Vermont Travel Notes

Fall Show
30th Annual Essex Fall Craft & Fine Art Show
October 29, 30 & 31, 2010
Champlain Valley Exposition
Essex Junction, VT

Named one of the top shows in the country by Sunshine Artist Magazine, the Essex Fall Craft and Fine Art Show has become one of the largest. The merchandise is good quality and many of the craft makers and artists are in attendance. It's great indoor entertainment on a blustery day. "The show not to miss."

Tip: there is a discount coupon on the show's website.

Also, please bring non-perishable food item for The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.

Free parking. Admission: $7 / $6 with discount coupon. Children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult.

On Sunday, a local radio station is sponsoring a garage sale at the same Champlain Valley Expo grounds. It's $3 to get in.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

The quilt auction website mentioned below says more than 75 quilts will be auctioned tomorrow (probably written months ago) but the word "more" understates it by a wide margin.

According to their Facebook page they now have 180 donated quilts for auction. Considering the amount of work that goes into making a quilt, that is an staggering number. It shows the great generosity you find around here.

I didn't see any information about payment methods but I imagine you can polish up the credit card and bring along the check book for back up.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Quilt Auction Saturday October 10

Vermont is a rural state and I suppose nothing says rural like quilts and tractors. If you would like to see to some of the local rural flavor, here are two good Vermont events you can attend, one featuring quilts and the other parading tractors.

Cabin Fever Quilts in Waitsfield Vt is sponsoring a benefit auction of 75 hand made quilts to raise funds for the local Food Bank, Humane Society, Battered Women's Shelter, and Seedbank for Haiti.

The auction will be held at the Waitsfield Elementary School with a preview 9:00 am and the auction at 11:00 am. The quilts are craft made in the local area.

You can see a slide show of some of the quilts to be auctioned here. But be warned, once you see them, you are going to want them!


Charlotte Tractor Parade October 10

Don't worry about the line through the date on the Charlotte Tractor Parade home page. It's just some html that's gone wacky. The event is still this Sunday, October 10.

Event time 11:00 am until 5:00 pm with the parade of well over 100 antique and modern tractors starting at at 1:00 pm. There will be a farmers' market, free children's games,
hayride, music, food, toy tractor display, and more. Specific information and directions are here.

By the way, if you stop and ask for directions to CHARlotte, you will get directions to North Carolina. If you ask for directions to CharLOTTE you will be directed to the village in Vermont. That's just how we roll here - French Canadian influence you know.

The weather forecast is sunny tomorrow but cool - bring a jacket and a camera for the fall foliage too.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Photo copyright Billings Farm and Museum

One of my favorite towns in Vermont is Woodstock and one of my favorite places in
Woodstock is the Billings Farm and Museum. In your travels around central Vermont,
Billings is one place I think should be at the top of your list of places to visit.

This coming weekend, October 9 and 10, Billings is hosting its annual Harvest Weekend.
Each day there will be an old time husking bee, barn dance, hand pressing
cider, preserving apples, making butter and ice cream, harvesting the heirloom
vegetable garden, "putting them up” for winter, shelling corn and beans, fence
building, Saturday rug hooking demonstration, apples-on-a-string, and 19th
century games. Hot-spiced cider and homemade doughnuts will be available.
Harvest Weekend is a Vermont Top Ten Fall Event as selected by the Vermont
Chamber of Commerce.

Billings Farm is a beautiful operating dairy farm with an excellent educational building.
It is open everyday until the end of October and then weekends November through February.
Admission is $12.00 for adults, $6.00 for children 5 to 15: $3.00 for children 3 to 4, and
2 & under are free. Billings is a great place to bring kids not only for this event
but also to see the educational exhibits plus horses, cows and sheep.

Billings is located just a little north of Woodstock VT at the intersection of
Route 12 and River Road. From Interstate highway 89, take exit 1 and go west on
Route 4 about ten miles to Woodstock.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

The 2nd Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival is being held at The Boyden Family Farm in Cambridge VT on Sunday, October 3, 2010.

There will be catapults and trebuchets in action throwing pumpkins hundreds of feet. Competition matches start at 1:00 in the afternoon.

Also, the American Chunker Air Cannon team from Merrimack, NH will be there early to launch its first public appearance. This incredible air cannon was recently completed after nearly a year's work and a $100,000 investment. The cannon has a barrel over 100 feet long and is expected to hurl a pumpkin nearly a mile. "Prepare yourself to be amazed at the latest and greatest in pumpkin smashing technology."

More information about this amazing device (big, expensive toy) is on the American Chunker website and their Facebook page.

To get to the Boyden Family Farm, you can plug this into your GPS: 44 Vermont Route 104, Cambridge, VT 05444

Or use this Google map.. The farm is Located in Cambridge at the intersection of Vermont Routes 15 & 104.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

... internal combustion engines.

Two big car shows are going on this weekend here in northern Vermont:
the British Invasion in Stowe and the Northeast Street Rods Nationals near
Burlington.

The British Invasion is open to any British made car or motorcycle from
old classics to modern cars. It's a concours event so you will see the best
original or restored vehicles - there's not a rust spot or dent in this
crowd. You can find the British Invasion at the Stowe Events Field on
Weeks Hill Road across the street from the Swimming Hole indoor pool.

The National Street Rod Association meet is being held
at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction VT.

I've been to both events and I am happy to report that they attract many
hundreds of cars and they're both top quality shows.

The weather forecast is for great weather so put the top down and drive
on over.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus