There are major operations in Vermont that boil in late December. !!!!

Technology is the difference: Improvements in taps, tubing and the use of 24/7 vacuum means that tap holes don't close up like they used to, so they can tap trees early and leave them tapped, capturing on-and-off sap runs during increasingly erratic winter.

Until climate change drives the maple forests north, but that's still a few decades away.

havent' heard "tell them to piss up a rope" in a long time!

wonder where that phrase came from?

I believe you are correct about tax status. The idea is that New Hampshire is a better place for everybody if we can make use of it, so let's give a financial incentive to keep woodlands open to all.

Objectivisim and Libertarianism is just "everybody who isn't similar to me is bad so I'm justified in doing bad things to them" with pseudo-science trappings.

Hence the comparisons to fascism, despite different approaches to centralized authority.

I also live in S NH, for 30 years, and have noticed far fewer power failures in the past five years, so there's that.

I credit the person down the street on the same distribution line as me; they spent big bucks on a whole-house generation system. Power hasn't gone out since.

Thanks for the input. I will give it all the consideration that it deserves.

Yes they still charge you what is called the "delivery" charge, which covers poles and lines and meters, etc. The "energy" portion of the total bill is the cost of the actual electricity - that's the part you can get from other providers.

As you note, they still do the billing for both delivery and energy even if you're buying electricity from Direct Energy or somebody else.

Best Buy does a lot of electronics "recycling" - maybe that would work? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/services/recycling/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025

as I understand it, if Biden's plan goes through we might hold an earlier primary but it wouldn't count for delegates to the nominating convention.

hope your dog doesn't

Yes - it's very good.

https://www.nhpr.org/tags/stranglehold

If this gets confirmed by a source for publication it will be part of follow-up stories. That is certainly the rumor and frankly the supposition from many of us when we saw their ages.

I first read it at almost exactly that age - missed a lot of it but still loved it, and loved it more over the years. There's a copy in the next room.

He's a lucky kid, getting to encounter it for the first time!

As a parent it frustrated me too - all that work getting a nice costume together for the kids and then you had to cover it!

If I get 7 KWH today, this will be my best November ever! (but it's cloudy/rainy, so I'll probably fall short)

I think it's part of a general suspicion of government that has long been part of the story NH tells about itself.

The drawback is that basically all NH state politicians are constantly running for office. It's very hard for them to say "this good thing to do will piss off my supporters but it's I have time to convince people of that before the next election"

Yup. But it won't happen if we remain big on "local control", giving control to towns and cities where old people* show up and yell at the planning and zoning boards if they dare to allow anything other than what was built previously (single-family homes on big lots) to protect "neighborhood character" and the all-important resale value of their own house.

• i.e., my age group

It also makes you sympathetic to that Simpsons meme: Old Man Yells at Cloud

"Dammit cloud, you lowered my output!!"

Like many states (alas) we give development breaks to housing for people over 55, or over 62. That is an indirect tax on housing for younger people and families. Then we lament that they don't live here.

There's a gamification benefit after a while - you start cheering on each month to try and beat the same month in previous years.

Frequently checking the SolarEdge app on my phone ("woo-hoo - 5 KW right now!") is much less stress-inducing that killing time on social media.

This is the thinking of every rooftop solar person in New England I've ever talked to*: I'd love batteries but geeeez, the cost!

*including me

It's funny, everyone who is scared by change pretend that other people don't know where electricity comes from and don't know there are complications with the power grid.

Pro tip: Yes, they do. You can stop saying that now.