The Upper Valley Humane Society is dedicated to pets and people in our community and has maintained its status as an essential service with a team actively working during the Pandemic.

Despite lost revenue from adoptions, spay/neuter clinics, and a nationwide drop in donations, UVHS is continuing to serve critical functions for the Upper Valley, providing exemplary veterinary care for shelter animals, and assisting people and animals in crisis.

UVHS responded rapidly to Covid-19 by reducing shelter animal population through foster care, canceling events, pausing adoptions to protect staff, and delivering thousands of pounds of free pet food to social-service agencies across the region.… Read More

Sheltering-in-place and the consequences of Covid-19 impacted people in dramatically different ways. Without minimizing how devastating the pandemic was (and still is) to millions of people around the world, as with every major life event, silver linings are there for those who look for them. Some people just hunkered down and perhaps welcomed the slower pace; others found themselves going bonkers trying to homeschool their kids while working full-time from home with no social outlets. Regardless of where one found themselves along the sanity spectrum, how some people responded to counter the negative impact in their lives is evident among the stories and submissions to follow.… Read More

My first glimpse, and it was a quick drive through Quechee in 1973, on a rather gloomy day in early April. I was on a business trip and was intrigued with the name of the village displayed on a country store at the blinking yellow light. So, I drove down the hill, through the covered bridge, turned left on to Main Street. As I had grown up in a very small village in northeastern Vermont, the bedraggled look of many buildings did not disturb me as they were evident in many rural villages. However, a couple of the buildings stood out as extensive renovations were in progress and workmen were on site.… Read More

Imagine that you were a member of a wealthy family living in one of the major East Coast cities, notably New York or Boston, in the late 1800s or early 1900s. It’s summertime, and living in the city is not easy. Hot, stifling days before air conditioning, horses in the street, sewer systems that lack modern wastewater treatment applications, smoke from factories… well, eventually the heat, the smells, the brick and concrete take their toll, and you dream of mountain air, fresh breezes, and beautiful vistas. You know that a relatively easy train trip away, central Vermont holds all you dream of, and with cost not an issue, your mind is made up.… Read More

According to local historians, and probably not surprisingly, the identity of Quechee has been closely linked to the 41.4-mile long Ottauquechee River that winds through the small hamlet of just over 600 residents and has carved out of the landscape changes in topography as a tributary of the Connecticut River that flows to the Long Island Sound.

Although the course of the river has directed the intentional placement of residential, industrial and commercial buildings, the backbone of the district is Quechee Main Street that extends in an east-west direction, parallel and to the north of the Ottauquechee River.

In total, the district is comprised of 73 properties.… Read More

For two January weeks Visible in Vermont: Our Stories, Our Voices, a photography exhibit, circled the main room of the Quechee Library. The photographs of People of Color were labeled not only with their Vermont towns but with statements about encountered micro-aggressions. It drew viewers from around the Upper Valley and further.

Then on Saturday morning, Jan. 25, fifty people gathered downstairs to hear a panel of Hartford residents, moderated by Sha’an Mouliert of St. Johnsbury. For all present, whether a grandparent or a young Vermont Law School student, it has to have been a memorable hour yielding deeper understanding.

This was the intent of the exhibit, presented by the Root Social Justice Center and supported by a Vermont Humanities Council grant: to provide an opportunity for reflection by majority white communities which may be unaware of the impact of racial micro-aggressions.… Read More

When the Quechee Lakes Landowners’ Association, Inc. (QLLA) was incorporated 50 years ago, it not only reflected the thousands of open, pristine acres on which it currently sits, but also the man behind its inception, L. John Davidson.

With a dream of preserving traditional values in a self-contained commercial establishment on that land that belonged primarily to local farmers and millworkers, Davidson realized that the farmlands, trails, hills, forests, wildlife and Ottauquechee River provided the perfect setting for his vision.

But before he became the visionary developer of one of the largest and most successful developments in New England, Davidson knew he had some hard work to do, for when he arrived in the village of Quechee in the mid-1960s from his home state of Massachusetts, he was shocked and saddened by what he saw.… Read More

The Magic of Renovating a 100-Year-Old Barn

What is it about an old barn that is so enticing? Is it the beauty of its unrefined, naturally battered old walls and rusting roof? Is it the way it takes our mind back in time to a more primitive, simple era when life was more provincial?

There is something magical about an old barn, whether it is a working barn (storing hay, farm equipment or housing animals), an abandoned barn or one like my own, a barn reincarnated as a home.

While walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain a few years ago, I had an epiphany.… Read More

When asked out of context, Dave Courtney doesn’t recall the exact year he started working at the Quechee Ski Hill, but he does know that he recently retired in 2018. However, I’m not meeting with Dave to talk about his long, Quechee-based ski career. Dave and I are meeting to talk specifically about an exciting offshoot of his many years on the hill. Dave’s son, Will Courtney, who skied the Quechee Hill with his dad since he was three years old, was hired this year to be a member of the US Alpine Ski Racing Team as an assistant coach and strength and conditioning coach.… Read More

Strolling around the woods, contemplating my life as older people are inclined to do, hoping not to get lost in my own backyard, I asked myself, “Self, what talent would you have liked to have had which you are lacking?” It soon began to grow dark as the list grew longer and longer. I made my way home before Kim called the police but, you know something, I believe that the talent I lack most in my make-up is the ability to competently play a musical instrument. I’d also like to be much better at math, but music intrigues me more because I still naively think I have a chance at it: like golf.… Read More