By Lani Duke
updated
Wed, Dec 21, 2011 10:20 AM
Holiday decorations are scarcer
If you notice that fewer homes in the Lakes Region seem as
exuberant in their outdoor decorations, blame local vandals. Since
before Halloween, this strip of western Rutland County seems hard
hit by theft and destruction of yard ornaments. Boo, hiss, on the
thoughtless individuals who have put a damper on one of the more
charming elements of neighborhood cohesiveness.
Hubbardton Forge on PBS series
See your friends and neighbors on PBS when the channel shows a
10-episode segment of This Old House beginning in January. The
show's winter project is renovating a beach house in Rhode Island
which features 35 or more distinctive light fixtures made at the
Vermont plant.
Film crews are following the complete forging of the Brindille
Pendant, a composite of six hand-forged "twigs" augmented with hand
beading and sporting a white, square lamp cover
HDTV's Property Brokers also looks at Hubbardton Forge in an
episode and it has been featured by the Science Channel's How It's
Made.
GMC energy challenges
Green Mountain College professors Lucas Brown and Steve Letendre
are leading a student team in designing and building a
solar-powered recharging station to power up a plug-in vehicle. The
station would draw solar power into roof-mounted panels, creating a
heated space so that a plug-in vehicle inside will recharge more
efficiently.
The two-semester project/charging station, funded by a $50,000
grant from Constellation Energy's E2 Energy to Educate program, is
to house a Zap Truck, a three-wheeled all-electric two-passenger
vehicle that can be used as a flatbed, pickup or dump truck - all
small of course. It has a range of about 40 miles per day and 25
miles per charge.
Students in Professor Browns' environmental build and design course
recently completed an additional energy efficient project, an 8x14
foot transportable urban farm shed. The shed is designed simply
enough that a farmer can construct it and move it where it's needed
using a circular saw and a pick-up truck.
Framed with a hollow grid system, the Occupy Vacant Lots, or OVaL,
shed includes two greenhouse polygal back walls bearing 10 shelves
for seed germination, a butterfly roof, five terra cotta water
barrels for water collection, and a solar panel. Construction
materials are nothing trickier than 2x4 and 2x6 pieces. Material
cost was $4,285, including discounts from local shops and a donated
solar panel.
Proponents see the shed as an important element at what they
describe as a disconnected agricultural landscape, suitable for
urban farmers. Students demonstrated dismantling the shed in about
four hours, trucking it to a new site, and re-assembling it in
about five hours. Permanent installation is near the college tennis
courts, serving as a greenhouse and storage shed for the Champlain
Valley Native Plan Restoration Nursery.
Tagged:
Green Mountain College, lakes region, Lakes Region News
