Daybreak Tuesday 10/13/20

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Fingers crossed: Soaking rain expected. So basically, there's former Hurricane Delta moisture seeping in and a cold front sidling up as well, and the result is that we should get moderate to heavy rain this morning into the afternoon. It'll taper off late in the day, though may last into the evening. High today around 50, low into the lower 40s. All that should bring decent rainfall totals. The Weather Service map foresees between a half inch and an inch in the central and southern parts of the region, more to the north. Dartmouth identifies first off-campus cluster of cases. In an email yesterday, Covid-19 Task Force chairs Lisa Adams and Josh Keniston wrote that three undergrads living together off-campus have tested positive. The college is giving out no details about where they live, but said they're getting medical attention in isolation. Two of the students tested positive last week; results for the third came back yesterday, reports The Dartmouth."Word in the local sports community is that recent Covid positives in Hartford, Lebanon and Hanover are tied to club hockey families traveling outside the area." On his Octopus Athletics blog, Tris Wykes notes that as he's been covering high school games, he's been seeing plenty of athletes being cavalier about masks—and even the strictest coaches can't be vigilant all the time. "The whole situation stinks and we get it," he writes in what amounts to an open letter to those athletes. "However, we also need you to know that a significant part of the responsibility for defeating Covid lies on your shoulders.""We can throw balls and not have to disinfect them. But we can't hand them off." Meanwhile, Dartmouth football is adapting to Covid-era rules, and on his Big Green Alert blog, Bruce Wood interviews coach Buddy Teevens about how it's going. The quick answer (though there's really no such thing with Teevens): "It's crazy trying to figure it out." Switching fields so there's more room, offensive and defensive pods, keeping players apart... At least Dartmouth was ahead of its time with contactless drills.NH has seen "early warning signs" of Covid surge, should follow college students' behavior. That was federal coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx yesterday at Plymouth State, where her brother is president, noting that the virus is largely under control on campuses. While traveling over from UVM, however, she noticed "many parties or weddings where people were not wearing masks, and...drove by parking lots jammed by leaf-peeping tourists," the Union Leader reports.CRREL to break ground on cold-weather testing facility. Construction on the new building in Hanover is expected to start next month and be finished in December, 2021. When it's done, the building will be able to create—and hold—temperatures down to -58F, allowing engineers to test how equipment performs at different temps, how long it takes concrete mixes to harden, and the like. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must be able to construct things in any temperature on this planet, so we test various methods at the laboratory," says CRREL's campus manager. (Valley News)Upper Valley Apple Corps lands grant to take step toward new Hartford Fruit Walk. The $1,500 comes from the VT Natural Resources Council for engineering prep work near Hartford town hall to create a a self-guided path with fruit trees, medicinal herbs, and other gardens. “Fruit trees and food-producing plants that are part of the Fruit Walk are long-lasting, perennial solutions for food access in the community," says coordinator Cat Buxton. "As the plants grow, the community around the Fruit Walk will grow, too." "As I neared the babysitter tree, I looked and there, at its base, was a large pile of furry black bodies all huddled together, fast asleep." In the new issue of the Lebanon Times, Mary Holland and Virginia Dean team up for an appreciation of Mink, the bear. The line comes from Holland's essay about an astonishingly close-up encounter with Mink and one set of her cubs: "Of all the experiences I’ve had with wild animals, this is by far the most memorable," she writes. One cub of Mink's final litter is at the Kilham Bear Center—which, Dean writes, has about 30 cubs right now "and is in need of donations."And speaking of close-ups, there was this red fox... Photographer Jim Block has had sporadic luck with them, but rejoiced when he discovered a fox den last year near his place in Etna. The foxes returned this year... only to move after being harassed by dogs. Then, the other day, he and his wife were out for a walk and saw a young fox, probably a kit from this spring's litter. They followed it...Ravenel’s stinkhorn. Do you need to know anything else? Oh, okay... It's "a common, fast-growing-and-fading mushroom that is almost always covered in flies. Its unpleasant smell attracts carrion eaters to disperse its spores," writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast. We're in the second week of October, and there's plenty out there, like fire-colored beetle larvae and sulphur butterflies and Eastern red-backed salamanders. Oh, and of course, cinnabar polypore. Makes you want to get on your boots right now."It felt like she was telling each of us her story — individually." It's been so long since we've seen an actual theater review, hasn't it? The Times-Argus's Jim Lowe was in WRJ the other night for a performance of Steph Everett's It's Fine, I'm Fine at Northern Stage. It's "a compelling tale...beautifully told," he reports. It's been a busy few days for NH Fish & Game. A lot of people from away took advantage of the long weekend to come to the mountains... and get into trouble. Officers rescued a rock climber from Atlanta who fell 20 feet onto a Cathedral Ledge ledge, a New Jerseyite who fell down the Falling Waters Trail, a RI woman who fell on the Welch-Dickey Trail... and an NH guy who got thrown from his ATV. “I’ve never seen the Franconia Notch area...as busy as it was this particular weekend," one officer says. On-duty police officer shoots, kills woman, self. Jeffrey Strock, who lived in Brookfield and was on the Berlin, VT police force as well as a part-time deputy in the Washington County Sheriff's office, drove his cruiser to an apartment in Barre yesterday, shot 51-year-old Julie Fandino on the back porch, then turned his gun on himself. Their bodies were discovered yesterday afternoon, when the landlord drove by and noticed the Berlin police cruiser parked outside. Hospitals seek to cut their reliance on traveling nurses. They face a shortage of nurses, and have relied on nurses from elsewhere to fill their needs. But they're expensive, and hospital officials are trying to replace them with full-time staff. They're "partnering with nursing schools, increasing wages and providing education reimbursements to bring nurses to Vermont, and then keep them here," reports VTDigger's Katie Jickling. And nurses who liked the traveling life seem ready to settle down. “The fun of being a travel nurse has kind of been lost in the last six months,” says one.Sure, candy bars, chips, pretzels... But also live hairy crabs, beluga caviar, and engagement rings. Those are just some of the things you can find in vending machines (the crabs are in China, but the caviar and rings are here in the US). And pretty much anyone can own and stock a basic vending machine for about $2,000. Which is why people are buying in during the pandemic. The challenge? Finding a good spot. "It can be dog-eat-dog," one owner tells The Hustle's Zachary Crockett for his look at the economics of it all.If that chipmunk only knew... Big Red and Arthur are red-tailed hawks who spend part of the season in a nest under the watchful gaze of Cornell U's Red-tailed Hawk Cam. The ornithology lab's out with a 2020 season highlights reel, from nest-building in March to three eggs soon after, through a windy, snowy early spring, the chicks hatching at the end of April... and then growing and getting blown around in windstorms and getting gawky. Then, before you know it, they take their first flights. High drama high up. (Thanks, WP!) 

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I don’t need your praiseto survive. I was here first, before you were here, beforeyou ever planted a garden.And I’ll be here when only the sun and moonare left, and the sea, and the wide field.

I will constitute the field.

— From "Witchgrass," by Louise Glück

See you tomorrow.

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