Day started with an early fast hike up to Duxbury window (3.2 miles up and down . great way to start a day. )
Spent a good portion of the day workign to finish up a BETA project.. Lots of wires !
After work, DIane and I drove over to Bens for dinner with him. Rebar and Shosh. We had a yummy dinner.. Ben and Shosh had braugth exotic cheese, DIane ahad made roast veggies.. We sat outside until dinner. After dinner, Ben used a torch to scorch the top of a pumpkin pie.. never seen that !
After dinner ,, we all moved down tot he barn to brainstorm aroudn Bens project. . I hadnt been in that boar forr a while.. Ben had a very cool bowling pinball machine and a very loooooong skittles table .
Afterwards, we wnet downstairs to brainstorm about the project. Its not my project.. so I cant go into what it will be.. but its sure fun to think about !
Whatch this space.. I’ll tell you more about the project when its ok to do so
TOnight was a good time. It was the Fall meetign of the Vermont Academy of Sceince and Engineering (VASE). I’m a board member of VASE .
The meeting tonight began with a really great talk by my friend Prof Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, the Climatologist for the State of VT. She gave a fun and inspiring talk about the evolution of climate here in our state I was glad to see the lecture hall was packed for her talk
VASE members then all moved down the road to the Koch SPorts center for the rest of the meeting. Iw was really fun.. Board members were asked to mingle and sit at tables that had new members and other non board memebers. Diane and I sat down ar a dubn table.. Our freind Michael and Denise were at that same table. . After dinner, we began the offficial part of the program. Our Pres. Prof Grace introduced the board.. then my freind Micahel gave a really great talk on the state of VASE.. he did a a very nice job outlining what we’ve been doing in Outreach.. in particualr our VASE Small Equipment Grants, Hands on Science Grants and Mentoring grants.. Its an inspiring story that I’d never seen described.. and I’ve been running the program for nearly 9 years.s. I’m stepping down from that role in line with reducing the amount of Board work I’ve signed myself up for.. Luckily I’ve found a great successor in my good friend Silvie !
After Michael, we began the induction ceremony. This year we welcomed 8 new members, including our first set of brothers !
We then had a great talk by our VASE Teacher of the year.. which is one of our other big awards. THis years recipient was Mark Pendergrass of Mater Christi.. He talked about his teachign philosophy .. and things he did to kindle a love of sceince in his students. One thing he talked about was giving a talk on amino protiens totally in the style of Julia CHilds. If you dont know what that would look like.. CHeck this out !
I was eager to meet Mark and congratulate him.. it turns out that he was eager to meet me as well.. he’d been using some of my videos in his class for a couple of years.. I goota find a way to work with this guy !
This morning on our run we the first sines of snow in Jonesville.. It’s actually a bit late .. glad to see it. though
Our gardens are saying goodbye.. the season has turned.. remimminds me of my favorite johny mitchel song. “Urge for Going” .. this is a recording from 1966.. check out the cheesy intro to the show
Later.. after work, Rebar came over for soem help on his project for Ben.. Clay was there helping me with the Beta project.. so he got a chance to demonstrate his telescoping actuator
I have to note here that this ‘in between time”.. or ‘stick season’ .. can get pretty dark and sad for us.. We have the urge for goign.. so we’re planning a trip out west for the worst pats of Novemenr..
It’s been really nice having David, Linda and Willow here .. especially during this time of year.
Its been nice having a dog in the house again. We miss our girls so much.. but were not ready yet for more dogs.. we’re traveling so much to see the boys.
Aroudn10 we all drove down to Yates orchard in Monkton. Its on the way home for Linda and David.. and today is the last day that Yates is open. We had to have one more dreamy .. a hot cider donut covered with maple softserve. Yume
Today Yates had cans of a softdrink made here in VT. Its Carrot Silk Chilli.. It tastes like its name.. and I’m not so sure thats a good thing 🙂
We said goodbye to david, linda and willow… they drove south.. and we headed to north ferrisurgh to try out a enw trail. I dont remember the name of the trail.. but it starts with a long boardwalk over a amarsh.. THen does a really beautiful loop around a tall hill. on ann otherwise flat plane THere are soem great views there.. and theres a cool rock formation called the Oven.
THen we headed back hoe. I had a ton of work to do on a BETA project. We noticed when we got home that last nights hard frost fina;;y got the better of the giant elephant plants.. It was their time.
