That's great you went ahead and got that done. My neighbor has propane, I'm going to talk to them about it

I don't make 80k. I wish I did. But you're right, it's all about smart choices and living below your means. Which I am struggling with now as well

Stones throw makes a good pie, and I like ramuntos as well for a quick slice and a beer.

Facts

No you don’t

Jay Peak has free magic carpets as well.

We used the GO Logic houses as inspiration when building our house in Central VT in 2017 (self design/build)- we’re not a truly passive house but have foot thick walls and 18 inches of insulation (all cellulose) in the roof. Southern facing windows, concrete floors for the heat mass and an air exchange system. Heat source is a Woodstock Soapstone hybrid wood stove. We use 1.5 cords of wood to comfortably (72f mostly) heat the house all winter and it stays cool in the summer.

depends how you're set up. ducted heat pumps can run down to sub-zero temps. When paired with a condensing gas furnace (LP or natural), the heat pump shuts off and switches to fossil fuel around 20 degrees, meaning heating above 20F is done by the heat pump which is incredibly efficient.

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you're probably thinking of electric resistance heating (like a giant toaster). Those aren't even allowed in VT anymore in commercial buildings under VT Energy Code (except VERY specific cases).

99's in the one and only Brattleboro

Middlebury snow bowl is another option. The magic carpet/bunny hill is free, so you’d only have to pay for rentals.

Cochran’s website states they are not doing rentals this year fyi if you’re looking to rent. I would suggest Smuggs, you can get a Morse Mtn only ticket for a pretty good price and that allows you to get on the magic carpet. Teaching a first timer to get on the carpet will be way easier and less tiring than a rope tow. You could spend a good part of a day just teaching someone to use the rope tow and tbar. I know because I grew up skiing at Hard’ack in St. Albans. If you’re looking for cheap, Hard’ack is the way to go since they run off donations of any amount (you don’t have to donate to go), you just need to have your own equipment, or rent else where. Hard’ack only has a tow rope though, but again it’s free.

These are very cool and I definitely support the innovations… But… this article definitely skews to the point of sounding like a commercial. Performance in optimum conditions may or may not predict performance in non optimal. How many days out of the last 10 have you seen the sun in VT? Just make sure you build redundancies into your designs… Don’t rely on heat pumps exclusively, don’t expect solar to always work, and if you need work done on your house, don’t expect most contractors in rural New England to know how to do it at the original designer intended.

First thing I did after buying this house in August was to ditch the oil tank and get a complete infrastructure replacement to go propane. Natural gas also not an option for me and neither were heat pumps because of the material and layout of the house (concrete walls on some and not an open floor plan) it was expensive costing around 13k but I knew I needed to get the oil tank our first thing. I've been paying around 200 a month each for propane and electricity

The library in Montpelier is so beautiful! It would be an amazing wedding venue if they do that sort of thing. I don't get down there often enough!

This keeps getting posted with different iterations. It’s dumb. We don’t have the population density needed to have trains. There is a reason the current amtrac trains struggle to expand service. No one uses them.

Trains need people. We don’t have that, there isn’t a viable business model where we build out a network at a cost of billions, to provide 40 people commuting from Burlington to montpelier or vice versa a rail line alternative to the FREE and often empty bus service.

I get that your grand theory is that you can reduce emissions by using a means of transit that can be fully electrified, and take cars off the road. But you would put out far more emissions building this than you would save with it.

All that said, rail is a cool way to travel. It’s just not practical

It’s been a long time since I had to worry about a heat pump. However, if I remember, heat pumps can only heat at certain temperatures. Once it gets below like 20 ( honestly can’t remember the cut off temp ), the emergency heat kicks in. That’s when your electric bill will go up considerably. Again, my knowledge is probably limited and out dated.

That’s what I was thinking. And the food is pretty good.

Both.

The only sketchy one was paying the bf for hours not worked. The others sound like stupid “I don’t know the rules” mistakes. The hours one though... everybody knows you don’t get paid when you don’t work.

At this level is doesn’t seem to rise to the level of 100 years behind bars, seems more like a slap on the wrist type crime than a go directly to jail crime,

I'm not sure your math here checks out. A house lasts a long time, and in colder climates, heat is a large cost of living. You'd have that sunk cost paid for in less than 10 years, after that it's all profit.

Not to mention, I'm sure, major added warmth and comfort!

I like how "people of color" are grouped together. LOL definitely not made by one

Cochran’s only does rentals if you take a lesson. It’s possible to request Barbara Ann. She teaches Sundays.

I would love to see the nightmare this would be in modern times if it was sim'd out in like Cities Skylines or something like it. VT looks perfect for rail for a reason, It built this state when it was the best option. My father and grandparents rode the rails for the last few decades of their use up here.

Others have pointed out some issues so i wont do more than touch on them in passing. It would def. take Elon or Bezo's kind of FU money to revitalize light/passenger rail in any effective way. It would also take a huge increase in population OR migration to make it viable $-wise. The infrastructure to move all those people doesnt stop at the railstation, they need last mile transport, hospitality services for a few hours or longer sometimes, and run-times that work for both white and blue collar workers.

TBH if starting from scratch id go underground straight from Newport to a split just north of Ben. and Brat. Id split off from that to the county seats and build out the second string infrastructure from there. Yeah.. prob looking..30B? and a whole lot of court actions,lol.

110 Grill is absolutely another chain place (and technically Ziggy's is too).

My aunt lives in one. But her house isn't a museum