Views of Dummerston - 2024#3 - Summer

Steps to West River at Covered Bridge Completed

the new steps from the covered bridge Vtrans parking lot to the swimming hole under the bridge, and improvements to the parking lot drainage system, have finally been completed. All work has been funded with a grant obtained by the Conservation Commission.

By Jesse Wagner and John Anderson

Another milestone has been passed in the Commission’s now 3-yearold process to replace and upgrade the stone steps that lead down to the small beach at the Dummerston covered bridge. The week before the 4th of July holiday, the stairway was completed! Through the tireless efforts of Christine Goepp and Cory Ross of the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District, a local builder was selected to perform this work beginning in June. The new steps are constructed of timbers and infiltration crushed stone and provide safe access to the West River for Dummerston visitors and residents. The full site plan also includes much-needed improvements to the drainage system around the VTrans parking lot, preventing erosion by encouraging rainwater to soak into the ground rather than run down to the West River. The work will be entirely paid for by a grant obtained through Watersheds United Vermont. We are so excited!

Meanwhile, there have been some changes in the Commission’s membership. “We have fun here, and I couldn’t find time in my busy life to come here once a month if we didn’t laugh together and enjoy one another’s company and share our love of nature.” With these words, I and my fellow members of the Conservation Commission welcomed three new members at our April monthly meeting. And although we were naturally eager to impress our new colleagues, we were also being perfectly sincere. The Conservation Commission is a great continued on page 4

Dummerston School Graduates Twelve

By Julianne Eagan Principlal

Dummerston School celebrated the graduation of its 8th-grade class on June 11th. The Dummerston School Band, directed by Nathaniel Evans, played Pomp and Circumstance as the class processed into the school gymnasium. Julianne Eagan welcomed guests to the event and addressed the graduates about the special significance of their time together in a small school. Eighth-grade student Malena Hodgman served as class speaker, and the graduates’ former and current teachers, including Heidi Bristol, Lilly DePino, Molly Stoner, Lindsey Glabach-Royce, Susannah Cassidy, Keith Marshall, and Ellen Rago shared memories of their time together and reflected on the special qualities of this class. Teachers and community members, including Ruth Barton and Bess Richardson, presented academic, community, and athletic awards. After the students continued on page 10

Art by Gary Blomgren

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 coordinator), 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: September 17 2024 Views will be mailed on: October 30, 2024

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.

SPONSORSHIPS:

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 questions, contact Sara Ryan as above.

Views

Featuring easy navigation, clickable links, and full color. We’re sure you’ll love it! viewsofdummerston.org

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.)

Family Woods Walk to Welcome New Dummerston Residents

by Rachel Shields Ebersole, GROW SoVermont Community Projects Specialist

Families who are new to Dummerston (and surrounding towns) are invited to join a woods walk and picnic organized by Jessica Everlith, Courtney Kaplan, and Rachel Shields Ebersole, in partnership with GROW SoVermont, a statewide initiative to welcome new and returning Vermonters.

Meet on Saturday, August 17, at 10 a.m. at the Dummerston School at 52 Schoolhouse Road. Kids of all ages and their grown-ups are welcome. Well-behaved dogs on leashes may also attend. Please RSVP at sovermont. com/newcomers-mixers so we can be sure to look for you and can let you know of any last-minute changes or weather cancellations.

The Dummerston School has some easy hiking trails, a nice pavilion, and a lot of playground equipment that is great for small kiddos. Those who make it into the woods will have a great time; those who linger on the playground will have a great time too. We encourage you to bring a picnic as well!

GROW SoVermont is a program of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and hosts newcomers mixers across Windham County, as well as facilitating one-on-one Welcome Wagon connections between newcomers and local hosts. Learn more about the program at sovermont.com/grow.

Dummerston Listers

Homestead Declaration Filing is October 15

By the Listers

The Dummerston Listers would like to remind you to file your VT HS-122 Homestead Declaration form with the Vermont Department of Taxes. If you are registered to vote in Dummerston, you are considered a Dummerston resident. By state statute, all Vermont residents are required to file this form every year.

The last day to file is October 15, 2024. However, the sooner you file, the sooner you may receive notification of a rebate/prebate to be applied to your property taxes. You may file online by going to the Vermont Tax Depart-

ment’s website at myvtax.vermont.gov. There are also paper forms available at the town office. We’ll be happy to assist you in completing them and/or submitting them online.

Please call the town office at 257-1496 with any questions or concerns.

Do you know what a CUD is? (Hint: It has nothing to do with cows …) Find out at www.DVFiber.net

DVFiber is building the region’s premier highspeed fiber community broadband network. Visit our website to learn more and get involved today!

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

Photo by R AC hel

Families who are new to the area are invited to meet each other and go for a child-friendly walk in the woods at the dummerston school on August 10th, an event organized by growsoVermont.

Dummerston Selectboard

Maintenance of Town Roads Explained

By Todd Davidson

Any number of things have come up as I’ve learned about our town’s roads, stuff I end up looking into and then bouncing those answers off our more experienced town officials and employees. I got a question about a Class 4 road last month, so off to the books I headed. But first, let’s back up a bit. Per the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) “. . . the right-of-way (RoW) for each highway or trail shall be three rods wide unless otherwise properly recorded.” Even as a late boomer/early Gen-X person, depending on who you ask, I need help to sort out rods. A rod is 16.5 feet, so we’re talking 49.5 feet for the RoW, so we’ll just round that to 50 feet for our purposes. Our RoWs are 25 feet either side of the road’s centerline throughout town, regardless of road classification. There are some minor adjustments to this within the state—and for our town those adjustments more likely would apply to roads passing through Dummerston: State Routes 30 and 5.

In Dummerston, disregarding the state routes, our other roads include Classes 2, 3, and 4, and the RoW belongs to the town via highway easements through private property. What does that mean? Well, the town will maintain the roads and all in-place culverts (there are hundreds of culverts along town roads!) that fall within the 50-foot RoW. This can include anything that is part of the easement such as sidewalks, electrical, pipes, etc. This maintaining of the RoW also includes removing or trimming trees that pose or will pose dangers to the RoW. And, this is where it gets a little strange; bear with me.

Since the RoW is an easement, and the property on either side is privately-owned land, the trees do not belong to the town. The town doesn’t own trees—aside from trees on actual town property like the town square—but we will ensure RoW access as part of our duties. Therefore, if trees need removal because they are dying, or in danger of inhibiting passage along the RoW, we will coordinate with landowners for removal that will be done by the town. The same applies to trimming and/or limbing, as needed. How does this wrap around to the Class 4 road question? Well, to add some spice to the mix—we don’t do any maintenance on the 3.05 miles of Class 4 roads in town: no

plowing in winter nor grading in summer. From the Dummerston town plan, “Class 4 roads are seasonally functional for normal vehicular traffic but are not maintained by the town.” The town does ensure passage isn’t blocked, but what we might call day-today maintenance is left alone. Remembering that beyond and along the 50 feet of RoW the trees are owned by private landowners, any maintenance of trees, branches, etc. falls to the landowner. By that same process, land -

owner permission is required by anyone else to trim or alter trees, with one little sidenote: In Dummerston, landowner permission isn’t required to trim shrub/bush along the Class 4 RoW as long as that work is only done to vegetation with a main root circumference of less than four inches.

(Information for this article was taken from: existing Dummerston Traffic Ordinance, Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) policies, and Vermont State Statutes.)

West Dummerston Volunteer Fire Department

An Interview with Volunteer Shawn Stone

By Dan Ridlehoover

The West Dummerston Volunteer Fire Department is made up of, you guessed it—volunteers! As such, we aren’t ‘just’ firefighters and EMS providers. We’re also parents, students, small business owners, mechanics, consultants, teachers, truck drivers, road crew members, electricians, and more. For this summer’s Views , we have an interview with member Shawn Stone. What brought you to Dummerston? I met a local Dummerstonian named Melody, fell in love and made a life with her and her daughter, Skyla.

What inspired you to volunteer with WDVFD? My wife was very involved in the community and thought since I had been a captain years back on the East Dover Fire Department it might be nice to join up with WDFD and make new friends and get to know our neighbors. Which station do you respond from? I respond from the Center Station since I live just a few miles down the road on Houghton Road where we built our log home in 2014.

What do you do when you aren’t volunteering? When I’m not volunteering, I’m working for the Brattleboro Retreat as the

electrical/fire coordinator. On my days off I enjoy working around the homestead, camping, hiking, fishing, 4-wheeling, kayaking, paddle boarding, and spending quality time with family and friends.

When was the last time you checked your smoke detector batteries and/or cleaned your continued on page 7

Linda Rood & Roger Turner

Nick & Joan Thorndike

Martha & Mitch Momaney

Marcy Hermansader

Lou Nelson

Sponsors

shawn stone, with previous experience in the east dover Fire department, was a natural for the West dummerston Fire department.

Dummerston Conservation Commission

Steps to West River At Covered Bridge Completed civic government

continued from page 1 outlet to feel connected to town government and to each other. Our new members are veterinarian Ron Svec and longtime Dummerston residents Bill Conley and Lew Teich, who will fill spaces left by Amy Wall and Emily Alexander. Many thanks to Amy and Emily for their contributions to the Commission! John Anderson is leaving our commission after 18 years! Our resident woods rambler, avian expert, botanist and all-around nature enthusiast has done his time. We are so appreciative of his service and we want the community to know that he will continue to write his nature notes in this publication as well as the Dummerston Conservation Newsletter and others until which point he has really had enough. If you see John rambling please let him know what those articles mean to you, or drop him a line. We are also grateful to tech-savvy community volunteer Phil Goepp, who has graciously agreed—under no pressure from his daughter and Commission chair Christine Goepp—to take over management of the Conservation Commission website, originally created by previous tech guru Emily. The selectboard recently appointed four members of the Conservation Commission to the board of trustees of the Prospect Hill Fund. Although separate entities, these two organizations have long worked together to manage the Prospect Hill land, and the new resident trustees hope to reinvigorate efforts to tackle this beautiful but difficult-to-access piece of town land. We will use old-fashioned manual labor as well as mechanized equipment, with the cooperation of neighboring landowners, to control invasives, maintain the trail, and protect the stunning viewshed from Monadnock to Mount Snow. The new board members are Christine Goepp, Lynn Levine, myself, and David Greenwalt. Rick Mills will continue in his role as a longtime trustee. Prospect Hill is located off Park Laughton Road, and accessed

via a trail easement a five-minute walk from the town office parking lot. It has historically gone by the name of Blueberry Hill by longtime residents, undoubtedly because of the healthy blueberry population adorning the top.

In other Commission news, we have just completed a booklet guide, “Ten Trails in Dummerston,” which will be available on our website, www.dummerstonconservation.com, as a PDF and also in a limited run of paper copies available for browsing at the town office, Lydia Taft Pratt Library, and in our Conservation Society stations around town. Check them out! We hope to have a link to the PDF posted on our website soon. We may also be making copies available for residents, so please email us info@dummerstonconservation.com if you would be interested in a printed spiral-bound copy. Dummerston has a wealth of great hiking ranging in difficulty and terrain. The booklet contains descriptions of the terrain and history of each of the ten spots, along with a detailed full-page map prepared by our resident mapmaker David Greenewalt. Finally, before I pass this off to John for his nature notes, the Conservation Commission would like to sincerely thank Johnathan Royce and Bill Schmidt for their extremely kind donations this year. These donations will ensure that we are able to continue to support programs like our monthly speakers, the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Programs with children at the Dummerston Elementary school, and the other initiatives that I have just mentioned. We believe that these are all worthy causes to support!

And now, having reported Conservation Commission news I’m going to share a nature ramble supplied to us by John Anderson. In the world of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) caterpillars and their host plants are nearly synonymous. You can’t have one without the other. Some caterpillars are host plant dependent: orange-humped

mapleworms feed only on maples, especially sugar maple. Pearl crescents feed on asters. On the other hand, purple-lined sallow caterpillars generalize, feeding on, beggar’s ticks, chicory, dogbane, green beans, monkshood, peas, penstemon, poplar, rose, strawberry, sweet fern and willow. Every Lepidopteran caterpillar has its host plant or plants. They are herbivorous.

With one exception. The caterpillar of the harvester butterfly (Feniseca tarquinius) has no host plant. None. It’s a carnivore. It eats only meat. To be specific it eats woolly aphids. Often, but not exclusively, those aphids are woolly alder aphids.

The harvester butterfly lays its eggs in or near an aphid colony. The caterpillar that hatches from that egg feeds on the aphids. Honeydew excreted by colonies of aphids is also the principal food of the adult butterfly. They don’t seek out nectar and therefore are not a factor in pollination. In fact harvesters seldom stray far from woolly aphid colonies. They are aphid dependent at all life stages; caterpillar and butterfly.

Such a double dependence is both unusual and a bit risky. However, besides woolly alder aphids, at least three other kinds of woolly aphid are preyed on by harvesters somewhat expanding this odd little carnivore’s prey base. The harvester is completely dependent on woolly aphids but not exclusively on woolly alder aphids.

john & Lori BruneLLe

416 Tucker reed road e. dummersTon, vT 05346

office fax: (802) 254-5818 office phone: (802) 254-9788 john ceLL: (802): 579-9788 Lori ceLL: (802) 275-7111

john@BruneLLeandson.com

Lori@BruneLLeandson.com www.BruneLLeandson.com

Meat-dependent caterpillars that morph into honeydew-dependent butterflies certainly defy the expectations of most. Caterpillars and host plants are nearly synonymous. We expect to find caterpillars voraciously consuming a wide variety of leaves. We dread finding caterpillars tunneling through the fruits and vegetables that we view as exclusively our own. We don’t expect to find the caterpillar of Feniseca tarquinius—the harvester butterfly—exclusively consuming aphids. We don’t expect to find meat eaters. At least I never expected it. But, it really shouldn’t have surprised me. The ways of the natural world are as always beyond any of our attempts at simplification. For more information on the Conservation Commission go to www.dummerston conservation.com.

Dummerston Cares Celebrates Volunteers of the Summer Season

by Catie G. Berg, with thanks to Susan Daigler

In this summer season, Dummerston Cares recognizes all the fine folks of Dummerston who provide helping hands to their neighbors. These are the Volunteers of the Season—emphasis on the plural

We know who many of you volunteers are because we hear, from those you have helped, about their gratitude for your generosity. Equally delightful, there are many other volunteers about whom we can only imagine. These also are people who help their neighbors; we just don’t hear about you. Whether known or unknown, we celebrate how you reflexively lend a hand to others!

The energy of these relationships is noticeable in the smiles, the encouragement, the

The Pies Are Coming!

By Sallie May

The apples are coming! The apples are coming! Mark your calendars. Once again, it is time to start thinking of the cooler weather of September and October. Beginning on Monday, September 30 and for the next almost two weeks, the sweet smell of baking apple pie will waft its way through Dummerston Center. Help is needed peeling, coring, and slicing apples, making and rolling pie crust, making and baking pies, and taking them to storage until the day of the Festival on Sunday, October 13.

Again this year we will be working from 9 a.m.-noonish and again from about 5 p.m. until we get tired and the ovens are empty, probably around 8-9 p.m. We will make as many pies as we are able, given the amount of help we have, so the more who come, the better it is.

Never done this before? We are anxious to teach you. It’s not hard, the conversation is great (no politics, please) and the evening ends with a slice of freshly made pie if you want to stay. The coffee is always on as well. For more information, you may call the church office at 802-257-0544 and we’ll get back to you if we’re not in. Come and visit with your neighbors and friends, and help us make and sell a lot of pies! Thanks for your support.

gratitude, and the warm humanity that swirls about town. Dummerston’s volunteers are akin to the boy, Nikolai, a character from a story by Leo Tolstoy, as transformed by Jon Muth to the picture book, The Three Questions . Here’s what we can learn from this story:

1) When is the best time to do things? Answer: Right now, if help is needed.

2) Who is the most important one? Answer: The one you are with.

3) What is the right thing to do? Answer: Do good for the one who is with you.

What are some of the good things that Dummerstonians do for their neighbors?

• Share garden produce.

• Move something heavy.

• Make a friendly phone call.

• Pay a friendly visit.

• Change a lightbulb.

• Check-in before bad weather.

• Run an errand.

Births

Addi West Nevins-Popp 4/11/24

Lucas Michael Mullins 5/7/24

Marigold Clara Wilder 6/1/24

Passings

Linda Alex Hawkins 4/25/24

Patricia Anne Worth 5/8/24

Anne Cazeau 5/9/24

Kenneth Edward Ives 5/11/24

Susan Diane Mahler 5/11/24

Timothy Charles Janos 7/4/24

Sponsors

Meg Murtha

Barbara Evans

Joe & Anne Little

Alvino & Bea Fantini

• Give a ride to a non-driver.

• Walk together.

• Send a card of condolence.

• Welcome a newcomer.

• Shovel a driveway.

• Sprinkle sand on a walkway.

• Give help in the yard.

Space doesn’t allow us to list more of their generosity. We’re just so glad to know that they have touched us all! If you could use some help from Dummerston Cares, please call our message line at (802) 257-5800.

Primary Care  Emergency Care  PT/OT Just up the road in Townshend 365-7357 www.gracecottage.org

Sponsors

John & Karen Abel

Roberta Garland

Orly Munzing & Bob Dunbar

Mark and Lee Tice

Fred Lee

Evening Star Grange

Meals’ Popularity Soars—Volunteers Always Welcome

By Sallie May

The weather is beautiful as I write this article on a mid-June evening, but looking ahead only a couple of days they tell me it might hit the high 90’s; that’s almost too warm for comfort. Sure wish I could bottle some for January and February! Lately, lots of things have been happening at the Grange. Once again we produced a wonderful Memorial Day Program on May 30, the traditional Memorial Day. The American Legion played a mini-concert on the Common on a cool but clear evening. We definitely had room for several more people, so why not plan now to attend next year’s outdoor celebration of our military heroes who gave their all so that we can live here in freedom.

Recently we served over 200 people for a meatloaf senior lunch and served a relatively successful Chicken Pie Supper. We got our prebuy information on next winter’s fuel oil (we need to really get our building winterized better this year), and hopefully will continue to have good attendance at our next public supper (peach shortcake) on August 17. Be sure to mark your calendar and invite your neighbor or friend(s) to join you. It’s so relaxing not to have to cook a meal on a Saturday night.

Last week we had the elderly shed to the left of our building torn down. The space will soon be seeded down to fill in the yard. We have replaced our convection oven and had our roof repaired (again) after snow pulled several slates loose. We have someone researching the replacement of the little refrigerator in our kitchenette upstairs

Sponsors

Debbie & Dennis Baker

Eleanor & Charles Fish

Teri Robinson

Marguerite Demotte

Sallie May

and we are setting aside money with the hope of replacing our aging and temperamental kitchen stove. We think that the one we have is nearing 50 years of age. We will hold a repeat Chicken Pie Supper on the second Saturday in September, presumably with apple crisp for dessert.

This year our Craft Fair in conjunction with the church’s Apple Pie Festival will be on Columbus Day Sunday, October 13. That, too, is a date to mark on your calendar. Our show opens at 9 a.m. and goes until 3. We will be serving hamburgers, hot dogs, corn chowder, and baked beans for a lunchtime snack, should you care to come over

for food to go with your pie. Cold drinks will also be available. We look forward to seeing you. Does any of this sound like something you might like to get involved in? If so, the Grange would love to have you consider joining. Or try us out, and volunteer to help prep food for our Senior Lunches or public suppers. Just call our Master, Larry Lynch, at 802-310-0799, Sallie May at 802-257-0387 or the hall itself at 802-254-1138 and leave your name and phone number, and someone will get back to you with information. We are community-service oriented and would love to talk with you.

Women’s Association to Decide Future

By Sallie J. May Secretary

The Dummerston Women’s Association of the Dummerston Congregational Church was established about 105 years ago as a social gathering of not only the church ladies, but also their female friends, no matter their religious preference. Over the years the Association has sponsored teas, speakers, educational information and discussions on all types of subjects, and the Church Fair in August. They have also provided Thanksgiving baskets for town shut-ins and elderly, and Christmas poinsettias for shut-ins and those people who are known to Association members to be ill or grieving. The Easter lilies which decorated the church likewise were sponsored by the DWA. As the years passed, those women who used to

Heather & Gene Rostov

Akara Draper & Linnie Jones

Elizabeth Catlin & Jared Flynn

Cliff Adler & Lynn Levine

volunteer to run all these events have aged and many have passed away. Today, there are only three or so “active” members They are calling a meeting of all interested ladies of the town to meet at the church basement at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, August 11, to discuss and/or decide whether to continue operation with new officers, or to disband the organization entirely. If you have an opinion but cannot make the meeting, please call the church office to let us know your feelings on the subject. Thank you.

Crêpe Night at Scott Farm Draws Community

By Jeremy Ebersole

Crêpe Nights, held each month at Scott Farm on Kipling Road from May through September, are times to celebrate the harvest, good simple food, and community in a stunning setting— picnic style. Outdoor and indoor tables and chairs are provided as well as a sprawling grassy hillside ripe for picnic blankets, folding lawn chairs, and bare feet. Each month is co-hosted by a different local non-profit which benefits from the evening’s proceeds. Local music adds to the ambiance.

Savory supper crêpes (galettes), sweet dessert crêpes, and side salads are all available. The crêpes are served in handheld cardboard pouches, easily eaten without utensils. Drinks are available for purchase at the bar. Upcoming nights include August 14 to benefit Brattleboro Concert Choir and September 11 to benefit the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus. Hours are 5:30-7:30 p.m. and tickets are $20/adults and $10/children. For more information and tickets, visit https:// www.scottfarmvermont.com/crepe-night.

Gordon & Linda Evans

Dummerston Historical Society

New Schoolhouse Exhibit Features Dummerston Maps

by Muriel Taylor

The spring exhibit at the Schoolhouse included Rodrica Tilley’s plein air art which graced the “Artist Corner.” Also displayed were a number of photographs from our collection related to Dummerston animals, photos and documents from Dr. Grace Burnett’s Brattleboro medical practice, old farming tools, Dummerston cookbooks, and the original sign, photos, and letters from campers at the Brook Farm Camp for Boys,1924-1936. A sincere thank you is due Rodrica who attended several of our Open Days and gave personal tours of her work

An Interview with Volunteer Shawn Stone

continued from page 3 chimney? The last time I checked our smoke detectors was the start of Daylight Savings. You should always change your batteries spring and fall so Daylight Savings is a good reminder. As for the chimney, we had it done last fall. We hired Tyler from Green Mountain Chimney. He and his brother did an excellent job.

Do you have any pets? I do! We have two lovable and very dramatic dachshunds, Baylee and Orianna. I grew up with big dogs, goldens and German shepherds so when I met Melody who had her doxie Bindi, I was surprised to discover that a spoiled lap dog can really steal your heart. Two dachshunds followed shortly after, and so we had three. What’s the best part about being a volunteer firefighter or EMS? The best part about being a volunteer firefighter is the comradery of the brotherhood (women included) and knowing that you are helping the community. What’s the worst part? The worst part is PTSD from some of the trauma you have to endure from bad calls. I’ve seen some awful things. I had to do a search and recovery for a dear friend of mine and that’s a day that will never leave me.

Pancake breakfast – plain, apple or blueberry? Trick question. Personally, I love banana pancakes. They taste like banana bread with warm maple syrup. I’m still trying to persuade the guys to give it a try. If I had to choose a favorite from what is currently being served, I’d say apple, but again, banana pancakes are the way to go.

to the many interested visitors.

The current exhibit, July-September, is sure to be of interest. Roger Turner’s fine photographs are on display in the Artist’s Corner. Other items for your perusal include maps of Dummerston past and present, a display of early PTA records from the 1950s, early school books, a stunning new photographic acquisition of the history of sugaring in Dummerston, and an assortment of unidentified homes and locations. Perhaps you will recognize them. We will appreciate your helpful input. We are open the first and third Sunday every month from 1-3 p.m. or by appointment. Please call any member or Muriel Taylor at 1-802-3807525 to arrange a special visit.

At the July quarterly meeting of the Society we were treated to a fascinating talk by Joe Cook, one of the great bicycling adventurers of our time. Among his many exploits were pedaling from Vancouver to Mexico, the length and breadth of Great Britain, the length of the Rhine and Rhone Rivers, and much of the Danube. But his talk featured mainly his successful thirtyfive year quest to pedal the 4,500 miles of Vermont’s paved roads and its 1,000 miles of dirt roads.

We are happy to report that due to the town’s generous allocation of ARPA funds, our final two projects are now complete. Jeff Dixon has applied a fresh coat of paint and Jason Evans has brought the handicap ramp up to code with a thick layer of asphalt which meets the existing wooden ramp. Thank you Jeff and Jason for your fine workmanship. We appreciate the Dummerston Selectboard and all of the gifted and generous craftspeople who have secured the

integrity of this historical schoolhouse for years to come. Thank you all.

The Dummerston Historical Society always welcomes donations of historical interest to Dummerston and we encourage you to join us in 2024 as a member, a volunteer, a participant in our programs, or as a viewer of our exhibits. Find more information and videos of recent programs at www. dummerstonhistoricalsociety.org . (Please note that you do not need to be a member of the Historical Society to attend any of our functions.) Our Schoolhouse is handicapped accessible. You are always welcome.

My father was a farmer, a strong, good man.

Straight were the rows where his sharp plow ran.

Straight were the thoughts in his unschooled head,

And straight out of scripture the life he led.

Gnarled were his fingers from lifelong toil,

But mellow his heart that loved the soil.

Close after God in his soul came labor And an equal feeling for every neighbor.

My father was a farmer who knew the worth

Of kinship with the planted earth.

Make sure to get yours early at the town office or by calling Jody Normandeau (802-380-9027)

A poem from the book The Dummerston Hill Story by Agnes M. Chamberlin, printed by The Shaw Press, Brattleboro, Vt., 1956.

Spring Activities are Plentiful and Far-Ranging

and

and

s sixth graders had an amazing day of adventure and team building with lauren Petrie at the bAMs/ buhs ropes course.

Eighth graders visited Bunker Farm as part of their Omnivore’s Dilemma unit and study of local agriculture and food systems.

swifties performing for the

 eighth graders competed in the 2024 regional solar sprint at living Memorial Park in May. there were 50 solar cars competing this year from over five different schools! Malena hodgman and delynn sprague won the engineering award for the best designed Car in the 2024 regional solar sprint. Congrats to all the 8th graders for a great day of fun at the solar-car racing competition!

 dummerston school celebrated the musical and visual arts on spring Arts night this past May. Families enjoyed a spectacular gallery walk, interactive art activity, and performances by chorus, jazz band, beginner band, and advanced band. 

subMitted Photos

dummerston school talent show!

s Future

current PreK

K families visited the dummerston school playground on June 1 for teddy bear tea where they got to mix and mingle with other families and participate in story time with Ms. eagan!

New Teachers Join Elementary School Staff

By Cindy Bacigalupo

Summertime and the living is easy! School is out and the kids are happy! Teachers are glad to have the break. Then in August, they will all get geared up to attend another school year with a few changes. Dummerston School would like to continue to wish our two spring of 2024 retirees, Heidi Gray and Melissa Petroski, congratulations on their retirement and for their combined 65 years of service to the Dummerston School.

In the 2024-2025 school year Dummerston School welcomes two new teaching staff, Heather Sperling as the kindergarten teacher and Ashley Perkins as the second-grade teacher. Everyone is excited to have them on board. Read on for short bios written by Heather and Ashley to introduce themselves.

Heather Sperling joins the Dummerston School in the Early Learning Center as their new Kindergarten teacher. She is coming from our neighboring school district of WCSU with 18 years of service. She’s taught many different grade levels during her career, her first being kindergarten, which she’s excited to return to next year.

Heather is a founding member of the thriving Farm To School program at NewBrook Elementary School. Her passion for projectbased learning and outdoor education has been a big part of her teaching philosophy. “Learning comes alive for children when they are in nature, doing work that incorporates all of their senses. They often feel closely connected to their environment, which then

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translates to deeper connections with themselves, their peers, and ultimately their larger community. It is these experiences that stay close to their hearts and minds.”

Here are some more words from Heather: “I am very excited to join the Dummerston community, in service as your new Kindergarten teacher. I live a couple of towns away with my husband, youngest daughter and dog. Our eldest two daughters are currently in post-graduate studies elsewhere but come home often to visit. Some of my pastimes outside of school include hiking, biking, swimming, listening to music, dancing, and spending time with family and friends. Please feel free to reach out to me at hsperling@ wsesdvt.org if you would like to volunteer or have a skill or craft that you are willing to share with our youngest students.”

Ashley Perkins writes: “I grew up in Jamaica, Vermont, and attended Leland and Gray High School. After high school I attended Johnson State College located in northern Vermont where I received a bachelors in Elementary Education, Special Education, and Psychology. I was a fouryear college athlete who was team captain,

played on Team USA in Italy, and helped with sports clinics around the community. After graduation, I received a job at Stowe Elementary School teaching fifth grade for a total of three years. Family has always been the most important thing for my husband and me so we made the move back home to Southern Vermont where we grew up. I received a job at Vernon Elementary School where I have worked as a third, fourth, and fifth grade teacher for the last four years. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher since the fourth grade. I was inspired by my teacher who always made sure her students felt heard, loved, and supported academically and emotionally. I knew that I wanted to be that teacher for all of my future students. I strive to make my classroom a place where students feel comfortable taking risks, connecting learning to real life, and learning skills that they can apply to things in their future.

“My husband, my two beautiful little boys, and I live in Dummerston and we absolutely love the town. My husband and I moved here because we knew we wanted our kids to go through this school system. Dummerston as a whole has always radiated with a sense of welcomeness, caring individuals, and a strong community that I knew we would be happy to join into. I am beyond happy to be joining Dummerston School next year as the second-grade teacher and taking over for an amazing educator that has led the grade for many years.”

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Photo by J A son sP e R ling

heather sperling (pictured here with her daughter Charly, left) is the new kindergarten teacher.

Ashley Perkins will be teaching second grade beginning this fall.

Photo by Meg A n Ashley

School Honors Students with Graduation Awards

By Julianne Eagan

The following awards were presented to graduating students:

Arlene G. Forrett Memorial Award , presented by Flo Levin: Leanna RagoMarker The Arlene G. Forrett Memorial Award is presented annually to a good allaround student and citizen.

Melinda Bussino Community Service Award , presented by Bess Richardson: Cameron Mathews . The Melinda Bussino Community Service Award, funded by the Dummerston Congregational Church, is given annually to a student who embodies her spirit of service by doing community service for our school, their church, or the community.

Art Avery Award, presented by Ellen Rago: Banyan Altshuler This award, funded by the Avery family, is presented to a student who is an “unsung hero” and a mentor to others, because Art Avery was someone who recognized and nurtured the potential of all of his students. A beloved principal here at Dummerston School, he was a silent champion for the underdog.

Music Award , presented by Nathaniel Evans: Delynn Sprague The music award is presented to a student who has shown great talent on their instrument throughout their time at Dummerston, and a strong commitment to practicing the many aspects of that instrument.

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Coaches Awards, presented by Kim Lane: Delynn Sprague and Leanna Rago-Marker. This award recognizes strong physical skills, vast knowledge of and dedication to the sport and teams, passion for the game, and leadership qualities.

Teacher Award for Service , presented by Dan Bailey: Tanner Chase

Teacher Award for Courage, presented by Ellen Rago: Peyton Evans

Teacher Award for Athletic Skill, presented by Keith Marshall: Ethan Barnes

Teacher Award for Determination , presented by Megan Altshuler: Sophie Holton

Physical Education Awards, presented by Kim Lane: Malena Hodgman and Carson Mialkowski These awards are given to students who have consistently demonstrated a high standard of effort in regards to their physical fitness during the PE classes throughout the school year.

Travis Sweetzer Award, presented by Keith Marshall: Colby Robinson The Sweetser Award is presented each year in honor of Travis Sweetser, a former Dummerston student and athlete, recognizing collaborative teamwork, skill and leadership.

Art Awards , presented by Ben Ferguson: Ethan Barnes and Malena Hodgman Art Awards are given to students who have consistently shown high levels of dedication and growth in their artistic endeavors.

Ruth E. Knapp Award , presented by Megan Altshuler: Regan Gelke and Carson Mialkowski This award is annually given to two eighth graders who have shown the most improvement scholastically, socially, and as citizens in the class.

Dummerston Women’s Association Award, presented by Ruth Barton: Regan Gelke and Colby Robinson This award is given to those students who have shown exceptional rigor,

engagement, and effort with their academics.

Timothy Garland Award , presented by Keith Marshall: Banyan Altshuler Tim Garland was a Dummerston School student who, after many obstacles continued his education and eventually began a 20-plusyear career at Bellows Falls Middle School teaching both math and science. The Timothy Garland Award is annually presented to a student who loves math.

Jean Shaw Creativity in Science Award, presented by Keith Marshall: Cameron Matthews. This award is for someone who loves and excels in science and shows a great deal of creativity and curiosity.

Jenny Rubenstein Award , presented by Ellen Rago: Peyton Evans . This award is given in honor of a former Dummerston student who loved to read and write.

Margaret T. Irsch Memorial Writing Award , presented by Ellen Rago: Leanna Rago-Marker The Dummerston Friends of the Library sponsors a writing contest for the 8th grade in honor of their founder Margaret T. Irsch.

Dummerston School

Graduates Twelve

continued from page 1 were awarded their diplomas and congratulated by middle school staff and WSESD board chair Deborah Stanford, they met their families under the pavilion for a reception hosted by the 7th-grade class. Congratulations, Dummerston School graduates! Members of the class include: Banyan Altshuler, Ethan Barnes, Tanner Chase, Peyton Evans, Regan Gelke, Malena Hodgman, Sophie Holton, Cameron Matthews. Carson Mialkowski, Leanna Rago-Marker, Colby Robinson, and Delynn Sprague.

 the Family involvement team held a Community Picnic on saturday, June 1, to celebrate the outdoor space and playground improvements. instrumental teacher Mr. evans made balloon animals!

 dancing and frolicing were the order of the day at the Community Picnic!

Canoe Brook Nature Preserve Established

by Alex Wilson

Dummerston is blessed to have some spectacular, ecologically-significant natural areas. We are even more fortunate because a number of these places are open to the public for recreational use, including hiking, snowshoeing, and hunting. The Black Mountain Nature Preserve is one of The Nature Conservancy’s most important preserves in the state, with over 1,000 acres that have been acquired and protected over the past 40 years. The Green Mountain Conservancy (GMC), a relative newcomer in land conservation, established the 940-acre Deer Run Nature Preserve with three acquisitions in 2019, 2021, and 2023. In late-2023, GMC added another important natural area in Dummerston: Canoe Brook Nature Preserve.

The 115-acre Canoe Brook Nature Preserve extends on both sides of Canoe Brook Road near the Putney line in East Dummerston. This includes most of the portion of Canoe Brook Road (about a half-mile) that is not maintained in the winter. The property was donated to GMC by heirs of the Knight family, which had owned the property since the late-1700s.

“We are thrilled with the new Preserve,” said GMC president Mary Ellen Copeland. “Particularly with the impacts of climate change, it is becoming more and more important to maintain protected natural areas that provide for wildlife and carbon sequestration,” she said.

Going back further, prior to the arrival of European settlers, this was land of the Abenaki Nation. Canoe Brook apparently got its name after Alexander Kathan, one of Dummerston’s

Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts, dismantled and then reassembled in the historic Village, where it is on permanent display, looking as it did when Asa Knight owned it.

The Knight family features heavily in both the 1884 and 1990 published histories of Dummerston, dating back to Jonathan Knight, who moved to the town in 1774 and was the town clerk from 1775-1780. Joel Knight, one of Jonathan Knight’s sons, bought the land that is now the Canoe Brook Nature Preserve in the 1790s, and the family farmed it for generations. For about 40 years, in the late 1700s, there was an active sawmill on the brook.

first European settlers (who arrived here in 1761 and is said to be the first European to make maple sugar in Vermont), found a birchbark canoe that Native Americans had hidden in the brook.

The Knight name is known to many Dummerston residents from the prominent house on the green in Dummerston Center, known as the Asa Knight House. The Hon. Asa Knight was a grandson of Jonathan Knight, and in the early1800s he began operating the Asa Knight General Store at the corner of East-West Road and Middle Road. In 1972, the general store was given to

All of the buildings on the Canoe Brook Nature Preserve are long gone, but cellar holes and stone walls remain visible in places. The last remaining house was burned down in the early 1950s from a fire caused when lightning struck a large, nearby black locust tree, according to Eliza Greenhoe-Bergh (Dummerston’s assistant town clerk). The area where the house and barns were located is carpeted with the groundcover myrtle, and one can see terracing along Canoe Brook Road here— from flower gardens that used to be here.

Canoe Brook rises on the shoulder of Putney Mountain about three miles northwest of the Preserve and flows into the Connecticut River about a mile to the southeast. The woodland at the Canoe Brook Preserve is dominated by white pine, hemlock, sugar maple, red oak, white oak, white ash, and black birch. Prominent seeps provide important ecological habitat for various species, including wood turtles.

Of particular note in the Preserve are a dozen ancient, massive white oak trees, which date from the 1700s or early-1800s (see photo). Daniel Dubie, a forest ecologist and board member of GMC, explained that these trees, including Vermont’s second-largest white oak specimen, “grew in the open initially, when most of the land in Dummerston was cleared for farming or pasturing sheep.” Many of the huge sweeping limbs of these trees have fallen, and the trees are now surrounded by woodland. Fortunately, younger white oaks are found here, though far fewer than the dominant red oak. Dummerston is close to the northern edge of the range of white oak, though as the climate continued on page 16

daniel dubie, an ecologist serving on the green Mountain Conservancy board, stands next to one of the several grand, old white oak trees in the newly created Canoe brook Preserve.

Photo by Alex Wilson

A Goldilocks Story Reversed

by Ellen and Larry Crockett

On an August evening last summer we had two bears in the house. That’s right—in the house. Since that time, word has gotten around. Lots of folks have asked us to tell the tale, so here it is!

It may help you get the picture if you first imagine our house, a small chalet-style cottage built into the north side of Black Mountain, in the woods at the end of a long private drive. You enter the house through the basement. Up the stairs, you find yourself in the small kitchen of the open-plan living area. Go to your right down a very short hall, and you are at the back door. That door opens onto a narrow plateau, higher up the mountain than where you entered. Above you are two little bedrooms built under the eaves, a small “third floor” loft looking out at the cathedral ceiling of the main living space. One of these serves as a TV room, and has a large window overlooking the area outside the back door and the steep bank going up the mountain.

Photo by R i CK M ills

was a long half-hour! We could hear noises the whole time. We wondered if bears were curious and would explore the house and find us, though it was pretty clear “our” bear had gotten into food.

Eventually the phone rang and Larry answered. The warden was calling from right outside the front of the house, to make sure he

On the evening of August 7th we were upstairs in that little room, watching TV—probably the PBS Newshour. First we heard rustlings outside through the open window. Not unusual. Plenty of squirrels and chipmunks frequent our yard. These noises seemed a little bigger than usual. Well, maybe a raccoon then. Hm. We’d actually had one get into the house once. Then the screen door thumped and banged a few times. Uh oh. We turned off the TV and listened. Now there were clearly noises downstairs in the kitchen. BIG noises! Glancing out the window, we saw a bear bounding up the steep mountainside behind the house. We waited, listening. The sounds in the kitchen continued—thumps and rustles, heavy breathing and little grunts. There was no way we were going to go down to investigate! Ellen did go out onto the little balcony that overlooks the living-room, and clapped and shouted, as hikers are advised to do in the woods where bears may be. But whoever was down there paid no attention. We closed the bedroom door and Larry, who very fortunately had his cell phone with him, called 911 to report a bear in the house. An operator answered right away and said she’d call the game warden. The warden, who lives in Townshend—a half-hour away—called immediately. He told us to keep the door closed and he would come ASAP. That

was in the right place. He was. Larry told him to come around the house to the back door. When he did, he could see through the back door that there were two bears in the kitchen. He shouted loudly. Instantly, they bolted from the back door and up the hill. Then we heard a gunshot. Then a second. Then a bear moaning. Then a third shot. Then silence. The warden called up to us from outside in back, to see if we were all right. Then he came in and and warned us that they had made quite a mess of the kitchen. He had killed one bear but missed the second and it got away. We came down to the kitchen, and indeed, it looked like a garbage dump! Interestingly, the bears had ignored the “the low-hanging fruit,” the peaches, bananas, cabbages, and tomatoes sitting in plain sight on the counter, and went for things in packages: the cornmeal, cereals, grains, and flour in the pantry cupboard and for the compost under the counter.

As Ellen began scooping up empty packages and containers, and sweeping up cornmeal and rice, we heard another car arrive! Larry went out on the deck, and there below him were our neighbors, Zach Grover and Phil Perkins. Zach had heard gunshots and was concerned. Since guns seemed to be involved, he had called Phil (who is a police officer in Springfield, VT) and they came up together to see if we were okay.

Phil recognized the game warden, a fellow lawenforcement officer, and he and Zach got the full story. Both were amazed when they heard what had happened. The warden told us all that bear incidents had become very common. They have increased ten-fold in the ten years he has been a game warden. But he had never before encountered an incident in which the bear(s) were IN the house when he arrived! Larry expressed our sorrow over the bear’s killing, and he said he was sorry, but that was the policy toward bears that break into houses. The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife states that: “It is extremely difficult to relocate a bear caught up in human-bear conflicts,” said biologist, Greg Hammond. “Sadly, these bears sometimes need to be put down to protect human health. Our large and healthy bear population is butting up against an increasing number of people who have built houses in the woods, fragmenting bears’ habitat and attracting them with backyard food sources. The bears are not going to change their behavior so it’s up to us to make the change.”

So one bear was killed and taken away that evening. But the warden’s second shot missed the second bear. It got away—whether injured or not we do not know, which is another source of anguish. The following morning, another game warden came to the house with some dogs, to try to track the second bear. They never found it. We don’t know if s(he) is dead or alive. But regardless, we are still a bit leery. The back continued on page 16

A bear visited the home of John Anderson and noreen Cooper on hague Road without doing the damage experienced by larry and ellen Crockett at their home on Prospect View Road.

Reading Suggestions for Those Lazy Days of Summer

By Linda Rood

Since January, I’ve been able to read quite a few works of contemporary fiction, several of which were published within the last 12 months, and several by writers I admire. The list includes Day by Michael Cunningham, The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez, North Woods by Daniel Mason, and Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, as well as the third and fourth books in the “Thursday Murder Club” series by Richard Osman.

Day (Random House, 2023) and The Vulnerables (Riverhead, 2023), published within a month of each other last fall, both slim volumes, are both set in New York City during the Covid pandemic. Day, whose author Michael Cunningham also wrote The Hours, is structurally very interesting. It follows one family on the day of April 5 in 2019, life before the pandemic, in 2020, just as the lockdown is taking hold, and in 2021, after the worst of the panic is over. As we read of each day, we learn of the stresses, changes, and losses experienced by this core group as they pass through the crucible that we all endured. I found it to be beautifully written and though sad, not without hope.

Nunez’s book, The Vulnerables, is narrated by an unnamed woman writer who is past the age of 65, and therefore “vulnerable” to the dire effects of a Covid infection. She has moved in to the luxurious apartment of a friend, who has been stranded in the West Coast by the lockdown, in order to care for the friend’s parrot. She spends her days alone, wandering the empty streets of locked-down Manhattan, or struggling to write in an empty apartment, with only the urgent sounds of sirens and an occasional word from Eureka, the parrot. When a young college student, friend of the family, moves in, our narrator is not happy to have her privacy invaded, but what transpires between the two unlikely companions makes for interesting developments. This novel does a very good job of depicting the weird sense of limbo that the Covid lockdown induced, as we waited for our lives to come back, not really knowing if or how they would.

I was captivated by North Woods by Daniel Mason (Random House, 2023), which was named by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2023. This clever novel gives us an outline of New England history through the story of one house, somewhere north of Greenfield, Massachusetts, and its succession of owners and occupants. So, familiar territory for us here in Southern Vermont. Over twelve chapters, we learn how the house began and evolved, beginning as a humble stone cabin built by young lovers who have escaped from their Puritan village to live in a forest paradise. We progress through the Revolution to the time of Charles Osgood, the “Apple Man” who stumbles upon the abandoned cabin, establishes an orchard where he grows a unique and delicious apple variety known as “Osgood’s Wonder,” and adds the yellow clapboard house on to the cabin. This lovely place is passed on to his two childless daughters, and then on to a series of owners including an abolitionist, a renowned late 19th century landscape painter, a wealthy captain of industry who wants to create a sportsman’s lodge on the site and adds another wing, then his schizophrenic grandson, followed into the 21st century with a botanical research scientist. Many of these come to violent ends as their dramatic tales unwind. Some of their ghosts linger. The forest suffers too, as it is clear cut, damaged by storms, and infested with the various blights that wipe out the ash, beech, chestnut, elm, and hemlock trees over time. As the botanist researcher says, “The only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change.”

Mason displays remarkable virtuosity as the style, vocabulary, and voice of the narration change to reflect the passage of time, and changes in ownership and point of view. Some chapters appear in the form of letters, poems, diary entries, medical notes, real estate listings, even an address to a historical society. One reviewer described it as a “scrapbook of a novel.” I found the variety of this approach to be quite successful and entertaining. A very good read.

Let Us Descend (Scribner, 2023) is Jesmyn

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Ward’s newest book, and the third of hers I have read. It is an amazing book. It’s a historical novel of slavery, and covers some of the same ground as Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and the slave narrative Twelve Years a Slave; it is nonetheless fresh and powerful. It isn’t a comfortable read, but Ward is such a masterful writer that it is impossible to turn away from the painful tale and impossible not to be moved by its dark beauty. One critic described it as the “literary equivalent of an open wound from which poetry pours…a thing you can’t help but feel.”

The title of the novel comes from Dante’s Inferno, thus linking the slave world to the depths of Hell. The story follows Annis, the daughter of a strong, fiercely protective mother who was raped by her white slave master. When Annis is barely a teenager, her mother is cruelly sold away, and a few years later, Annis suffers the same fate. She is forced to walk from North Carolina to the New Orleans slave market, barefoot, starved, nearly drowned. Eventually she is sold as a house maid to the brutal owners of a sugar cane plantation, Along the way, Annis takes comfort in her memories of her mother and the stories of her African grandmother, and she learns to listen to the voices of the spirit world which at times serve as guides and inspiration, and eventually a means to escape. It’s a powerful story, full of pain, but beautifully told, and worth receiving our attention.

For fun, while I was recuperating from a recent hip replacement, I read the last two books of the “Thursday Murder Club” series by Richard Osman, The Bullet that Missed and The Last Devil to Die. This series is published by Pamela Dorman Books. A group of four British elder citizens in a posh retirement community spend their time investigating (and solving) cold case murders. These are humorous tales, full of amusing observations about senior living amid the twenty-first century world. There are now four books altogether, and I found the most recent one, The Last Devil, to be quite good. Not only is it a good mystery, it also confronts the realities of dementia in a very sensitive and moving way. If you haven’t read any of these yet, it would probably be best to start with the first, The Thursday Murder Club, for a proper introduction to the characters, but otherwise, I don’t think it’s necessary to read them in order. A fifth book is planned for 2025. For those who are already fans, did you know that there is a Netflix film in the works with Helen Mirren playing Elizabeth, of course, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, and Celia Imrie as Joyce? Stay tuned.

JB Auto Ends 30-Year Run

By Roger Turner

Jesse slid a piece of paper with the number 94799 written on it over to me when we sat down to talk on July 1st. “That’s the number of repairs we’ve done since I started,” he told me. “We’ve been using the same system since then, so I’ve got a good record of the work we’ve done.” But Jesse and I were meeting to talk about the sad (for all of his customers) decision he’s made to close JB Auto at the end of this July, 2024, after doing business on Vermont Route 30 since 1995.

Many of us have had the experience of owning a vehicle we love. Mine was a dark green 99 Toyota extended-cab Tacoma with alloy wheels. I’ve always depended on Jesse and Scott, Jesse’s office manager, to take care of regular service, and to tell me when a significant repair was needed—with the brakes, the exhaust system, or a timing belt, for example. When they told me I needed to do something, I knew it needed to be done. I expected that it would be the truck for the rest of my life, but the miles piled up, approaching 170,000.

what needs to be done and what it’ll cost. We give them options for parts. There was never a big shock at the counter when somebody came in to pick up their car. Communication is how you keep out of trouble in any business.”

ston, went to school in the Community Center building. So that part’s been really good.” With a business plan and an SBA loan in hand, he found the building on Route 30 which was then owned by Brattleboro realtor Larry Cook. It had previously been used as a service station, then for a well drilling operation, and immediately beforehand by Carriage House Comforters. It took three to four months to turn the building back into a garage and to assemble equipment.

Jesse, scott, and mechanic nick Fontaine take a quick picture break from their busy schedule of repairs prior to closing. scott currently has no next plans; nick will move to brattleboro subaru

Early in the summer of 2023 I was having some problems with the truck and I dropped it off at the shop. Scott called me later that day and said I should come in to talk with Jesse. I felt something flip in the pit of my stomach, but like a man, I went down there. Jesse came out, and his message was something like this, with any exact memory of what he said placed in quotes: “Roger,” over the years I’ve worked with a lot of “old guys” like you who “love their trucks,” but they get to the point where the trucks are just “money pits.” I can make some repairs now, but I’ll have to make more later on, and I think “you’re just going to be throwing your money away.” I really think you should move on and get a “new truck.” He said all this directly and matter-of-factly, with a little smile on his face, not a smug or sarcastic smile, but a smile reflecting his understanding of exactly what he was saying to me, and how hard it was for me to hear it.

“Bad news is not hard to give people when they trust you, and we tried hard to make that the case,” Jesse told me when we talked. “I’d be amazed if the number of really unhappy people at the counter over 30 years added up to ten. If a car comes in for brakes and we find it needs calipers, Scott will call that person up and say

Jesse Bristol grew up in Dummerston. During high school he worked at the Texaco station in Newfane at the current location of the Fat Crow Restaurant and began to acquire his mechanical skills. After graduating he got a job at Sonny’s Sunoco in Brattleboro where his high school friend Scott Passino was working, and then married Paula Boudreau. Jesse and Paula decided to move to Florida where Jesse found a job in an auto repair shop in Daytona Beach. He liked the work but not the heat. Returning to Vermont, he switched things up and took a job with a law firm, which didn’t suit him. He and Paula were building a house on Hague Road, and while at the law firm Jesse started doing mechanical work for people “on the side” out of his home garage, “which quickly got out of hand.” So he decided to open up a shop of his own, which was “a pretty big crap shoot at the time. I had a five-year-old kid and a two-yearold mortgage. But it was a dream and I wanted to do it in Dummerston. I grew up in Dummer-

For the first two years Jesse was doing everything –answering the phone, ordering parts, working on cars, checking out customers. He was overwhelmed. He’d kept in touch with Scott, who at the time was working for R&M Supply on Flat Street driving a regional route selling auto body parts and supplies. Jesse asked him if he’d like to come work for him running the office, and told him he could figure out his own job description. Scott agreed. “He’s been great. I couldn’t have made it this long without him.” In addition to Scott Passino, Jesse has had six employees working as mechanics, including his son Josh, over the 30 years. Paula has also been a help and encouragement all along the way, including a period of time when she was working in the garage office. But 17 years ago she took a full-time job at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, where she’s worked ever since. Jesse’s biggest challenges have been the more sophisticated technology of the newer cars, and finding people to work. “I can’t get help.” He tried to offer health care plans, but as they got more expensive, had to stop, offering a higher wage to help compensate. But the dealer shops have always beat him with salaries, and benefits such as health plans, paid time off, and 401k contributions. His son Josh stopped working with him to take a job at Auto Mall for those benefits. It’s also been hard to find continued on page 16

Photo by Roge

Canoe Brook Nature Preserve Established

continued from page 12 warms more southern species, such as white oak, may become more important.

The Canoe Brook Nature Preserve has been managed for timber and ecosystem health since at least the 1940s, with periodic timber harvests. Openings in the canopy from timber harvesting and the construction of logging roads, unfortunately, have allowed invasive plant species to become established, including buckthorn. GMC will be working to control this and other invasives.

“The intent moving forward,” according to Dubie, “will be to maintain healthy biodiversity, provide for low-impact recreation, and support the transition to old-growth forest characteristics—in keeping with the mission of the Green Mountain Conservancy.”

GMC has established an active Canoe Brook Stewardship Committee, which consists largely of East Dummerston residents living close to the Preserve; the group will assist in the ongoing management of the preserve. The Committee is advising the GMC board on a wide range of policies relating to management of the preserve, including hunting policies and usage regulations. Hunting of deer and turkey will be permitted, though hunters must request permission from GMC prior to hunting. A parking area will be available by fall, and various hiking trails through the preserve will be established over the next few years. GMC is seeking a balance between recreational uses of the land and ecosystem protection.

“With the Canoe Brook Nature Preserve, as with the Deer Run Nature Preserve, we want to

help connect people to nature,” said Copeland. “We were handed an awesome opportunity with this land gift, and we want to use that to further the mission of the Green Mountain Conservancy, while helping Dummerston residents enjoy nature.”

The Green Mountain Conservancy is a

nonprofit organization and welcomes donations to support our work with land conservation in Dummerston and surrounding towns. Visit our website, www.greenmountainconservancy.org for donation options, or you can send a check to the Green Mountain Conservancy, P.O. Box 301, West Dummerston, VT 05357.

JB Auto Ends 30-Year Run

continued from page 15 people with experience with the many different brands of cars that come into a small independent shop, compared to the garage at a dealer.

Jesse and Paula vowed to each other that they wouldn’t work until they couldn’t enjoy life, and they have bought and have been improving a piece of property up in Victory, VT, where they plan to live in the future. “I’m getting older, cars are getting more complex, and there’s the help thing. There’s just no help. For awhile I was just working three days a week and doing my woodsplitter business the other two. When Josh left for Auto Mall, I went back to full time, which has been a little challenging. So I decided this is the time.”

But leaving has been hard. “I sent out 649 letters last week, just to people who have brought in their cars in the last 11 months. A large portion of those people are people who came in the first year and never went away and the rest are people who came in subsequent years and never went away. That’s a big deal to me, especially in auto repair that people think is the most crooked business in the world. To do it in a way that people really trust you has been good. We haven’t done it the way you’d do it to just make money. I’m not saying I wasn’t in it to make money, but when you go to a dealer, you come away with a list of things they say you need to get done. Some are valid, some aren’t. Maybe you don’t really need differential fluid.

“Someone comes in to us with a check engine message showing and we’d come out to the yard and run a scan and say—yeah, you need to leave that here, or we’d turn off the light and tell them to let us know if it comes back

on. People are going to be shocked, because at most dealers that’s a $100 hookup fee and you need an appointment. We’d change headlights in the parking lot without an appointment. I’m proud of that, for sure.”

JB Auto was going to be open for just one more month when those 649 letters went out, and within three days, they were fully booked for that month, a testament to how valued their service has been. And did I take Jesse’s advice about parting with my beloved little truck? Yes I did, because I knew that he was breaking the hard truth to me, and weighing the options he presented to me, that’s what I needed to do.

A Goldilocks Story Reversed

continued from page 13 door—right beside our bedroom door—is a fine source of fresh air in the summer. But since the bear incident, we do not keep that door open. A friend repaired the damage the bears had done to the wooden screen door, so we are still using it. But we know it will not keep out a bear! Now, a year later, Larry remembers, “I guess I could have gone out and taken a picture of the dead bear, but I didn’t want to. I am so sorry that he is dead. He was just doing what bears do naturally. He just needed food, same as me. I’m really the interloper.”

bakerviolinshop@gmail.com

www.bakerviolinshop.com

We’ve always had bears around. They carried our compost bin off into the woods years ago, and we stopped keeping compost outside. So we knew they were around, but we didn’t expect them to come inside while we were here! The warden suggested that the bear population has increased significantly, and they are also being driven out of their preferred habitats by human activity. Just three weeks before our own bear encounter, Jill Lepore wrote a long essay in the New Yorker about bear-human interaction titled The Bear in Your Back Yard. So we are part of a larger story, but not in the way we’d have chosen to be. We are so sorry, Brother Bear!

The Dummerston Garden

Good Bugs in the Garden

By Dr. Vern Grubinger Vegetable and Berry Specialist University of Vermont Extension

Insect pests get a lot of attention because we see the damage they cause. Less obvious are beneficial insects that provide “biocontrol” of insect pests. These include predators that kill or disable their prey quickly, and parasitoids that kill pests more slowly

Predators include lady beetles, ground beetles, lacewings, and mites. Predators are larger than their prey and eat a lot of them. Most are generalists that attack a variety of prey.

Parasitoids include wasps and tachinid flies. They specialize in one insect species, which is usually bigger than they are. Females search for a host, then deposit eggs or larvae in, on, or nearby it. The immature parasitoids grow, slowly consuming the pest. Unlike parasites, such as fleas and ticks, parasitoids typically kill their host eventually.

Lady beetles are familiar predators. Both adults and larvae prey on soft-bodied insects like aphids. Unlike their parents, the larvae have an elongated body like an alligator that’s dark with yellow or orange flecks. There are many species of lady beetles, native and introduced.

The pink-spotted ladybeetle is pink to red, oval, with six spots on each forewing. It feeds on lots of pests, like European corn borer, corn earworm, imported cabbageworm, fall webworm, and Colorado potato beetle. It also needs to eat pollen. Flowering plants, including dandelions, help support adults in the spring.

The convergent lady beetle is slightly elongated, with white lines converging behind its head, and a few to thirteen black spots on red forewings. It feeds on aphids.

Other beneficial lady beetle species include the two-spotted lady beetle, nine-spotted ladybeetle, and transverse lady beetle. The multicolored Asian lady beetle was introduced, to feed on aphids, scales, and psyllids. Its annoying habit is congregating in homes in the fall. Another species, the Mexican bean beetle, is a well-known plant pest.

Ground beetles are dark and shiny, often found under stones and debris. Those active at night are black, and those active in the day may be a metallic color. Pests consumed include the eggs and larvae of Colorado potato beetles, root maggots, and “cabbageworms.”

Rove beetles, soldier beetles, and flower beetles are also insect pest predators.

Lacewings have net-like, delicate wings, long antennae, and prominent eyes. They feed

on aphids, leafhoppers, scales, mites, and eggs of butterflies and moths.

Syrphid flies, or hover flies, are brightly colored, sometimes resembling bees. Adults can be seen feeding on flowers. The larvae, a tapered maggot, eats dozens of aphids a day.

Hunting wasps take their prey, whole or in pieces, back to their mud, soil, or paper nests to feed their young. The common polistes paper wasps can help control caterpillar pests.

Predatory mites eat plant-feeding spider mites. They’re larger and move faster than their prey.

Tachinid flies are parasitoids that look like common flies. Females lay eggs near the heads of caterpillars, beetles and bugs. The eggs hatch fast and the larvae tunnel into the host, feeding for a week or more before killing it.

Braconid and ichneumonid wasps include small species that attack small insects such as aphids and larger wasps that attack caterpillars or wood-boring beetles. Diamondback moth larvae parasitized by the wasp Diadegma

insularis appear as white fuzzy cocoons underneath cabbage leaves. The white cocoons of the parasitoid wasp Cotesia congregata are often attached to the outside of tomato hornworms.

One way to support beneficial insects is by providing pollen sources, which can be in ‘weedy areas’ where dandelions, wild carrot, and goldenrod are left to flower. In addition, try not to kill good bugs Avoid the use of broadspectrum insecticides.

For details about good bugs in the garden visit https://biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu.

momaneypainters.com

Dummerston Notable Events

3 Grace Cottage Hospital Fair Day.

Townshend Common, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Details at gracecottage.org/events

10 Historic Farmstead Stroll

Scott Farm, 11 a.m. Details at https://www.scottfarmvermont.com/upcoming-events-1

11 Dummerston Women’s Association (DWA): Discussion of viability.

Dummerston Church basement, 2 p.m.

Orchard Stroll

Scott Farm, 11 a.m. Details at https://www.scottfarmvermont.com/upcoming-events-1

14 Scott Farm Crepe Night—Brattleboro Concert Choir Benefit

5:30–7:30 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.scottfarmvermont. com/crepe-night

17 Family Woods Walk to Welcome New Residents

Dummerston School. 10 a.m. Organized by GROW SoVermont . Please RSVP at sovermont.com/newcomers-mixers

17 Peach Shortcake Supper

Evening Star Grange, 5–7 p.m. No reservations, take out available. 20 Town property taxes due by 5 p.m. 24

WDVFD Scramble Style Gold Tournament

Brattleboro Country Club, 11:30 a.m. Register by August 1 at wdvfdgolf@gmail.com

11 Scott Farm Crepe Night—Brattleboro Women’s Chorus Benefit

5:30–7:30 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.scottfarmvermont. com/crepe-night

14 Chicken Pie supper

Evening Star Grange, 5–7 p.m., No reservations, take out available.

30 Apple pie making begins

Dummerston Congregational Church 9 a.m.–noon, then 5 p.m.–8–9 p.m. through 10/10. 802-257-0544

13 WDFD Pancake Breakfast

Center Firehouse, 7–11 a.m.

1 Grange Annual Craft Fair and Luncheon

13

Evening Star Grange, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Dummerston Church Apple Pie Festival Congregational Church, 10 a.m. till sold out!

USEFUL STUFF To KNoW the CalenDar iS on page 17

Senior Lunches Evening Star Grange; Second & fourth Wednesday, noon. For Take out call: 802-254-1138. Leave name, phone number, number of meals desired, whether Eat In or Take Out. The Front Porch Forum: online at www.frontporchforum.com

Heating assistance: Fuel options listed on Dummerston Cares website. For assistance, call Cares Message Line at (802) 257-5800. Leave name and phone number to receive a callback.

Firewood: contact Charlie Richardson of the Dummerston Church Wood Pantry at (802) 254-6963.

NAMES & TIMES & NUMBERS

Community Center Randy Hickin 802-257-0784

Conservation Commission

Web site: www.dummerstonconservation.com

Dummerston Cares Message line & Fuel Assistance

802-257-5800, email: info@dummerstoncares.org, web site: www.dummerstoncares.org

Dummerston School 802-254-2733

Web site: dummerston.wsesu.org

Fire Chief Larry Pratt, 802-579-9494

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

Larry or Carol Lynch, 802-310-0799

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 Calendar: http://calendar.dummerston.org/ Local Interest: www.dummerston.com

PRSRT STD

U.S. Postage PAID

Mailed From Zip Code 05346

Permit No. 61

ELECTRONIC 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.