By DJ Dave Hoffenberg This Thursday you don’t want to miss Chadwick Stokes of Dispatch at the Pickle Barrel Nightclub. He’s bringing his friend Brooke Annibale to open the show. Chad said she’s a great singer-songwriter. I had a great chat with Chad about what he’s up to now and the many times I’ve worked…

By Mary Ellen Shaw There is talk of building a hotel in downtown Rutland in the same location where the Berwick Hotel once stood. That hotel was destroyed by fire 50 years ago and since then the spot has been a vacant lot, known locally as “The Pit.” Recently there have been both TV and…

By Declan McCabe If you get a chance this winter, take a peek through the icy window of a pond surface. You may see water boatmen (order Hemiptera: Family Corixidae) clinging to the pond floor. Long oar-like hind legs propel these insects, inspiring their common name. Shorter, scoop-like front legs are used for feeding and…

By Merisa Sherman It was quiet. A little too quiet. An eerie quiet. No fresh animal tracks on the ground, no wind moving the trees around. It’s so cold, you feel like even the surrounding air must be frozen even though it truly freezes at temps colder than 300 degrees. You couldn’t hear anything from…

By Dom Cioffi My wife and I were having dinner with some friends recently when the couple started talking about a wedding they had just attended. It was a destination wedding near the ocean with about 25 close family and friends. Apparently, the bride and groom wanted something simple since it was a second marriage…

By Jen Weimer A winter walk in the forest reveals a flurry of wildlife activity that often goes unnoticed during other times of the year. Often among the many tracks in the snow are the nearly heart-shaped prints of deer. The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is common throughout the United States, with an estimated population…

By Dom Cioffi I just spent the past week in Florida with my mother. She’s been returning to the same little community on the Gulf Coast seasonally for over 50 years. Over the years, on the occasions when I’ve visited, the nostalgia of the area has always overwhelmed me. When I drove in this past…

By Merisa J. Sherman “The next challenge,” I yelled out, “is to see who can stand on one foot the longest!” The kids all scrambled into position, making sure they had just enough room to flail their arms as they were going down. It was a tight space, but not a single one of them was…

By Sandra Dee Owens I  bought another half gallon of eggnog—my fourth of the season. Dammit.  What began years earlier as a benign, seasonal treat, has blossomed into a full-blown, eggnog addiction.  How did I get here? Each year, when eggnog arrived on grocery store shelves, I gleefully bought a carton, raced home to drink…

By Mary Ellen Shaw Although “Dancing with the Rutland Stars” is over for this season, I think that when we watched it the “dancer” in all of us came to life! I was talking to friends about how we were introduced to dancing. The experiences varied. Some of us learned how to dance in elementary…

By Merisa Sherman When they were married, a woman told her husband that they could share anything and everything in their lives just so long as he promised never to look in one  particular drawer. Of course,  the man began to imagine all kinds of things being stored in this drawer: from notes from a…

By Dom Cioffi It’s common for my teenage son to call me and announce that he’s having a few friends over to the house. I usually ask thve number and then remind him that I expect his visitors to respect our home and rules. Minutes later, my space is generally overwhelmed with boys.  When my…

Mammals and birds are endotherms, which means they generate their own body heat through relatively high metabolic rates. That high metabolism requires energy, which these animals garner from food. We typically think of endotherms as warm-blooded; however, some of them are not warm all of the time. Most active birds and mammals maintain relatively high…

By Victoria Gaither How do you define a community? Webster’s Dictionary defines a community as a group with shared values, interests, and goals.  While that is true, the story of Arlo, the missing 1-year-old dog, and how the Killington community came together to bring him home to his owner, Joseph “Joe” Ceccacci, who was recovering…

By Susie Spikol A flash of orange streaks across the meadow— a red fox, like a starburst in the snow. Its fur shimmers in the early morning light, and I, bundled in my winter layers and still shivering cold, envy the fox’s luxurious coat.    At its simplest, hair—or fur – keeps mammals warm by…