From Springfield to Brattleboro - more than a simple jaunt but not quite a staycation.

Scenic Vermont Rt 5 offers delightful simple pleasures when driving for the hell of it South of Springfield, Vermont, Official Home of the Simpsons, and with the promise of all that is exotic in a city like Brattleboro, Vermont, waiting to entertain and delight, who could resist a motor excursion with camera in tow?

Stopping along the way one has a fine view of the full and slow Connecticut River, in Putney, Vermont.

In Brattleboro, Vermont, the San Francisco of the East Coast, the busy crowds of shoppers and tourists fill the hilly sidewalks, a veritable parade of fashion and style. One might ask, is there more than one individual in this crowd wearing a sensible cardigan, in the first week of July? The answer would have to be a resounding "Yes!", there is nothing quite like Nature's Own Air Conditioning!



Visit Vermont Today!


Have-a-Coffee-Why-Don't'cha?

Time to buy eggs again

And what a nice store to patronize, there is nothing like a dozen of fresh, real eggs, from one of the local farms here in Springfield, Vermont, Official Home of the Simpsons.

Pellet stoves - handsome and cozy alternatives to burning oil

Just a note to say what good service and delightful entertainment the Mt Vernon pellet stove has given.

The figures for last Winter's heating season were an eye-opener.
Burning hardwood pellets, the pellet stove saved way more than half the usual consumption of heating oil - (the pellets were by Lignetics, merely adequate, but this year our trusty heating contractor HB Plumbing and Heating advised us to use their selection, a much cleaner looking soft wood pellet from Canada).
The actual pellet stove of course is the late 2008 Mt. Vernon by Quadrafire, a peach of a machine to be sure, but with the expert installation and advise and follow-up and other benefits of buying, installing and servicing locally - in this case entirely through the heating experts at HB Plumbing and Heating - it has turned out to be a pleasure to operate and live with, and not just during the cold weather.
The generous proportions of the window and the attractive overall design of the Mt Vernon make a very dynamic and captivating display of Fire when in use, to be sure, but the machine is perfectly handsome just sitting there during the Summer, topped with a cat or a potted plant or some other table top arrangement.

If you are reading this post because you are considering the purchase of a pellet stove in the area of Springfield, Vermont, City of Lights and Official Home of the Simpsons, then it would behoove you to call Brian or any of the other capable people at HB Plumbing and Heating and ask them about the deal they have right now on one pre-owned late model Mt. Vernon pellet stove, that is probably a very good deal. Apparently it was only used for a few weeks, and it is ready to provide toasty service in a new home. It is offered at a discount, and of course the buyer would be well-advised to let the people at HB take care of the installation from start to finish, as they know what they are doing and they have very good experience with these complex but effective and esthetically pleasing electric appliances.

Update - a brief explanation of what it is to be a pellet stove, in Castillian, for a reader in Spain, who asked perhaps because his home heating bill has become a pain, on the plain, in Spain.

Me pregúnta un interlocutór hispanoparlante, que ¿que es lo que es un dicho "pellet stove"? Y para explicarlo en algo, doy aqui una explicación básica:
El pellet stove es un electrodoméstico de calefacción suplementál, en algunos casos principál, a base de un combustíble abastecido en forma de trozos uniformes de fuel natural, producidos principalmente de leña, pero tambien de otros productos de agricultura.
Es la forma de utilizar la leña para producir el combustíble, lo que le da el nombre a la calentadora de "pellet stove".
Esto es porque lo que en un principio es leña, ha de convertírse en pedacíllos uniformes, para poder ser parte de un systema muy controlado de dar fuego. La lenya puede ser cualquiera, limpia claro, pero la hacen serrín y de serrín le hacen una tira comprimida con forma de lapiz, a base de una maquinota en un taller. Entonces, al salir de la maquina rompe naturalmente - en trozos de uno a dos centímetros de largo nada mas, perfectos para abastecer la tolva y de alli la hoguera.
Estos trozos, los mismos pellets, ya llegados al hogar y llenados en la tolva del pellet stove, van entrando en el area de combustión de la maquina, donde siempre hay un cristal para ver la hoguera - hoguera pequeña pero divertida, y mucho mas potente de lo que se presenta, Esto porque el electrodomestico esta hecho de tal forma de que extrae tanto calor de la combustión y la tira al hogar tan efectívamente, que lo que es el humo que sale afuera tiene apenas suficiente calor para poderse volar y escapar.
Para controlar la combustión de combustíble, hay pellet stoves diseñados con un ordenador propio para mejor mantener y utilizar el aparato, otros simplemente usan un termostáto u otro sistema sencillo.
Siendo aparatos electronicos, y siendo hogueras a leña, precísan cierto nivel de mantenimiento, facil de aprender.
Casi mas importante es el diseño y la instalación del electrodomestico, y por eso es imprescindible, al buscar y comprar un pellet stove, de hacer el tramite en todo caso através de un proveedór de servicios de calefacción, ubicado en el area, y muy conocido.
Entonces, el comprador hace bien enterarse de los miles de productos llamados Pellet Stoves, atención a las marcas que prefiere el profesional de calefacción escogido, pero también atención a lo que es un pellet stove en sus diferentes aspectos, para mejor entender la compra.
Se ve que cuanto mas caro el aparato, mas exigente es de instalación y mantenimiento, y mas hay para fallar y reparar, pero tampoco vale bien comprar un pellet stove primitivo. Lo mejor es buscar un pellet stove con un conjunto de puntos de control suficientes como para no enrabiarse durante un Invierno frio. La compañia www.quadrafire.com tiene una linea de pellet stoves con buena fama. Igual la compañia New Englander, conocida por pellet stoves mas sencillos o economicos.
Se dice mucho de que es preferible nunca usar como el combustible ni maiz, trigo, ni otras semillas o cascaras de nueces u otros residuos agricolas (como de las piedras de cerezas, almendras, y melocotón), apesar de ser todos muy populares como combustibles en pellet stoves diseñados para acceptar tanta variedad de combustible - todos preparados para forma trozos semejantes a los pellets ordinarios.
Esto se dice porque los demás pellets, ninguna de ellos de leña de alguna clase, son muy sucios al quemar, y requieren mas mantenimiento del pellet stove.
Entre lo que es el pellet normal de leña, hay simplemente dos clases, hechas ó de leña tipo softwood, ó de hardwood.
El pellet tipo softwood es preferido porque es el que mas energia rinde con menos ceniza, y au.
www.hearth.com es un foro de conversaciónes activas con temas incluso de muchos aspectos de calefacción alternatíva y a base de leñas y otros combustibles no petroleos, la conversación es a base de en inglés, pero lleva mucha información útil.

New Mac! - Fancy News!

It's a Mac!

The new Mac has arrived at Center of Operations, www.springfieldvermont.org - this, despite the best efforts of fedex to spoil the moment.

Kudos to Apple - at the first sign of a wrinkle not only did they get on the horn and make the system work, but they even credited back a friendly $um. The Mac is hard at work even now, yes here in Springfield, Vermont, USA, Official Home of the Simpsons - promising to enable for many, many years to come.

Por fín, y gracias a la casa Apple y a la Mágia, ha llegado el ordenador Mac nuevo, llega apesár del mal servicio de fedex. Se habla mucho de lo que paréce un ordenador Mac tener un precio elevado, en comparación a lo que es un ordenadór sub-normál. Pero hay que ver, que con las garantías que lleva cada instrumento de la casa Apple - Mac, con sus inumerables detalles supérbas, con la calculación del bajo costo de tener-lo durante los muchos años que durará, es una ganga, una ganga nivél mundiál.

Quien compre barato, compra dos veces, y quien compra un Mac, compra una vez.

Springfield Vermont holds the Annual Alumni Week Parade Day! - Fancy News

Springfield Vermont, Official Home of the Simpsons, held the exciting annual Alumni Week Parade today, everyone attended! ...

Bongo was most pleased to see the wonderful reception given to the returning Alumni

The Apple Blossom Queen and her Court of Honor attended, riding in a sporty late twentieth century two door Cadillac


There were tailgate parties galore lining the parade route

Hill's Band Wagon serenaded the crowd

Jolly clowns were in good form

The alumni marched along briskly and with a jaunty manner

A fine dragon made a welcome appearance, spreading luck among the assembled revelers


The Class of 1989 was as cuddly as ever




There was no lack of fine false mustachios





Local celebrities graced the event with a modest presence, so as not to outshine the Shriners


The Shriners
Local Fire Departments took the opportunity to display life saving technology from the past

Blonds had great fun

Platinum Blond Bongo maintained a justified aloofness throughout, holding court on the corner


Here we see a Mighty Fine Bulldog and his friends anxiously awaiting the festivities, in a prime location, where they are sure to get a perfect view of Bongo the Goat and his entourage


Here are Weathersfield Bow's Famous Eastman's Farm BBQ kings, doing a magnificent job of creating a delicious offering for the hungry crowds of revelers, the great wafting clouds of savory smoke bekoning all to the feast ...

Tune in later for more pics, the poster must get to Mt. Ephraim Farm, in Springfield, Vermont, for more of their famous fresh eggs before it gets too dark!

Truck Creams Freshly Erected Light Post, Frankenstein Bleating Continues Unabated - Fancy News

This morning a trailer truck driver misjudged distances and took an ill-fated turn 'round a prominent downtown corner with a crisp and dramatic movement. The incident was witnessed by one citizen who happened to be standing right there on the sidewalk, innocently smoking a tobacco cigarette and watching the morning parade of automobiles and pedestrians - she volunteered that she happened to be watching the truck approach, and as a person not unfamiliar with the management of a moving tractor trailer rig she continued to watch with amazement growing into horror as she realized that the physics of speed and direction were going to lead to a bad result, and as her eyes bugged at the unfolding scenario the impact occured, producing an incredible physical shock and loud noise that made her start to the point that she completely lost track of her refreshing pause and found completely interrupted her morning wa.


The driver and his rig had neatly clipped one of the recycled 1970's era light poles that fill the main intersection in the center of Springfield, Vermont, City of Lights and Official Home of the Simpsons, and flipped it, sending it's base flying smartly several feet towards the Comptu Falls, missing the witness and the corner storefront window by about eleven degrees of arc, and causing the upper lamp to come to rest on the roof of the unfortunately misdirected trailer.


How it is that such an accident hasn't happened before or more often, and how it is that on this occasion the damage was confined to just one light post among the gathering of different utility poles on each of the four corners, is a question that will challenge great minds for years and years to come, but the fact is that no one was injured (beyond the wicked start suffered by the witness and the embarrassment suffered by Alex, the driver), and not one of the fine modern traffic lights was damaged.


Most significantly, the odious and mindlessly repetetive bleating of the taunting audio "alert", (designed to confuse/entrap the blind and drive mad the local office workers and nearby residents), didn't miss a single mindless beat, beat, beat.


When asked, the driver offered, with a truely charming Canadian accent redolent of the North Woods of Further Canuckia, that he had been driving rigs for about a year now. He also offered that he felt shock, consternation and dismay to think that the town of Springfield, Vermont, City of Lights and Official Home of the Simpsons, had posted woefully inadequate signage that attempted to apprise drivers of road conditions in town, signage thoroughly ambiguous in it's directions to truck drivers and confusing to anyone not familiar with the thinking behind it, and he felt he should have never been led to such a close intersection.



Perhaps it is just as well that the unfortunate driver didn't have to also struggle through the horrid little flyer inflicted on the citizens announcing a meeting to explain the traffic changes, handed out last week at the last minute by the local Chamber of Commerce (who said "dead wood and old logs"?), a flyer that appeared to have been composed as an afterthought, and which certainly was printed and distributed without even the most basic cursory editing (this flyer was too unprofessionally produced to bear a second read, or to even preserve at all, and it is not reproduced here out of respect for literate people everywhere).

Springtime is for Horses in Springfield Vermont

Risha is out and about, enjoying the by-ways of the Official Home of the Simpsons. Here he is, taking the air in a brisk promenade along a wooded road in sunny downtown Springfield, Vermont, along with a friend who is more than pleased and proud with Risha's descretion in dealing with motor cars in this, his first outing in harness.
Este caballete se llama Risha. Aqui lo vemos paseando con su amiga, por una de las vias publicas de Springfield, Vermont, en lo que ha sido un dia perfecto de Primavera. La amiga queda pero muy orgullosa al ver que Risha mantiene su confianza ante los automóviles en esta, su primera vez llevando un traje con adornos y arreglos tan complicados.
[The brand spankin' new Official www.springfieldvermont.org Mac will arrive next week from Blessed Cupertino, California, a process neatly expedited by "A" in clever and mysterious ways that are a delight to behold in operation. Meanwhile, the original Official www.springfieldvermont.org Mac hovers between two worlds, and during today's episode of lucidity it has been possible to uncover some recent data and actually make this post.]