GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
That heat was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? But the Arctic has other plans for us: A cold air mass moved into place overnight. Things will warm up gradually during the day, but only into the low or mid teens, with moderate winds from the northwest. Sunny skies, though! Which means—you guessed it—we lose heat tonight and drop into the mid-teens below zero.And one of the cool things about the sun in winter... Is that you can get natural special effects like these tree shadows on the snow in S. Strafford, from Doc Bagley.Phil Hanlon to step down as Dartmouth president next year. “As the vision I set forth almost 10 years ago becomes reality, the time is right to pass the torch,” Hanlon, who took on the role in 2013, wrote yesterday in a campus email. He'll leave office in June, 2023. During his time, the college's $3 billion fundraising campaign hit its goal, major buildings were constructed, research spending and campus diversity grew, and the college sought to improve its social climate. But the past two years have been "tumultuous," writes The Dartmouth, as Hanlon's standing among students "dipped to historic lows."Bradford looks ahead. Back in 1999, it was one of the first towns in VT to undertake a "Community Visit" grassroots planning process with the VT Council on Rural Development. Unlike some towns, it followed up, merging the town and village and expanding municipal water and sewer. Now, Monique Priestley writes in a new Bradford section of Sidenote, it's at it again: Sessions this past summer have launched groups that are working on ways to boost the town's staffing to bolster economic development, expand rec facilities, and reduce fossil fuel use while buoying local ag.Pandemic bond brings new restaurant to Randolph. It's wit & grit., a "daytime eatery" in the space where Black Krim used to be, writes Melissa Pasanen in Seven Days. The women behind it are Hannah Arias and Ericka Grygowski, who first met because their 5-year-olds were in preschool together, then when the pandemic hit "podded together, hung out and brainstormed," Grygowski says. The motto pretty much sums up their vision: "Good food. Local mood." The menu, which right now leans heavily toward breakfast, also leans heavily toward puns. Mind Your Biscuits and Life Will Be Gravy, indeed.SPONSORED: The Dismas House speaker series returns! This year our community explores Women's Voices in the Criminal Justice System, kicking off on Feb. 4 at noon with Ashley Messier, exective director of the Women’s Justice and Freedom Initiative. Ashley is a survivor of domestic and sexual violence, formerly incarcerated, and a former Dismas House resident. She is a brilliant advocate who supports women, girls, transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people affected by the criminal justice system, and is committed to prison abolition. Sponsored by Dismas House.The wilderness without and within. "As someone who loves all books woodsy and psychological," writes Still North Books' Allie Levy in this weeks Enthusiasms, "I felt at times that [A History of Wild Places] was written just for me." Author Shea Ernshaw is best known for her pair of YA novels; in this first novel for adults she "has a lot in common with Upper Valley favorites like Peter Heller and Louise Penny," Allie writes, only Ernshaw goes darker, with "a hefty dose of the terror—and in some cases the magic—of the unknown." Just what are those things hanging from grasses and goldenrod stalks? They're not big, but if you've been out and about anytime since late fall, you may have noticed them: sacs attached a foot or two off the ground. They're praying mantis egg cases, Mary Holland writes in Naturally Curious, with up to 400 eggs lying snug inside. The nymphs will be hatching in a few months—all at once. They'll crawl out, hang from silk threads for an hour or two while they dry out, then launch into mantis life. NH schools: “I liken it to triage every day with our staff." That's the principal at an elementary school in Weare talking to NHPR's Sarah Gibson about the contortions schools are going through to stay open. As staff absences rise due to teachers quarantining or staying home to care for sick family members, they're relying heavily on substitutes, college students who've been home for an extended winter break, paraprofessionals (who, Gibson notes, could be earning more at a local fast-food chain), even parents. "At this point," Gibson reports, "keeping [schools] open every day is a community-wide effort."A rapid test with your Jameson's? Assuming the Exec Council okays it today, you could soon be buying rapid tests at NH state liquor stores. The state health department is planning to use $12 million to buy a million at-home Covid tests and then sell them at cost (plus an administrative fee) at state liquor outlets, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin. The move has already been approved by the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, but needs executive councilors' okay, too.New England power plants are burning more oil to keep the lights on. Over the past two decades, power plants have turned increasingly toward natural gas, rather than oil (and its deeper carbon footprint), to generate electricity. Until a few years ago, only 1 percent of the region’s power came from burning oil, down from 19 percent in 2000. But as Granite Geek’s David Brooks points out, that trend has reversed course. The culprit: the polar vortex and extended cold snaps. “Natural gas is also used for heating, which gets first dibs,” writes Brooks, offering some ideas for cleaner power in winters to come.With more than a third of private wells tested in NH exceeding PFAS limits, state environmental services department wants to help homeowners defray costs. The department has $5 million in funding in hand, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, which if the program's approved it would use to give rebates of up to $1500 to users of contaminated private wells for installing a treatment system or switching to a public water system. Of the 9,000 wells the department has tested for the widely used chemicals, more than 3,500 in 123 communities exceed state standards. VT sets aside $50 million to help homeowners struggling to pay mortgages, utility bills, and property taxes. The federal money will provide up to $30,000 for households that can demonstrate financial hardship stemming from the pandemic, reports WCAX's Calvin Cutler. “Without this help, there’s a lot of Vermonters who absolutely would be facing foreclosure,” Tricia Leone of Neighborworks of Western Vermont tells him. The money will come through the VT Housing Finance Agency.0°? A sauna! Because this past weekend, 65 runners—including competitors from the United Arab Emirates and the US—ran in races including a marathon, half-marathon, and 10 and 5K in Oymyakon, Russia, the coldest continually inhabited settlement on the planet. Starting temp? -53C (that's -63F to you and me), according to The Siberian Times. The marathon winner was a local, Vasily Lukin, who teaches at the Churapcha Institute of Physical Culture and Sport and finished the course in a blazing 3:22.Imagine if a drone could fly to the very edge of the universe. It might look like this cosmos-cruising simulation from the BBC. In a loving homage to the Eames’ “Powers of Ten” film, physicist Brian Cox narrates “a similar journey through time and space [to] see how our understanding has changed.” It’s wild to think that 100,000 light years takes us only to the edge of our own galaxy, and not until 10 billion light years do we reach the limit of our understanding of the universe and its origins. Beyond that, who really knows? Let’s hope NASA’s powerful new James Webb Space Telescope gives us more to see.
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Jake Xerxes Fussell's parents met at a living-history museum in Georgia, dedicated to nailing traditional life and crafts down to the finest detail. So as Fussell grew into an archivist and performer of Southern and Appalachian folk music traditions—he's become "one of the great magpies of American song, collecting forgotten, tarnished gems with a folklorist’s zeal,"
The Guardian
wrote recently—it's not surprising that finding ways to put his own stamp on them came slowly. His new album came out Friday, and on it, Fussell steps out, with original material as well looser interpretations of older songs.
and a congenial start to the day.
See you tomorrow.
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.
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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