You can have it all, if by all you mean: A nice Malbec, kitty litter, a ground rod, an axe helve, the newspaper, new boots, clothbound cheddar, bubble bath, tennis balls, lemons, c-clamps, handkerchiefs, greeting cards, carrot seeds, copy paper, a hunting knife, chimney brushes, fresh bread, pickling salt, a mop, fan belt, door knob, […]
Ben Nottermann has been growing his business since the ripe old age of six. Yes, the year most kids learn to tell time and dig into reading, Ben was learning that if he planted a couple seeds (about 50 cents worth), tended his few seedlings into thriving plants, harvested their produce, and sold his 24 […]
“A cold pocket”—it sounds like something a snowman might have. But that’s where I live, in the snowman’s coat, in his cold pocket. In a valley. Where the chilly- heavy air has a tendency to linger, to cling on a breeze-less night. And this year, on the morning September 19th , this pocket’s white […]
On Route 100 in Vermont, between Morrisville and Stowe, Thea Alvin’s unique stone arches, circles, and sculptures are a familiar sight. “Does your husband do this?” the man asks Thea Alvin, as he sweeps his arm, a gesture encompassing all that can be seen from the road: the loop de loop rock wall and an […]
We asked steeplejack Jay Southgate…What’s the Point? [slideshow post_id=”557637″] Jay Southgate is the owner of Southgate Steeplejacks, headquartered on the grounds of a former granite-processing facility in Websterville, Vermont. A steeplejack is … wait … we’ll let Jay tell you himself. Suffice it to say that he and his four “awesome employees” make their living […]
When it’s beautiful, Sunny Sweatt and his daughter, Rhoda can be found on their Craftsbury workshop porch, even though by Sunny’s estimate, it takes three times as long to accomplish anything due to all the impromptu visitors. Recently, I was one of their waylayers. When I stopped by, I found the pair sitting together–Sunny’s […]
They appear the same time as the chicory blooms by the roadside: signs for Brown’s Beautiful Blueberries. They’re tiny picket signs, hand-painted with an emblem of the fruit and an arrow -– this is how so many pickers find their way over to Arnold Brown’s back hillside. This morning I packed some pails into the […]
Again, I have the long incline of the road snaking up Barr Hill to myself. Only a short drive from home, this otherworldly plateau in Greensboro, Vermont, is where I go when I need to pace something out, to knead an idea or predicament like dough. Others might head for steep mountain trails, but […]
Willow, an American Milking Devon at Manysummers Farm in Cornish, New Hampshire, has yellow honeysuckle flowers scattered across her broad, burgundy colored back, a consequence of grazing the lush grass beneath the blossoming shrub. As she considers at the visitors who’ve entered her pasture, half -munched grass dangles from her muzzle. She blinks, then lets […]
If the town had been called “Connecticut Point” or “South Mystic,” I could have resisted. But it was a word I’d never seen or heard—the sign read, “Noank.” About four miles southwest of the Mystic River Drawbridge, my mom and I pulled into a little lot by the water. “Yeah, you can tell who lives […]
There were cows and calves aplenty on their dairy farm when Diane Young was a girl growing up in South Albany, Vt., but for some reason her baby brother Alan had his heart set on getting a lamb. One day their father relented and brought home the pined for lamb, but it was white, and […]
Maybe this month is called “May” because of all the new things that are possible. “A stick, a stone, it’s the end of the road…” so goes the catchy bossa nova song, “The Waters of March,” which lists an inventory of some lovely (and brutal) things unearthed in the torrents of spring. Following March and […]
