By Merisa Sherman Floating along, wiggling your body to the rhythm of the ridiculously buried natural features that only two days ago would have absolutely ripped a nasty core shot into your bases. But not today. Today, you cannot see any of that and are just floating through the woods, grabbing all the fresh, untouched…

By Dave Hoffenberg  Ryan Montbleau is bringing his band to the Pickle Barrel this Thursday for a show not to be missed. I’ve seen Ryan a few times in the past, both at festivals and in Killington, and I’ve been looking forward to this since I first saw it on the calendar. This will be…

By Merisa Sherman I stood there in my boots, my hands on the railings, while my dad and the boot tech giggled about how many drops of water they should put into the my foam liners. My face was red and I remember feeling like I was about to faint from the heat on my feet.…

By Dom Cioffi My son and school have never been close friends. He enjoys his classmates and the socialization, but as far as the work is concerned, he struggles to stay interested. I struggled to stay interested as well. I hated math, was occasionally interested in something historical, didn’t see the relevance of social studies,…

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul On my commute to the Northern Woodlands offices in Lyme, New Hampshire, I pass a long-established osprey nest, perched atop a very tall electric tower next to Route 302. This location offers the ospreys a view of their surroundings— and provides me with a view of the ospreys from the road.…

By Doug Facey 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…

By Karen D. Lorentz While riding a lift recently, one out-of-state seatmate noted he and his wife ski in all kinds of weather; they don’t mind rain even though his “supposedly water resistant jacket gets soaked.” It doesn’t matter because they love the sport and being outdoors, he said. The other seatmate, a local, agreed…

By Cassandra Tyndall There’s a certain kind of magic in reliving the past. No doubt, now that Saturn is in Pisces, you might be in a deep state of remembering. Life is full of remember when moments, but the collective one we’re in now is a little bit more soul stirring than normal. For some…

By Dom Cioffi My son just purchased his first used vehicle. He was excited and proud and ready to conquer the world when the car finally arrived. However, before I allowed him to drive off into the sunset, I was compelled to have a talk with him about the realities of car ownership. This talk…

To survive the cold of winter, some animals take advantage of protected habitats, such as wooded areas or under a blanket of insulating snow. Ruffed grouse, for example, fly into piles of loose snow and create roosting cavities to rest in when not foraging. Mice and other small mammals remain active in tunnels under the…

It’s not easy to explain the significance of this week in around two hundred words. What will be significant though is the fact that Saturn’s arrival in Pisces is an event not seen since 1993.  Thus, the collective energies are set to shift in a noticeable way as the planet of rules, regulations and boundaries…

By Mary Ellen Shaw The role that paper plays in our lives has changed so much compared to its role “back in the day!” Several years ago I was researching information about WWII and its effect locally. I visited the Rutland Historical Society and found a letter written during that war. It was correspondence between…

By Dom Cioffi Recently, I had a friend tell me that I absolutely had to watch the Paramount series, “Yellowstone.” He raved about the storylines, the acting, and the overarching grandeur of the show. I acknowledged his passion and said I’d check it out. But I won’t. It’s not that I have anything against that…

By Merisa Sherman It’s scary, this new thing. This trail I have never been on before. For so many years of my life, this trail hasn’t changed and now, here it is, with a completely different pitch and angle from what Pres and Joe had created all those many years ago. The idea is the…

By Doug Facey In the midst of winter, the ice-covered lakes of New England seem quiet. It may, however, be a bit noisy below the ice. Winter into early spring is the spawning season for burbot, when males produce sounds to attract mates.  Burbot (Lota lota), also called cusk, lingcod, eelpout, and a few other…