The community record for this issue of the Cabot Chronicle, extracted from the original pages. Reprinted with permission from the Cabot Chronicle.
Original issue: Download the November 2010 pages (PDF)
Automated extraction, spot-checked. Advertisements, the business directory, and puzzles are omitted; obituaries appear as individual entries.
In This Issue
- By Julia Shipley — 250w
- Design/Pagination: Todd Jones — 249w
- Subscriptions — 260w
- hronicle — 301w
- From Pen & Ink to Google Earth — 361w
- Town — 233w
- November 2010 ~ page 4 — 145w
- Culinary Arts, St. Johnsbury Academy — 268w
- Two Days Prior: — 145w
- Dear Friends, — 223w
- Brined Turkey — 69w
- One Day Prior: — 127w
- Five Hours Before Dinner — 108w
- OMMENTARY — 456w
- By Brittany P. Haworth — 617w
- - Class of 2005 — 645w
- By Cara Cookson — 130w
- Emily (Creighton) Boyton graduated — 170w
- Marjorie Greaves Retires — 204w
- Michelle "Shell" (Duprey) Kinne has — 55w
- Jennifer (Goodrich) Churchill didn’t — 122w
- Melissa (Clements) Blondin married — 57w
- Amber (Ksepka) Perry lives in Cabot — 60w
- After 24 years — 189w
- Monday, 11/1-6 — 48w
- Homeschool Wednesdays, Vermont — 63w
- Sense of Place Mapping Workshop , — 69w
- Crafty Saturdays @ Vermont His- — 54w
- Annual Ski & Skate Sale, Waitsfield — 49w
- Book Group, Tinkers by Paul Hard- — 47w
- School Vacation Fun, Vermont His- — 62w
- Call Marvie Domey — 48w
- “A Care Package For — 158w
- WORDS OF GRATITUDE — 64w
- GOOD EATING — 51w
- A-CHOO!! — 49w
- FOR ELIZE — 90w
- Every Soldier” — 157w
- T RIP — 96w
- Shop Local and Green. — 56w
- News From The Cabot — 61w
- Julia Shipley — 130w
- Book Group: — 121w
- Vermont Reads — 76w
- On Monday, November 22, 6:30- — 81w
- Oct 12- Nov 30 3-4pm, Come read — 75w
- Calling All Library Materials!! — 57w
- By — 59w
- Book Review: — 72w
- Friends of — 138w
- Barry Goldensohn — 179w
- Cabot Library News — 203w
- By Lorrie Goldensohn — 307w
- Twin Valley — 210w
- Senior News — 290w
- Bear Season — 158w
- By Libby Hale — 170w
- in Vermont — 157w
- News — 175w
- By Paula Davidson — 550w
- Gene May Influence Drink- — 506w
- Researchers — 245w
- Double Sided Swags — 241w
- A Guide To Open — 81w
- EXECUTIVE SESSIONS — 267w
- Meetings — 140w
- Going Into Executive Session — 188w
- Willey Building. — 112w
- Planning Discussion — 133w
By Julia Shipley
Twenty- four- year- old Nathan Smith had a dream: he wanted to build a cider press, not just a little homestead-style press where you turn a screw that presses the board that smushes the pomace and so the juice leaks out. No. Nathan wanted to build a press big enough to fill a shed, strong enough to apply 45,000 pounds of pressure, powerful enough to squeeze 70 gallons out of 23.3 bushels of apples in a single run …and so he did. Note: Here’s some cider- making vocabulary: “Pomace” is the term for the ground up apples. “Cheeses” are individual layers of pomace that build up in flat packages, wrapped in pressing cloths, one stacked upon another, in preparation for the mighty squeeze of the press.
Question: Of all the things to build, why did you build a cider press? I just always thought it would be cool to have a custom cider press. We always used to go to Mecham’s Press in Orange. That’s what kinda gave me the idea. They have a wooden press. Mine’s metal. This project has as much to do with ignorance as it does anything else. I’m glad I didn’t know what I was getting into. Now I know almost enough to do this project. People always assume, because I built a press, I know all about apples, but actually, I don’t know all that much about them.
DEADLINE: 15th of the month prior Publisher: Cabot Coalition Executive Editor: Jeannie Johnson Coordinator: Cia Considine
Design/Pagination: Todd Jones
Find current news, great links to your community, discussion forums and more about our paper to help readers realize, recognize, and a little bit more about their neighbors. Question: How did you build a cider press? Well, I worked on it for four years seriously. For two of those years it was in all of my spare time. To buy a press this size/capability is about $30,000. And that’s without the tank, the pomace pump and the grinder. Basically, the drum in the grinder is the only stock part I didn’t make. I used a picture in the catalogue and modified it to fit my needs. And I made a lot of drawings. What I came up with has eve-
rything in one place instead of three stations. Also, I had to solve the problem of safeguarding the hydraulic oil from ever coming near the cider, so I designed the press to apply pressure up on the pomace, instead of pressing down. Scott Abare did the excavating. I cut down the trees and milled the lumber. My motto is: if it’s not overbuilt, it’s not strong enough. This press was built right where it stands. I never could have done this without Matt of Matt’s Welding. You see how these bearings don’t match? It’s amazing how much time you can spend chasing down parts. First they were back ordered, then they said, Oh we can’t get that, then they said we only have one, not two; another time they
Subscriptions
gave me the wrong size pulleys, and then when I tested the grinder, it sounded like it was going to take off. But Harry’s Hardware was invaluable. I hired an electrician; Sue Carpenter helped with the framing and building; my mom and dad were also a big help. There’s a pretty good list of people I couldn‘t have done this without. But, I did most everything the way I wanted to -- you don’t often get to do that.
Question: What was it like to run the press the first time? I was majorly nervous. It was Sue and Sam Carpenter and me and my mom-- I didn’t want that many people there. Everything went ok. Although, I remember that the cider wasn’t all that great because the apples weren’t quite ripe. But, I was pretty relieved. I just kind of slumped over—exhausted from working really, really long days. Also—you never really run it for the first time. When you’ve designed and created it, you know all about it and you understand all the processes. See that tractor over there? If something went wrong, I wouldn’t know what to do. But I built this. If something went wrong, I’d know.
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without express written permission from Cabot of advertising is contingent upon editor’s and loss or expense on claims based upon contents beyond the cost of space occupied by individual
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Actually, I did several test runs before that first press, and the pomace coming out of the grinder got sprayed everywhere, all over my glasses, the walls, it was a mess. Fortunately, I solved that problem.
Question: What is a custom press experience like? Most people generally get more cider than they counted on, especially if they’re used to a home press, they’re surprised. I think the best cider comes from apples picked a couple days before they’re pressed. You want a mix of tart apples, wild apples because they make complex flavors. Did I mention I get paid by the gallon? $1.10 per gallon for under 50 gallons, and $.90 per gallon for over 50 gallons. There’s a $15 minimum. It’s sort of like a sugar house—not all that much to see, but when things are going, the whole place comes alive. I made 450 gallons last year. I’m about at that mark already this year. Most of the people that come are local, but I don’t have most of my people. But I noticed that those who have come here, have come back and made even more gallons this year than the year before, so I guess they’re liking it.
Question: What other dreams do you have? I’m hoping people will get more into cider—it’s pretty darn tasty, also you can add it to juice concentrates and stretch them. For instance, if you look at the label of most mixed fruit drinks, you’ll see apple juice listed as one of the primary ingredients. I want to put some vinegar barrels in the back. And make jugging the cider easier. And then I want to build a welding shop. But that’s a couple years out.
day of the month
for the residents of the Cabot Area. involved in their Community.
From Pen & Ink to Google Earth
Sometime between 1790 and 1810 by historians’ best guess, Samuel Chandler Crafts created a pen and ink map to represent the settlement plots of the Cabot land grant. He sat down with a piece of paper and drew a perfectly rectangular 320-acre parcel. Then he used emerald green ink for the ponds, creeks and river. To simulate the dirt roads or the main footpaths, he made teeny dotted lines. The rest was devoted to the invisible boundaries of property lines showing how Cabot was divvied up among the settlers. “Wow, it looks like an excel spread-sheet,” one observer said of the identical one mile by half mile boxes covering the map. Samuel Crafts’ lines are flawless and precise, as each of the 72 rectangles has a number and a man’s name inside. This two hundred year old map lives in a calfskin book of other Vermont town maps in a vault at the Vermont Historical Library in Barre. Wendell Berry, a farmer and author of more than 30 books steeped in a sense of his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, once said, “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” Poet Seamus Heaney put this imperative to understand place in another way when he writes in his new book, Human Chain, “Me in the place and the place in me.” Well then, does knowing that the offices of the Cabot Chronicle are situated on a parcel first assigned to Ezekiel Tiffany really change anything? Would it be more than mildly interesting if you learned that your garage is situated on what used to be Abiel Blanchard’s south pasture, or if your south pasture was first granted to Samuel Crafts’ father, Ebenezer Crafts, over two hundred years ago? In order to experience a place more deeply, the writer, William Least Heat Moon, famous for his book, Blue Highways , about a 13,000mile adventure on back roads through the United States, did something kind of weird. He studied one county in Kansas, extensively, for 30 months. He described this intense study as the making of a “deep map.” Another means to comprehend a place, besides excavating its history
Town
and probing its geography, is to use technology to see it from above. Using the satellites of Google Earth, you can virtually hover over Cabot and spot the ponds and watercourses that Mr. Crafts charted. And, whereas Samuel Crafts made a map of Cabot as he saw it: land allotted to people to log and farm and sell, Google Earth shows us what it looks like presently, with paved roads and schools and churches, so much progress. But what about the people living here for more than 30 months? Between the colonial past, the visitor’s investigation and the aerial perspective, how are people personally connected to this place? Which hills and fields matter? What happened in those woods? As Wendell Berry would put it, where are we? In the following months, look for the Chronicle's new feature, 'Our Town', showcasing home-made maps of distinctive and personally significant places in Cabot. To inspire potential mappers, the Cabot Library is offering a free workshop, “Mapping a Sense of Place”, on November 13th. All materials will be provided. (But if you have some favorite markers, bring them.) If any readers have already made a map of their favorite sliding hills, their favorite trees or the home place, and would like to share it with Chronicle readers, please send a copy (not the original!) via email to jshipley@pshift.com or by snail mail to "Julia" at the Cabot
November 2010 ~ page 4
Do YOU cook the meal for Thanksgiving? That depends on where we are. If we are home in Cabot, I do cook the meal; if we are at my parent's house, all the siblings chip in with the sides and I take care of the bird. My mother makes the pies. What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish. (Can we print that recipe) - a close description is fine. I have to say the Turkey prepared as I described it. After so many years, I have really got it figured. As for the sides, I love the creamed onions and the different cranberrry sauces ( a cooked sauce with cinnamon sticks and maple syrup and the classic relish with the ground oranges that used to be on the Ocean Spray bag). Do you have a funny Thanksgiving story? (re: cooking or...) Honestly, as a kid, Thanksgiving was
Culinary Arts, St. Johnsbury Academy
Do you make a dish or use an ingredient for Thanksgiving that is unusual or unconventional? I do a couple of things differently for Thanksgiving. First thing I do is completely bone the turkey except for the drumsticks, leaving the skin intact, I grind the thigh meat with additional sausage for a stuffing. Then I brine the turkey in salt and maple syrup (Bothfeld turkey, Bothfeld syrup!). Roll the whole thing up and smoke it over my own apple wood for about 6 hours. While this process sounds time consuming, there are some advantages: I can make my turkey stock the day before with the bones Cooking the turkey outside frees up oven space for other goodies The other thing that I do that is a little different is I prepare a "vegetarian turkey". Libby doesn't eat turkey, so we will find a blue hubbard squash, cut a hole in it, scoop the seeds out and make a vegetarian stuffing (usually brandied apricots and pecans). We roast this big ol' squash just as we would the turkey. It has become a family tradition. never my favorite holiday. I had some tough cousins who pounded me pretty good. Once I started cooking, I really got into that part of it. At NECI we used to serve Thanksgiving day and we would receive about 20 calls from people needing help with preparing their meals at home. One woman became so distraught about the mess she was in that she shut off the stove and made a reservation for dinner later in the day... not sure what happened to her turkey.
Two Days Prior:
• Remove and reserve Turkey Neck and giblets • Using a sharp, stiff boning knife, cut the turkey skin along the back bone (DO NOT CUT ON THE BREAST SIDE) • Carefully peel the skin from the carcass on each side down to the breast meat. • Separate the breast meat from the carcass, leaving the meat intact as much as possible • Disconnect the leg joint from the carcass; you should now have the bird laid out flat on the cutting board with only the breast bone attached to the skin. • Separate the breast bone from the skin, being careful not to pierce the skin with the tip of the knife. • Carefully remove the thigh bones, leaving the meat attached to the skin as much as possible. You now have a semiboneless turkey for brining and bones, neck and giblets for stock.
Dear Friends,
Vermont spirit and creativity are a national treasure. They are my lifelong passion and my purpose for seeking an Independent seat for us in Congress. I am a Visionary Vermonter, a proud grandfather of four young men, and four decades a teacher of teachers and leader of leaders worldwide. Vermont towns, neighborhoods and families woven together in more creative self-sufficiency are forming our new economic prosperity and a new model of wealth for America. My friend Marion Leonard, late of Rochester, Vermont (1909-2009) said it best: “Vermont is the state to reinvent the United States.” We are; and we will. I am working with Vermonters to get that critical reinvention initiative moving. I would relish the chance to tell our Vermont story to the nation in Washington. I am not a politician. I am a planetician, meaning that the planet and the whole planetary family of life rule us; and so they are what we and I represent. Vermonters are becoming ever more wise members of that family of life, from our farming and logging to our hunting and fishing, and so we are a beacon of hope worldwide. The regeneration of our soil, clean water and clear air are the prosperity we are building and defending for the future. I have a planetary leadership agenda for and with Vermonters that we can
Brined Turkey
• Combine the salt, syrup, cayenne pepper and water, stirring until all the salt has dissolved, creating the brine • Place the Turkey in a large plastic container, pour the brine over the top of the turkey, gently plunging the meat to ensure that it is fully submerged. If necessary add more water to cover. Refrigerate for 24 hours. • This is a great time to make your stock!
One Day Prior:
• Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse in fresh water and place on a large clean space, skin side down. Gently dry the flesh as much as possible • Divide the ground sausage into equal portions; one for the tapered end of the breast and one for the wide end • Having the bamboo skewers ready, carefully reshape the turkey into its original shape and stitch together the skin with as many bamboo skewers as necessary, to hold the sausage in place • Tie the drumsticks together with a piece of twine • Place the turkey, breast side up, on a cooling rack with a sheet pan underneath • Pat the whole turkey dry and put into the refrigerator UNCOVERED until it is time to cook.
Five Hours Before Dinner
• Using the indirect charcoal method start 15 briquettes on two sides of the grill and allow topreheat. • Place Turkey, breast side up in the center of the clean grill • Cover and cook slowly, only adding coals to maintain an even temperature in the grill. • Cook for approximately 3 hours or until the internal temperature has reached 160 degrees. • Carefully remove the turkey from the grill (this is a good two person job), with four spatulas or other tools to get underneath. • Allow the turkey to rest in a warm place with a loose foil tent for at least 45 minutes before carving.
OMMENTARY
achieve one town, one neighborhood, one family at a time. It is our gift of reinvention for America. I call it Vermonumental Idealism – the Mother of Practicality for America. - ABOLISH WAR - DEVELOP DIRECT DEMOCRACY - CREATE COMMUNIVERSITIES As a PLANETICIAN, this is my leadership agenda: WAR is not part of human nature. It is a human creation now totally obsolete. It is a political strategy now so dysfunctional and disgraceful as to be an American tragedy more shameful everyday. As Vermonters, we can invent the total transformation of war into well being. I will lead. DIRECT DEMOCRACY means the power of all the people all the time such as we Vermonters enact in Town Meeting, debating articles we draft and petition. The Internet now allows us to run continuous town meetings for the protection of our values and our lives against federal government intrusions and attacks, foreign and domestic, and corporate business excesses. The Vermont we love cannot be represented in Washington or anywhere because it is impossible to send anyone anywhere to do our loving for us. Yet, we can ask a planetician to help create the mechanics and methods of self-sufficiency and self-governance strong enough and wise enough to protect our freedom and enhance our unity. I will lead that initiative. COMMUNIVERSITIES are a social invention for Vermont changing limited education into whole community continuous learning. I will continue my inventive leadership in this new form of learning. This poem explains:* * *Creating Communiversities** * *Partners in Whole Community Learning* A Communiversity Is a learning conversation Within a whole family of life In a place they hold in common Dear to them all. This conversation Is a sharing of mutual needs In a place of mutual dwelling In a process of mutual learning In a vessel of mutual hope. This continuous conversation Is the voice of the soul of life Expressing the sanctity of all life For the future of all life In the home of all life. By Gus Jaccaci These ideas and initiatives I am leading are well beyond politics as usual. Yet, these times are not usual, far from it. We can now see the first faint image of human extinction in the mirror of planetary nature. Vermont courage and idealism have no equal in the historic American Experiment in self-governance. In our 17 Vermont constitution we were the first unity of people in the world to abolish slavery. When the decisive battle of the civil war at Gettysburg was fought to defend that ideal freedom, it was Vermonters who lead the victory. We are now called again to lead. Passing from the night of human darkness, the dawn of salvation is at our door. Lead on, Vermont!
By Brittany P. Haworth
It has been an American tradition for high school classmates to have a reunion five years after graduation, then ten, twenty, and so on. The Cabot High School class of 2005, scattered around the world, opted out of the five year reunion, so I write this article to let our muchloved hometown know what kind of adventures we’ve been up to. Some people are omitted from this article only because I could not get in touch with them. But the ones whose stories grace this article have mainly been contacted via Facebook, the sweeping network tool that came out the same year that our class graduated. I’ve barely touched what my classmates wrote in response to me; only their words can describe their adventures. Fresh out of High School, Josh Szymanik went to Albany College of Pharmacy for a year and half. He even worked in a pharmacy for a year, but realized that it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. After a semester stint at CCV focusing on computer science, his interests changed again to video production. He graduated in December of 2009 from Liberty University with his Bachelors in Communication Studies ala Video Production/Broadcasting. He immediately began work the following week as a full time photojournalist for the CBS affiliate in Roanoke VA (also his current residence), WDBJ 7. He spends his work days carrying around about 60 pounds of video gear filming baseball, talking to politicians, riding in fire trucks, going to car wrecks, editing, and in general shooting some of the stories that appear on the nightly news cast. He loves his job; even though he films people and events every day, it's always something different which keeps it exciting. Outside of school his life has also been busy and filled with excitement. He married the love of his life on June 6th, 2009; they recently celebrated their first year of marriage, as well as bought their first home. They are also expecting their first child (they’re waiting to find out the gender of the baby when it's born) due sometime the week of Thanksgiving. Ruby Dale-Brown replied to my message as feisty as ever. I threatened my classmates with rumors of tattooed faces and sold organs if they didn’t respond to me with their own stories, to which Ruby quickly corrected me. She’s an independent working girl living with her lovable kitty. To quote her, “I do own a car, which I only occasionally sleep in. I haven't murdered anyone. I don't leave when told. I can't play the guitar. The largest weapon I own is 10" chef's knife and I have a cat.” David Helfand moved to the greater Boston area after college in search of more opportunity. He is living in an apartment with his sister and her college friend, Mike. He was planning on buying a condo, but the mortgage fell through at the last minute because of an error on their part, so, alas, he’s back to renting. Currently, he’s working two jobs. The first is as an In-Home Counselor for at – risk youth and their families and the other is a yoga instructor. He owns his own yoga business and travels to people's homes for private and small group lessons. The business is new, but you can find some details at www.CBeingYoga.com. The website looks great, and if I were in the Boston area I would love to take some yoga lessons. He’s also applying to doctorate and master’s level graduate school programs for next year. He’s looking mostly at counseling programs with health concentrations. Becky Burns has been living at Endicott, where she graduated with her undergraduate degree, for the past five
- Class of 2005
years. She currently works for Endicott as a telecommunications assistant/ technician, which means she gets to crawl around in basements of 100+ year old buildings with spiders and bugs. She is also attending classes for her master’s degree in moderate special needs education for the elementary level with an applied behavioral analyst certification. As of April, however, she will no longer "live" at Endicott, as she will be getting an apartment with her fiancé, Eric. They plan on getting married when she finishes her master's degree, which will probably be around 2012-2013ish. Allison Dudley has spent the last 5 years working, playing, going to school part-time, and then going to school fulltime trying to figure out where she wants to be and what she wants to do. She is currently going to be a senior at Suffolk University in Boston. In a few weeks, she’ll be moving into an apartment with my friend, Heather, on Revere Beach and will be on her way to finally finishing her degree. She says that, for the most part, she has managed to keep herself out of trouble...legally, morally, financially, and otherwise. And she has become a firm believer in the importance of pepper spray, even though she has never had to use it. Molly Pitkin just spent a year in the Boston area working as an assistant teacher in a first grade classroom. She absolutely loved it. Now she’s off to France for a year to work as an Au Pair, to take classes, and maybe even teach a little English in a primary school. Brian Rossell resides in New Jersey, where he is cooking up a storm. For the past couple of years he’s been moving around the United States, creating a culinary basis and learning from world renowned chefs. He’s studied in Hawaii, California, New Jersey, and good ol’ Vermont. He recently started his own business on the corner of the highway where he currently lives. He was selling fried and grilled chicken dinners, Hawaiian style. He promises that we’ll soon see him traveling around the country, pulling a BBQ pit and motorcycles on his truck. He has four bikes, which he may love just as much as cooking. To our classmates, he’d like to say, “Live life, be free and love everything.” Dan Hourihan spends most of his time in Framingham, MA, where his production internship at a commercial studio is located. When he gets some extra time he can be found helping his Dad out on their farm. Even still, Dan manages to squeeze in some time helping a lighting company in NYC. He just finished a project setting up the lights for a horror film. For fun, Dan has traveled across the country and back twice and “killed a wildebeest with my bare hand.” If only he had made a movie out of it. As for me, Brittany Haworth , after nomading around the East coast, I’ve nestled into an old Virginian city with my partner Anthony and our pup Masuimi, and work as a Library Literacy Instructor in Roanoke. And to fulfill my artistic side, I’ve been working for/with various artists. In my free time I can either be found exploring the numerous parks and cities in the area, writing, or buying books. I’d like to say thank you to those that responded with little paragraphs packed with interesting tales. After each landmark in my life I can remember thinking that life will surely slow down now, but it never does. We are all very busy and even a small paragraph can seem like a daunting task. I’ve really enjoyed writing this article and learning what everyone has been up to in these past five years. A status update just doesn’t cut it. And to our much missed Cabotians, we thank you for raising us and preparing us for this crazy world.
By Cara Cookson
Time does fly! In June, the Cabot School Class of 20 celebrated their tenyear high school reunion at the home of classmates Jennifer Persons and Nathan Curschmann. While only twenty students officially graduated in 2000, the class proudly welcomed many former classmates to the event who hold an important part in our Cabot memories. All told, thirteen graduates attended, as well as their children and significant others. Needless to say, the Class of 20 has been busy over the past ten years, but also eager to reunite and share stories. We can’t offer a complete update for the entire class, but here's our best attempt at a glimpse of our lives since then: Word has it that David Brown has returned to Vermont. Classmates would love to hear from him!
Emily (Creighton) Boyton graduated
from Champlain College and married Adam Boyton in 2007. They recently moved to the Boston region. Cara Cookson graduated from Vermont Law School this spring, and took the Vermont bar this summer. She will work for a law firm in Burlington starting this fall. Christopher Furey graduated from Brown University Medical School this spring and is working long hours as a first-year resident in Providence, RI. Chris is engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Marissa. Amanda Pastor has been in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, area for much of the last ten years, still loving life, riding her bike around town, and living free! Cerelia Spencer lived her dream of going to college in New York City, graduating from Eugene Lang College at the New School for Liberal Arts. She now lives in Montpelier, where, among other exciting adventures, she has taken up caring for exotic snakes. Ben Ackermann lives in Cabot with his long-time girlfriend, Angela. He arrived at the reunion in a classic limousine, driven by expert chaffeur, Scotty Ackermann.
Marjorie Greaves Retires
The 24-year presidency of Marjorie Pike Greaves was celebrated by members of the Cabot School Alumni Association at the 2010 Reunion, held on August 14 th , at the Cabot School Performing Arts Building on the school campus. With great enthusiasm, Marge and her friend, Margaret Joyal Stevens Parent, class of 1945, planned the first reunion, which was held in 1986, and they served as co-presidents until Margaret’s passing. Marge continued to serve as president until her retirement this year, due to health concerns. The first reunion was held in the great outdoors, on the Common in Cabot. A business meeting and a picnic were featured. In earlier years, entertainment by local talent and some dances were provided. This year we were taken on a tour of Old Cabot Schools, with Jane Bolton Brown as our guide. Prizes are provided by local businesses and given to the attendees, who win them. Marge spent many months each year updating records of the alumni members, corresponding with them and preparing for the next Annual Reunion. She cares very much about the Reunions and all of the members. Upon her arrival, she was presented a beautiful corsage by Bette Rogers O’Connor, class of 1959, treasurer. During the
Michelle "Shell" (Duprey) Kinne has
lived in the Rutland area for much of the past ten years. She is now the manager of a national retail chain store. Michelle Goodrich is working hard alongside husband, Fred Pike, in Cabot. In their latest venture, they are raising goats and producing fine goat’s milk soaps. Michelle and Fred have one daughter, Victoria.
Jennifer (Goodrich) Churchill didn’t
take long after earning an engineering degree from Vermont Technical College before returning to farming. She and her husband, Morgan Churchill, have a herd of organic Holsteins on Houston Hill and have a little helper son, Samuel. Jennifer Persons is a woman of all trades, homemaking, housekeeping, and taking classes at Community College of Vermont. She and husband, Nathan Curschmann, live in Cabot with their two little ones, Cole and Sophie. Kristy Olivet was recently spotted in Providence, RI, where she has lived for most of the last ten years. She gained local press attention a few years ago when she volunteered to donate one of her kidneys to a total stranger simply for the sake of helping to save a life.
Melissa (Clements) Blondin married
19 Cabot grad Rob Blondin in 2007. They live in East Barre and are expecting their first child any day now. Melissa works at National Life Insurance Company in Montpelier. John Churchill got married in 2008 to wife, Carol, and has a stepson, Jason. He now is running an electrical business and is installing back-up power systems.
Amber (Ksepka) Perry lives in Cabot
with husband, Guthrie Perry, and works at the Cabot Village Store. They have a beautiful daughter, Madalyn. April Clark joined the United States Air Force and served a tour in Afghanistan not long after graduation. April has settled down in Utah, applying her skills in medicine at a clinic for stroke patients and staying active with soccer and whitewater rafting.
After 24 years
business meeting, the members rose in unison to applaud Marge for her many years of work and dedication on our behalf. Ida Heath Sanborn, class of 1955, and incoming president, presented Marge with a plaque which honors her and her contributions. All those present signed a card for Marge. Marge’s custom was to honor a member of the community each year, with a plaque in honor of her past husband, Clarence Greaves. The Association receives contributions each year to give to the School something which it needs; one example was money toward the building of the new Arts Building. The alumni also give donations to an Alumni Scholarship Fund. A committee reviews the applications and two scholarships are given to deserving Cabot High School Seniors. Sanborn tells us one of the current goals is to attract younger alumni to the Association; we have recruited some younger officers. The slate is as follows: Ida Heath Sanborn, President; Jennifer Wentworth Nye, Vice President; Ann Domey Cookson, Secretary; Bette Rogers O’Connor, Treasurer. The Reunions are held on the second Saturday of August. All who have ever attended the Cabot School are welcome.
Monday, 11/1-6
10th Stone Show , Studio Place Arts, Barre, Tues-Fri 10-5, Sat 12-4, free. Stone carvers from Barre and around the area show their talent. Contemporary and classic designs in 3-D sculpture and 2-D relief, stone assemblages, and paintings or drawings that show the beautiful qualities of stone. Infor-
Homeschool Wednesdays, Vermont
Historical Society Museum, 1:00-3:00 p.m., $5 per student, $3 for museum members. Find out how Vermont became a state -- and why Vermont is not part of New Hampshire, New York, or Canada! Visit a re-creation of the famous Catamount Tavern in the museum's exhibit, Freedom and Unity, and participate in a related activity. Recommended for children ages 6-12. Pre-
or e-mail kathleen.daquila@state.vt.us.
Sense of Place Mapping Workshop ,
Cabot Public Library 10:00 a.m.-noon. Work creatively to map your special or favorite place that you know best. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight the different personal bonds Cabot citizens have with their physical landscape. See Cabot Public Library and Cabot— Our Town columns in this edition for more information. All necessary materials will be provided, but if you have favorite markers feel free to bring them.
Crafty Saturdays @ Vermont His-
torical Society Museum , 109 State Street, Montpelier, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., free with admission to the museum: $12 families |$5 adults | $3 students and children 6-17. Vermont bought its first land to preserve as a Vermont State Forest. Illustrate Vermont's beautiful landscape by using the wax resist painting technique. Pre-registration is not
Annual Ski & Skate Sale, Waitsfield
Elementary School, 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Bring in your used equipment on Friday, 11/12, from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. Come check out the new and used items on Saturday and Sunday. Please come back Sunday after 3:00 p.m. to see if your items have sold. Information: 496 -3643.
Book Group, Tinkers by Paul Hard-
ing, Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 7:00 p.m., free. Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature. Book group is open to everyone, please order book through the librarian ahead of time so she can borrow a copy for you. Information: 4263581.
School Vacation Fun, Vermont His-
torical Society Museum, 1:00-3:00 p.m., $5 per student, $3 for museum members. Find out how Vermont became a state -- and why Vermont is not part of New Hampshire, New York, or Canada! Visit a re-creation of the famous Catamount Tavern in the museum's exhibit, Freedom and Unity, and participate in a related activity. Recommended for children ages 6-12. Pre-registration is
kathleen.daquila@state.vt.us.
Call Marvie Domey
for Reservations
• Anadama bread and dinner rolls • Cider braised pork with caramelized onions and rosemary • Modern Waldorf salad with frisee, local apples, celeriac and cider-walnut vinaigrette • Roasted root vegetables with fresh herbs, olive oil and lemon juice • Whipped sweet potato • Spinach gratin
“A Care Package For
On November 22, 2010, hundreds of students from across Vermont will gather in Burlington for the highly anticipated Governor’s Youth Leadership Conference. Starting in 1986, this daylong conference offers thoughtprovoking speakers, workshops, and opportunities for participants to network with other students and advisors from across the state. Dynamic workshops will address critical topics, such as effective leadership and chapter development, and will present prevention “Their mission is programming strate- every deployed gies to address un- Vermont Guard derage drinking and package during his other drug use, impaired driving and other traffic safety issues, violence, suicide, and much more. Participants will return to their school and communities empowered to make a difference with increased knowledge, resources, skills, and support. Every year the students who work on the planning committee select an organization they would like to assist in raising money. This year, the students elected to assist the Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation. Vermont currently has over 1,500 deployed
WORDS OF GRATITUDE
The staff and volunteers of the Cabot Chronicle acknowledge with thanks the contributions of Amy Hornblas and Anne Nadel, Chronicle Coordinator and Editor, respectively. They have been key players in getting out the paper every month during the past year, and we are very grateful for all they have done for Cabot. They are moving on to other assignments, and we will miss them.
GOOD EATING
Scott St. John is thankful for all of the hard work of Cabot School's Farm to School volunteers. He has barely used any of his food budget for this year because of all the donations of food he has received from local farmers. Scott reports that the kids are happy too!
A-CHOO!!
Cia Considine is thankful for the person who donated the Flu Relief Basket at the Apple Pie Fest's Silent Auction. The soup, tissues and cold medicine were greatly appreciated when she was down three days with a feverish head-cold. She is also thankful for Gwen and Robin's thoughtful bidding.
FOR ELIZE
Give yourself a night off! Enjoy a great meal Lasagna dinners will be prepared fresh Saturday, 1:30 and 3:00 p.m. at the school dining hall. Make To reserve yours, contact any Marine Biology
to ensure a lasagna will be available. Dinners serve four people and include garlic bread meals are available for $15.00 each. There will also be an auction in December, and Please watch for items you no longer need and and Cultural Anthropology students. If you don’t know of your interest. Your support is greatly appreciated by students,
Every Soldier”
members of the Vermont National Guard. The Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation will deliver over 1,500 care packages to deployed members of the Vermont Army & Air National Guard who are serving in remote locations throughout the world. Their mission is to ensure that every deployed member of the Vermont Guard receives a care package during his or her tour. With your support, the Foundation will purchase, assemble and ship a care package that to ensure that contains requested member of the and needed items receives a care not readily available or her tour.” to our soldiers and airmen. In order to make this initiative effective, we need the help of our community. We would greatly appreciate a cash donation. A Cabot teenage representative of the Planning Committee , Shelby Maurice, Cabot High School
and cash or checks can be dropped off or mailed to: Cabot Coalition c/o Shelby Maurice P. O. Box 245 Cabot, VT 05647
T RIP
and support our high school kids. Pre-ordered November 6, for you to pick up between checks payable to Cabot School. or Cultural Anthropology student, or call Please reserve before November 4
and cookies. Vegetarian or Meat Lasagna
students will begin requesting donations soon. set them aside to support the Marine Biology
parents and teachers alike. Present the Cabot-wannabe or Cabot used-to-be on your gift giving list with a full year subscription to The Cabot Chronicle for only $15. Your gift subscription includes a blank gift card and copy of the December issue of the Cabot Chronicle.
Shop Local and Green.
Holiday wreath packaged with a one year subscription to the Cabot Chronicle - $35. ~To place your order ~
(cid:1) Cabot Chronicle 1 year Subscription. $15 (cid:1) Fresh 22” Cabot Smith Farm Wreath with gift box $22 (cid:1) Wreath & Subscription Combo Package. $35 All orders must be pre-paid by cash, check or credit card at
News From The Cabot
Look for new materials in the collection! We’ve added 10 new audio books, 36 adult books and 29 new children’s books. All new materials contain fiction and nonfiction. We’ve also added 22 new DVD’s – old classics and new documentaries to the collection. Come in and look around! Also, please feel free to let us know what you like to read.
Julia Shipley
Work creatively to map your special or favorite place that you know best. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight the different personal bonds Cabot citizens have with their physical landscape. As well, the focus is to raise awareness and draw attention to the intimate particulars and the myriad details that often go overlooked by outsiders, but compose a sense of the working and natural landscape of Cabot. It will allow less audible voices and perspectives to be heard in a public forum – a visual medium that might be shared in the community. All necessary materials will be provided, but if you have favorite markers feel free to bring them. Also, several books that give you an idea of maps and mapping are on display at the Library.
Book Group:
This year’s Fall Book Discussion Group is doing the Vermont Humanities Council series on Immigrants Coming to America . The programs are being moderated by Fran Cerulli and will be held on Monday evenings at 6:00 pm in the Library. They are free and open to all. The final book in this series is Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namioka. states: A brief review
“The youngest child in a talented musical family, Yingtao is afraid that his screeching violin will ruin the family recital, and he dreams of telling his family about something he likes better than music.” The final discussion in this Book Group series is on: November 15 Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear
Vermont Reads
Together, the Cabot Public Library and the Cabot Public School applied for and was awarded 50 copies of Katherine Paterson’s new book, The Day of the Pelican, by the Vermont Humanities Council’s 2010 Vermont Reads program. Vermont Reads brings communities and people of diverse ages, abilities, and experiences together in reading and discussing a book of high quality and acclaim. The program promotes community building, open dialogue, intergenerational exchange, a focus on the humanities, and literacy.
On Monday, November 22, 6:30-
7:30 pm , at Cabot School Performing Arts Center (CSPAC), please join the Cabot Middle School students for an evening of dramatic performance exploring stories of human struggle and endurance surrounding the ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Using this year’s Vermont Reads novel, The Day of the Pelican, and Zlata’s Diary, the story of a young girl living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, students will share snapshots of the lives of young people during these turbulent times. This per-
Oct 12- Nov 30 3-4pm, Come read
tales of courage and adventure! We have started an Adventure Book raising Club for any interested adventurers. pation Our first book is The Dragon of Lonely were Island by Rebecca Rupp. We will dis- coming cuss the book, make miniature shelters Sandy AND go outside for adventures. The Whitlock, Booklist review states: ney, “Full of rich, sensory images … (Scribe). reminiscent of old fairy tales, with… wonderful adventures and life-changing about encounters with dragons.” helping
Calling All Library Materials!!
through raising If you have Library materials hiding “cooperative” in a corner, under a bed, or in a closet, Cabot’s please return them!! We are trying to all get our books, magazines, and movies comers. back to the Library. We need to get input them into the automation system. bers, Thank you for looking for these items.
By
Also, thanks so much to Lorrie and Barry Goldensohn for a wonderful poetry reading on the evening of Oct 12 th . They were joined by many other local poets, which made for interesting conversations on the process of writing poems. As ever, thanks to Eric MuellerHarder and Anne Walker for their continued unrelenting efforts with automating our collection.
Book Review:
We now have Firewing by Kenneth Oppel, companion to Silverwing and Sunwing , both of which were named Book of the Year for children by the Canadian Library Association. In this riveting book, Kenneth Oppel “creates a story that will resonate with readers of all ages- a glorious fantasy adventure in which the living and the dead struggle for the sake of eternity.” All three books can be found in our collection!
Friends of
Crisp, weather clear ushered in our 2nd Annual Meeting on October 9. Nominations were held and discussions regarding fundefforts and membership particitook place. Members old and new elected to officer positions for the year, which are as follows: Atkins, President; Janet Vice President; Lynn McKinTreasurer; Wendy Heilig, Secretary
The Friends also revisited discussions exploring and soliciting interest in to form a Cabot “Cooperative” considered applying for a small grant to help fund the effort. The was raised earlier in the year as idea to help foster unity amongst the organizations and to show how it lead to greater opportunity for all combined business and fundefforts. It is thought a would greatly enhance future growth, as well as its overbeauty and appeal to potential newWe would greatly appreciate on this idea from community memand ask that comments and sug-
Barry Goldensohn
It is hard to attend to the lives singing around me: frogs, flies, leaves, birds, woof of bear or owl rolling across the lake and the trill and howl of the loon. Always a noise in my head— the din of my body moving my laboring, reeling breath deafen and enclose my mind in a sensible cloud of everything it knows except for the voice that calls: "Stop, stop, stop this busy chatter and roar and sit and be still and hear."
The lake is cold in its season. A mist squats and is still over water, recently ice, and the rising sun makes it glow, a fire in a field of snow, before it breathes it in and leaves the mirror clear. My daughter's afraid I will fall out of my light canoe in this icy water and die. She knows there is something to fear: even in midsummer heat the thrill of danger swimming on the warm surface above the scrotum-and-nipple-tightening depth of this bottomless lake and the danger of the claim its beauty makes on me.
Cabot Library News
gestions be sent to or dropped off at the library marked to “Friends of the Library.” Changes to our monthly meeting schedule were made to allow for more flexibility, so meetings will no longer be held the second Saturday of each month at the Willey Building. Meetings will now be held mostly on weekday mornings to allow members a full weekend with their families. A notice will be sent to members in advance of each meeting, along with that month’s specific location. Anyone wishing to participate in our membership can sign up at the library. Our last book sale of 2010 was at Cabot’s recent Apple Pie Festival. We wish to extend a heartfelt ‘thank you!’ to everyone for their gracious donations in supporting our efforts, especially those community members who supplied books and movies to us for our sales. Without your wonderful contributions, we wouldn’t have had as successful a year as we did. Your support helped us provide the library with a few pieces of much needed and well deserved equipment, as well as support programs for both young and old. Looking forward, we simply want to wish everyone a wonderful (and safe) Thanksgiving holiday! The Friends of Cabot Library Team
By Lorrie Goldensohn
The sun hangs, a lob of cold fire burning a hole in a lower branch of the big hemlock out front. In this glacial bowl we seem to stiffen until midday when the sun swings high enough to melt the snow--to thin the wide ribs of whiteness still left on the dock, the white pudding over rises, and in the cold spots, the thick inches of it spread neatly under pines. Inside, the solar cells hold at eighty percent. We’ve had a scare with the pump, but now the tap throbs and swallows, spitting a clear stream into the sink. We’re grateful. From the window I see the water musing flatly, still able to ripple under a light wind, expecting any day now the long stall of the ice. Even if the sky stoops to jam its late season white light into every crevice surrounding the stripped trunks, it’s no use: at every dropping turn the throat of the road waits to fill with stopless snow…. It’s time to pack and get out of here. In some placeless, slippery choke-hold of the blankets I rolled around last night, and then left you and the warmth of the bed to see the clock’s hands at five, a sheared moon showing the lumped hills, the bulk of the lake flowing across the blackened window. How secret it all seemed, the woodstove breathing quietly, and downstairs the kitchen warm: me, a prowling animal inside another animal. Large, airy, and amazingly filled with darkness, my house’s knowledge of itself is not coterminous with me. Another life belongs to its boards: inside the wooden skin, the lung of the walls expanding and contracting-even the sturdy pipes, knowing their crust to be penetrable--and yet the whole to be standing, it’s a good bet, when I and mine complete our contract with the ground.
Twin Valley
Twin Valley would like to apologize to Shirley Boardman for omission of her name in October’s newsletter honoring our volunteers. It certainly was an oversight, as Shirley is very strong at the center with her delivery of Meals on Wheels, assisting in the kitchen and dining area. Please forgive us, Shirley!!!! On October 8 th the Twin Valley Seniors and Volunteers took a foliage ride to Lyndonville. Seniors had the opportunity to dine out at Miss Lyndonville Diner or the New Moon Chinese Restaurant. It was a very rural scenic trip and enjoyed by all. On November 6, 2010, Community of Vermont Elders (COVE) will be hosting a “BOOMERFEST” Living Well over 50 at the Montpelier Elks Club. BOOMERFEST gives an opportunity to showcase services provided around our communities. At Twin Valley, we provide services of exercise, healthy food, social gatherings, different health & service clinics, plus our very own Meals on Wheels program to help elderly citizens receive the proper nutrition for their wellness in their own homes. Be on the lookout for our table at the BOOMERFEST November 15, 2010 will be the next Foot Clinic at Twin Valley Sen-
appointment. There is $15.00 charge for the service. November 13 th Twin Valley Senior Center will be hosting
Senior News
‘HUNTERS BREAKFAST” at the Plainfield Fire Station to help raise money for our MEALS ON WHEELS PROGRAM. Since starting this program and preparing our own food in March 2009, the program has surpassed all expectations in the last two years. Since 2008, we have had an increase of meals provided by 43%. The need is truly there and so is our service. However, it is difficult to stay afloat with the expense of food, containers, mileage reimbursement to our dedicated volunteers. You can help by supporting our fundraiser. We are in need of volunteers for the Meals on Wheels program at the center. Volunteers are badly needed to help package the meals at the center as well as drivers to help deliver the meals. We will be offering a full breakfast menu from 4am to 12:00pm. We want hunters to stop in as well as the public to help support our service of Meals on Wheels to our home bound residents. Be on the lookout for flyers very soon. EarthWalking for Seniors, vember 8 th , 2010, 1-2 pm at the NoTwinValley Senior Center. Come and join a small group of EarthWalk staff, children and Elders for a short “nature-walk” to learn and share stories, songs and activities connecting us with the land and with one another. If there is an interest, EarthWalk would like to offer seasonal (possibly monthly) “walks” for health and wellness, as well as build relationships and learn about the natural world together. If you are a local senior, or another community member interested in this collaboration with the Twin Valley Senior Center, please contact Angella Gibbons, the Director
angella@earthwalkvermont.org This opportunity for programming is made possible in partnership with the Central Vermont Council on Aging.
Bear Season
This bear was taken in Cabot on September 3, on the third day of Vermont bear season. The female Vermont’s Bear Hunting Season is September 1 through November 17. Vermont’s bear population is healthy and estimated at more than 5,500 black bears, according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. The bear population has increased slowly for the last two decades, and regulated hunting is used to control the population’s growth. Under the recently enacted 2010-2020 Big Game Plan, the population objective is to maintain bear numbers at between 4,500 to 6,000 animals. Hunters took 629 bears in Vermont’s 2009 hunting season. “Carefully regulated hunting allows for the sustainable utilization of black bears for food and other purposes,” said wildlife biologist Forrest Hammond. “Bears also have ecological and aesthetic values for Vermont.” “Vermont’s black bears appear to have plenty of food available this fall,” Hammond added. “Berry crops are abundant, and we have a good crop of apples
By Libby Hale
As fall turns to winter so does soccer turn to basketball. The Rec. Dept will be offering basketball to primary and elementary age children. The plan currently is to have boys and girls teams at the 3-4 and 5-6 levels as well as the pre-K-2 group. As basketball time gets closer and kids have signed up we will know for sure that we have the numbers to those teams. Whatever the configuration, everyone who wants to play will have the opportunity to play. Registration and release forms have gone out through the school and can be obtained
ing the 3-4 grade girls basketball team should call Rebecca or Libby. Participants should be sure to sign up early in November so after Thanksgiving when basketball starts we’re all ready to go! Looking back to fall soccer, we were able to field two 3-4 teams, one 5-6 team and a large, energetic pre-K group. Thanks to our very dedicated and energetic coaches, I think everyone had fun and ended the season with
in Vermont
in the vicinity of Taylor Road, by Steve Hough, dressed out to over 210 pounds. and acorns in many areas of the state.” The biggest long-term threat to Vermont’s bears continues to be habitat loss. “Each year Vermont loses many acres of critical bear habitat to development,” said Hammond. “The ability to keep bears in Vermont over the next 50 years will depend on how much habitat we keep to support bears.” Although wearing fluorescent orange clothing is not mandatory for hunting in Vermont, hunters and others are urged to wear a fluorescent orange vest and hat while in the woods. Anyone hunting deer during archery season, waterfowl or turkeys will normally wear camouflage clothing. Hammond also asks successful bear hunters to help in determining the age of bears taken by removing the bear’s premolar tooth and sending it to the Fish and Wildlife Department. Special envelopes are provided to big game check stations for this purpose.
News
more knowledge and skills than they started with. Elementary levels had the opportunity to play about 10 games each this season. This season all levels, including the primary, focused on ball handling skills, teamwork and sportsmanship. A big THANKYOU goes out to Tim Considine, Stephanie Burtt, Laura Nally, A.J. Silviero, Donna MacKinnon, Zack Ducharme, Karen Alexander and Lars Hammer, who volunteered their time and expertise to officiate all our home games. appreciation goes out to the Huge coaches: Steve Towne, Niels Larsen, Bonne Dunham and Rebecca Nally as well as those who stepped in to help run practices and games as needed. If this community didn’t have such wonderful people willing to give their time and energy to these activities, our kids wouldn’t have the opportunities they do. If you have time or skills that can help, please get involved! Now that the foliage has died back a bit trail work will resume. If you are interested in helping to create walking, biking, and skiing trails around Cabot or know of existing ones please call
By Paula Davidson
Growing your own vegetables can sometimes feel like a thankless task. An endless task. There ʼ s all the ground preparation and coddling of seedlings upfront. Then your garden ʼ s bounty starts filling up the refrigerator, and the race against the vegetables begins. Can you clean them, dice them, cook them, eat or freeze or can them, all before another load is ready to bring in? In the end, your family is fed, but you have little to show for it, except all the plant waste asking to be hauled to the compost pile. Well then, why not dress up a few vegetables and enter them in the Tunbridge World ʼ s Fair, to compete for ribbons, prize money, and the attention of neighbors? On my first visit to the Fair I found, amidst the colorful chickens, tractors, cows and craft displays, a hall filled with gorgeous vegetables. As a novice gardener, I couldn ʼ t help admiring all the beautiful blue-ribbon-bedecked entries labeled “Smith Family, Cabot”. Sylvia Smith told me that her children first entered the Fair as four and six year-olds, and the excitement of finding their entries and ribbons in the crowded exhibit hall was contagious. Soon after, entering the Fair became a family production, with all hands planning what to enter, gathering the finest specimens, creating artistic decorated vegetable tableaus, and loading the truck for delivery to Tunbridge. Their prize money paid for admission to the fair as well as the following year ʼ s seed order, and, once, for a bonus trip to the Demolition Derby. As Sylvia said, “We found it was somewhat lucrative... We made about ten cents an hour!” Ten cents an hour? Well yes, that ʼ s about right, as I discovered once I started entering along with my son. Any gardener with kids tries to get them to share the workload as soon as possible, and when David was 5, I figured he might try growing his own veggies if offered the chance to win a ribbon and some money at the Fair. We each entered a few items, and David was very proud of his ribbons and $12 check. I think I made about $20, and learned some interesting lessons. For starters, despite all the effort involved in growing copious amounts of vegetables, most of the results are not beautiful, perfect material for the Fair. (Fortunately, imperfect produce still tastes fine, or we ʼ d all have given up gardening long ago.) Once you ʼ ve scrutinized your crop and selected the bestlooking specimen, it must be trimmed to the exact specifications noted in the Rule Book, or no ribbons for you -- it took me three years to understand the rules for leeks! Of course, my main discovery was just how much time it takes to do this all right -- hence, the ten-cents-per-hour figure. Another lesson: exhibiting in the Fair from here in Cabot means at least two, if not three, trips to Tunbridge, almost 60 miles away. Gardeners tend to be practical people, which is why I think Fair exhibitors from Cabot end up entering so many categories. After all, if you win enough prizes, the $1-$3 premiums might add up to pay for your gas money! So last year, my second time, I carted
Gene May Influence Drink-
The findings were based on examiing in Social Settings. down 36 of my own entries and 10 of David ʼ s. I was outdone by Sue Carpenter Do you find yourself drinking more and her son Sam, who won a large rosette heavily when you are out with for “Greatest and Best Variety of Vegeta- friends? There may be a gene for bles” by entering over 60 categories! Sue that. Science News reported July 16 and Sam scaled down their participation that Dutch researchers found that this year, but I took up the adults who had the long form of the slack. I hauled down 55 en- dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) tries, including some for the special prize categories ($15 drank substantially more in social for first place!) such as settings than those who had the regu“Decorated Vegetable”, lar version of the gene. "Carriers of “Weirdest and Strangest the long gene may be more attuned Vegetable”, and “Heaviest to, and influenced by, another perCantaloupe”. My $160 in prize son's heavy drinking than noncarriers money paid for gas, admis- are," said Helle Larsen of Radboud sion, and rides for the kids, University Nijmegen. Experts said and I might use what ʼ s left to buy next year ʼ s seeds, follow- the findings could also apply to drugs ing the Smith ʼ s tradition. other than alcohol, as well. It ʼ s funny how, a month after The study was published in the the Fair, the entire competition can be journal Psychological Science. boiled down to a few words and numbers. Because in practice, entering all those Smoking Alters Hundreds vegetables in 55 different categories was a of Genes, Study Finds huge challenge of planning and logistics. Smoking causes dangerous Some Fair contestants, like winter squash and onions, needed to be changes in literally hundreds of genes harvested long before the in the body, including those related to bulk of the crop, in order to tumor growth, inflammatory disease cure properly for show and immune-system suppression, time. Other vegetables, according to researchers from the like zucchini and green Southwest Foundation for Biomedical beans, had to be picked Research. WebMD reported July 15 fastidiously all summer so that researcher Jac C. Charlesworth, they were still bearing young beauties come mid- Ph.D., and colleagues identified 323 September. A few perfect genes that were altered by exposure specimens, like carrots and beets, were to tobacco smoke, which contains an hiding underground, so that by the time I estimated 4,000 individual comdiscovered them, I had uncovered several pounds, many of them toxic. pounds more that needed to be refrigerated and eaten. Once collected, each entry nation of the white blood cells of 1,240 people who had been genetically profiled during an unrelated study dating back to 1991. "We have long known that smoking increases a person's risk for cancer and depresses the immune system," said Charlesworth. "What we show here is that smoking alters the body at the DNA level." The study was published in the journal BMC Medical Genomics.
Researchers
Teens who regularly visit stores that display point-of-sale ads for tobacco products were twice as likely to try smoking -- a finding researchers said argues for a complete ban on such advertising. Health Day News reported July 19 that researchers who surveyed 2,110 teens ages 11-14 found that -- contrary to industry claims -- point-ofsale ads are highly effective in motivating teens to smoke. Such ads represent 90 percent of all tobaccoindustry spending on advertising. Study author Lisa Henricksen of Stanford University Medical School said that regulating retail marketing is essential for further progress in bringing down teen smoking rates. The study will be published in the August 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics. had to be cleaned and trimmed according to the rules -- have you ever tried making celeriac look clean? I even researched how to braid onions and spent an hour creating a passable braid. Finally, all the beauties were packed -- some in water, some with padding -- and fit like puzzle pieces into our small station wagon. The goal was to make it to Tunbridge before the lateafternoon rush of exhibitors. After hours of sorting, cleaning, and organizing all those entries, the 60-mile drive felt like one long, autumn-glorious victory lap. So, for a few hours, I felt as if I had trumped all those plants in the garden. Not because I won money and ribbons. It ʼ s that for a few days in the exhibit hall at the
Double Sided Swags
World ʼ s Fair, my vegetables passed beyond mere items for consumption; they become objects of beauty, of inspiration. “You grew all those?” one woman asked as I lined up my vegetables for admission. “These and others too,” I answered. At that moment I realized for the first time that, if I counted all the vegetables I couldn ʼ t enter -- because they were out of season already or not perfect or too uncommon to be listed in the Rule Book (edamame beans, or fennel) -- I must grow over one hundred varieties in my garden. I think I inspired myself to keep gardening! While I do hear from a few acquaintances who notice my name on the entry cards at the Fair, I enjoy imagining that many strangers wandering through the exhibit hall pause to admire my beautiful vegetables. The judges rarely leave comments on the entry card -- there are so many specimens to consider, after all. But this year, I found my plate of three red onions with a blue ribbon and the briefest scribbled note: “Gorgeous!” That one word was the best payment for all my labor in the garden. The decorations will vary from each wreath & swag. The delivery date will be the week of Thanksgiving. Wreaths $20 $8
Any questions, please call * Donation will be made to the
We’ll also be selling wreaths at the Cabot Fire Station, November 20th from 11-1!
A Guide To Open
The following guidelines for conducting meetings in compliance with Vermont’s open meeting law are provided with permission from the Secretary of State’s office, as a service to the public and in support of the many local organizations that conduct meetings in performance of their public service activities. This is the second segment published in the Cabot Chronicle . The October Chronicle contained information about when the open meeting law applies and to whom. These guidelines are available at www.cabot chronicle.org .
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS
An executive session is a closed meeting within a public meeting. 1V.S.A.§ 313 . A motion and vote are essential prerequisites to entering executive session. A majority of the members of a local board (a two-thirds majority of a state board) must agree to enter for the reasons stated. This motion and vote must then be included in the minutes of the meeting, making a permanent record of the session and its reasons. Boards may not enter executive session without first meeting in public session and then voting to close the meeting, and then only for very specific reasons. The legislature has identified a number of reasons to enter executive session. One category, which includes consideration of contracts, civil actions, mediation, arbitration, and labor relations agreements, requires a special review before executive session is justified. The law requires the board to conclude that “premature general public knowledge would clearly place the state, municipality, other public body, or person involved at a substantial disadvantage” before voting on executive session in these cases. Other reasons to go into executive session are: • The negotiating or securing of real estate purchase options; • The appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee; • A disciplinary or dismissal action against a public officer or employee; but nothing in this subsection shall be construed to impair the right of such officer or employee to a public hearing if formal charges are brought; • A clear and imminent peril to the public safety; • Discussion or consideration of records or documents that are not public documents under the access to
Meetings
public records act. However when the board discusses or considers the excepted record or document it may not also discuss the general subject to which the record or document pertains; • The academic records or suspension or discipline of students. Abusing the law of executive session is offensive to the purpose of open meetings. Boards should close their meetings rarely, and then only for legitimate purposes. If the subject is already well known to the community, even if the board is able to find a category to cite, there is no justification for entering executive session. No action may be taken in executive session. Entering a real estate purchase option is the sole exception. In all other instances, appropriate topics may be discussed in executive session but ultimate action must be taken by motion and vote in open session. 1V.S.A.§313(a).
Going Into Executive Session
A board may not go into executive session simply because it wishes to proceed privately. Rather, it may only exclude the public if it can point to a specific exemption in the law. Some boards make the mistake of “warning” meetings as executive or closed sessions. This is an error because the law requires the board to move, in open session, to go into an executive session. A motion to go into executive session must indicate the nature of the business of the executive session, and this motion must be passed by an affirmative vote of a majority of the members present (2/3 vote for state boards). In an executive session only the subject matter referenced in the motion to go into this session may be discussed. Attendance in executive session is limited to members of the public body, and, in the discretion of the public body, its staff, clerical assistants and legal counsel, and persons who are subjects of the discussion or whose information is needed. Minutes do not have to be taken in an executive session. However, if minutes are taken, these minutes are not public.
Willey Building.
The elements of the Town Plan that are scheduled for discussion at the November meeting are “Housing and Population” and “Historic Resources.” The Planning Commission will be discussing initial drafts of these two sections, and the public is invited to join in the discussion. Light refreshments will be provided. The Planning Commission is holding these public work sessions in an effort to incorporate the insight and ideas of local civic groups and citizens in the draft Town Plan before it is scheduled for the first of the required public hearings, which will occur early next year. Up until this point, the Planning Commission has been in the information gathering phase, which includes
Planning Discussion
the preliminary assessment of the Cabot’s aspirations, problems, and opportunities. The Community Planning Survey conducted in June of this year, and the Visioning meeting held in September, were part of this effort. The next step is for the Planning Commission to establish goals and objectives that will help to make the vision of an ideal future Cabot a reality, and determine what plans of action are necessary to achieve the articulated goals. Future meetings will help the Cabot Planning Commission update Town Plan sections devoted to natural resources, land use and development, energy and conservation, jobs and economic development, transportation, and community resources (including educational, cultural and recreational facilities and municipal utilities). Please email Gary Gulka, Cabot Planning Commission Chair, at cabot-
with questions and to RSVP. We hope to see you there!