Boule Bakery has great coffee and baked goods.

The fairbanks museum is pretty underwhelming if you are an adult. If you are 8 years old it is the best thing ever. So choose wisely.

I keep hearing people say Whirligig Brewing is very good, but I've never managed to be there when it is open.

Schilling Brewery in nearby Littleton NH has excellent European style beers that are rare to find in the US. Great views from their patio in good weather, and the food is good.

It's a lot cheaper to tear down the barn and build a house than retrofit. Like, probably 1.5 to 2x cheaper.

Yes, 14.2%:

https://www.washingtonelectric.coop/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-Rate-Increase-NOTICE-TO-WASHINGTON-ELECTRIC-CO.final_.2022.9.16.pdf

This will make my monthly charge $30.25 and my per kWh charge around $0.212 (Assuming ~500 kWh a month). And the marginal kWh (which is what is important for thinking about climate-aiding electrification) is $0.24150

WEC offers no electric vehicle rates, no climate friendly time of use rates, no powerwall incentives, and has had trouble recently keeping the lights on.

Oh, and if you want to get an electric car or heat pump right now? WEC says you can't because they cut corners on transformers and most of their customers are undersized.

Let's not even get into the weird/concerning details about how they actually sell their renewable energy credits from their coventry methane burning plant and buy shitty RECs that most other states wouldn't consider renewable... It's bordering on a scam.

When I first moved into WEC territory, I loved the idea of being part of a Cooperative. But the honest reality is that my neighbors 1/4 mile down the road get a much better deal and service from investor owned GMP.

I'd be in favor of the PUC forcing GMP to assume WEC. WEC has very little interest in doing the actual work needed to aid the fight against climate change. Instead preferring performative 70's style environmentalism. (they were enthusiastic campaigners against vermont yankee)

It is really sad, because it has never been a better time to be a progressive and creative electric utility. Electrification of home heating and transportation is an enormous opportunity to fight climate change and build a healthy demand for their product. But WEC is stuck in the past, and the PUC will let them get away with it time and time again.

Ask me how I really feel!

I've heard through the central vermont grapevine that the plan is to never hold the sale again. While I will really, really, miss it... I pretty much understand.

The last couple of years the sale was becoming a real zoo. Tons of locals, sure, but also massive numbers of online resellers buying thousands of dollars of socks and then putting them for sale online without disclosing their "seconds" nature. And then the brand suffers when consumers get a product that doesn't meet their expectations.

My socks bought at the sale 5 years ago are starting to wear through. Gotta decide if I'll break down and pay the $25 a pair retail or cheat on them with one of the online brands that are 80% cheaper.

Same.

Though if you are lazy enough, or the snow is early enough... it becomes a spring chore!

If it has been split, stacked, and under cover for more than 12 months and is good quality hardwood then I'd say $400 a cord delivered, $275 if they have to pick up and load.

This is assuming it's the standard 16" length. If it is some oddball custom length like 22"... you'll need to lower the price unless you get really lucky.

Wood is tremendously cheaper if you have a modern catalytic (or burn tube) stove and buy your wood in the spring (or ideally the previous spring) so you are using dry wood.

If you have an old 70's stove and are burning "seasoned" wood that you bought in September... you probably aren't saving much.

The difference is because the amount of BTUs (heat) that can be extracted from a chunk of wood depends on:

• How much moisture is in the wood. Fresh cut maple or birch could be as much as 45% water by weight. If you burn it when it is wet, you are expending an enormous amount of heat energy to boil off the water before the cellulose can be turned into heat. Dry (less than 20% moisture content) wood produces almost double the amount of heat.

• How efficient your stove is at turning burning wood into heat. This comes down to whether you have a modern stove that is built to combust the smoke or not. A modern stove can get up to twice the amount of heat from the same chunk of wood as an older stove.

Put these two variables together and that's how you get some people who burn 3 cords a winter and some people who burn 9 cords a winter. Obviously 3 cords is cheaper.