Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Final Countdown?
Ioka future unclear: The Ioka Theater, an Exeter landmark, will close its doors after a final showing of the Nutcracker on Dec. 24, at 7 p.m. An open house and celebration of the theater will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. with a showing of "Miracle on 34th Street." President Roger Detzler said the future of the theater is unknown. He said he hopes an entity will come forward with a goal of continuing the theater as an arts venue by the end of January.
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NOV 28-DEC 2O AND 24 | 'THE NUTCRACKER' THE FILM, showing Saturdays at 2 p.m. Nov. 28 through Dec. 20 with special Christmas Eve presentation at 7 p.m., $15, possibly last chance to see a film at the Ioka, Water Street, Exeter, www.iokatheater.com.
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Facebook group forms to support saving Exeter's Ioka Theater
A group has come together on the Internet to save a precious Exeter landmark, the Ioka Theater.
A Facebook group spearheaded by Selectman Joe Pace was started to examine ways of saving the Ioka, which recently announced its closing on Dec. 24 after 93 years. What began with a few friends has grown to 300 since late last week.
"On Friday (Nov. 28), I sort of said it would be a shame for the Ioka to go away and become vacant or turn into apartments," Pace said. "It's such a historic landmark and an integral piece of the downtown. It would be a shame. So I started to reach out to friends of mine using the outstanding technology of online networking and this conversation started taking off." (More...)
On Facebook. Join the group.
Crotched Mountain, Main Event, Dec. '08
So, in the past 10 days, we have had the worst ice storm with well over a .25 million people without power (some still without), and two snow storms (one that's just winding down and we are bracing for another one tomorrow. So what d New Englanders do? The get out and play!! :D
New England, Love it or Leave it!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Slipping Away
Slipping Away, originally uploaded by C0N6R355. This was a rather wierd scene we'd come across a couple of times - the ice that had frozen to a sign overnight would melt come morning and slide off. This is taken right outside of my high school.
(for Chelzilla) Please view large on white.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Old toll bridge
Old toll bridge, originally uploaded by MemaNH. This spans the Connecticut River between Charlestown, NH and Springfield, VT. It ceased to be a toll bridge in 2001.
The first Cheshire Bridge, completed in 1806, was a wooden covered bridge established according to a ferry charter granted by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1772. All who crossed it paid a toll. Four-wheeled carriages were charged 25 cents, a horse and a rider six cents and pedestrians one cent.
In 1896, the Springfield Electric Railway Company purchased the Cheshire Toll Bridge and the ferry charter for $8,400. The wooden bridge was replaced with a steel truss structure which cost the company $225,000. The current Cheshire Toll Bridge was built in 1930 and completely rehabilitated in 1992 following its purchase by the State of New Hampshire.
Approximately 4,000 vehicles a day cross the Cheshire Bridge. In fiscal year 2000, tolls and user fees on the bridge generated $495,823 in income. The toll rate for a two-axle vehicle has been 35 cents.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Chipmunks!
Okay, so some of you caught me publishing a photo in my sleep. Or perhaps it was because I was in Maine yesterday that I got confused. In any case, I hope this little guy will help you smile and say Thank You for keeping me on track. :)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
From the Summit
Scenes from the Summit 1, originally uploaded by dmalantic.Summit of Mount Washington, Sargent's Purchase, NH
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
USS Albacore
USS Albacore, originally uploaded by erik.swenson. the USS Albacore, making steam against the rising tide of weeds
USS Albacore
Welcome Aboard — USS Albacore (AGSS-569)
The third Navy vessel to bear the name, the Auxiliary General Submarine (AGSS) Albacore holds a place in history as the first Navy-designed vessel with a true underwater hull of cylindrical shape that has become the standard for today's submarines worldwide.
Designed, built and maintained by the skilled engineers and craftsmen of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Albacore served as a sea-going test platform from 1953 to 1972. Albacore's teardrop-shaped hull was the prototype for the Navy's nuclear powered submarine force and was the first boat built specifically to operate underwater. Prior to Albacore, submarines had been characterized as surface vessels that could submerge. With her revolutionary hull design and state-of-the-art systems, Albacore provided the Navy with an engineering platform to evaluate systems and design features before including them in future classes of submarine. Her motto was Praenuntius Futuri (Forerunner of the Future) and her mission was experimental.
Commissioned in December of 1953, Albacore was only 2/3rds the length of a World War II Fleet Boat and, when outfitted with her special high capacity silver-zinc battery, could out run a contemporary nuclear submarine. In 1966, she set the record as the world's fastest submarine having attained an underwater speed of nearly 40 miles per hour.
Used for testing control and propulsion systems, sonar equipment, dive brakes, escape mechanisms, and various innovative theories and equipment, Albacore was truly a unique Navy floating laboratory.
In September of 1972, Albacore was decommissioned and placed in reserve at the Inactive Ship Facility in Philadelphia. Ten years later, Portsmouth City Councilman Bill Keefe began an effort to return Albacore to her place of birth as a permanent display. It took two years, lots of paperwork and committee meetings before Albacore was towed from Philadelphia to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In May of 1985, Albacore was maneuvered through a dismantled railroad bridge and a cutout section of four lane highway toward her final resting place. It took nearly six months and a system of locks before she finally was settled on a concrete cradle at Albacore Park.
Your tour of Albacore begins outside the entrance to the museum. There are a series of five outdoor podiums and panels with push buttons that are part of a self-guided audio tour. An additional eleven audio sites continue the tour inside Albacore. The narratives relate not only interesting facts about the boat but also include comments by former crew members of incidents that occurred while they were on board.
Albacore provides a unique opportunity to see where a crew of 55 worked and lived. You will see some of the unusual features of this prototype submarine and hear some of the experiences of her crew.
For information on how to get to Albacore Park, hours of operation and tour charges, please check the Visitor Center section.
Find out more information...
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Leaf blower
Leaf blower, originally uploaded by NorthIsUp. No time to properly compose this one, but I liked the look of the leaves in the old car's wake.
Joppa Hill Road, Bedford, NH.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
YES WE DID!
President Elect Barack Obama
Obama tops McCain in NH
By HOLLY RAMER – 15 hours ago
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The state that gave Barack Obama his first primary setback supported him when it counted Tuesday.
The Illinois Democrat defeated John McCain to claim New Hampshire's four electoral votes. The call was based on an analysis of voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International and early vote returns.
Also, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen ousted Republican Sen. John Sununu in a bitter rematch of their 2002 race. Shaheen is the first Democrat elected to the Senate from New Hampshire in 33 years.
And Democratic Gov. John Lynch won a third term in a landslide, beating GOP state Sen. Joe Kenney.
Though Obama had held a solid lead in polls heading into Election Day, he had cautioned his supporters not to get cocky, given that he lost the primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton back in January under similar circumstances.
But this time, his organizational advantage and the Democratic Party's growing strength in New Hampshire propelled him to victory.
"I think he'll do a great deal to restore our reputation in the world," said Democrat Alasdair Drysdale, 58, a professor from Portsmouth. "He's got the best temperament, the right temperament. I like his energy, his intellect and his fundamental decency."
For McCain, who had campaigned heavily in New Hampshire, it was his first loss in a state that twice had launched him toward the GOP nomination. He won an upset victory here last winter in the Republican primary after his campaign had been all but declared dead.
An AP exit poll showed Obama scored high among moderates and independents in New Hampshire, with close to two-thirds in each group pushing him to victory.
The exit poll showed Obama also won voters who had strong worries about the nation's economy and a desire to elect a president who could bring about change and reflect their values. Obama and McCain held ground among their party's political bases.
In the Senate race, Sununu had portrayed the former governor as a "taxing machine"; she depicted him as President Bush's equally evil twin.
Six years ago, when Bush was still popular, Sununu defeated Shaheen by 4 percentage points. This time, Shaheen had the twin advantages of Obama's coattails and a demographic shift that has helped the Democrats. A study by the University of New Hampshire estimated that one-quarter of the electorate has changed since 2002, with young voters and newcomers to the state more likely to identify themselves as Democrats.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Last Waltz for McCain in New Hampshire?
November 2nd, 2008
Last Waltz for McCain in New Hampshire?
Posted by: Andy Sullivan
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — On Sunday night, John McCain returned to where it all began.
The Republican presidential candidate flew to New Hampshire for one last question-and-answer session with the voters who put him on the map in 2000 and brought his campaign back from the dead in January of this year.
“I come to the people of New Hampshire … and ask again to let me go on one more mission,” McCain said at the Peterborough town hall.
Peterborough has a special significance for McCain. It hosted his last town hall meeting in 2000, when he won the Republican primary over frontrunner George W. Bush. Peterborough also hosted McCain’s 100th town hall gathering last year, at a time when his campaign was out of cash and on the rocks.
“There was a time not that long ago that I was riding on a well known airline, Group C in the middle seat, from Baltimore to Manchester, so we’ve come a long way thanks to you,” he said, referring to a period when he would fly on discount Southwest Airlines to get to campaign events.
Now McCain has two private jets to carry around his entourage.
The question-and-answer session had a more casual feel from the amped-up, tightly scripted rallies that dominate his schedule in the campaign’s final stretch. No teleprompters were in sight as the Arizona senator fielded questions from an enthusiastic crowd on immigration, student loans and energy.
McCain was joined by a posse of senators – Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Judd Gregg and John Sununu of New Hampshire, Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Sam Brownback of Kansas — but was introduced by Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, a demigod of sorts in Sox-crazed New England.
New Hampshire may have rescuscitated McCain’s career twice before, but it might not help him on Tuesday. The former Republican stronghold has been trending Democratic in recent years, and polls show McCain trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama by an average of 11 percentage points.
Tellingly, senior aide Charlie Black didn’t mention New Hampshire as he sketched out a possible victory scenario to reporters on the plane earlier in the day.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wilton's Way to Count Votes Holds Up
Article published Oct 31, 2008
Wilton's way to count votes holds up
By STACY MILBOUER Staff Writer
WILTON – Come Election Day, poll workers in town will be sitting down on the job. Literally.
Sitting on votes is this town's way of preventing a miscount, and it's such an unusual method that it has been included in a documentary film being screened Sunday at the Wilton Town Hall Theater. That's upstairs from where ballots will be counted, and sat upon, this Tuesday.
The film is "Holler Back: (Not) Voting in an American Town." It explores why more people, especially young people, don't vote. It will be shown Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
"Holler Back," made by New York director Lulu Fries'dat, won the award for best documentary at this year's Sunscreen Film Festival in Florida.
Fries'dat came to Wilton and Lyndeborough during the election of 2004 to show towns that still hand-count votes.
All 322 voting precincts in New Hampshire use paper ballots. According to the secretary of state's office, 176 count them with AccuVote optical scanner machines while the rest – mostly smaller towns, including Wilton, Lyndeborough and Mont Vernon – count them by hand.
Fries'dat was particularly taken with the way Wilton has chosen to avoid miscounts.
The counting process goes like this, said Town Moderator William Keefe.
After people vote, they fold their ballot and hand it to the moderator, who puts it in a locked voting box. When the polls close, the ballots are removed and counted, then handed out to teams of four residents who sit at one table, two on one side and two on another.
Keefe expects a very high turnout Tuesday, possibly 2,500 of the town's 2,900 registered voters. He said he hopes to have six or eight teams, which ideally will have a mix of Democrats and Republicans.
The groups work off a tally sheet.
The first person reads the name of the candidate who was voted for, the second person watches to ensure the correct name is read out, then the ballot is handed across the table and the third person makes a mark on the tally sheet while the fourth person watches to see that the correct spot is marked.
The counted ballots are stacked in bundles of 25 and then, to make sure they're not counted again, someone sits on the stack – or puts a rubber band around them with a sticky note that says the bundle has been counted.
"It's primitive," said Keefe, "but it's effective."
Dennis Markaverich, owner of the Wilton Town Hall Theater, has been a counter/sitter in the past. He is shown in the film explaining this unusual practice.
The movie theater is upstairs from where voting takes place, so he decided to stay closed on the night of the election.
"If there are still lines when the polls are closed, I want there to be enough room for voters to park," said Markaverich. "Also I'd expect that people would want to run home and watch the returns and not want to spend the night at the movies."
The screening is sponsored by Women Making a Difference, a New Hampshire-based advocacy group.
For folks who can't wait until Sunday to see politically themed movies, the Town Hall Theater will be showing Frank Capra's classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. as part of its free vintage film program.
Stacy Milbouer can be reached at smilbouer@nashuatelegraph.com.
© 2007, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire
Wilton's way to count votes holds up
By STACY MILBOUER Staff Writer
WILTON – Come Election Day, poll workers in town will be sitting down on the job. Literally.
Sitting on votes is this town's way of preventing a miscount, and it's such an unusual method that it has been included in a documentary film being screened Sunday at the Wilton Town Hall Theater. That's upstairs from where ballots will be counted, and sat upon, this Tuesday.
The film is "Holler Back: (Not) Voting in an American Town." It explores why more people, especially young people, don't vote. It will be shown Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
"Holler Back," made by New York director Lulu Fries'dat, won the award for best documentary at this year's Sunscreen Film Festival in Florida.
Fries'dat came to Wilton and Lyndeborough during the election of 2004 to show towns that still hand-count votes.
All 322 voting precincts in New Hampshire use paper ballots. According to the secretary of state's office, 176 count them with AccuVote optical scanner machines while the rest – mostly smaller towns, including Wilton, Lyndeborough and Mont Vernon – count them by hand.
Fries'dat was particularly taken with the way Wilton has chosen to avoid miscounts.
The counting process goes like this, said Town Moderator William Keefe.
After people vote, they fold their ballot and hand it to the moderator, who puts it in a locked voting box. When the polls close, the ballots are removed and counted, then handed out to teams of four residents who sit at one table, two on one side and two on another.
Keefe expects a very high turnout Tuesday, possibly 2,500 of the town's 2,900 registered voters. He said he hopes to have six or eight teams, which ideally will have a mix of Democrats and Republicans.
The groups work off a tally sheet.
The first person reads the name of the candidate who was voted for, the second person watches to ensure the correct name is read out, then the ballot is handed across the table and the third person makes a mark on the tally sheet while the fourth person watches to see that the correct spot is marked.
The counted ballots are stacked in bundles of 25 and then, to make sure they're not counted again, someone sits on the stack – or puts a rubber band around them with a sticky note that says the bundle has been counted.
"It's primitive," said Keefe, "but it's effective."
Dennis Markaverich, owner of the Wilton Town Hall Theater, has been a counter/sitter in the past. He is shown in the film explaining this unusual practice.
The movie theater is upstairs from where voting takes place, so he decided to stay closed on the night of the election.
"If there are still lines when the polls are closed, I want there to be enough room for voters to park," said Markaverich. "Also I'd expect that people would want to run home and watch the returns and not want to spend the night at the movies."
The screening is sponsored by Women Making a Difference, a New Hampshire-based advocacy group.
For folks who can't wait until Sunday to see politically themed movies, the Town Hall Theater will be showing Frank Capra's classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. as part of its free vintage film program.
Stacy Milbouer can be reached at smilbouer@nashuatelegraph.com.
© 2007, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Mt. Washington
Mt. Washington, originally uploaded by FeralKid1.The sign says it all. This mountain tops out at 6,280 ft. It isn't big by western standards, but it sure represents.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
UPDATE: Woodmont Apple Farm Icehouse: GONE!
Yes, it is true. The Woodmont Apple Farm Icehouse, a true landmark, is gone.
After publishing this post on August 8, I got the following emails from Selectmen of Hollis:
Dear Tracy Lee:
Thank you for sharing this information with me. I am one of the five selectmen who will be discussing this tonight. I am also the person who encouraged my late mother's private foundation to provide the necessary funds to repair and restore the ice house for the benefit of our current residents as well as future generations.
I can not speak for all of the board, but my sense is that there is not a considerable appetite to demolish this historic building - but rather one to repair and restore.
Kind regards,
Mark A. LeDoux
and
Tracy,
Thanks very much for letting me know about this discussion of the Woodmont Orchards Ice House. Many of the comments reflect my own sentiments. I can assure you that the Woodmont Orchard Ice House is not going to be demolished on my watch.
Regards,
Mark Johnson
Selectman, Town of Hollis
and
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for your email. I believe there has been some miscommunication in the newspapers. The intent was never to demolish the Ice House. The intent was to restore or reconstruct an exact replica. Either way it is the intent of the Board of Selectmen to ensure that the Woodmont Orchard Ice house will remain a Hollis Landmark in perpetuity.
David Petry
Vice Chairman, Board of Selectmen
Town of Hollis
I think it is interesting that David Petry said, "The intent was never to demolish the Ice House."
Today I was saddened to receive the following email:
Tracy,
As you may know (and I am sorry to tell you if you don't know), the ice house has been demolished. I resigned from office in late August because I will be relocating out of state. Before I resigned, I made sure that there was a contractor to repair the ice house and money to pay for it. I also lined up selectmen support for this plan. Immediately after I resigned the town reversed course. A "replica" is being built at a cost of five times the bid for the repairs.
Mark Everett Johnson
What???
The repairs are going to cost FIVE TIMES the bid for repairs? Huh? WHY was this landmark demolished? I find this totally irresponsible, especially in a state where fiscal responsibility has always been a time honoured tradition. Forget for a moment that the building had become a historic landmark in the eyes of the people in the area and that many have chosen to honour this building in paintings and photographs, but what about Yankee Frugality? FIVE TIMES the bid for repairs, money that was already set aside for these repairs. FIVE TIMES as much. If I were a resident of Hollis I would be asking the selectmen WHY?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Disused Rail Bridge
Disused Rail Bridge, originally uploaded by jonathan020.A disused rail bridge in Dover, NH with some wonderful fall colour.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Ice Cooking
Ice Cooking, originally uploaded by Todd Allison.My Grandfather cooking up some homemade soup on a nice winter day Ice Fishing
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Mount Washington Railway
Mount Washington Railway, originally uploaded by Malc H.3 rescued during busy hiking weekend in NH
By Associated Press | Monday, October 20, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Northeast
MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. - Beautiful foiliage brought crowds to central New Hampshire during the weekend, leading to at least three medical emergencies.
In Moultonborough, Fire Chief David Bengston says a man died on Saturday after suffering chest pains on a trail up Red Hill. He was declared dead before being carried out.
Another man who experienced chest pains was taken by helicopter to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester on Sunday on Bald Knob trail.
A woman had to be taken off Red Hill on Friday after she broke an ankle.
Bengtson says all three lived in the Moultonborough area and were experienced hikers.
Article URL
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Autumn Palette
Autumn Palette, originally uploaded by Elliot B..Article published Oct 19, 2008
NH's true colors come in all shapes, numbers
By DAVID BROOKS Staff Writer
dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com
Millions of people come to New Hampshire each fall to see our leaves. They gasp in awe. They take photographs; maybe they slip a sample into the luggage to show Aunt Tillie back home, but there's one thing they never do:
They never count them.
Let's fix that oversight, shall we?
The question to be considered as another gorgeous leaf-peeping season winds down is this: How many leaves change color in New Hampshire each autumn? A million? A trillion? ("Wicked lots" isn't an appropriate answer.)
More important, is there any way to really know?"I've been in the tree business for 30, 35 years, and I've never been asked that question," Kevin Fredette of Gate City Tree Service said when queried about how many leaves a tree has.
Fortunately, there are folks who measure this sort of thing: those who run landfills.
Many landfills, including Nashua's, separate leaves and compost them, which is cheaper and more useful than burying them.
Unfortunately for us, the leaves are composted with grass clippings and other organic "soft waste" (i.e., not branches or trunks) brought in by homeowners and landscapers."Last year, we had 6,900 tons of soft waste," said Sally Hyland, Nashua recycling coordinator. "This time of year, (the pile) does get colorful!"
If we guesstimate that one-third of that 6,900 tons consists of leaves, and each leaf weighs one-tenth of an ounce, then 736 million leaves were raked up in the city last year.
That number includes non-peeped-at leaves such as oak, and it doesn't include leaves composting in backyards or rotting in Mine Falls Park, but we have to start somewhere.
It isn't much of a start, though, because urban Nashua is hardly representative of leaf-peeping land as a whole.
So let's try another source: the U.S. Forest Service. Those folks love to count trees.
The service says in its New Hampshire's Forest Resources report that there were 4 billion live trees in New Hampshire in 2006 that were 1 inch in diameter or bigger. (Actually, it's 3.996 billion, but let's not be picky.)It also says almost exactly one-sixth of the forest land in the state is taken up by sugar maple, yellow birch and beech trees, which are the heart of peeping targets. That makes 666 million peep-able trees.
Unfortunately, the Forest Service was born of logging, so it doesn't care much about leaves.
The report estimates the "dry biomass" of live trees in the state (300 million tons) and their total volume (9.5 billion square feet), but that's wood. There's nothing about what researchers call foliar biomass, which North Country hotel owners call foliage.
"Our biomass estimates are estimates of aboveground biomass, excluding the foliage – in other words, the wood," said Randall Morin, a research forester with the Northern Research Station, based in Pennsylvania. "We definitely don't have data" about leaves.
But we aren't done yet. Fortunately for us – if not so fortunately for the planet – the specter of global warming exists.
It's fortunate because calculating the ebb and flow of carbon in the atmosphere requires figuring out growth patterns in forests, and a lot of that growth, from the carbon-consumption point of view, happens in leaves.
As part of their research, scientists have developed a formula for estimating "foliar biomass" based on the aboveground biomass estimates developed for foresters. Notable, I was told, is work by Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Vermont, whose Web site lists "measuring and monitoring forest carbon" as a top research topic.
It isn't straightforward, because the ratio depends on the size of the tree, but I got some help from the friendly folks at the Forest Service in Durham, who asked not to be identified, probably because they should have been doing something useful instead of helping answer this quirky question.
They crunched the numbers last week and concluded there are 0.73 tons – 1,460 pounds – of leaves per acre of sugar maple, birch and beech trees.
Fourteen hundred pounds of leaves per acre! No wonder raking makes my back hurt.
Multiply that figure by 2.6 million acres of maple/beech/birch in New Hampshire, estimated by the Forest Service, and you get 1.9 million tons of peep-able leaves.
At a tenth of an ounce per leaf, that's 608 billion leaves in New Hampshire.
Six hundred billion explosions of orange, red, yellow and pink – not bad! No wonder people come from all over the world to see it.
As a mild check of this back-of-the-envelope estimate, notice that it implies the average peep-able tree in New Hampshire has 800 leaves. This sounds a little low, but within a reasonable margin of error.
So, the next time somebody wonders why you live through New Hampshire winters and mud season and black flies, tell them you have 608 billion good reasons.
Happy peeping season!
David Brooks can be reached at 594-5831 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.
© 2007, Telegraph Publishing Company, Nashua, New Hampshire
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Alton Bay, NH train station
Alton Bay, NH train station, originally uploaded by kla4067.Built by Boston & Maine Railroad in 1907 and now used as a tourist information center. The tracks are gone but it remains in its original location between the lake shore and the highway.
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