some more links to other services: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/03W0znv7rmPjqXy8Ya3cSQ

YouTube Music https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mqzMpDQU1kdYKsYjYOmGY55plF_kjv3U0

Deezer https://www.deezer.com/album/214323542

Amazon https://music.amazon.com/albums/B08YW2X46N?do=play

Tidal https://listen.tidal.com/album/176947659

Bandcamp https://thebackgroundmusicians.bandcamp.com/album/hush-little-baby-lullabies-played-on-a-felt-piano

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You're right we should ignore government that directly changes our lives and consider it quaint. Thanks for the help bud.

There are good things and bad things. If your town doesn't vote via Australian ballot the next day and something important is being voted on at town meeting, a minority of the town can make a really big decision. Most towns are now just using town meeting as a place to discuss issues etc. now. Then again you have the crazies or the people who just want to complain. They can take up tons of time and unless you have a really good moderator, they can get out of hand. In my opinion, I think its a value tradition but holding the vote the next day gives everyone a chance to make their voice heard. It's also a great time to meet your neighbors! In this day and age that isn't always the way things are anymore.

a tribble!

Lol, I called it Price Club to my teenage daughter the other day and she had no idea what I was talking about. I felt old and I'm not even 40.

We have town meeting at night where I live.

Love your take

Try the NE corner of VT. Some nice towns with relatively affordable land and little / no zoning.

😕 I can't fathom the idea of slaughtering them. I wound up with one out of the 6 I got last spring and I've just been keeping him. I have 4 more coming for this season so that he will have enough hens and I am really realllllly hoping I just get the 4 hens I ordered.

My husband sent this to me asking if I was the poster (first town meeting day and just moved here from Virginia also!).

Our town has about 3200 residents. Only 62 showed up for the public portion. They’ve been trying to get everything on the ballot for years but the people who attend are older and like the tradition. Plus, the meeting is at 9am. I work during the day so couldn’t get to the polls until after hours like most. While I think having a town meeting day is a fun part of the rural community you still have to adapt and that’s where a lot of communities fall short.

A hunk of deer.

F Bomb the Effing card game! There's no swearing in it surprisingly, it's just implied.

Cannot compute… need banana

Also voting for the cone. My folks raised meat birds when we were kids and used the axe and stump method. When I raised my first batch last year and my dad helped with the processing, we used the cone (he made his own), and it was a much better method for us. We did about 40 roosters in one afternoon with help from friends and family for gutting and plucking and packing. Helpers got some processed birds to take home for themselves. We were very efficient.

Just a guess based on the apparent texture of the fur, but it looks like it could be a chunk of deer hide, minus the rest of the deer.

Something had a snack of...possum maybe?

It's fun but outdated. Mine was scheduled for the day of a snowstorm this year. It was still storming and as such the majority of the (mostly dirt) roads hadn't been cleared by the time it started. Only about 50 people were able to get there, and it was completely not representative of the town.

I think it’s the best system possible for our rural communities, and that those who take issue with the system and traditions have expectations and priorities that are in some ways incompatible with living in a rural area where every aspect of local government and services rely almost entirely on volunteer labor and continual community engagement.

If you can’t make it for a few hours once a year to debate/discuss issues, and don’t want to look your neighbor in the eye while you cast a vote that could be for example financially devastating to their interests or raise taxes to the point they can’t afford the land that’s been in their family for 6 generations, then you probably also aren’t volunteering on the local fire department, mowing the athletic fields or serving on any local boards to actually implement the issues you’re voting on.

Many of the people demanding a switch to ballots just want to swoop in, vote based on a superficial understanding of town business while applying a heavy lens of the national (un)civil discourse and pop culture and swoop out not unlike how our national political system works. That’s simply not workable for small town life. Those people lack even a basic understanding of local history or dynamics and additionally usually have no respect and often times hold significant contempt for the people who actually dedicate significant chunks of their lives into the town on a volunteer basis.

Go to town meeting. Be engaged enough to know what you’re even voting on. Join your local volunteer fire department or rescue squad and raise your kids in a way that they learn the necessary values and life skills to do the same. Volunteer to mow the cemetery and athletic fields. Push back vigorously against those who try to inject the national discourse into our small town way of life.

https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/005/00472b

In theory, the law protects the right of all non-essential employees to attend Town Meeting, as long as they provide 7 days notice.

In practice...well, honestly I'm not even sure many people are aware of this law. Willing to bet that lots of businesses would just declare all their scheduled employees to be "essential," but I also don't get the impression that there's an awareness of the ostensible legal protection here.

That blows, thank you for your service. I'm thankful I work for a Vermont focused place that gives us it off

I also work at a resort soooo yeah

Good write up! A few additional things could bring OP from 45 min to 10 or under. Instead of contractor bag use a plastic bin. The black ones they sell seasonally at Costco are perfect size. Toss the bird in there and skip the boil & just hand pluck. Have a garden hose at the ready too. Leather glove for plucking!!

Then fight your employer or the state to make it a recognized holiday. Don't take away a positive because your employer sucks.

Hatchet 🪓 and stump 🪵 … this is the way. For the occasional cull of roosters. High volume or meat birds for the cone. They go pretty limp when held upside down. The only way to get good is to practice OP. Cleaning birds is a good skill and it’s surprisingly fast. Some folks flash hot water for easier plucking or something like that. Just get a set of leather work gloves and go to town. Fiskars hatchets are very sharp and sharpen easily. You can do it!