Vermont Travel Notes

I've written Vermont Travel Notes entries about Stephen Huneck's unique dog chapel in St. Johnsbury VT as well as his artwork and galleries around the state (the newest is in Stowe). His whimsical and sometimes touching artwork is very popular with dog owners all over the world. As a result, he has received publicity in a large number of places, the most recent being CNN and its website. The article is entitled "Doggy Disneyland draws animals, owners by the pack" and it's a good description of Stephen, his artwork, and his 175 acre farm with widely known dog chapel. It's quite a structure, requiring an expenditure of several hundred thousand dollars, and well worth a visit if you are a dog lover. From our inn, it is a little over a 45 minute drive to Dog Mountain..

Another great place to visit in the St. Johnsbury area is the Fairbanks Museum. I also recommend a drive north to Lake Willoughby and then over to the area around the town of Island Pond to do some moose spotting.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Vermont is a mecca for cheese lovers and there is even one farm where you can take cheese making classes. Lazy Lady Farm in Westfield Vermont is a small dairy farm with about 25 alpine goats they call "lazy ladies."

The farm holds cheese making classes during the winter. "The classes are for the curious and for the future cheese makers." To get more information and schedule a class, call Laini Fondiller at 802-744-6365 or laini@sover.net.

To learn more about cheese makers in Vermont, visit the Vermont Cheese Council website.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Travel to Vermont and you will see the dairy farms that are a large part of the state's image. But from time to time you'll see other animals too, some of them exotic breeds you would not expect.

There are a goodly number of sheep and goat farms now (mainly to support all the small cheese producers here), exotic bovines such as Scottish Highlander Cows that look like Musk-Ox cousins (there are usually some out at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe), buffalo and elk (they're being raised for restaurant consumption), miniature horses and donkeys, and I even know of a camel (it's on Route 2 a little south of Richmond VT, on the west side of the road).

I know of several places with Llamas and Alpacas but I did not know there were so many of them until I read the list of Alpaca farms in VT on the Sponsors page on the Northeast Alpaca Association's Fall Spectacular website.

The public is invited to the show being held at the Champlain Valley Expo this weekend, November 2, 3 and 4, 2007. About 100 Alpaca farms from all over the northeast will be displaying some 500 alpacas.

These are fascinating animals and you can learn more about them at Benefits of Alpacas page on the Log Cabin Farm website.

Alpacas originated in the Andes mountains of South America so it is a breed of animal very much at home in the mountains of the northeast but they adapt well to other environments as well. They are small, easily handled animals known for being intelligent, calm, and clean. They don't need a lot of land, they are disease resistant, and they produce a fiber as soft as cashmere that's also lighter, stronger and warmer than wool. The hair is just cut off them like shearing sheep wool, so the animals are not butchered.

You can even purchase an Alpaca there. "Coco," pictured above, can be yours for just $20,000 for example. Everybody in your neighborhood has a dog or a cat but you can set a new standard with an alpaca in the backyard! Besides Coco (who is owned by Alpacas of Easton ), there others for sale on Alpacas For Sale page on the Association's show website.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

There is always a wide range of things to see and do here in VT . . . but usually not this wide.

I got a chuckle of this and thought you might too. And just to give you an idea of the diversity of things to do in VT, here is a weird coupling: the sensuous and dramatic I Tango show and the Horace Greeley Writers Symposium both of which are this weekend.

The I Tango show is in Burlington and and the Horace Greeley Symposium is in Poultney VT. Greeley has a connection to VT because he was a printer's apprentice in Poultney. He is most often thought of as the man who said "Go west young man" and although he did write that in one of his editorials, he was actually the second newspaper writer to do so. A writer from a Terra Haute IN newspaper actually wrote that line first, about 14 years before Greeley did but it was Greeley with a large New York city readership who popularized the term.

Wikipedia has a brief biography of Greeley.

The Symposium is being held at Green Mountain College in the picturesque village of Poultney VT.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

This Saturday and Sunday, September 28and 29, Animal-Power Field Days is a two day trade fair and conference with panel discussions, vendor exhibits, field demonstrations of animal-powered farming and logging equipment, equipment auction, children's activities, music, food, and farmers market. See the website for a very good .pdf brochure with all the details.

The event is open to anyone, especially farmers, loggers, and landowners who want to learn more and network with others interested in using draft animals to help manage their lands. Discussions of "conservation, stewardship, small farms, healthy forests, and the roles they play in vital rural communities" will be included

Plus you get to see huge draft horses - always the best part for me.

It's being held at the Tunbridge World's Fairgrounds on Route 110 in the east central part of the state.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

The Philadelphia II Replica 1776 Gunboat

During the American Revolutionary War, Lake Champlain was the scene of much activity with the British moving soldiers and supplies southward from Canada to the fight in the Colonies. The Colonists thought it would be a good idea to stop them there and, as a result, there were some sea battles on Champlain as well as land battles at the British fort at Ticonderoga near the lake shore.

On the water, the rebels and the British used a variety of watercraft. The colonists employed the gunboat whose sole function was to be a platform for a cannon or two. These gunboats were simple affairs, just a bit more than a large raft and often built on the spot. A large, well armed ship could easily defeat one but when the gunboats were used in numbers and spread out, they could inflict serious damage on a larger and more powerful enemy ship.

Archaeologists and re-enactors from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum will launch this weekend a full-sized replica 1776 gunboat at the Falls Basin in Vergennes. The ceremony begins at 11:00 Saturday the 25th and the public will be invited aboard until mid afternoon. At that time the gunboat will proceed along Otter Creek to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Burlington. There will be viewing opportunities along Otter Creek.

The gunboat, named the Philadelphia II, will take part in Sunday's Rabble in Arms event, a reenactment of American Revolutionary War times. The museum's gunboat will take part in naval maneuvers and gunnery exercises.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor except the photo which is courtesy of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum