Deep in the Woods with Banta Modelworks
By Joyce MarcelDeep in the woods of Dummerston, so deep that one would never come upon it by accident, is what will eventually be a 3,000-foot passenger-carrying model rail line. It is no more or less unexpected than the sixteen pet alpacas or the twelve darting hummingbirds the day I visited that also share the property with Bill and Angela Banta.
Bill Banta is a model train aficionado who has turned his passion into a thriving business.
His company, Banta Modelworks, employs only Banta, by the way. The droll and diffident Banta has no employees—“Done that game; don’t want to do it again.”—but he does have a remarkable inventory of the highest-level technical tools, including a 3-D laser printer and three industrial lasers able to cut out the tiniest of craft model parts. His crammed studio also holds a variety of computers, monitors, car, truck and rail models, paints, and tools. With these, he creates kits of scale model trains and trackside structures and ships them all over the world.
“We use industrial lasers for cutting and etching wood and resin for masonry buildings,” says Banta’s equally droll website (www. bantamodelworks.com) where “The laser does the hard work” is the motto.
“Many of our structures are of specific prototype buildings located along the old Rio Grande Southern Railroad or Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauges, Southern Pacific standard gauge, with an equal amount of freelance structures designed to enhance any layout being built to a particular prototype or built to your own imagination,” the web site continues. And it ends, “BTW, these are kits, they require you to assemble and finish them.” Though the pictures in his literature are of assembled and painted kits, they don’t include any paint, but do include some colorful signs and decorations.
For example, there’s the colorful old-timey, two-story Oakboro Hay & Grain store, with a porch and walls made of tiny planks. Done in extraor dinary detail, it comes complete with an attached shed or garage useful for carriage repairs according to the sign on its tiny door. Stairs on the side of the main building lead up to a second floor. Colorful advertising slogans cover the walls. Miniature-makers can buy the kit and create the store themselves in one of four sizes costing from $82 to $325.
Or they can build out my favorite, the bright yellow OK Used Cars (financing and leasing) lot complete with flying banners. Or they can build several trains, or a roundhouse, or a water tower, or a lovely Depressionera train station, or a shoe-and-boot store.
All the parts for these models are laser-cut, boxed, and shipped to the door. Or fans can be lucky and meet Banta at certain conventions and meetings and buy directly from him.
Banta puts a great deal of effort into his kits. “A kit is composed of all of these parts, a set of instructions, a set of drawings and the box,”
Continued on page 14
Community Center Board to Step Down in June, ‘23
By Ann DavisThe board of the Community Center has officially given their collec tive resignation to the selectboard. This will take place at the end of this fiscal year June 30, 2023. We have devoted more than thirty years to the Center, and this was a very difficult decision to make. We hope to see the Center continue to grow and flourish under new leadership.
We are actively seeking a new board to continue to build on the potential of the building and to keep it open and accessible to the members of this community for events and gatherings.
We have had two tag sales this season which were very successful! A very special thank you to our special volunteers—we couldn’t have done it without you. And thanks to all of you who found the treasure you didn’t know you were searching for.
Halloween comes on Tuesday October 31 this year. The Center will be open from 5-7 p.m., so bring all of your little ghosts and goblins to share our treats!
continued on page 6
The Views of Dummerston is a quarterly newsletter published by a group of citizen volunteers since 1990, and has non-profit status through the Dummerston Community Center. Mary Lou McBean had the original vision for and was first editor of the Views, and Gary Blomgren created the original masthead art.
The current steering committee includes Roger Turner (editor), Michelle Cherrier (co-articles coordinator and calendar), Fred Lee (layout), Sara Ryan (ad coordi nator), Linda Rood (co-articles coordinator), and Lee Ives Tice (mailing). We always welcome new interest in joining the committee.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
The Views is mailed free of charge to all residents of the town of Dummerston. It is also available online at viewsofdummerston.org. We encourage people to help us save printing and mailing expenses by cancelling their print subscription and accessing the Views online at viewsofdummerston.org; to do so please email Sara Ryan at: subscribe online@viewsofdummerston.org.
If you are not a resident of Dummerston and would prefer to receive a paper copy of the Views, you may subscribe for an annual cost of $5. Mail a check made payable to Views of Dummerston, with your name and mailing address to Lee Tice, 230 School House Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346.
ARTICLES:
We welcome all articles related in any way to the town of Dummerston, including news of town organizations, personalities, history, or activities. Email Microsoft Word documents (preferred) to: articles@viewsof dummerston.org. Typed or hand-written articles can also be sent to: Michelle Cherrier, 72 Miller Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346.
CALENDAR:
Any (non-commercial) event you would like listed on our Calendar of Events should be emailed to: calendar@ viewsofdummerston.org, or mailed to Michelle Cherrier at the above address.
NEXT ISSUE:
Submissions due: January 10, 2023
Views will be mailed on: February 24, 2023
ADVERTISING:
Rates: All rates are for four issues, however a large or small box ad can be placed for just one issue at an adjusted rate. Payment should be by a check made out to the Views of Dummerston, and mailed to: Sara Ryan, 53 Greenhoe Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346
Small Box Ad $55
Large Box Ad $85 Information/Inquiries: Contact Sara Ryan at: ads@ viewsofdummerston.org, or at 387-0110.
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Sponsorships of $25 for four issues augment our ad revenues to provide us with operating funds. You will be notified when your sponsorship is up and invited to renew. If you wish to become a sponsor or have ques tions, contact Sara Ryan as above.
Digital Views available
Featuring easy navigation, clickable links, and full color. We’re sure you’ll love it!
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Dummerston Selectboard Meetings
Recorded and televised by BCTV and online at www.brattleborotv.org. (Select “Watch”, select “Watch On Demand”, select “Playlist”, scroll to “Dummerston”, select meeting.)
The Dummerston Garden
Growing Garlic in the Garden
By Vern GrubingerGarlic is an unusual crop. It’s vegetatively propagated, planted in the fall, and especially flavorful. It probably originated in central Asia, was then brought to Europe, and by the early 1700s, to America.
There are two types of garlic: Hardneck garlic forms a false flower stalk in the spring called a scape. Its bulbs usually have five to seven large cloves. Softneck garlic doesn’t produce a scape, and its bulbs contain a dozen or so smaller cloves. Elephant garlic is not a garlic at all; it’s a member of the leek family that produces large bulbs with three or four cloves.
Garlic, like potatoes, is multiplied by vege tative rather than sexual reproduction (which means by seeds). Individual garlic cloves are planted in late fall and next spring they become a bulb in which the cloves all have the same genetic makeup as the original clove.
Garlic grows well in many different soils and climates, but only varieties that are hardy and adapted to the Northeast will perform well here. Supermarkets likely sell garlic varieties that were grown in warm climates with long growing seasons, so they may not do well here. Buy your garlic “seed” from commercial garlic growers in our area, or from seed companies that specialize in serving the Northeast. It’s a good idea to order several varieties and plant them on a small scale to evaluate their performance under your growing conditions. Each summer, save the largest and healthiest bulbs for re-planting in the fall, to build your own seed stock.
There’s a lot of creativity in naming garlic varieties because much of the seed stock has been developed and maintained by private individuals. These folks can call their garlic anything they want. As a result, some garlic varieties with different names are pretty much the same thing, and some varieties with the same name may exhibit more differences than you’d expect. Since “true” varieties don’t really exist with garlic, the different types are often referred to as “strains.”
Garlic should be planted the last half of October, perhaps into early November. The goal is to get the cloves to establish roots, but not send up shoots above ground level. Set the cloves three to four inches deep, about six to eight
inches apart. Garlic requires a cold treatment to induce bulbing, so garlic planted in the spring produces a small single bulb without cloves.
Mulching garlic with a thick layer of clean straw after planting helps control weeds and retain soil moisture, but in a wet spring it can keep the soil from drying out and lead to soil-borne diseases, so the mulch should be pulled away from the garlic if the soil remains saturated due to frequent rain.
Garlic grows best with a soil pH of 6.2 to 7.0. Add lime, phosphorus, and potassium as needed, based on soil test recommendations, and incorporate those thoroughly prior to planting. A light addition of mature compost can be beneficial in garden soil that’s low in organic matter. In the spring, apply about three pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet on top of the garlic planting when the shoots are about six inches high. That’s equivalent to about twenty pounds of Chilean nitrate, twentyfive pounds of dried blood, or 50 pounds of soybean meal. Scratch in lightly if possible.
Garlic is not very competitive, so good weed control is critical. If mulch is not used, cultivation should be shallow so as not to damage any roots. A narrow collinear hoe works well in tightly spaced crops like garlic. Irrigation should be applied frequently during dry periods to ensure good growth.
Harvest garlic once the lower third of leaves on healthy plants begin yellowing, which is usually in mid-July, depending on the strain. The ideal time to harvest is when bulbs attain their maximum size, but cloves have not started to separate inside the bulb. You can dig up a few bulbs and cut them in half, perpendicular to the cloves, to see what stage they’re at. After pulling the bulbs, gently wash the soil off, or don’t – then rub it off later once the bulbs are dry. Thorough drying is essential for good storage, and this will take several weeks. Hang the bulbs in bundles or spread them out on a piece of wire fence in a well-ventilated shed or other structure protected from the elements.
Garlic should keep for several months in paper or plastic mesh bags in a cool, relatively dry, dark, and well-ventilated area, such as some basements. Good conditions are temperatures in the 50’s and about 50% relative humidity.
The Views of Dummerston Mission Statement
Providing reports of town organizations, and stories of townspeople and their good deeds, in promoting cooperation and understanding toward creating a more “ideal” Dummerston.
“All who read may also contribute!”—Mary Lou McBean, founder, Views of Dummerston
Selectboard Resumes In-Person Meetings
By Zeke GoodbandWe’ve had a pretty quiet summer. I’m writing this news update while taking a break from the almost 90-degree heat outside and eating tomatoes with almost every meal, trying to keep up with the deluge from the garden, and kids have just gone back to school. By the time this shows up in your mailbox we’ll be thinking about snow tires and looking for where we stored away our wool hats and long underwear last spring. So what may be news now might be old news by the time you read this. My apologies.
The selectboard began meeting in person once again at the Community Center in West
Dummerston while taking our masks off with caution. Our road foreman, Lee Chamberlin, went on vacation and unlike previous years, no major storms occurred while he was away. To my great relief, Wayne Emery and I, after about twelve years as Dummerston’s volunteer animal control officers, turned our leashes over to the Windham County Sher iff’s Department. With our newly revised animal ordinance in effect, domestic animal control issues are now being taken care of by deputy Ashley Pinger. To reach her with a problem contact the Sheriff’s non-emergency number (with their move to Ferry Road from Newfane they will have a new number). For any problems with wild animals the game
Retiring Newell is Vermont’s “Lister of the Year”
by Steve Mindel
The listers have continued a busy year, finally finishing up the last of the loose ends from the 2021 reappraisal. Work goes on as we continue to find small discrepancies and errors which need to be corrected. With the completion of the current grand list and current assessed values, we are finally catching up. As of September 1, 2022, there have been forty-seven property transfers in town thus far in 2022. The market continues to be active, so we are now busy with recording these transfers. As we have noted previously, Jean Newell will be retiring as a longtime lister after twentyfour years of dedicated service to the town. We are looking for someone to take her place and encourage anyone who might be interested in being a lister to contact us at the town office. You can reach us here at 802-254-1496 on Tuesday or Thursday mornings from 9 a.m. until noon, or by email at: listers@dummerston.org
On September 16, Jean was recognized as the “Lister of the Year” for the State of Vermont by the Vermont Assessors and Listers Asso
ciation (VALA) at their annual meeting in Montpelier. VALA “is a nonprofit, profes sional membership organization comprised of municipal assessing officials and affiliates that are involved in the management of property assessment.” Our congratulations on an award well-deserved. Jean has been and continues to be an important asset to the smooth running of the town of Dummerston. Her knowledge, attention to detail, tireless work ethic, desire for perfection and sense of humor, enable our town to maintain a fair and equitable grand list, and helps to ensure that our system of assessment is equal across the town.
wardens are the ones to contact; they can be reached through the State Police dispatch in Westminster.
The selectboard received several proposals for projects to be funded through the ARPA program. So far, proposals for the West Dummerston Volunteer Fire Department, the Historical Society, the Grange, the Commu nity Center, and the recreation board, town office, and highway department have all been approved for funding. We have more than a year left to consider other uses for these funds.
No selectboard report would be complete without a shout out for all the volunteers, town employees, and elected officials that keep the town humming along. We are always looking for other residents to join the fun. Spending a couple of hours a month working with a group of fellow neighbors is actually pretty enjoyable and it helps keep the town spinning.
Sponsors
Paul & Jody Normandeau Cindy and John Wilcox Michelle Cherrier & Philip Goepp Eleanora Patterson & Gordon FaisonSponsors
Gordon & Linda Evans Heather & Gene Rostov
Akara Draper & Linnie Jones
Elizabeth Catlin & Jared Flynn Cliff Adler & Lynn Levine
town government
Dummerston Conservation Commission
Upgraded Conservation Stations Ready for Deployment
By John AndersonAs I write farmers are making a second cutting of hay, but by the time this reaches your mailbox snow may have at least lightly touched the tops of the Green Mountains. Time marches on and the conservation commission has worked to keep pace.
We started this quarter with a wildflower talk featuring some of the threatened and endangered, the rare and unusual, and the recently invasive species found in Dummer ston. John Anderson was the presenter.
The first of our conservation stations located on the corner of Hague and Green Moun tain Camp Roads received a permanent base constructed by commission members Jesse Wagner and Rick Mills. Two other stations are nearly ready for installation. These minilibrary-style stations hold trail maps, natural history books, and other pertinent conservationrelated information and we hope the public will freely avail themselves of the contents.
An engineering firm has been selected and is currently designing new steps that will, when constructed, help people safely access the West River from the park-and-ride lot by the covered bridge. Both erosion and safety issues are to be addressed in the pending plan.
Chairwoman Christine Goepp has made the trail-of-the-month a feature of our monthly e-newsletter and member David Greenwalt adds concise, informative trail maps that
should give confidence to those unfamiliar with any featured hike.
Soil expert, vegetable and berry specialist, and neighbor Vern Grubinger gave a talk on soil health. Grubinger’s presentation ranged from what exactly soil is, to what soil chem istry favors strong healthy crops, and offered information on how to obtain and understand a soil health test. As small farms and locallygrown foods become ever more resurgent parts of life in Dummerston, many of us need to reestablish a relationship with the soil.
Member Emily Alexander has, with much effort, freshened up our website and made it more user-friendly. This site contains a wealth of information amassed by commission members over the decades and keeping it up to date and user friendly has been a commis sion goal.
And in an end of summer initiative, Chris tine Goepp and John Anderson accompanied CISMA (Cooperative Invasives Management Area) proponents Heather Blunk and Andrew Morrison on a tour of Prospect Hill to assess the invasive problem on the summit where buckthorn and honeysuckles are inexorably encroaching on the historically open pasture.
The walk was, for commission members, mainly a fact finding mission. However, information gleaned will form the basis for a report and recommendations for addressing the perennial and seemingly intractable problem of invasive colonization.
Doing nothing and allowing the pasture to revert to forest would, to most, seem an extremely unpalatable option.
And now, having dutifully reported, I’m going to ramble off into some observations regarding the rather remarkable sensory abili ties of a garter snake, abilities that I never expected to observe, certainly not on the day in question.
One of my pre-school age grand-nieces had been fishing from the shores of Sunset Lake, using techniques more hazardous to her
siblings than to any fish. True to her age she soon lost interest, reeled in most of her line and leaned her pole against a rowboat, leaving the bait - a worm - dangling 8 or more inches off the ground.
Within seconds a smallish garter snake was observed some twenty feet away, moving fast and in a very unsnakelike arrow-straight line toward the worm. As it speedily approached the dangling worm, it elevated the forward portion of its body until its head was worm high. It then plucked the worm out of the air without ever slowing its pace. Only 2 or 3 seconds had passed since we first observed the snake.
I had long known that earthworms are a favorite prey for garter snakes, but I had always pictured garter snakes poking slowly and rather passively through grasses or leaf litter and occasionally stumbling onto an equally passive and directionless worm.
There was nothing of chance or passivity in what I observed that day. Even from twenty feet away the snake was zeroed in on that worm. And as it neared its prey it corrected for the elevation of the worm, which to a snake, must have appeared to be hovering in midair.
It was a remarkable if brief performance.
It was even more remarkable when you realize that the snake’s abilities probably did not rely primarily on sight, smell (as we expe rience it), or hearing, the senses that we rely on. Snakes have what is called a Jacobson’s Organ (vomeronasal pit), a sensory organ in the roof of their mouth with which they ‘taste’ the air. And, in all likelihood most of the sensory input behind the snake’s actions were the products of that one organ and the molecular information it gathered.
Sponsors
Linda Rood & Roger Turner Nick & Joan Thorndike Dick & Harriet Virkstis Marcy Hermansader Lou NelsonI was deeply impressed by the speed and the laser-like approach path of the snake as it zeroed in on the worm. That a snake would unhesitatingly rear up to grab the worm out of midair - a seemingly novel circumstance in a world where worms are invariably earth bound - will probably never be explained to my satisfaction.
But I’m glad that I was there. I’m glad that there are others behaving in ways that we’ve never explained or reduced or codified as instinct. I’m glad that every once in a while we get just the kind of wake-up call that day’s observations provided!
For more information on the conservation commission go to http://www.dummerston conservation.com
Historical Society Schoolhouse Acitivities Have Resumed
By Muriel TaylorOpen Hours: As hoped, our Schoolhouse has been open several times this fall. We greeted interested adults and children during our open hours on September 25th and October 23rd. The school chairs, the old “readers” and the outdoor stone pound entertained the children as adults examined various albums and found exhibits of interest. In addition, the Apple Pie Festival brought many through our doors on October 9th What a pleasure to greet visitors from all over the country who have come to Dummerston to enjoy the beauty of autumn and a piece of apple pie in the welcoming atmosphere of our beloved town.
Picnic: The Dummerston Historical Society was happy to participate in the first annual town picnic sponsored by Dummerston Cares. We set up a large table that displayed several of our photo albums documenting town history, several pegs from the covered bridge, and a sample of our items for sale (t-shirts, note cards, mugs). This was a wonderful opportunity to meet and greet folks new to the community as well as long-time residents. Our own Chuck Fish moderated a storytelling session and also told an interesting story about his early days on the selectboard.
Lynn Levine: Our fall quarterly meeting was held on October 20th. We were fortunate to have our Dummerston neighbor, Lynn Levine, as our speaker. Lynn, a retired consulting forester, an author, an environmental educator, and a creator of interpretive nature trails, shared her recent love affair with a tract of land off Black Mountain Road. Initially looking for red pine on the property, Lynn described her many find
ings there, including puzzling dead red cedar trees, various animals, interesting plants, and geological surprises. The audience had many questions and Lynn was generous in answering them all. Lynn has shared her recent poem about her relationship with this land.
Black Mountain brings me to the present Stops circling thoughts that are incessant Turns on my senses of awe Entering worlds I adore
Thank you, Lynn. A complete list of Lynn’s books and a recording of our meeting is avail able for viewing on our website: dummerston historicalsociety.org
Calendars: The 2023 “Scenes of Dummer ston” calendars are ready for purchase. They are available for only $10 at the town office or by calling Jody Normandeau at 802-3809027 or Gail Sorenson at 802-254-9311. We are grateful to C&S and its Print Shop for
supporting our society by printing these calen dars through its non-profit grant program. In addition, our signature black tee-shirts with the covered bridge motif are still available by calling Gail Sorenson at 802-254-9311. The proceeds from these sales support program ming, the upkeep and maintenance of our beloved schoolhouse, as well as our 2022 oper ating budget. Supportive donations or member ship dues may be mailed to The Dummerston Historical Society, PO Box 8064, N. Brattle boro, Vt. 05304. Thank you.
Welcome: The Dummerston Historical Society always welcomes donations of historical interest to Dummerston and we encourage you to join us in 2022 as a member, a volunteer, a participant in our programs or as a viewer of our exhibits. (Please note that you do not need to be a member of the Historical Society to attend any of our functions.) Our Schoolhouse is handi capped accessible. You are always welcome.
Cares Can Help With Heating expenses
By Bill SchmidtWith fall here and winter not far ahead, furnaces, wood stoves, and other kinds of heaters are starting to be cranked up. With nature no longer providing the heat we need for our homes, it’s necessary to make use of nature’s products for it – products like oil, propane, kerosene, and wood.
Dummerston Cares has an Emergency Heating Fuel Assistance Program for resi dents who are hard-pressed to pay for oil, kerosene, and propane as fall ends and winter begins. The state has fuel assistance programs
that can provide assistance during the heart of winter from January through March. Call the Dummerston Cares message line (802257-5800) for information on Cares’ Fuel Fund, how to access information on the state programs, and an application for fuel assis tance from Cares.
The Congregational Church’s wood pantry has dry firewood for folks who heat with wood. For wood from the wood pantry, call Charlie Richardson at 802-254-6963.
Sponsors
Allan & Sally Seymour Milt & Barbara Gilmore
Rip Lhamon & Fita Ferguson
Jo-Ann Tier Tim Knapp & John Bouffard
organizations
Dummerston Cares end of Summer Picnic Debuts!
by Catie G. BergMoving to a rousing Sousa march, a red fire truck from the West Dummerston Fire Department led the wheels parade for the celebratory opening to Dummerston’s End-ofSummer Picnic. The grounds of the Dummer ston School were alive with excitement on this mid-September Sunday afternoon.
The energy was infectious as children and adults rolled along the route. The kids rode colorfully-decorated bikes and trikes, while one adult rode a tiny scooter and another pushed a handcart.
Bill Schmidt, president of Dummerston Cares, the picnic’s sponsor, welcomed all to what he hopes will become a favorite, annual event.
The site behind the Dummerston School was bustling with activity. The blue-and-whitestriped festival tent dominated the scene, flanked by canopy tents that showcased various displays. Bringing bounce and amazing talent to the day were Hazelnuts, Dave Schottland and Oriana Barros, a musical duo featuring vocals, keyboard, and guitar that serves up the sounds of the late 1900s. Several lawn games, ranging from cornhole toss, to ladder golf, to building one’s own Hula hoop, attracted revelers. Plus, a 12-foot by 4-foot length of paper for the commu nity art project invited everyone to express their artistry, musings, signatures and more.
A display from the Historical Society, with help from Gail Sorensen and Ruth Hoffman, paid tribute to the events of 9/11 in 2001. The Conservation Commission, with support from Amy and Jessie, featured an amazing map of the town’s hiking trails, plus a plan for building one’s own bluebird house. Dena Marger and Phyllis Emery of the Lydia Pratt Taft Library shared storybooks and encouraged kids to color a large mural. Orchardist Erin Robinson of Scott Farm offered its famous blended apple cider for sampling, plus heirloom apple-tasting that featured a half-dozen exciting varieties. An engaging EMT with Rescue Inc. demonstrated a first responder’s many tasks.
Charles Fish moderated a storytelling session whose narrators told of amazing sightings of animals and their antics, Zen wisdom, how to get up an icy hill at midnight, and lore from the selectboards of old.
The many volunteers made the gathering a big success, for it takes a village to raise a tent with Sam Farwell’s crew, guide the traffic flow and parking with Mark Kracum, prepare the school yard with Dustin Minshull, setup tables and chairs, arrange floral bouquets, bake many blueberry crumbles for dessert, and clean up afterward.
Whether greetings from town clerk Laurie Frechette, smiles of hospitality from school principal, Julianne Eagan, framing photo shots by Roger Turner, or helping with activities by
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a crew of middle schoolers, we learned that so many people were happy to help.
Picnic planners Pam McFadden, Akara Draper, Linnie Jones, Meg Lyons and I enjoyed all the work! Big thanks for publicizing the event go to staff at The Views of Dummerston and to Cindy Levine, graphic designer and website manager for Dummerston Cares. We are so grateful to everyone who contributed to the picnic in some way, and certainly to all who gathered to make it such an enjoyable day.
Community Center Board to Step Down in June, ‘23
coninued from page 1
On Monday November 7 at 7 p.m. author Archer Mayor will be here to entertain us with his latest Joe Gunther mystery. This one begins with an abandoned car found in Vermont and spills into New Hampshire for intrigue and mystery. Archer is always a joy to listen to and will be happy to autograph your purchases. We will have books avail able for sale—they make great Christmas gifts.
As always, remember the Center when planning get togethers, workshops, classes, parties, and gatherings of all kinds. We are handicapped accessible, making this a loca tion for all to enjoy. With plenty of parking, kitchen space, and a playground, this is a comfortable and safe place to meet. Call Jean at 802-254-9212 to make your reservation.
Please—remember to pick up after your four-legged friends, because they too are invited to play on the field.
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A trove of Pics Memoralizes a Joyous end of Summer Picnic
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WSWMD Partners to Collect Clothes and textiles
By Michelle Cherrier, Dummerston representative to Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD)
Wondering what to do with your clothes and textiles once they are worn out, the wrong size, or out of fashion? If you do a search on the internet about textile industry pollution, it will make your eyebrows fall off (or hit your hairline)! Any one of the articles listed from the search will make you sit back and think about how we are recy cling or reusing our clothing and textile items.
For a current outlook, I suggest browsing this article: https://ecocult.com/now-know-fashion5th-polluting-industry-equal-livestock. There is great confusion about exactly how much pollution is created by textiles; it is probably not the “second most polluting industry”, but it’s quite high on the list. After reading, my recom mendation for recycling your excess clothes and textiles: drop them off to our local waste management district. The district has made it easy–you do not have to just “throw it away.”
WSWMD has partnered with Helpsy, Inc. to close the loop on textile recycling! The list of acceptable items is extensive, and the items can be donated in any condition as long as they are clean, dry, and odorless.
But where do the clothes actually go?
The Helpsy website explains: “95% of what we collect is reused, upcycled, or recycled. 75% is reusable, 20% is recyclable. It is first sorted by our partners and divided into grades. The higher grades are resold to thrift stores in North America and other secondhand markets around the world. The lower grades get turned into rags
for industrial use or things like stuffing and insu lation. Clothing reuse is a big deal. It reduces the enormous environmental burden of the second most polluting industry in the world.” Check out the Helpsy website at https://www.helpsy.co.
Three bins are located to the left as you enter the district yard on Old Ferry Road, Brattleboro.
An access sticker or day pass is not required to donate clothing and textiles.
What the WSWMD accepts: Anything you can wear, sleep in, or dry yourself off with! This includes any type of material composed of natural or synthetic fibers, such as products made from wool, silk, linen, cotton, polyester, leather, vinyl, hemp, or rayon. Our bins are not intended for commercial waste, cuttings, or scraps. The following items can be donated
in any condition (torn, worn, stained, missing buttons, broken zippers, etc.) as long as they are clean, dry, and odorless: Footwear (in pairs): shoes, heels (wedges, pumps), flats, sandals, flip flops, boots (work, dress, or winter), sneakers, cleats, slippers. Clothing: tops (t-shirts, blouses, shirts, tank tops), sweaters, sweatshirts, dresses, outerwear (coats, jackets, blazers), bottoms (pants, slacks, jeans sweatpants, skirts, shorts), suits, socks, pajamas, slips, bras, underwear.
Accessories: hats, bags (pocketbooks, back packs, duffle bags, totes), belts, gloves, ties, scarves, bathrobes. Linens: sheets, blankets, towels, curtains/drapes, aprons, dish cloths, cloth napkins, comforters, throw rugs, placemats. Other: Halloween costumes, sports jerseys, pet clothing, canvas.
Congregational Church Wood Pantry Continues to Serve Community
By Dummerston ChurchWhat is the wood pantry? The Dummerston Church wood pantry is a service provided by the church to families or individuals that need dry firewood and are unable to obtain it for whatever reason. The heart and soul of the wood pantry is church member Charlie Richardson, who along with fellow woodsmen Don Hazelton, Merrill Barton, Cliff Berg, Mark Kracum and others have assisted many folks by cutting, splitting, stacking, trucking, and restacking many, many cord in the woodsheds or homes of grateful recipients. A very generous landowner donates
space for a woodlot to work and store the wood. Many local supporters donate felled trees from their property to the cause. Loggers donate to the effort and deliver to the woodlot.
The men of the wood pantry are admittedly not getting any younger. They would love to have some help! If you can help the wood pantry with their work, or have some wood to donate, please call Charlie Richardson at 802-254-6963, or the Dummerston Church office. 802-257-0544. If you are IN NEED of dry firewood and are unable to obtain it for whatever reason, please give the Dummerston wood pantry a call.
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Dummerston Cares Volunteer of the Season
Bess and Charlie Richardson Have Service in their Bones
by Bill SchmidtDummerston Cares recognizes Bess and Charlie Richardson as volunteers worthy of recognition this fall. Lifelong New Englanders, Charlie, a native Vermonter, and Bess, a New Hampshirite, met on a blind date in their college years, found their way to marriage, and in 1974 moved to Dummerston.
They have five children and nine grandchildren spread across the country from New Mexico to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Bess, now retired, was a nurse all her adult working life, with cardiac and trauma specialties. Her nursing education was at the Elliot Commu nity Hospital in Keene, NH. She has worked at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Grace Cottage, Home Health as a visiting nurse, and Dummerston Rescue. In her free time Bess enjoys knitting, and with Charlie, walking, hiking, and canoeing, family gather ings, and the ups and downs of the Red Sox.
Charlie, also retired, was a lifelong forester. After graduation from BUHS, he went to Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks for his forestry education. He served for two years in the Navy after graduation and then worked for two years for the New England Forestry Foun dation, after which he started his own forestry business. Charlie became known as the dean of local foresters in southeastern Vermont given his decades-long knowledge of trees, and his experience with them and their habitats. He’s a
long-time member of the Windham Regional Woodlands Association (formerly Woodland Owners Association). Charlie likes to fish, spend time in his large garden, and always has a story to tell.
Community service is in the bones of Charlie and Bess. Charlie for his part became the town’s tree warden, a position he held for a decade. He is a founding member of the town’s conservation commission. During his many years on the commission, he spent consider able time maintaining the view on Prospect Hill. For the past ten years he has headed up the Congregational Church’s wood pantry. The
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main qualification for doing wood pantry work, he says with a smile, is your age. Senior citizens are the stalwarts, with Charlie now in his mid-80s and Don Hazelton his early 90s. The youngsters on the crew are Merrill Barton and Cliff Berg who are in their mid-70s. Last year the crew cut, split, and delivered twenty-three cords of wood that were given to people in need in Dummerston and the neighboring towns of Brattle boro, Putney, Guilford, Newfane, and Vernon. This exceeded their normal average of eleven to twelve cords a year.
Bess currently is a member of the kitchen crew at the grange that prepares senior lunches twice a month year-round. She also is a deacon in the Congregational Church where she joins with others in making pies for the Apple Pie Festival and dinners, with support from the grange, for the homeless at Groundworks. Over the years she has held most positions and has served on most of the committees in the church.
She served on the board of the Brattleboro Drop-In Center before the center became part of Groundworks. The school’s parent-teacher association got her time and attention during her kids’ schooling there. When she worked for Rescue, she did volunteer EMT training. She has also served on the Green Mountain Camp Board and is still a volunteer at the camp.
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Lydia Taft Pratt Library
trustees Adopt Mission Statement, envision Future
By: Dena Marger, Library DirectorWhen we think about a library, the first thing most people think of is: books. But, books (and other media) are actually the third thing I think of, after people and place. Last April, the trustees of the Lydia Taft Pratt Library developed a vision statement to reflect what we aspire to do as an institution for our community:
As a community information hub and gathering place, the Lydia Taft Pratt Library endeavors to enrich lives and strengthen community by meeting the evolving informational, educational, cultural and recreational needs of the Dummerston Community through the provision of diverse traditional resources, new technologies, accessible public space, culturally competent professional staffing, and innovative programming.
As I write this towards the end of September, you may have heard that some changes are coming to the Dummerston Community Center. After twenty-seven years of building
the Community Center into the institution we know today, managing the building, and hosting events, the Dummerston Community Center trustees have announced their intention to step down on June 30th of 2023. We at the library wish them well, and are excited to realize that this action will create some unique opportuni ties for the library in Dummerston to expand. We all know that the library has been busting at our seams for quite a long time. For every new book we purchase, one has to be discarded. And because our collection is so small, anyone who has visited the library hoping to find a book on a particular topic knows they will likely not find it on our shelves. Additionally, although we have the desire to provide enrichment programming for the children, young adults, and adults of our community, the fact that we only have thirteen staff hours per week means that programs are run by volunteers, or not at all. And, lastly, although our patrons would like to visit our library, many are thwarted by our limited open hours, which are not always convenient to families with small children or adults with jobs. Very simply, we need more space, more open hours, and more staff.
The library intends to spend the next year engaged in a process of strategic planning for our growth in the community, in order to begin to address some of these long-standing issues. Ultimately, we are hoping to be able to provide Dummerston with the kind of library services that our surrounding communities are able to enjoy. We are hoping that you will want to contribute your thoughts and ideas about our library expansion, and so we plan to host a series of meetings to gather community input. The first of these was held in early October, and the next will occur in early November. Please keep an eye out for the date! We really want to hear what you think.
We have come to realize that our mission as a library is not very different from the mission of a community center, as we understand it; to provide a gathering space for the enrich ment of the community. We look forward to carrying on that tradition as we steer into the future. If you would like to be part of this new and exciting era, there are two very important things you can do:
Be on the lookout for our annual appeal letter going out in mid-November, and consider giving generously. This is the most important fundraising effort we have ever engaged in.
Come to our strategic planning meetings and contribute your ideas and thoughts about what the library means to you and what you hope it could be.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing your thoughts!
School Initiates Family Liaison Program, Will Host Ice Rink, Seeks Correspondent
From Dummerston School NewsletterDummerston School is organizing its family liaison program for this year. The goal is to have a family liaison for each grade who would be the point person to support families connecting with each other and the school. For example, liaisons might help organize volunteers for the playground, send a reminder about a school event, solicit feedback about a school program, or support a new family in getting to know the community. If you haven’t heard about this program and are interested in helping, please give the school a call.
In other news, the Dummerston Recreation Board has received funding from the select board, via their request for ARPA funds, to purchase an ice rink, an exciting opportunity for the community. The rink would be set up on school grounds. However, the rink can only be created if there is community volunteer support.
The Board is looking for people who will help out with the following tasks: “conductors”
to take the lead role in setting up and main taining the rink; mainte nance, including storm cleanup and shoveling; setting up the rink at the start of the season and taking it down at the end of the season; and help with clerical and communications tasks. We’d also like to hear from anyone who can’t commit to a specific role, but who wants to help. Supplies are also needed, including bales of hay for seating, hot chocolate, and shovels for removing snow and scraping the ice.
Volunteer, or find out more about this project, by contacting the school at 802-254-2733.
The easiest way to access this document
is to go to the online Views (viewsofdum merston.org) and click on the link within this article.
Finally, if you have any interest about writing articles for the Views about Dummer ston School, please contact Julianne Eagan at the school.
Dummerston School Library is Better Because of Community Support
By Melissa PetroskiI have been so lucky to have served as the part-time Dummerston School Library media specialist these past twenty-nine years. During all the years since I started in 1993, the Dummerston Friends of the Library have offered unwavering support, hands-on library help, friendship, and funds with which to buy outstanding books for our school library. The original intention when the “Friends of Dummerston Library” was started in 1973 by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Irsch, was to provide funds over and above the school library book budget. The idea was to enrich the library collection to make it not just adequate, but a superlative resource for students and the community. An additional goal of the group was, and is, to help students understand and enjoy the excitement and pleasure of reading ( Dummerston: An “Equivalent Lands” Town 1753-1986, p. 151).
Through the years I have been honored to know many of the numerous members of the Friends: Martha Morgan, Esther Falk, Althea McBean, Marge Bunker, Winnie Vogt, Jean Praninskas, Gloria Duby, Hazel Looker, Viv Little, Linda Rood, Susan Wilmott, Connie Woodberry, Jean Bombicino, Mark Brown, Betty Greenhoe, Tracey Devlin, Charlotte
Annis, Kristina Naylor, Jo Butts, Cynthia Patriquin, Jody Normandeau, Eileen Chris telow, Elizabeth Catlin, Debbie Cook, Steve Mindel, and Susan Leuchter. My apologies if I have left anyone out!
Traditionally, each year the Dummerston Friends of the Library group holds a “book adoption” during town meeting. Books that have been purchased with funds from the previous year are on display in the school library and folks can “adopt”, or pay for, a book (or two!) of their choice. The books stay in the library and the money raised then gets used to purchase books for the next school year. A book plate is attached to the book on which the donor can write a dedication or words of encouragement/ wisdom if they desire.
Although COVID scuttled the in-person
book adoption these last two years, the program itself has been kept vitally alive by the efforts of Jody Normandeau, Linda Rood, town clerk Laurie Frechette, and all the people who donated money to the cause. Even during a pandemic, the Dummerston Community stepped up and worked to add nearly 100 new books to the collection each year. This is a town that unequivocally values books and reading! What a privilege to work here. Thank you all so much for your efforts to make our school library a vital, up-to-date, and engaging resource.
If you would like to borrow books, join the Friends, or donate to the annual book adoption, please contact me at Dummer ston School: mpetroski@wsesdvt.org; (802) 254-2733, x129.
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Certified Organic Vegetables & Fruit LocaLLy Produced Baked Goods Garden Center for Connoisseurs Route 5, Dummerston 254-2051
BrattleboroThe People of Dummerston
Stan Franklin, Dummerston Rural Route Postman
By Roger TurnerStan Franklin has been pulling into our driveway backwards, driving his left-hand drive car from the right side of the bench seat of his long, white Chevy pickup with the white cap, a leg stretched back to the foot controls and his left hand on the steering wheel, and popping the mail into the mailbox with his right hand, for many years. He’s backing up because he’s using our driveway to reverse direc tion on the Quarry Road to go out Camp Arden Road. Stan is one of four rural route drivers to serve Dummerston from the Brattleboro Post Office, and there’s one more rural route that originates in the Putney Post Office.
When I ask Stan about what appears to the casual observer to be a fairlycontorted way to spend your day, he assures me that he’s actually pretty comfortable, though he does go to the chiropractor once a month.
“It’s more comfortable for me than driving a right-hand drive vehicle,” he assured me. After the Camp Arden Road, he goes to the top of Hague Road, up to the Center, then eventu ally comes down Rice Farm Road and up the Quarry Road, where I sometimes encounter him while out for a walk, and he’ll often stop for a chat. Or I may find him already stopped for a chat with Jean Momaney on her daily walk up and down the Quarry Road, or he may come by while Jean and I have already run into each other and are having a chat, to join the chat. He’s always got a warm smile, and seems ready to let his day run a little longer in exchange for some social time.
Stan grew up in Guilford where his father and extended family were dairy farmers. Stan liked that life, and worked in area dairy farms for a number of years, the last ten of which as the lead herdsman at the Retreat dairy farm. He became allergic to cows, so had to stop. But, “In his heart, he’ll always be a farmer,” commented his wife Holly, who was sitting in on our conversation. Holly was a rural route driver herself and suggested that Stan give it a try. He started working at the Post Office delivering packages for Christmas
in December 2000, and after learning the Dummerston route, began driving it regularly on July 12, 2003.
“The Dummerston roads are good, Stan told me. “Last spring I think I was the only
one, and the kids might have another, or some body may move out. You have to remember who’s who. The hardest driving part is the sleet and freezing rain. You have no control. I’m okay with the snow. Now with 150 pack ages a day plus, the job is different over the last five years. Covid ramped it up. When I started, 50 pack ages was a lot. Now if I get 150 that’s light. The mail volume has gone down, but the packages have gone way up.
“I like to know when people are on vacation because that way I don’t worry about them, particu larly if you have a single person living alone. The older people pick up their mail every day. Younger people don’t. I watch for older people living alone to make sure they’re okay.
carrier who didn’t miss a delivery (because of impassable roads). The road crew is very good. They wave and I wave. They’ve done a lot of improvements to the roads over the last twenty years.
“I see a lot of wildlife. A bear with two cubs passed in front of me over by Scott Farm., and one climbed a tree. The beautiful part of this route is watching the foliage. And I feel lucky that I get to drive through the covered bridge twice a day. I look in the parking lot and see license plates from all over the country of people who have come to see that bridge, and I get to drive through it every day.”
In addition to going to the top of the Hague Road, Stan drives all the way up Stickney Brook to the intersection with Hill Road. “You have to have your own vehicle to do this route, because you need the four-wheel drive. It’s just been in the last ten years that they’ve been giving rural drivers post office vehicles. Can you imagine trying to do this job with two-wheel drive?”—a question he posed with an obvious answer.
I asked about the challenges of his work. “The toughest thing is remembering – you have families where his name is one, hers is
“Part of your job is when you know of an older person living alone and something seems out of place, to check on it. And if you’re not comfortable go back and report your concern and they’ll get the police to do a welfare check.”
Stan is also active in union work. He’s the state president of the Vermont Rural Letter Carriers Association. “We have meetings, I have to write articles, and sometimes go to Washington to meet with members of Congress. Two weeks ago I was in Orlando for the national convention. In Washington I’ve met with Leahy’s chief of staff. Right now we’re trying to get a buyback for parttime hours to count toward retirement, and I’ve gotten Peter Welch to co-sponsor that bill. It’s a long way from growing up milking cows to walking into a U.S. Senator’s office. It’s something I never dreamed of doing. Being in the Union I’ve made friends from Florida. to Maine and California to Washington. I’ve got a lot of nice friends from all over the country.
“And I’ve met a lot of nice people in Dummerston and they’ve become friends. I know that if I’m in trouble they’ll help me out. I treat everybody like I’d like to be treated, and I treat every package like it’s mine. Or I try to, anyway.”
Based on our experience with Stan, he’s absolutely true to his word.
Books About Travel Destinations Always a Draw
By Linda RoodWhen I travel, I like to read books about the places I am visiting, preferably by authors who are native to the region. This past summer, Roger and I traveled to Alaska. I couldn’t find our copy of John McPhee’s Coming into the Country, so I didn’t take a book with me. Our first stop was Fairbanks, and I made a visit to the wonderful Forget-Me-Not Books, a nonprofit used bookstore staffed by volunteers and donating all proceeds to the programs of the Literacy Council of Alaska. They didn’t have a copy of McPhee’s book, so I asked the bookseller to recommend something for me by an Alaskan author. This was a lucky move. She recommended a novel by Seth Kantner entitled Ordinary Wolves (Milkweed Editions, 2004). I loved it and found it to be a perfect literary travel companion.
Kantner, 57, grew up in the tundra wilder ness of northwestern Alaska, and lives there still. Of his five books, Ordinary Wolves is his only novel, and his first book, which won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, awarded to books deemed to have “a positive impact on society.” He is also a commercial fisherman and a wildlife photographer. You can visit his website at sethkantner.com.
Ordinary Wolves is a semi-autobiograph ical coming of age novel set in the wilder ness of northwest Alaska. The protagonist narrator, Cutuk Hawcly, age five at the begin ning of the book, lives in a remote sod igloo with Abe, his artist father, and two older siblings. The nearest Inupiaq village is a sleddog trip away. Abe is a back-to-the-lander who brought his family to the wilderness in the early seventies. He is able to earn some thing of a living selling his paintings, but his wife has abandoned the family, unable to tolerate the harshness of this life. The chil dren are schooled by mail and learn early on the survival skills necessary to live in pretty brutal and primitive conditions. Their world is not without beauty, however; Kantner is brilliant at evoking the landscape of this exotic place and its wildlife.
Cutuk, his Eskimo name, (he refuses to answer to Clayton, his given name), is a lonely child caught between two cultures. His hero is Abe’s friend, the legendary Inupiaq hunter, Enuk Wolfglove. Cutuk wants to be Enuk, but as a white child, he will always be an outsider and second-class citizen in the village. The Eskimo children taunt and bully him. As he grows up, his siblings leave
to attend college and work in Fairbanks, and Cutuk remains to hone his skills as a fron tiersman and hunter. There are gorgeous and poetic descriptions of his solitary expeditions into the tundra to hunt caribou, his mysterious encounters with wolves, the intensity of the cold. Kantner does not romanticize the lives of the native Alaskans and does not shirk from describing the negative effects brought on by encroaching modernity: alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence. Eventually, Cutuk himself escapes to Anchorage, and Kantner evokes a powerful sense of the bewilder ment and innocence of a person who has, for example, never seen a car, and does not understand the values or mores of modern white urban society. Finally, after surviving the crucible that is his Anchorage experience, Cutuk finds a way to return to the place where he is most at home with some sense of who he can be. As one Goodreads reviewer said, “This book is going to stay with me for a long time.”
In August, home again, I turned my atten tion to a book from the other border of the U.S., The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown, 2005). This book was recommended by Carrie Walker in the reader’s choice column from last winter’s Views, and selected by my book group for our August reading. It’s a historical novel, based on the life of Teresa Urrea, the Mexican “Saint of Cabora” and great-aunt of the author, who spent twenty years on the research and writing for this book.
Teresa, or Teresita as she was popularly known, was a 19th century Mexican mystic and revolutionary, known to indigenous peoples of the state of Sonora. She was the illegitimate daughter of Don Tomas Urrea, a wealthy rancher, and a young Indian girl known as The Hummingbird. Blamed for inspiring native insurrections in Sonora, she was exiled to the U.S. in 1892 by the Mexican government.
This is a sprawling epic, full of adven ture, humor, violence, with a touch of magic realism and rich with history. For me, and for my group, the book was a fascinating view of a culture and history that was mostly unfa miliar to us. Teresita is a lovable character, spunky, smart, funny, and heroic. Abandoned early by her mother, she finds her way into her father’s household, comes under the protection and mentorship of Huila, an herbal healer, teaches herself to read, and earns her father’s love and a place in his family. At
fifteen, she was raped, beaten, and apparently killed, but she recovered, and came back believing she had divine healing powers and a mission to help the suffering. She becomes adored by the poor who travel from afar to be in her presence. She is an outspoken critic of the corruptions of the Catholic church as well as the government dictatorship and is finally captured and exiled as an enemy of the state. This summary does not do justice to the scope and wit of this novel. One reader called it a “mural of a tale” and I find that a fitting description. It is long, but it moves quickly, and even the most reluctant fiction readers in my group enjoyed it.
Finally, I would like to turn this column over to a guest reviewer. John Warren sent me his thoughts on Reading the Mountains of Home by John Elder (Harvard University Press, 1998). Here is John’s review:
“When I first arrived in Vermont, I was bemused by the stone walls that snake along through the deep woods. Who would have bothered to build walls in the forest? Of course, I was soon set straight: when those walls were built, most of Vermont was cleared land, and the walls delineated fields. The forest grew up around the walls when the fields were abandoned.
“There is history preserved in the land. That is the message and the driving force in Reading the Mountains of Home, by John Elder. The author, a former professor at Middlebury College who lives in Bristol,Vermont, pres ents this message as a series of day hikes he made in the woods and cliffs around Bristol, and frames the whole thing in relation to one of Robert Frost’s more enigmatic and ambiguous poems, “Directive.”
“The first part of the history is the under lying geology: rocks were formed, rocks were raised into mountains by great conti nental movements, and the mountains were sculpted by multiple episodes of glaciation. Then came the humans; people have been in almost continuous occupation of the land since the last glacier melted. First were the Woodland people, for whom Bristol Pond was an important gathering place. Then came the Abenaki, and then the Europeans. Elder recounts a document describing the overlap of the Abenaki, who were here, and the Euro peans, who showed up – it made me shiver (did John Elder shiver when he first read this document?).
“On his walks, Elder regales us with stories continued on page 14
Books About Travel Destinations Always a Draw
continued from page 13 —how peregrine falcons were restored to the Bristol cliffs, of the attempts at farming in a forbidding landscape, of how the forest was cut down not once but twice by the Europeans who showed up. He is always studying the maps as he goes along; I found myself studying maps myself, so I could follow along.
“Though the details are specific to Bristol, the idea is universal: the history of the land is written in the land itself. You can learn
to read that history anywhere you may be. Tromp around your own place until – in one of Frost’s most enigmatic lines – “you’re lost enough to find yourself.”
“I would tell you that this book deserves a place on your shelf along with your other books on Vermont natural history, except that you don’t have to go out and buy it –there is a copy in the tiny library maintained by the Dummerston Conservation Commis sion, at the corner of Hague Road and Green
Mountain Camp Road.”
Thanks, John, for sharing your thoughts on this interesting book by a Vermont resident and author.
Let me remind you readers that the winter edition of the Views will carry my usual readers’ choice list, so by the end of December, please think about which books you enjoyed the most in 2022 and send me your sugges tions for that column to turood802@gmail. com. Thanks in advance!
Deep in the Woods with Banta Modelworks
continued from page 1 Banta told me. “When I write the instruc tions for these kits, it can take two or three days. You’ve got text and you’ve got pictures showing what to do to build it. The photo is the built-up model. It’s what can be built from what’s included in the kit.”
When I asked Banta how he got into this line of work, he said, “I blame my grandmother.” She loved to watch trains come and go and instilled in him a similar passion.
“So then I got into model trains,” Banta said. “In the early days, to support my hobby, I would do custom work for other people, building
their model old trains. And a friend of mine approached me and said, ‘I’ll pay for half your time for five years, if you’ll build my model trains for me.’ I said, ‘Yeah. Sure.’ At that time I was living on the West Coast, working in the printing industry, running a big printing company, and I knew it was time to move on.”
The Bantas decided to move back east in 1995 because his mother and grandmother were still alive and he wanted to be near them.
“So I was still doing custom building when we got here, and I realized that we needed a better form of cash flow,” Banta said. “So we started making kits, and slowly built up the business. We’ve got probably 500 prod ucts available now.”
Banta, it turns out, was born and raised on Brattle Street in Brattleboro. When his parents moved to another house in town, with a barn, his sister got a horse. “And then they somehow came out here and saw this place and traded houses with people who lived here, because they wanted to live in town,” Banta said. “And my parents built the barn. And my sister had five or six horses at one point on the property. She’s a vet now and works in West Brattleboro. So we have the barn on the property. And if you don’t put animals in it, the barn will fall apart because it’s not being used. And
pastures will go to seed. So we looked around for a while and at the time alpaca commercials were on TV. So I did some research on the internet.” The Bantas now have sixteen alpacas in grey, fawn and brown. Many of them were born on his farm.
“You have someone shear them once a year,” Banta said. “We will sell the fiber if people approach us and ask to buy. We’ve given away quite a bit. But it’s a whole different marketing scheme and farming life and going to alpaca shows to show your animals. With the model trains, I don’t have time to do that. So we just have pets. We’ve had up to twenty but we lose them all the time to predators.”
The model train business is thriving. Banta advertises in train magazines such as Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette Magazine and Railroad Model Craftsmen, and meets poten tial customers, crafts people, at the trade shows.
Banta also builds steam or coal fired engines for hobbyists building backyard model rail roads. One of them is in West Brattleboro, he said. He’s making another one for the person who delivers hay for his alpacas.
And he’s building one for himself. Out in back of the house are the tracks and the steam engine, along with railroad ties stacked and ready to build more track through his eight acres of property. The Bantas host their railway aficionado friends, but when the line is finished, they do not intend to give rides to tourists.
“This is just for me and other people of like interests who come to visit,” Banta said. “It’s mainly the hobbyists that we build for. They’ll come to visit us, or we’ll go to their track and ride on their car. As far as giving rides out here, you’ve got an insurance problem to worry about. And we have no interest in having all those extra people out here. We live out here because it’s peaceful and quiet. We’re happy to be out here, as far away from civilization as we can get.”
The People of Dummerston tom Zopf and the Dalai Lama
By Gary GoodemoteTom Zopf is a former long-time homeowner and resident of Dummerston. I had heard his stories over the course of several years and he graciously agreed to be interviewed about his long and fascinating life. This is the first of Tom’s memories and anecdotes that I want to share.
After the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, the 14 th Dalai Lama went into exile in India. In spring of 1960, the 25-year-old spiritual and governmental leader of Tibet moved to his new home in McLeod Ganj in the Punjab in the Indian foothills of the Hima layas. The Dalai Lama’s first residence was named Swarg Ashram (The Heavenly Abode), a huge one-story building that he occupied for several years. A new, more modest home, Tsuglagkhang, was completed and occupied in 1968. It functioned as the Dalai Lama’s home and the main temple in McLeod Ganj. A compound, consisting of residences, offices, and a library and cultural center, was devel oped on the hillside.
In 1973, Tom Zopf was asked by his
Dummerston artist/ illustrator/graphic designer Briony Morrow-Cribbs has created this striking image of the Dummerston Grange.
employer, CARE International, to develop a project that would support the work of the Dalai Lama. CARE was normally in the business of feeding people, but the New York office had agreed to run this project, at the request of an anonymous donor. Tom was the assistant director of CARE India, in charge of admin istering food assistance programs in the India State of Punjab. He had to travel from his home base in Chandigarh, several hours away, and was staying at a hotel in Lower Dharamshala, the town below McLeod Ganj.
One of Tom’s vivid memories, some fifty years later, was taking the long, steep hike up to the Tibetan compound for his first meeting with the Dalai Lama. He had decided to do that, rather than making the longer, more roundabout trip by car. To the chants of “Safedi Bundar” (White Monkey) by the local kids, he huffed and puffed his way to the top. As a side note, it was then that he decided to end his lifelong habit of smoking cigarettes.
When he arrived at the compound, which was the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, he was escorted in to the residence to meet with the Dalai Lama. The building was closely guarded
by the Indian police force since its prominent resident’s safety and security was a matter of international importance. Another of Tom’s memories is of sitting across the desk from the Dalai Lama and being able to see the gun-toting security force on the other side of the picture window, tensely watching Tom’s every move.
In a series of meetings, Tom and the Dalai Lama decided that outfitting the library that had been established on the grounds of the compound would be a worthy use of the bene factor’s money. The library would act as the repository for the large number of manuscripts and artifacts that had been brought from Tibet to India, so that Tibet’s rich history would be preserved, away from the influence of the Chinese government.
Over the course of several months and meet ings and a few trips back and forth from Chan digarh, Tom oversaw the construction and installation of the furnishings for the library. In a manner that would be repeated many times in his illustrious career in international service, he took care of the nuts and bolts necessary for the realization of a greater goal, in this case the preservation of a nation’s past.
DUMMeRStoN NotABLe eVeNtS
October
31 Halloween Children’s Get-together Community Center, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
November
7 Archer Mayor book talk. Community Center, 7:00 p.m.
8 Vote in the General Election Mail-in ballots or vote in person at the Congregational Church basement
USeFUL StUFF to KNoW
Senior Lunches Evening Star Grange; Second & fourth Wednesday, noon. For Take out call: 802254-1128. Leave name, phone number, number of meals desired. Fuel Assistance or Firewood Fuel: call the Dummerston Cares’ HelpLine 802-257-5800. Leave a message and phone number. Wood: call Charlie Richardson at the Wood Pantry, 802-254-6963. The Front Porch Forum: online at www.frontporchforum.com Walks and Trails in Dummerston: http://dummerstonconservation.com/wp-content/uploads/files/ docs/Dummerston_Trail_map_September_2014.pdf
Dummerston Sightings: Nature Tidbits with photos! http://dummerstonconservation.com/blog/
NAMeS & tIMeS & NUMBeRS
Community Center Jean Momaney 802-254-9212
Conservation Commission Web site: www.dummerstonconservation.com
Dummerston Cares Message line & Fuel Assistance 802-257-5800, email: info@dummerstoncares.org, web site: wwwdummerstoncares.org
Dummerston School 802-254-2733 Web site www.dummerston.wsesu.org
Fire Chief Rick Looman, 802-258-1731
Fire Warden Ted Glabach, 802-384-6994
Deputy Fire Warden Allen Pike, 802-258-0100
Lydia Taft Pratt Library 802-258-9878
Hours: Tue. 2-6; Wed. 1-5; Thu. 1-5; Sat. 10–1 Web site: library.dummerston.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/dummerstonlibrary email: dummerstonvtlibrary@gmail.com
Vermont Theatre Company 802-258-1344
Evening Star Grange Carol Lynch 802-254-2517 or mrgjb@sover.net
Meals on Wheels Cynthia Fisher, 802-257-1236
Selectboard selectboard@dummerston.org
Senior Solutions Carol Lynch, 802-254-2517 Springfield Office 800-642-5119
Town Garage Lee Chamberlin, 802-254-2411
Town Office Laurie Frechette, 802-257-1496 email: townclerk@dummerston.org
Veterans Assistance Contact Dummerston Cares message line or email
Views of Dummerston views@viewsofdummerston.org
WSESU 802-254-3730
Websites: Official Town www.dummerston.org Municipal Calendar http://calendar.dummerston.org Local Interest www.dummerston.com
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Mailed From Zip Code 05346 Permit No. 61
CHANGE SERVICE REqUESTED
Dummerston Meetings
Please note that these meetings may not be taking place at their usual locations. Please refer to the town web site, www.Dummerston.org, for updated information.
Town Meetings
Selectboard 6:00 pm Every other Wednesday
Planning Commission 6:30 pm 1st Tuesday
Conservation Commission 6:00 pm 2nd Thursday
Energy Committee 6:00 pm 1st Monday
Development Review Board7:00 pm 3rd Tuesday at the town office
Community Center 7:00 pm 1st Monday at the Community Center
PTFO 6:00 pm 3rd Thurs. at the Dummerston School Library
WSESD 6:00 pm 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, revolving locations
Historical Society 7:30 pm 3rd Thursday of Jan./April/July/Oct. at the Dummerston Historical Society