Perhaps not the most popular, but New World Music Festival in Randolph is well attended. Music from a variety of traditions with concerts and workshops. It’s a great experience if you’re into that type of music.

Ah thank you so much! I really appreciate it ☺️ What kind of car do you recommend to drive? I've seen a lot of Jeeps and Broncos lol or any 4x4

Looks like on the state website they still list the last section as incomplete. It likely is as I'm sure they'd be shouting from the rooftops if it were finished.

Anyone from Wolcott, Porttersville or Hardwick know if the trail is open for that last 7 miles?

Their progress is impressive. Last time I checked on the few gaps was early 2022 and it seemed like it would be several years out. I’m excited to finally ride the entire thing

Seems to be the general consensus for everywhere. Apply for a job somewhere thats desperate. Still have to jump thru hoops to get it then they wanna shove you in a position you didn't apply for for a still shit wage.

A tax that’s not a tax for the privilege of owning a dog. Any way the government can extort a few more bucks

All mental health orgs are underpaid for what the jobs are.

Special shout to Killington Cup during Thanksgiving Weekend

Unless you’re willing to bike seven miles back to Danville (which is uphill the whole way from St J) I think you are probably going to have to get an Airbnb unfortunately.

Thanks! Bummer - hopefully they keep all the food vendors and make it a scene again. But I get it - lots of work for mostly volunteers..

Its just going to be some ticketed concerts within venues this year. No more festival in the circle as far as im aware

Someone must have reported you, that's the only way you get a summons for that if you never have in the past.

Waking Windows music fest in Winooski VT (next to BVT). Although they said this year won't be as big/the same as previous years, so tbd.

The rail trail has it’s own facebook page started with lodging options. It’s kind of new but might be helpful?

Hey u/JaimeGordonLannister, I'm a local who has been watching this trail being built for about 6 years. We ride about 8 miles of it to work every day but on the other end from St J.

It is indeed open all the way, the last stretch was opened in February. That's kinda what we are celebrating along with the longest days of the year, and the end to another school year.

This is all about the biking, one century ride to St J and one century ride home to Franklin Co. No hiking or side trips, just pedaling, chatting, and smiling.

As serious as a case of rabies.

I appreciate your perspective. As a parent and guardian of a young adult in the system (different DA though, not Howard) how can we best advocate for employees’ needs? What would solve the lack of staffing?

Parents and self advocates have been pushing for the state to increase wages for these employees. The agency doesn’t get to set them. It’s a Medicaid thing. It absolutely sucks; these should be professional level paid positions.

I would suggest looking at HipCamp. While they do have a lot of camping spots (as the name suggests), a lot of hosts also have tiny houses, buses, cabins, yurts, etc. to stay in. Check out Danville and Craftsbury in particular -- I've stayed in those areas before and you can probably find something cute and farm-y that's not too far off the trail.

Since it sounds like the ride is flexible on time, you could consider taking it slow, doing two 50 mile days, and booking a cabin or something in the Morrisville area, too.

If you do end up doing this, I highly recommend hitting up Kingdom Table in St J for lunch or dinner, then heading out of town to lodging. If you like craft beer they always have a great selection from Northern VT, and they're owned and operated by a few locals.

I biked a lot of the LVRT last year, but at the end of the fall it wasn't quite finished yet -- a few bridges were still out of commission, and they were still surfacing a lot of the trail around Joe's Pond and Craftbury. Does anyone know if they've finished yet? The site is pretty light on updates.

Do Good Festival in Montpelier

Concerts on the Green @ Shelburne Museum

Thanks for posting. We have always gotten rescues and purchased our first golden puppy last year from a local breeder. He was expensive but we met the parents, received the paperwork with his pedigree and have since got together with his siblings all of whom are beautiful examples of the breed.

I cringe when people buy dogs off Craig’s list or from Amish farms who sell to anyone. We had to fill out two applications

and then we all went back to smoking cigarettes and

We wait for green up day for the free removal and internet points silly.

Fellow HC worker here. It's partly everything you're saying and more. I used to work on the crisis team, and I will tell you without a shred of doubt that both middle management HC leadership - with few exceptions - don't give a single shit about their ground-level workers. They forced their clinicians back to face-to-face assessments in the ER before vaccinations for the virus, and there is not enough space in those ER rooms to socially distance, putting their clinicians at medical risk. They enacted policies that continually made working conditions harder, and would not advocate for the members of the team, who were constantly asked by community members to do things above and beyond the responsibilities of those clinicians. And when the workers tried expressing concerns about how things were going, concerns were largely ignored and not addressed. When workers tried calling out the toxic leadership, individuals were prevented from being licensed or their work was twisted to look like they weren't doing enough.

And that doesn't even touch upon the absolute lack of specialized workflow and procedure training across numerous departments. Everyone gets one basic round of trainings, and then hope that they have fellow clinicians who care about their contributions enough to take them under their wing and show them the ropes. But even then, the agency continues to change policy on - at least - a monthly basis, adding more and more work onto workers' shoulders.

Howard Center has a toxic leadership culture, which is illustrated by their bad-faith negotiating tactics with HC workers' union. And unfortunately, because it's working out pretty well for those in leadership positions, there's not enough will for things to change at the agency. Those who could have become career community healthcare workers get burnt out by the treatment they receive and the lack of will to change things. "Well, that's just the way things are" is a refrain I've heard WAY too often. And - sadly - one of the reasons that I'm in the process of leaving. I wanted to stay at least ten years, but the conditions here are just anti-worker.

There are a quite a few school districts where teachers are working on Town Meeting Day. I know of when that has classes that day specifically so when voters go to town meeting they don't think teachers are slackers always getting days off.