Daybreak Friday 3/25/22

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Maybe some more rain, but mostly it'll be cloudy and a bit warmer. Chances of rain are highest this morning, and by this afternoon we might even see some spaces between clouds. Temps rising into the upper 40s, winds from the southwest then the west. Lower 30s tonight.It's a tough world out there in the woods. There's a story in this week's trail cam video from Thetford's Erin Donahue...which we'll let naturalist Ted Levin tell: "Barred owl hears the footfalls of a white-footed mouse. Drops from a nearby tree, silent as fog. Kills. Fox sees the whole thing. Frightened owl flees. Leaves mouse behind. Food chain relationships seem simple, so straightforward. So very logical. But no. Only about 6 percent of predatory attacks result in kills. In fact, the availability and vulnerability of prey control the survival of predators... not the other way around.""If John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes can have a comic strip, why not Henry David Thoreau?" Don't worry, you'll find this week's (and last week's, and the previous 67 weeks') Lost Woods by DB Johnson at the link. But you'll also find three new things: a refreshed format that makes it much easier to navigate; an About tab that explains why this comic strip exists; and an extremely entertaining blog that lays out some of the research going into the doings in Lost Woods, from tree communication to how Thoreau's writings figure into what you're seeing in the strip's panels. Guilty pleas in 2018 Hanover shooting. Gage Young and Hector Correa reached plea deals and were sentenced on Wednesday for the November drive-by shooting on School Street in which a visiting 19-year-old was hit in the back. He survived. "We have cried so many tears," the victim's mother told the court, reports WMUR's Tim Callery. "Our hearts are broken. Our sense that people are intrinsically good is shattered. Why would these two men try to kill our child? We are haunted by the what-ifs."Brush fire season's upon us. WCAX's Adam Sullivan reports a cautionary tale from Lyme, where a resident ignited a brush fire after emptying ashes from her wood stove into a compost pile; the wind spread the embers. Firefighters extinguished it, but not before two acres burned. "Make sure that all ashes you put out are fully extinguished, make sure that you don’t have any open flames outside right now," Lyme Fire Chief Aaron Rich tells Sullivan. "We are definitely entering a very quick brush season [and] are anticipating an above average brush season this year.”Leb lifts its mask mandate. “Everyone around us is unmasked,” Mayor Tim McNamara told the city council Wednesday evening. “I feel like we’re on a very small island in the middle of a very large ocean,” adding that he believed the city was the last municipality in NH with a mandate in place. Even so, reports Darren Marcy in the Valley News, opponents of the change argued the move was premature and amounted to "turning our backs" on those most at risk. In the end, 5 council members voted in favor of lifting the mandate, 4 against.SPONSORED: Online jewelry auction to benefit UVLT. Barbara Haak was a devoted volunteer at the Upper Valley Land Trust and an enthusiastic jewelry collector. The 47 pieces donated to this silent auction from her jewelry collection are on display at Designer Gold. See them in person, try them on, and bid online there or anywhere (maroon link above). Bidding starts today at 8:00 AM and runs through Saturday, April 2 at 8:00 PM. All proceeds go to UVLT children’s programs. Sponsored by the UVLT and Designer Gold.What's Enfield going to do with its $474,349? Hanover with $1.2 million? Hartford with $2.85 million? They—and other towns around the region—are in no hurry to spend money they're receiving under the American Rescue Plan Act, writes Alex Hanson in the VN. A few have moved forward: Haverhill's spent funds on safety equipment and helping people in need; Leb is going to improve water lines and repave the Miracle Mile. For the rest, Hanover town manager Julia Griffin pretty much sums it up: "We’d love to use it to do something meaningful, significant, and something we’d ordinarily have to wait to do."Hiking and Biking Close to Home: The Northern Rail Trail. This week's suggestion from the Upper Valley Trails Alliance brings you to this 59-mile trail between Lebanon and Boscawen, NH. It's relatively flat and a great mud season destination for hiking and biking, especially for families. It connects with the paved Mascoma River Greenway, getting users closer to West Leb. Parking is available in downtown Lebanon along Taylor Street (in front of the CCBA) and in the two lots behind Lebanon City Hall. Additional parking is available near the trail gate east of Packard Hill Covered Bridge on Riverside Drive. Blue Sparrow, Muriel's Donuts, Straw Brook Bakery... What do they all have in common? They're Upper Valley food businesses owned by women. In the latest post for her Balanced Diet blog and newsletter, former King Arthur test kitchen manager Charlotte Rutledge highlights these and others (UV Coffee Roasters, Munchie-Rollz, Flying Dog Farm, UVJustBagels, Juel, Lo's Bakehouse) with links to their sites, details on hours or where they sell, and the like. She'll be updating the list, so hit her blue "Leave a Comment" button if you've got suggestions."How grateful I am to have music coming back again." It's been a year and a half since fire destroyed the Sharon home of pianist Annemieke McLane, traditional music virtuoso Jeremiah McLane, and their son Luke—leaving behind the charred ruins of two pianos, accordions, and pretty much all their possessions. Last month they moved into a rebuilt house on the same spot, and for her "Stuck in Vermont" series in Seven Days, Eva Sollberger visited to talk with Annemieke about the fire, rebuilding, and moving forward. "We still don't know what happened," says Annemieke. "That's the weirdest thing."In a Dartmouth classroom, soil, seeds, sensors, and computers get ready to head out to Upper Valley schools. The terrariums—and the electronics and software middle-school students will use to measure what's going on in them—are part of a $1.3 million federally funded STEM project, writes Charlotte Albright in Dartmouth News. The kits will go to schools in Claremont, Barnet, Canaan, and Tunbridge and this spring, grad students will fan out to help teachers use them. Says one: "This type of hands-on, inquiry-based exercise, where we get exposure to programming and electronics and hypothesis-driven kind of projects—I don’t think we had anything quite on this scale."Been paying attention this week? The guys who run The News Quiz have some questions for you. Like, what does a new report recommend the VA in WRJ replace its emergency room with? And what's Colby Sawyer going to build? And, all together now, what's the worst many people in these parts have seen in decades? You'll find those and others at the maroon link.NH Senate approves Exec Council redistricting plan that shifts Upper Valley towns out of Joe Kenney's district. The GOP-led Senate voted along partisan lines to back a plan that, among other things, shifts heavily Democratic towns out of District 1, which Republican Kenney represents, and into a new District 2, represented by the sole Democrat on the Council, Cinde Warmington of Concord. In the Union Leader, Kevin Landrigan notes Kenney's district would lose Hanover, home to his frequent opponent, Democrat Mike Cryans. The bill now goes to the House. (Possible paywall)Life-saving story in the White Mountains gets the Hollywood treatment. It’s remarkable the story got to be told in the first place. Back in 2019, writes Julia Ann Weekes in the Union Leader, Pam Bales gave an interview to writer Ty Gagne about her hiking accomplishments, and almost in passing mentioned a time, years prior, she’d rescued a man in the middle of a snowstorm—only to find out later he'd been bent on suicide. Bales’ riveting story became the focus of the article, then of a book... And now it’s a movie starring Naomi Watts. It premiered last night in New York. Bales was there. (Paywall possible)VT Senate gives initial approval to Act 250 changes. The measure, say its backers, tries to address both the state's lack of affordable housing and development that's encroaching on forests and wildlife habitat, reports VTDigger's Emma Cotton. Among other things, it would make it easier for priority housing to get built and make permitting for infill housing in certain areas easier to obtain. But it also would require new evidence from developers on a project's impact on "forest blocks, connecting habitat, or rare and irreplaceable natural areas.”Got a question about mud season and dirt roads? Keith Gadapee's got answers. He's the road foreman in Danville, VT, and VPR's Brave Little State collected a slew of questions from listeners. He was game. Why are so few roads paved? Not much traffic out there. Is there a technological solution to all that muck? Yes, but: "Since the beginning of roads, there's been mud and there's been potholes." Why do so many Vermonters prefer dirt roads? "I think this question is gonna be beyond me, because it's more or less figuring out people rather than figuring out the roads."No time for PCR test results? Get the dog. For about as long as they’ve been our best friends, dogs’ excellent sense of smell has helped us solve problems, from busting narcotics rings to finding missing persons. What if, asks Mena Davidson for JSTOR Daily, those keen canine noses had a place in the doctor’s office? In fact, scent-detection dogs are already used to identify cancers and even bacterial infections—and more recently Covid-19. Not that border collies will ever replace diagnostic equipment, but scientists think standardized training of certain breeds could yield faster accurate results.

And the numbers...

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If I were a musician—or a dancer dressed as an avocado—and I lived in Australia, I think my pipe dream would be to make a video with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Because it would be just SO much fun.

a song by The Wiggles, an Aussie children's music group. Nothing like a little ska-flavored watermelon, banana, strawberry, and—yeah, avocado, it's a fruit—to launch the weekend.

See you Monday.

The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.

The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers and writers who want you to read. this. book. now!

Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

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