If your big fluffy dog is anything like my big fluffy dog, they love bounding outside into freshly fallen snow and catching snowballs that are tossed to them. While supervised play time is great, winter presents the hazard of long exposure to low temperatures, and that can be dangerous. Yes, your do...

Comedian Bob Marley, a native of Maine, has a bit (an oldie but a goodie) about all the nonsense his dad let him get away with as a kid. For example, he could take the entire roof off the house and his dad would just laugh and say, “Ha! It’s gonna suck if it snows.” His father – who named his son no...

Winter is here, and if your electricity goes out due to snow and ice, a generator can keep power flowing to your home or business. The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) , an international trade association representing manufacturers and suppliers of outdoor power equipment, small engines, bat...

Watching the first flowering bulbs appear from the thawing ground in spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Luckily we don’t have to wait all winter to have spring blooms. A great way to do this at home is by forcing bulbs. Forcing bulbs means tricking the plants into thinking it is time to...

The Millers Mills Community in the town of Columbia is again planning their annual Ice Harvest for Sunday, Feb. 13. As always, this event is subject to Mother Nature’s fickle ways. Both sufficient ice to cut and snow for sleighs to carry the ice are critical. The Millers Mills Grange sponsors the ev...

Some of my fondest memories of my grandfather involved a not-so-silent war he was involved in for years. It was Grandpa and the birds versus the scavenging squirrels. My grandpa loved passively birdwatching, seeing who would flit up to the bird feeder throughout the year, noting all the different co...

Forsythia in February? Impossible, you say! Not so. A vase full of flowers from the garden won’t take much more effort than harvesting some branches to force them to bloom. A good time to take cuttings for forcing is when you’re doing your annual winter pruning. If pruning isn’t on your winter to-do...

While rosemary is not a perennial in Vermont, you can still grow and enjoy fresh rosemary all year. Just plant it in a container. Bring it outside in warmer weather and inside before the first frost. Why rosemary? It is attractive, resembling a small pine tree, and has a pleasant scent, is easy to g...

Whether you’re planning to travel or not this weekend, safety should always come first. With that in mind, we share these winter driving safety tips from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Winter Driving Safety Driving safely in winter weather can be a challenge for even the most ex...

In addition to all of the photos being shared of happy families reuniting for Thanksgiving this year, my social media feeds were full of another kind of image. Across much of the Northeast, many of my friends received their first few inches of the white stuff. Some were filled with wintry glee at th...

For the most part, we’ve had a relatively warm October. Don’t let that lull you into a false sense of cozy security. Much colder temperatures are on the way, and with that comes the yearly game of chicken many of us play – how long can we realistically go before we have to turn on the furnace? If yo...