Daybreak Tuesday 5/26/20

WELCOME TO SUMMER, UPPER VALLEY!

Becoming sunny, hotter. That was pretty darn perfect over the weekend, eh? Now, however, there's a ridge of high pressure developing above us, with warm air being carried into the region by southwest winds and the season's first unwelcome breath of humidity on its way. Things start out cool and cloudy, but temps will be getting into the high 80s today, just low 60s tonight.  

Let's just catch up a bit.

The 12A state of play. Plus Murphy's reopens today. Over the weekend, the VN's John Lippman noted the upcoming closing of Pier 1, the JC Penney bankruptcy (242 stores will be closed as part of its reorganization, though it hasn't identified them yet), the uncertain future of the West Leb Kmart (last one left in NH, VT and ME), and the empty windows at Kay Jewelers. He also checked in with Murphy's owner Nigel Leeming, who will be putting seating for 48 diners out in the parking spaces in front. “This is the type of innovation that makes a town leap forward,” Leeming told him."People are much more talkative lately." So says Woodstock's Dwight Cabot Camp, who at 84 still works two jobs and is checking in on fellow seniors in town. He's one of a dozen elders in Barnard and Woodstock featured by writer and photographer Tara Wray on NPR. Wray lives in Barnard, and has spent the last couple of months photographing and talking to her neighbors about how they're faring. Among them: Floyd (100) and Marjorie (92) Van Alstyne, who've been busy running their lumber mill, canning, and (in March and April) sugaring. "They say the lockdown hasn't affected them much," writes Wray. What's a 22-degree halo? Etna photographer Jim Block caught one on Sunday—warm temps below, but ice crystals were refracting sunlight above. In fact, he caught it twice: first the halo solo, then he hopped in the car and drove to where he could put it in perspective. Which we should all be glad he did.Those stone walls in the woods? They probably date from the 1810's to 1840's, which "coincided with the sheep boom" around here, writes Bob Totz on his Old Roads... blog. He's been out following them and taking pics, both when they're obvious and when they disappear under a couple centuries of accumulated forest floor. In one spot he finds what seems to have been a bench: "I could picture a...group of folks having their lunch there, and I sensed their spirits in the peace of the morning, with a breeze in the tree crowns above," he writes.And speaking of the woods... As trees and plants leaf out, they're pulling more water out of the soil. You can watch this in action, Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast says, by cutting a wild grape vine and putting a cup under the cut end; she collected two cups of sap in an hour. Also out there now that we're coming to the end of May: painted trillium, red columbine, foam-flower, leatherleaf, wood frog tadpoles in vernal pools, and gray catbirds in our yards.D-H Health takes out $125M loan; other hospitals in region turn to feds, states. The VN's Nora Doyle-Burr surveys the financial arrangements hospitals are making as they cope with the steep falloff in patients and procedures. D-H initially opted for a line of credit, then in mid-May cancelled it and went for a three-year loan. Valley Regional, Gifford, and others have relied on a blend of redeployed staff, furloughs, and help from various federal and state relief programs. ECFiber to expand. Eventually. The 23-town telecommunications union has agreed to extend service to Windsor, Fairlee, West Fairlee, and Corinth. First it has to finish wiring seven towns already in its service area. Then, says managing director Chris Recchia, it will need to get financing to expand. He expects the bulk of new construction to be in 2022, but it could take until 2023 to be finished.Three of four Hanover-Lyme NH House seats will be up for grabs. The Dartmouth's Sam Ferrone reports that incumbent Democrats Polly Kent Campion, Mary Jane Mulligan, and Garrett Muscatel all plan to give up their seats for various reasons. Only Rep. Sharon Nordgren is running for re-election. Democrats are worried that if a lot of students are engaged in remote learning this fall, it will depress turnout in the heavily Democratic district. For Upper Valley farmers raising livestock, the big issue is now "getting in the door" at slaughterhouses. They book months ahead with the small-scale slaughtering operations in the region, whose schedules are now too full to accommodate changes. "We aren’t taking any more customers through the end of the year,” the manager at Springfield's Vermont Packinghouse tells the VN's John Lippman. Hogwash Farm's Leslie O'Hara couldn't book an extra day at her usual slaughterhouse in N. Haverhill to try to get meat in the freezer before her second child is due; she eventually found space over in Braintree, VT. NH selling its mask stockpile—in its liquor stores. The state is selling disposable surgical masks to residents at cost, distributed through its 80 liquor stores. Before Saturday, they had been available only to frontline and health care workers, and to businesses as they reopened. Note that these are not the more protective N95 masks. At the same link: Nashua has just passed an ordinance requiring anyone who goes inside a business or to an outdoor site where business is being conducted to wear a face covering.Reality hits hemp: “We all know no one is going to get rich doing this. It’s an agricultural enterprise." After a season in which the number of Vermont hemp growers doubled and tried to make a go of it in the CBD market, the industry's come back to earth, reports VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen. Prices have dropped, and low demand and processing problems last fall led farmers to abandon plants in the field. “There’s still action, but certainly not the same sort of feverish intent that we saw last year,” says a UVM agronomist."I don't take advice from people less successful than me." That's Barnard/Burlington winemaker Krista Scruggs, channeling Kanye West in a look by thrillist at "6 Women-Led Wine Startups You Need to Know." Scruggs' ZAFA Wines is known for its natural wines and ciders and occasional blend of the two, and she's seen as one of the stars in the small firmament of natural wine producers in the US. Need to get out and about? There are some pretty great drives around Vermont. The Free Press's Austin Danforth has a bunch of recommendations, from pretty much all of Route 100 to the Notch Road (VT 108) to the various gaps (Brandon, Middlebury, Lincoln, Appalachian) to meandering Route 30 out of Dorset, to poking around Cloudland Farm Road in Pomfret."Why You Don’t Feed Birds In The Summer (if you live in bear country)." Sometimes, a picture's worth well more than 14 words, and Mary Holland's got it atop her latest post. Also, she adds, "Do not worry about the birds that have been visiting your feeder all winter.  Your bringing your feeder in will not negatively affect them, as they get the majority of their food from natural sources."

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