GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Clouds, then showers. Though the rain may not arrive until later this afternoon or evening. There's low pressure making its way our direction, and though once the fog clears we may get isolated pockets of blue, mostly today is cloudy with an eventual likelihood of showers into tomorrow. Highs in the mid-50s, but the clouds will keep things from cooling off too much after nightfall: mid-40s tonight.Speaking of water... Videographer Peter Bloch has added a "kayak cam" to his setup, so now he's filming both above and below the surface of local bodies of water. Here's his trip up the Ompompanoosuc, in Norwich, and his tour of McDaniels Marsh, in Springfield, NH.And even deeper below the surface, Lebanon "sits quietly on a gold mine." Of water, that is. That's the conclusion of engineers hired by the city to look deep beneath a small peninsula at the confluence of the Mascoma and Connecticut rivers, writes Frances Mize in the Valley News. The city's seeking a reliable source besides the Mascoma, and that groundwater may be the ticket. Mize surveys other towns in the region, where the picture is dicier, thanks to a combination of drought and rising demand—and notes that, sometime in the future, Leb's potential gusher could help other towns, as well."What rural areas need to hear—that things can be better...with a little hard work and a little luck and a little elbow grease.” That's Alex Kelley, the head of broadband consulting at Hartland's Center on Rural Innovation, in Joyce Marcel's wide-ranging Vermont Business profile of CORI's founder, Matt Dunne. Marcel traces Dunne's life, from growing up on his parents' Hartland farm (and showing pigs at the Tunbridge Fair) to his years in the legislature (while also running the Briggs Opera House in WRJ and helping launch things like Glory Days of the Railroad), to his runs for governor to his current efforts to boost digital-economy jobs in rural America.How a pandemic pivot saved Springfield's Vermont Wagyu. On Saturday, photojournalist Kerri Nelson visited Spring Rock Farm, where owner Sheila Patinkin and her family held their fourth Wagyu beef livestock auction. Before the pandemic, about 80 percent of the farm's business was directly with restaurants. After they shut down, Sheila Patinkin tells Nelson (via WCAX), "I was left with how do we survive... I had five families we were supporting here on this hill." The answer, Max Patinkin says: "We figured out how to do packaging, we figured out how to send direct to your doorstep."Hood guides vote to join union. In the VN yesterday, Jim Kenyon reports that the visitors services guides, as they're called, voted 5-0 last month to join Local 560 of the Service Employees’ International Union, which represents Dartmouth's blue-collar employees. The guides make about $19 an hour, Kenyon writes, and are looking for higher pay. “We would like compensation that is commensurate with our skills, experience, and the cost of living in the area," says one. Kenyon also takes a look at the recent move by DH to outsource about 50 patient registration jobs.“The other day I watched one of our broad-winged hawks kicking golf balls.” That's VINS educator Malerie Muratori talking to the VN's Frances Mize (here via VTDigger, no paywall) on the occasion of the organization's 50th anniversary. Mize tells VINS's story, from its early days in 1972 focused on educational outreach about protecting the Ottauquechee River to the creation of its raptor center to its bird rehab efforts—it took in as many as 1,000 at the height of the pandemic—to the growth of its nature center off Route 4 and its emphasis on climate change, which is "stressing" raptors' hunting season.NH braces for winter Covid surge. On Friday, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, the state health dept. got preliminary approval from legislators to spend $8.9 million for more vaccines and antiviral medications. The worry is that few people are getting the new bivalent booster as general immunity wanes. Covid hospitalizations and deaths are already "ticking up," Timmins writes. She details the arguments for getting boosted and the prevalence of vaccine misinformation. “When we hear something that’s frankly wrong, we need to call that out and say, ‘That is not correct,’” says DH's Dr. Sally Kraft. Is New Hampshire experiencing climate-change-related fruit-ripening? That question found its way to the inbox of NHPR's Outside/In team. And the answer, says Outside/In's Felix Poon, is yep. Fruit trees are leafing out and flowering earlier, and berries are showing up earlier, according to research by the Boston University climate lab run by Richard Primack. A study up in Alaska found the same thing. What to do? Protect berry plants with snow (it's an insulator) and plant berry patches on both the north and south sides of a hill: one side will do fine in a hot summer, the other during a cooler season.Get lost. No, wait, let's rephrase that. If you're looking for a way to pass the time, Atlas Obscura's just out with a cool new maze from Michelle Boggess-Nunley, an artist who's got the Guinness record for the largest hand-drawn maze. Her latest takes the Paris Catacombs as its theme (color version here). There's also a greyscale version if you want to print it quickly. And a link to the solution, but you won't need that.And our favorite way to pass the time: the Monday Vordle. With a word from recent news.
Meanwhile, let's dig into some music to start the week..."Oh I was raised on little light." That's a line in "Northern Attitude," off Noah Kahan's latest album, Stick Season. The Strafford-raised Hanover High grad is getting all sorts of critical attention ("There's a newfound maturity in his tone, a musical confidence that shines," writes the AP's Elise Ryan) with its recent release—and massive TikTok buildup. "My dad was a triathlete. He would always be wearing spandex and those funny helmets that go all the way back," Kahan told Insider recently. "I was always like, 'No man, no one's going to want to come over. My family's weird, I'm weird. My place isn't as nice as everybody else's.' I feel like a lot of people feel that, no matter what your house looks like, or what your family actually looks like. I wanted to write about that feeling, that vulnerability, and opening yourself up to letting people into the private parts of your life." Here's "Northern Attitude." And here's Elle Muller's review in The Dartmouth, which delves into the album's Upper Valley roots.See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
If you like Daybreak and would like to help it keep going and evolve, please hit the "Support" button below and I'll tell you more:
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!