GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
We’re just going to quote the weather folks. “Seven straight days have passed without measurable rainfall,” writes the National Weather Service in Burlington. “This streak without rainfall is likely to extend for another week given upcoming large-scale pattern, exasperating drought conditions.” They meant “exacerbating,” but hey, “exasperating” works, too; things are stressed out there. The “large-scale pattern” is high pressure over the entire region, kept in place by conditions to our west and south. Today: Sun once the fog clears, high nearing 80. Lows tonight around 50.
That’s a mouthful. “It's that time of year when acorns feel like ball bearings underfoot as you walk down your driveway,” writes photographer Scott Kalter. “Forest creatures like bear, deer, raccoon, squirrel, and even blue jays and turkeys find acorns an irresistible food of choice. Chipmunks, though small of stature, also love to eat and store these nuts for the long winter ahead. This chipmunk, on Highbridge Road in Lyme, seemed to bite off more than it could chew…”
On-ramp to I-91 south in Norwich to close. VTrans officials haven’t said when it’ll happen yet, but as John Lippman reports in the Valley News, they made the decision last week after that accident in which a driver entering the highway failed to stop at the stop sign in the construction zone where the on-ramp merges into the highway, and collided with a bus. Highway traffic is down to a single lane for a bridge reconstruction project that’ll last into November. The detour will send southbound drivers hoping to get on the highway in Norwich down Route 5 to Wilder, where they’ll get on at Exit 12. VTrans officials say the on-ramp closure will last about a month.
Hanover closing its parking garage to public parking starting today. In a press release Friday, the Hanover Police Department announced the garage will be shut down for re-construction for up to 10 weeks—except for current leaseholders, who’ll be able to use Currier Place to enter and leave. The EV charging stations will be unavailable during the repair period. The town will provide updates on its website.
Fatal motorbike collision in Newbury, VT. The accident Friday afternoon happened by the P&H Truck Stop on Route 302, just off the Wells River exit. According to the VT State Police, a motorcyclist from Maryland “was traveling east on Route 302 and had slowed down as a truck was turning into the parking lot of the P & H Truck Stop.” A Concord, VT motorcyclist behind him collided with the rear of the first motorcycle and flew off, with his 2020 Harley coming to rest on the south side of the road. EMS crews responded, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. “At this time, neither speed nor impairment appear to be contributing factors,” the VSP says.
Retail alliteration: Rue and Ren and Revolution. Rue and Ren is a new shop—ten vendors in the same space—in WRJ, and in Artful, Susan Apel writes that it opened Aug. 1. Co-owner Kristyn Smith tells her, “Ourselves and our vendors sell a mix of vintage and modern curated name brand clothing, men's, women's, kids, accessories, home goods, and some furniture….each vendor has a bit of a different eye so you have different feels throughout the store.” Meanwhile, Revolution’s opened its Hanover branch. Owner Kim Souza tells Susan, “Longtime shopkeepers and the community at large have gone out of their way to share words of welcome.”
The Tunbridge World’s Fair in photos. It closed yesterday after four days of big crowds and lots of excitement.
VTDigger photojournalist Glenn Russell was there from morning until night on opening day, and in a whole set of great photos, captured the feel.
Meanwhile, the Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival posted a very cool aerial shot of the entire scene on its FB page.
What will it take to end the drought? That’s the question NHPR’s Kate Dario asks, and the answer’s pretty straightforward: not a sudden, heavy rainfall that will only wash off without saturating the soil, but a soaking rain that lasts for days. And that doesn’t seem to be in the offing, NWS hydrologist Sarah Jamison tells her: “So our deficits will only grow.” What this means for the future depends a lot on the next few months. Decent rain before the ground freezes will make the drought’s long-term impact minimal, says the NH water division’s Ted Diers. But if we don’t get rain before winter sets in, snow won’t really help, and soil will be in even worse shape come spring.
In VT, wet spring then drought cut the apple crop. In all, reports Vermont Public’s Abagael Giles, orchardists are expecting roughly half the crop they usually get. Early apples are healthy—but there are fewer of them, in part because the spring rains happened when blossoms were out so pollinators weren’t as busy as usual, and in part because the low water levels that followed have stressed the trees. Even so, Giles reports, some apple growers are optimistic about late varieties, which are growing well—and will ripen with the next few weeks’ sunny days and cool nights. “Be it a miracle or be it good fortune, it’s better than we thought,” says Cabot’s Greg Burtt.
In Rutland, a premier cookie-cutter manufacturer shrugs off tariffs. That’s because 27 years ago, Ann Clark CEO Ben Clark decided to move manufacturing in-house and buy raw materials domestically, reports Antone Gonsalves in Supply Chain Dive. Steel comes from Maryland, the ingredients for its icing, food coloring, and baking mixes are all sourced in this country, and the company makes almost everything it sells at its plant in Rutland. With between 4 and 5 million cookie cutters sold annually, Ann Clark commands nearly two-thirds of the US market. “I like making things, so over the years, we figured out how to make cookie cutters quickly and efficiently,” Clark says.
Sheesh. I can’t believe I did this. Sorry, all you News Quiz afficionados: I completely forgot to put them in on Friday. At the burgundy link, you’ll find links to the Upper Valley, New Hampshire, and Vermont quizzes that should have been in Friday’s Daybreak.
The Monday Jigsaw. This week, it’s a 1928 map of Hanover. As the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross writes on his Curioustorian blog, “Zooming in rewards you with details: the original Nugget Theater, names of local businesses, two brick schools on Allen Street, homeowners, and plenty more to explore.” On his blog, he also includes a map key, the Library of Congress’s online collection of fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company, and a guide to how to find your house in them.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Time for blaze orange out there in the woods. Hunting season gets going in earnest in NH today, with the opening of archery season for deer and turkeys. Vermont’s archery season for deer opens Oct. 1 (and turkeys Oct. 4). Here are the schedules again:
And for today, let’s waltz into the week...
Well, the music’s a waltz. The visuals? Anything but. Mark Robbins likes to animate music, and one of his go-to tools over the years has been an online game/toy called Line Rider, in which players draw lines for a little sledder to follow. Turns out, you can set this to music. Like, say, Strauss’s “Blue Danube”.
Or maybe more fitting, we should charge into the week with the William Tell Overture…
See you tomorrow.
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