on the perennial beds or the vegetable garden or the golf course where there is an actual point to grass.

All grass, however, must be attended to.  It is needy, that way. » read more

By Paul Fersen

Twenty years ago I wrote about building my house. When I built it, I assumed it would be the last house I would ever live in, but things change, lives take directions we never imagined and things we consider indelible, suddenly become untenable. What we needed then seems a bit much now. It’s time to build a new one.

Am I sad about this? Yeah, there’s a part of me that looks around at the familiar timbers that I put into place, the pegs I drove in, the walls I painted. I can remember every step of the process down to the most minute detail, simply because I did it myself with a little help from my friends. But is it devastating? No. In fact, I’m pretty excited about it, because this gives me the opportunity to do it all over again, albeit on a smaller scale. Building this house myself is the best time I ever had with tools and clothes on. Mimi and I designed it together, built it together, and raised our children here. Looking back on our life together it was, aside from farming, the most fun we ever had, because we were totally focused on our home. Today we’re focused on everything but our home, just trying to survive and somewhere we seem to have lost the reason for moving to Vermont. We’re tired of waving at each other on the road. » read more