In my small town I’m an adopted elder Uncle of an extended family with five grandchildren, the oldest of whom is nine. One of the granddaughters has taken a particular shine to me and expresses it by kicking me in the shin. Usually as a greeting but sometimes as a spontaneous gesture of affection. One time last Summer she was kicking me repeatedly and I got tired of it so I unleashed the Ultimate Threat:
“If you don’t stop kicking me I’m going to grab you by the leg and dangle you upside down. Your skirt will fall down and everyone will see your panties and point and laugh.”
Her reply was:
“I’M NOT WEARING PANTIES!”
Fortunately her parents were there to witness the exchange.
Some of you may recall I live in an off-the-grid one-room log cabin. Power is supplied by six nearly 40 year old 25W solar panels. I started with eight panels but two broke last Winter. One can be fixed but water got into the other and it’s literally shattered. My cloudy day backup is a 1KW Honda generator. The rule for solar panel backup is to own a good generator that you run as little as possible.
During the Summer I occasionally realize I should start the little generator just to keep the juices flowing. So far this Winter, which started in October, I think the number of days I haven’t run the generator could be counted on one hand. In Northern Vermont there’s usually a cloudy stretch of a few weeks going into and coming out of Winter, but this Winter has been overcast and gloomy for months. It reminds me of Rochester, NY where I grew up. I moved to get away from that crap.
I attend meetings of my small town’s Historical Society which runs a small museum in the old fire station. The museum’s ancient fuel oil boiler has needed replacement for years. For the last year the discussion at Historical Society meetings has been more about the boiler than about history. The plan was to petition the Select Board to add to this year’s town budget an additional line item of $20K for a new heater. These additional line items are usually for smaller amounts for organizations like the Food Bank and the Village Beautification Committee and are almost always are approved by the voters. $20K is a big ask however.
At the last meeting the chairman reported an old town resident, who hasn’t lived in the town for 40 years, died and left the Historical Society a bequest large enough to replace the boiler several times over. The first check from the estate was already deposited and cleared. We were able to vote to accept a quote a heater installer prepared two months ago. Now we’re hoping the old boiler will hold out until Spring.
The Vermont State government continues to believe it can defy the laws of economics daily and twice on Sunday. As a result Vermont has the highest health insurance costs as a percentage of median income:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-health-insurance-as-a-share-of-median-income-by-u-s-state
Interestingly neighboring New Hampshire has the lowest health insurance costs.
And Vermont has the second highest K-12 spending per pupil (Alaska is highest):
https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics#vt
Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) believes the solution to the educational spending problem is school district consolidation. I’ve yet to come across a reason why this might be so.
Another of Vermont’s claims to dubious fame is it’s the home of The Honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I). I am personally so glad Bernie is in the Senate. If he wasn’t he’d run for Governor and win and then Vermont would be more totally screwed than it already is.
But all is not sourness and dark in the Green Mountain State. Vermont is still one of the better states for firearm freedom with Constitutional carry and without any licensing or registration. Vermont still produces the most (and best) maple syrup of all the states. And Vermont is the only state from which one can obtain a rare and coveted Glibertarian pin just by asking for it. I double dog dare you to prove it for yourself and join the legion of dozens of proud pin bearers. See the following for details:
Thanks!
Do you have a battery bank for your panels?
Two 12 volt 110AH AGM batteries hooked up in parallel. They’re nearly 10 years old and don’t store nearly as much as they used to. I credit a high frequency pulsed desulfator for their longevity but they really should be replaced.
If they are kept above freezing consider LiFePO4.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRF6HNLS/?th=1
Price per AH is better than lead acid with more cycles and longer life.
The above is the best rated cheap one I’ve come across. It has a proper battery management system and by design won’t charge below freezing. It will still output below freezing.
Alas, a lithium battery or battery bank isn’t a good fit for my cabin. My solar and generator charging voltages are a few tenths short of the specs for LiFePO4 and the batteries aren’t easily accessible. If something went tilt with a modern smart lithium battery and I had to press the reset button it would be a serious pain. My next battery bank is going to continue to be big and dumb, just like me.
Yeah, you will need a more modern charge controller.
Advantage there is the new ones will work with lead acid, but should convert more efficiently.
Thank you to the editor who fixed the pin link. I’m going to have to learn that trick someday.
I also grew up in Rochester and was just pondering on the differences between the weather there and Ithaca where I am now.
Much rougher winters but the summers were glorious.
My family went to the Lilac Festival a few times:
https://roclilacfest.com/
That was 50 years ago before all the commercialization.
Ha I don’t remember all of that either. Mostly just walking around and looking at bush.
I moved away in the late 80s.
Designs for the U.S. 2026 Semiquincentennial coinage have been released:
https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/semiquincentennial/
I particularly like the dime with the Liberty Cap obverse and the tall art deco font on the reverse.
Ooooooooo
A lot of them have clashing serif and sans-serif fonts. Hm. 🫤
I have always felt that US coinage is way too damn wordy. Multiple required slogans and now historical notes – sheesh. I love how some of the quarters got so talky they had to reduce the value to “25¢” – a practice you don’t see a lot here.
Use the edges, people.
Who is that supposed to be on the quarter? Washington? What have they done to his eyes?
The first of the 2026 quarters has Washington on the obverse. It’s the same design as the dollar coin:
https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coins-and-medals/collectible-coins/presidential-dollar-coins/george-washington
And I agree it’s horrendous.
In addition I disagree with putting other people on the obverse of the quarter, particularly Lincoln.
I noticed that & #metoo
I don’t like the designs and the number of quarters. The Bicentennial quarter, half and dollar were one and done each. Two of the three were linked to the Revolution (drummer and Independence Hall) and the third to the Apollo missions and the Liberty Bell.
These are just designed for seigniorage (Revenue or a profit taken from the minting of coins, usually the difference between the value of the base nasty metal used and the face value of the coin.)-or- collectors will buy them and immediately remove them from circulation.
It is nice getting FDR off the dime, and may he never return. The design is okay but too busy for that small of a coin.
Only two of the five quarters have anything to do with the Revolution. The Mayflower Compact is from 1620, the Constitution, while appropriate for coinage is post Revolution, and the Gettysburg Adress is off by “four score and seven years.” Plus using the obverses from two Presidential dollars is cheap Charley. Jefferson’s portrait is taken from the peace medals he gave to Lewis & Clark.
I have wondered whether fewer governments (consolidation) is better, or closer government (more of them) is better.
I used to support the latter but am more for the latter these days. Consolidation does not seem to have resulted in any of the promised efficiencies wherever I have seen it enacted. Only more overweening power.
gah
Reducing size and scope is the way. I don’t want efficiency, I want it to go away.
Historically Vermont had 251 school districts, one for each town, and education financing and execution was strictly a district-level affair. Then the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the fact there were wealthy and poor towns was unconstitutional so the state took over the educational property tax. All this did was enable the poor towns to spend like wealthy ones. Since then school district consolidation has been ratcheting forward every year.
Vermont has the population of the city of Detroit so the progressive’s goal of a single state-wide school district isn’t unimaginable from the management standpoint. The only way it might reduce expenses is if the state de-recognized the teacher’s union.
*snicker*
Do they basically control local – and increasingly, state – government the way they do in New York and every other state it seems?
I don’t think the Vermont teacher’s union has a huge influence in Montpelier but they certainly get out the vote when a town’s school budget has been defeated and up for a re-vote. I’ve seen cases when the resubmitted budget is larger than the defeated one because the supervisory union knows it’ll pass.
Maybe I’m just used to NY and especially NYC where the teachers are in complete control. What they say, goes.
The only rivals are the pubsec union and the healthcare union.
Then the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the fact there were wealthy and poor towns was unconstitutional so the state took over the educational property tax.
That played out in NH too.
Though we have school choice “stuff” now. The usual suspects always try to take over the Education Freedom Account program to do things like limit eligibility and require students to attend government run schools for a number of years before using the EFAs. NH also, I think starting next school year) allows students to attend whatever government run school in the state they want to, subject to space constraints.
Though property taxes still come up, and state funding constantly gets challenged in the state courts. The latest from the NH Supreme Court is that the state’s funding is unconstitutionally low, but the Court isn’t going to do anything about it. OK. That’s nice.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank The Powers That Be and our Regular Contributors for Being Powerful and Regularly Contributing. This forum is an oasis of sanity in a desert. I think I would be a different and less happy person without the Glibbining.
I agree.
Indeed.
Amen.
The times are crazier right now than I ever would have imagined. Snarking at it is much needed release.
Yes
Wholeheartedly agree. Thanks to TPTB, regular contributors, commenters and even lurkers.
I strongly concur. (We gotta work on RCBPRC, though. RC will get worried. Or it’ll float his ego. *ponders* )
It’s you guys that make this place.
So say we all!
Thanks for these, Richard. I enjoy your VT slice of life reports.
And Vermont is the only state from which one can obtain a rare and coveted Glibertarian pin just by asking for it.
I have one of these. I can say they are great. Thanks Richard!
Our own Fourscore is the Glib pin upper Midwest distribution agent. If you want a pin without the hassle of sending me an e-mail just go to Honey Harvest this year.
Note to self: Refresh before replying.
Richard, does your museum need some military (U.S.) uniforms.? 50 years ago I boxed up one set of each (dress blues, khaki, fatigues (BTUs now that the army has gone stylish).
I haven’t opened the box, the local museums don’t need them, I doubt if I’ll be called back to active duty.
The HH Glibs can vouch for the maple syrup, they all left last fall with a jug and a smile, thanks to your generosity. This year the old hands will show up with the authentic Glib pin, any newbies will be eating their heart out in jealousy. I think I still have 3 left though.
Usually about this time of the winter I begin to get cabin fever but so far winter it hasn’t been bad, cloudy and overcast but by Feb the sun will reappear. Not too cold, only a couple serious snowfalls but my Snowzilla can handle it. The wood furnace keeps us toasty. January 17th, on average, is mid winter, the average temps begin to slowly increase so we’re 1/2 way there.
I ordered bees today, we get them May 2nd this year
Oooh, I’d seen but forgotten you’d submitted something for us. I fondly recall some of your older subs. Much thought and banter usually ensued.
Your shin-bustin’ granddaughter reminds me of my 5yo nephew, by far the most like me of my three nephews. Sans the panties, or lack thereof. (Wait. He is pantyless, but meh. Sounds like his wheelhouse. Carry on.)
I’d forgotten about your log cabin and solar panels. How does that amount of power translate into understandable-to city-folk use? Likely incorrectly, I’m imagining a modern arrangement, using pretty much what ‘we’ use, but you don’t have as much of it. (Unless you live in a secret hanger in Secret Vermont. (Dope.)) Or is there more minimalism attached?
Vermont is one of maybe 14 states I haven’t been to. I *have* been to Maine, so we must’ve driven through VT or NH, though we did merely drive through.
I hadn’t thought of ‘otherwise Bernie’d be governor’ (strong?) possibility. I’d say the current setup is best for you, but he’d never get the soundbyte coverage he gets as Senator. I really dislike that fuckstick. Not so much him, but his Followers not knowing or ‘getting’ how he fucking honeymooned in *Soviet* Russia, has his dachas, and is obviously a tremendously successful Soviet American dressed in his Larry David affability. “No one needs to afford one Bernie.”
A 110Ah 12V battery has a capacity of 1320 Wh.
A college mini fridge runs 500 to 1000Wh a day.
So in good weather that will just run a small fridge.
He’s got two of those! I was thinking one.
I’d need to clear out some trees, buy the lot next to me and clear out those trees, I’ve got plans for that, and upgrade my PV array and battery bank to run a fridge. I’m down in the depths of the river valley and not the best PV site. My neighbors with the panty-less granddaughter have a camp way up on this hill which is the perfect PV site. I did an installation for them 10 years ago. It needs upgrading and a lithium battery and AIO charger/controller/inverter are awaiting installation.
People who’ve seen my cabin have described it as primitive “mountain man” living. I prefer to think of it as luxury camping. The solar panel array and battery bank are enough to power the big loads of a well pump, pressure pump, and, once a week, the little clothes washing machine. These are intermittent loads of about six amps each. Lights used to be a moderate load with the original CFLs but modern LEDs cut that in half.
The biggest thing that turns off women is the lack of a refrigerator.
Internet access is something that happened two years ago. A new cell tower went online and AT&T deigned to aim an antenna down the river valley so I’m now communicating via a cellular hotspot. The wireline service on my road, to which I’m not connected, has 30 year old technology DSL service. There’s no cable. Several of my neighbors have Starlink service but those terminals draw 100W or 8 amps and I can’t afford that kind of power.
My internet is DSL over the same copper wire from when they added telephone service in the 40s. But, it’s faster than the cell coverage I can get. Trees mess up my TV dish too much for me to consider that for internet service. With all the
graftgrants flowing over the last 5 years for rural highspeed they stored all the equipment at the boat landing on my road while they laid fiber in the area, but never actually laid it down my dead end road.Ooh, I recall your “luxury camping” term. That sounds lovely, in its own way, especially now internet’s been taken care of.
Your caveman life baffles and confuses me. I’m happy it works for you but holy hell I couldn’t do it.
I’m imagining operating a whole battery of appliances and broadband and heat and working online and watching cable at the same time and quailing at the thought of… not that.
CPRM: Every year the feds bestow upon Vermont millions of dollars to improve rural Internet access. And every year Vermont’s CUDs (Communication Union Districts) report how they’ve extended fiber to the most populous towns, those which already had gigabit cable. My road doesn’t even have cable.
rhywun: When I boast about my primitive living situation, the dream of progressives everywhere, but not for them, I always fail to mention that I have an office in town. It’s also pretty primitive with a heat pump that doesn’t work below +5F but it has the best cable Internet access that Comcast can provide.
I believe luxury camping is now glamping. Start filming your adventures and monetize on YouTube.
Proggies don’t have ‘offices.’ They have Affirmative Workzone Friendly Lifecycle Studios.
We’ve got manikins sporting uniforms from town residents who served in the two World Wars. It’s such a small town that most of the museum’s visitors related to most of the donors. I’m not a Vermont native but three Historical Society meetings ago I had occasion to mention my mother’s maiden name which is now rare but previously not-so-rare in my town. Two meetings ago the HS genealogist reported she’d hunted me down and showed how I was related to her and one of the town’s major families. The link was back five or six generations but I’m now considered family.
That was supposed to be a reply to Fourscore’s comment.
“We’ve got manikins sporting uniforms from town residents who served in the two World Wars”
Yeah, that seems to be the case everywhere
These are authentic VN War vintage but styles don’t change much and no one knows/cares.
Trying to muscle in on OMWC’s turf I see.
These were nice little vignettes. I hope to see more. I enjoyed your posts about your book as well.
I *really* need to write up the cemetery story. Yes, through no fault of my own other than being agreeable, I own a cemetery in which is buried a real-genuine Saint whose coffin was brought up into woods on my ATV. It was too topical and too familiar to make a chapter of “The Secret History of Vermont” however.
I would love to have a place like yours Richard. A tip of the monocle to you sir. The locations I would like to try are on a remote part of the Puget Sound, or remote Wyoming, or a small private inholding in a remote Arizona range.
I used your link to put in a Glib pin request.
I’ll mail one out tomorrow.
Please wait until 4Feb to mail it so I will be at the address when it arrives.
School district consolidation was sold as a cost savings here too. The results are larger districts, more management layers to manage the now larger district, far more spending, lower results, less accountability to parents or the public, so an abject failure for the original purported goal.
The embiggening of NYC in 1898 to include Brooklyn et al. was called the “Great Mistake” for similar reasons.
We never learn.
Yep. Some years ago my town’s and an adjacent town’s school districts were forceably merged. The towns HATE each other and the schools were fierce basketball rivals. I used to know personally my town’s school board members. Now I don’t even recognize the names of the school board members that are from my town. Sometimes I wonder if they even exist and the whole thing is a gaslighting. (Adjusts tin foil hat.)
In Ra-cha-cha all the amalgamations were of suburbs indistinguishable from one another like Gates-Chili or Rush-Henrietta. I have no idea of rivalries other than the City (where I grew up) versus every suburb.
GL: I think you were the one who mentioned watching Callan via some online service. If you have access to Britbox via Amazon, you might find The Sandbaggers of interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers
Ooo neat I love Cold War stuff.
@rhy: You may have been the one who implanted the idea: The only proper way to reboot Bond and 007 is to do a Cold War, taut espionage-y thriller. East Berlin/Germany would be fun and easily do-able, methinks.
Will agree, Sandbaggers is up to snuff.
The next Bond needs to be fat American guy; Jack Black’s next vehicle.
My town’s school (k-12) actually broke away from the district it was in with the bigger town 15 miles away in the early aughts. Went well until they went the UK route to tear down half the school and build a new fancy extension that tripled our taxes after it was put on the ballot for a 3rd time in a spring election.