Happy Vermonters is a series of vignettes sharing why people call Vermont home. The series profiles a variety of people—from innkeepers, artists, and entrepreneurs to photographers, woodworkers, and community organizers—who live in every corner of the state, including Manchester, Newport, Burlington, Stowe, Waterbury, Norwich, and Brattleboro.
Bruce Batchelder was a child when his parents moved from Island Pond to the Champlain Islands. Vermont ice fishing is a big deal in the islands, where the land is flat and surrounded by Lake Champlain. For Batchelder, ice fishing has been an essential part......
03 March, 2022 2 Comments
Erica and Ed McClain are working toward their dreams one doughnut at a time. The couple runs Hangry The Donut Bar, a drop-off and pop-up doughnut business based in St. Albans that opened last year. “When I got out of high school, I thought I would......
13 March, 2021 2 Comments
Deep in the woods of Brandon Gap, Angus McCusker skis the backcountry and feels right at home. McCusker, a co-founder and executive director of the Rochester & Randolph Area Sports Trail Alliance (RASTA), skis over 100 days a year. Many of those days are spent in......
08 January, 2020 No comment
Kate McCabe’s love for maple sugaring began when she was a child growing up in New Hampshire. Her neighbors were hobby sugarmakers in the town of Moultonborough near Lake Winnipesaukee. Whenever the steam was billowing from the sugarhouse, nine-year-old Kate would walk over after school for a......
06 November, 2019 No comment
Mike Snyder is the go-to guy for Vermont fall foliage updates. As commissioner of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, Snyder is known as Vermont’s Chief Foliage Forecaster. He provides weekly foliage reports to the media and the state tourism office in September and October. Last week,......
25 September, 2019 No comment
Susan Shashok can be found pedaling her cargo e-bike around town delivering jars of Caroline’s Dream skin cream or tubes of lip balm to customers. Shashok, of East Middlebury, is the owner of Caroline’s Dream, a handcrafted skincare company she runs out of her home......
09 June, 2019 2 Comments
Charlie Emers never planned on becoming a baker. The owner of Patchwork Farm & Bakery in East Hardwick grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. After relocating to Vermont three decades ago, his career path took a circuitous route from lamp maker to vegetable farmer to bread......
24 April, 2019 13 Comments
Beth Kennett welcomed her first overnight guests to Liberty Hill Farm in 1984. Back then, hosting visitors was a way for Beth and her husband, Bob, to start to diversify their income as farmers. Ever since, families and couples from the Netherlands, Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico,......
01 September, 2018 No comment
Along a dirt road in Huntington next to Fargo Brook is where Todd Cummings lives, works and breathes inspiration. On his five-acre lot on East Street, where he shares a home with his wife and where the couple raised their two sons, it’s easy to......
12 July, 2018 No comment
Ana Fernandez came to Vermont on a whim last year when a friend told her about a job opening at Nebraska Knoll Sugar Farm in Stowe. The Michigan native is now spending her second season sugaring at the farm, spending her days (and nights) boiling sap, changing the......
29 March, 2018 No comment
Dave Moulton has seen a lot of changes in the ski industry over the past 30 years. In the 1980s, neon ski suits were all the rage, snowboarding was in its infancy, and terrain parks didn’t exist. “One of the biggest changes I’ve seen over......
26 January, 2018 No comment
“The small world component you find in Vermont works for me because I think it encourages you to diversify your life. I grew up in Norwich and lived in different parts of the country—Missouri, Boston, and New Jersey—and eventually returned here with my wife and......
17 July, 2017 No comment
Happy Vermont Winter Beanie Hat