It was raining when we touched down in Shannon, County Clare, Ireland after the overnight flight from Boston. A quick trip through customs and we were on our way to the rental car.

“Just remember to go left at the roundabout,” said my wife Jo as I reprogrammed my brain for driving on the left side of the road for the 30-minute trip to our first stop in Ennis, County Clare.
Ennis, with its charming streets and busy shops, seemed like the perfect place to begin our seven-day Irish golfing adventure in early May.

After breakfast and a short nap at the Old Ground Hotel (140 Euro/$190 per night with breakfast), we drove over winding country roads to East Clare Golf Club for our first round.

Joined by Quechee friends Chris Mendelsohn and Denette Pollock, we went searching for the pro shop to pay our greens fee (20 euro/$28 each) and play away.

By the third hole we had rain gear on, off and on again as showers and winds swept the 6,700-yard parkland course. Finally we saw blue skies as we strolled up the 18th fairway.

Dinner that night was at Knox’s, a local Ennis pub that rated four stars on TripAdvisor. We fought off jet lag and made plans for our next day at Doonbeg, 25 miles up the coast.

Doonbeg/Doonbeg Golf Club – Designed by Greg Norman, Doonbeg Golf Club opened in 2002 amid much fanfare. But even this luxury seaside resort could not weather the 2008 financial crisis.

Earlier this year, the property’s U.S. owners declared bankruptcy. The filing opened the way for Donald Trump to buy the 400-acre club and Lodge for 15 million euro or roughly $22 million.

Out on the course, restoration was underway following a freak winter storm. The par three sixth hole was washed out to sea by the high winds and 30-foot waves that caused massive erosion and damaged several other holes along this coastal links.

Accommodations at Doonbeg are five star with spacious rooms, king beds and radiant heat. Our package price, including golf, lodging and breakfast was 395 euro/$537 per couple.

Doolin/Lahinch – Friday morning dawned sunny and windy, setting the stage for our day at Lahinch Golf Club. Designed in 1892 by old Tom Morris, Lahinch (135 euro/$184 each) it is among the Top 50 courses in the world.

An experienced caddy at the venerable links can be a good investment. Our caddy, Hughey, was especially helpful on quirky blind shots like the one over the massive Klondyke dune on the par five fourth hole.

After golf we headed to Doolin for dinner at McGann’s, a classic Irish pub along the Aille River. Our innkeeper at the Blackberry Lodge (75 euro/$103 per night with breakfast) suggested we arrive early. Dinner was fresh Caesar salad followed by tasty lamb shank. Locals packed the tables by nine for the music and the “craic” (fun).

Ballyconneely, Connemara – Saturday dawned gloomy. The forecast was for rain, wind and more rain during our 102-mile drive northwest. With the ever changing weather, Chris and I headed for the golf course (60 Euro/$81 each) while Jo and Denette opted for lunch and sightseeing in Clifden, about nine miles away.

Connemara Championship Golf Links (60 euro/$81) is about stark beauty and stunning contrasts. Flat and rocky, the downwind opening holes seem easy. The illusion starts to fade by the fourth hole and evaporates at the eighth, a 449-yard brute into the prevailing wind that Bubba Watson might not reach in two.

The par 37 back nine of Connemara works inland through high dunes and exposed plateaus before turning toward the ocean and a back-to-back par five finish. With the wind gusting to 40 mph, we needed four good shots to reach the elevated green at the 475-yard 17th.

Westport – This bustling town is the perfect place for a day off from golf. We spent two nights at the Boulevard Guesthouse (75 euro/$102 per night with breakfast) and enjoyed the riverfront view.

Our Sunday plans called for breakfast, followed by cycling on the Great Western Greenway, a 42-kilometer (25-mile) bike trail from the village of Achill back to Westport with coastal views of Clew Bay. We rented bikes (21 euro/$28 each) from the helpful staff at Clew Bay Adventures and dodged a few raindrops along the way.

Westport offers a number of fine restaurants (I recommend trying Sage) and pubs on every corner, including Matt Moran’s, where U2’s Bono sits in with the locals from time to time.

Belmullet/Carne – With our rest day over, we drove 53 miles from Westport to Belmullet on Monday morning to Carne Golf Links. The sky was blue and the sun was shining when we arrived on the first tee, a dogleg right that measures 365 yards to an uphill green.

Carne Golf Links (55 euro/$75 each) was the final project of Irish course designer Eddie Hackett. Many believe it to be his best work. Situated in the dunes overlooking Blacksod Bay, Carne is off the beaten path, but well worth the journey north.

“Carne is absolutely brilliant,” notes golf writer Tom Coyne. “Front nine, back nine, every hole, every hill, every inch of the place is simply special.”

Enniscrone/Enniscrone Golf Club – After fish and chips at Fun Bobby’s Bistro, we drove to the seaside town of Enniscrone with its horseshoe shaped beach and panoramic views.

We arrived in time for tea at the Seasons Lodge Guest House (90 euro/$122 per night with breakfast) owned by Dermot and Alanna O’Regan. A short walk along the beach led us to town where we snapped sunset photos of Killala Bay before dinner at Ait Eile, the restaurant downstairs from Gilroy’s Pub.

Tuesday morning we woke to sunshine and headed to the course energized by Dermot’s full Irish breakfast. Originally a nine-hole layout, Enniscrone (50 euro/$68 each) is a stunning seaside links that snakes up, down and through massive dunes. Putting rather than chipping is often the best play around the greens.

Homeward – From Enniscrone we drove south, savoring the countryside down to Galway. From there it was back to Ennis and the Old Ground Hotel for our final night. We dined on fish and chips at the Poet’s Bar and settled our bets with a final Guinness, a fitting end to a golfer’s dream journey.

If you go – Travel mid-week if possible. Fly AerLingus from New York or Boston. Book tee times online and make sure to inquire about cancellation policies.

Rental Cars – Rent a car large enough for your clubs and luggage. Make sure to ask for an automatic transmission and take a GPS with Ireland maps. Driving on the left side of the twisting roads is challenging enough. Park the car at night and walk to dinner.

Rental Car Insurance – Check with your credit card company to see about coverage. Insurance is expensive – about $50 per day at the rental counter – but worth the price when considering the cost of repairs.

Caddies – The better known courses (Lahinch/Doonbeg) have experienced caddies. Other courses will arrange for caddies in advance. Rates are 50 euro to 60 euro per bag ($68, $81) including tip. Caddies can help, but may try to take over your game. Buying a course guide for five euro is an acceptable alternative.

Golf Carts – Walking is one of the pleasures of Irish golf. Very few golfers ride in buggies (power carts), which are forbidden at Lahinch. Push carts (trolleys) are available for rent by golfers who opt not to carry their own bags.

“If you want to find me on Wednesdays, you can come to the hospital [Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center] between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. I’ll be there, playing piano,” says Quechee’s Bill Emerson. “When I retired I had two goals, to play golf and to play piano.”

Emerson learned to play the piano by ear. His first venture into playing music was in college with a ukulele. He then began to experiment with the piano, and was a quick study. “There was always a piano inside of the frat houses. And when I was in the Navy, there were two pianos on the ship. One in the enlisted men’s quarters and one in the officers’, and I had a lot of free time while we were sailing to Korea and back.”

After his retirement in 1986, he took lessons from two excellent jazz pianists. He learned to read music, after 40 years of playing by ear. He spends most mornings practicing, which he enjoys.

“The hospital gig is my pride and joy,” he says, “but it all started at the Powerhouse Mall. In 1986, after I retired, my wife and I went on vacation. When we came back to Logan airport, someone had smashed the window of our car in the parking garage and stolen the radio. So I went to get it replaced at Car Sounds (now the Electronic Superstore in Lebanon), and they said it would take a couple of hours. So I went over to the Powerhouse Mall to wait, and there was this guy in a tuxedo playing the piano. I thought ‘I can do that!’ and I wrote a letter to Bayne Stevenson (the owner of the Powerhouse Mall). They gave me an audition, and I was in!”

In addition to volunteering at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Bill also plays professional gigs at events and at places like the Canoe Club in Hanover, the Woodstock Inn, and Wheelock Terrace, to which he was headed after the hospital. He favors classic easy jazz—Gershwin, Cole Porter, the cream of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. He loves seeing new generations falling under the spell of these great tunes. He laughs, “It’s great when some kid says ‘Will you play “The Way You Look Tonight” at my wedding?’

In August 1995, Debbie Marcus and her husband Chet Marcus, both Massachusetts natives, were taking their two children to camp in Rutland, Vermont when they passed through Quechee.

“Wow, isn’t this beautiful?” the Marcus’s had said to each other as they took in the mountainous scenery and the stretches of golf courses—Chet is an avid golfer.

By November 1995, the Marcus’s decided to purchase a condo in Quechee. Since the two still own and run their business, Marcus Financial Advisors, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, they have been splitting their time between Quechee and Gloucester for 19 years. The Marcus’ son, Jonathan, will be taking over the family business so that the pair can retire to Vermont full time in a couple of years.

When I meet with Marcus at her beautiful home in Quechee—she and her husband still own their condo but now rent it out—she seems completely in her element. Her house is nestled in the valley with a magnificent view of the mountains, and she sits peacefully in her chair outside taking it all in. Marcus, a big Grateful Dead fan as she later tells me, is an experienced hiker and adventurer who has been on hundreds of hikes, so my first question for her is easy: How did she become so interested in hiking when she grew up by the ocean in Massachusetts?

“Well, for the Quechee community, there’s golf and tennis, and the social life is well established around those things, but I don’t play golf and I don’t play tennis. And my kids are grown, so I really needed to find something to do that I could be as passionate about. And I have,” she says. “I think in another life I had to have grown up in the mountains.”

Ever since she was a child when her parents took her fishing, boating and clamming, she’s always loved being outdoors, so hiking was naturally alluring to her. Still new to the area, she decided to slowly ease into hiking by parking her car and going for hikes alone along the Appalachian Trail. In 2002 and 2003, she joined the Green Mountain Club (GMC) and the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and really started to find her place and meet other hikers.

“I met people in the GMC and found that there is a real social network … of people who are a variety of ages. That kind of opened things up for me; to hike with other people and enjoy the experience with them. I wasn’t in the woods by myself anymore,” she says.

Since then, Marcus has set numerous goals and met them all. One of her greatest accomplishments was hiking all of New Hampshire’s 48 peaks—mountains that are at least 4,000 feet above sea level—which she completed in five years. Her next goal is to finish hiking all of New England’s 67 mountains with peaks of at least 4,000 feet.

“There are five in the state of Vermont, and I’ll have completed those by the end of the summer,” she says. “The rest are in Maine. That’s next summer’s quest.”

Another goal that she set was to become credentialed as a trip leader. After hiking Mt. Adams in New Hampshire alone years ago and experiencing some unplanned, dangerous weather conditions, she decided to seek out more training to be better prepared. In 2010, she went through the proper steps to become credentialed as a trip leader for AMC NH and is now qualified to lead hiking groups on trips in three seasons: spring, summer and fall. She is also certified in solo and advanced wilderness first aid.

“We guide trip participants on some of the most rigorous terrain with some of the most amazing weather conditions you can have on the East Coast. It’s a lot of fun now that I’ve been doing it for a couple of years,” she says.

In addition to leading hiking groups and going on her own organized backpacking trips—when I met with her, she was preparing to hike the Long Trail—Marcus also finds time to volunteer as a trip leader. She leads hiking trips for kids ranging from ages 3 to 15 and their families, and also leads a beginner’s hike for women.

“It’s just such a pleasure … just to see them soaking everything up about the experience,” she says.
Of the hundreds of hikes Marcus has gone on, she has a hard time choosing a favorite. But she has always enjoyed ridge-walking along the Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire or the gap between Mt. Ellen and Mt. Abraham in Vermont. And Camel’s Hump in Vermont is one of the best hikes you can go on in New England, she says.

For Marcus, the physical activity is satisfying, but it’s the rush she feels when she reaches a mountain’s summit that is really gratifying for her.

“I do love a view,” she says. “There’s this great feeling of accomplishment when you’ve struggled to climb and finally get to the top, and to just look out there, you think ‘This is worth it. This is worth the struggle and the temporary pain.’ It feels great to be up there.”

But one of the greatest joys Marcus has experienced through her hiking adventures has been able to share the exhilaration of a hike with others and be able to connect with friends and other people. She has developed several close friendships locally as a result of her trips. She’s even a part of a hiking partner’s upcoming wedding.

“You find your group of people. That’s how I found out where I fit in here,” she says. “It’s not uncommon for us to turn to each other [on a hike] and say ‘We’re just so lucky to be here.’ That’s the prevailing feeling,” she says.

John Ferney will miss the challenges of the past several years as president of the Quechee Lakes Landowner’s Association (QLLA) Board of Trustees. His term ended in July 2014 and for the first time in many years, Ferney does not hold a formal position in QLLA governance.

Over the years, Ferney has been a member of the Nominating Committee, the Greens Committee, the Finance & Audit Committee and chairman of the Golf Committee. He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2008, served as treasurer for two years, and another two years as president. Ferney spoke with the Quechee Times about his experiences.

“We all come here for the setting and facilities, but we stay for the people and the community. It has been a pleasure to serve the people of Quechee as a Trustee,” he said.

Ferney grew up in Walpole, MA, as the middle of five children. He was brought up with a strong sense of community and giving back is considered a family tradition. Both he and his wife, Gail, are true supporters of the Quechee community and the Upper Valley.

The Ferneys bought land and built their home in Quechee in 1988. They lived with their three sons in Westford, MA, at that time and spent a lot of time in New Hampshire on the weekends. When friends introduced them to Quechee, they found the place that they wanted to be—location, beauty, golf, skiing—it had everything that this active family was looking for!

A graduate of Boston College with a BS and an MBA, Ferney began working at the Raytheon Company in 1966. He was with the Missile Systems Division for most of his career, and retired in 2001 as a vice president of Raytheon Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas.

Upon retirement, the Ferneys headed back East to become full-time Vermont residents. John immediately put his professional skills to work for QLLA, first serving on committees and then at the board level. He also joined the Board of Headrest, Inc.—a non-profit organization based in Lebanon, NH, that provides addiction and crisis support services—and is currently the vice president.

Ferney said he has always loved numbers and approaches life from a financial perspective, making decisions based on an analytical framework of value. He naturally incorporates multiple perspectives—community, organizational, personal, etc.—into this equation to successfully come up with a balance.

Challenges during his tenure as president

Two major external challenges included the recession and Tropical Storm Irene. The recession caused the real estate market in Quechee to nose-dive, services and amenities were underutilized, and people just weren’t here, he explained. The situation was exacerbated when Tropical Storm Irene’s devastation required active crisis management.

Thanks to hard work by all, QLLA was able to recover from Irene with no additional financial assessment to the members and with a solid plan in place for managing such risks in the future.
Ferney believes that in some ways Irene was a hidden blessing in that it brought the community closer together. The challenges and successes actually, “increased the trust between club management, the board and the membership. Everyone shared in the recovery and the pride of making it through a major crisis,” he said.

Among the internal challenges, he mentioned the inactivity of the current Quechee Lakes Development Company, the decline in golf revenues and the aging out of Quechee members. Strong leadership and management were critical during the storm and the recession, and still are.

When the club found itself without a general manager (GM) in 2013, John took on the dual role of club president and interim general manager including overseeing the search for a new GM. Tim Lewis joined QLLA as GM and chief operating officer in September 2013. John says that hiring Tim was one of the best things the board did in his six years. He thinks that QLLA now “has a very strong management team to bring it into the future successfully.”

QLLA’s future

Some of the programs and initiatives that have already begun are key to QLLA’s future explained Ferney. They include better communication, improved marketing, a strong capital plan and increasing the value of membership.

In the area of communication, quarterly member forums, Q-Notes and periodic email updates are in place. In addition, regular meetings of Quechee’s condominium associations’ presidents were initiated to discuss topics of common interest.

In order to attract new members and get the QLLA name out, a marketing coordinator was hired and the website updated. Ferney is excited about the implementation of the Certified Quechee Rental Program. This program aims to assist renters in finding a “quality” Quechee vacation. Potential buyers often first rent and a poor rental experience creates a poor perception of Quechee.

A strong capital plan reassures both current and new members that the infrastructure is maintained and enhanced.

With the exception of golf and skiing, all amenities are now included in the base dues, encouraging the use of amenities and providing more value to those dues. This initiative, along with improved food & beverage service and several golf initiatives, has resulted in a more lively and actively used club already.

He doesn’t offer any particular advice to the incoming president – just the vision that Quechee Lakes should not continue to be the best-kept secret in Vermont. “There will always be differing opinions and challenges in a club this diverse, but I’m confident that QLLA is in a strong position to meet them,” he said.

Ferney won’t have a problem filling his newfound free time. He serves on the board of Headrest, he loves to ski, and he and Gail have five grandchildren spread out across Connecticut, New York and South Carolina to visit, and Quechee has two beautiful golf courses just calling his name.

Ranks of street shoes line the narrow entrance hall. Young people of various ages fit themselves into small spaces on the floor, engaged in stretches. Some girls lean on the wall, helping each other with hairpins. Costumes of shiny brocades adorned with fur trim, sequins, and ribbons weigh down tables along the edges of entrance and the smaller dance hall. The atmosphere is focused but not panicked. All over the Upper Valley, students were enjoying April vacation week. Lebanon Ballet School was delighted–more rehearsal time!

Students at the school were in the throes of preparing to participate in City Center Ballet’s spring show, Sleeping Beauty, a version of the classic ballet Maurice Petipa choreographed to Tchaikovsky’s music. The ballet was first performed in 1890, but like all the best classics, it continues to delight new generations who discover it.

Linda Copp, the founder and director of the school, serenely takes a moment to chat. She herself started ballet classes at three years old, “way too young” for formal training, she says. “I’ll take kids as young as three or four for our ‘First Steps’ program, but it’s not till they’re six or seven that they can really begin. Then they understand the concept of counting and can begin to work on their bodies, for example, if you tell them something about their stomach muscles.” With today’s children spending more of their time indoors, she finds even eight-year-olds need to develop motor skills such as the running, jumping, skipping and hopping that used to become ingrained years earlier.
Dreaming of stardom like any young dancer, Copp trained after high school in Hartford, CT, where her primary teacher recognized her skill as a teacher, and “helped me make [teaching] something I felt good about.” She has run the Lebanon school for 30 years, training approximately 3,000 students—and counting.

Where the Boys Are—Not

Most of those students have been girls, of course. Ballet’s appeal to girls is legendary. But every serious performance requires male dancers, so Linda is particularly glad to have several boys enrolled in her school. Two recent additions are Ben Stroud of Quechee and Sam Bradley of Etna, both students at the Quechee Waldorf School. Stroud has loved theater for years, and has played locally in shows such as Pentangle’s Pirates of Penzance. A theater coach recommended ballet training to help him know where his body and hands are, and when some female classmates challenged them to try ballet, Stroud and Bradley both signed up.

These remarkably self-possessed and well-spoken boys talk frankly of the rarity of male dancers. They note that other athletes study ballet, like the Bruins’ goalie, who took ballet as a kid. Football players sometimes add ballet to their training to improve movement and landing from jumps. “The stigma about it is not true,” Bradley says. “If people tried it, they’d like it.” Ballet goes beyond pure athleticism, Copp explains, adding “Einstein called dancers ‘the athletes of God.’ They have to be athletic and look good at it.”

“Ballet started with guys, and migrated to women,” explains Stroud. Yes, male dancers help make the women look good, assisting in pas de deux, for example, creating classic images. Choreography for male solos or small groups of male dancers features flashy leaps and feats of strength and balance.

Just for Boys

Sam Bradley, left, and Ben Stroud

Stroud and Bradley are working hard at ballet and loving it, though their days are also full of other projects; Bradley is on the Quechee Ski Team, and Stroud plays cello and saxophone. “It’s good exercise, but not strenuous,” says Stroud, though he admits, “If you do it well, it should be hard.” Bradley explains, “I like it because of the people here—the teachers are great and the kids. Once you start you see the older dancers and you want to be them. The better I get the harder it gets, because the teachers know you, and push you harder. Class is physically hard, and mentally hard.” He and Stroud both flash big grins that show they meet this challenge happily.

It’s a haven for over half the year in this climate, and a fascination any day: Dartmouth’s Life Sciences Greenhouses in their hidden—but not secret—location on the top of the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building. The greenhouses may well be the most widely educational spot on campus: tour visitors range from pre-school groups—“They love the carnivorous plants,” says greenhouse manager Kim DeLong. Anyone can set up a tour for a group of six or more, though in the busy seasons you may have to wait to schedule a tour. The greenhouses serve Dartmouth classes in biology, but also studio art and photography, and creative writing. There are also research areas of the greenhouses that are off-limits to visitors.

Taking a tour isn’t a requirement. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., individual visitors are welcome. Different rooms provide environments for plants from around the world. The tropical room includes many famous species: a spring visit revealed a small pineapple and some coffee beans, as well as sugar cane and banana. A cacao plant – chocolate’s source – was flourishing but not quite developing seedpods.

The Sub-Tropical Room houses many ferns that come from warm areas in California, Georgia, the Carolinas and around the world. “Right now they’re my favorite type of plant,” says DeLong, though the competition is fierce. A Key Lime plant and a Meyer Lemon, jasmines and gardenia are thriving in this room.

The Xeric Room—that’s the five-dollar word for “dry”—displays succulents and cacti. Old world deserts have no native cacti, explains DeLong, only succulents. The new world (the Americas) is home to a mix of the two. Some come from Chile/Argentina’s Atacama Desert, which has never received rain in recorded history. Signs on some of the plants provide intriguing factoids to encourage further thought. “I’m interested in ethnobotany (the study of the relationships that exist between peoples and plants),” says DeLong, “so I made labels explaining some of the plants’ uses.”

A prized feature of the greenhouses is the orchid collection donated by Alan Brout, Dartmouth Collect class of ’51. He gave over 1,000 plants and continues to add to the collection. While the plants are often rather ratty-looking, the flowers astound with their variety of form and color. DeLong explains that all orchids have some common features. They all have three sepals (the part of the plant that covers the blossom before it opens) and three petals. The sepals and petals are typically offset to appear like six petals, the sepals of orchids usually being colored like the petals. And one petal is usually of different—often quite different—shape, forming the toe of a lady-slipper for example.
The systems of the greenhouse are completely computer controlled. Occasionally you’ll hear the subtle hum of the system in action. Silvery curtains can be drawn to protect the plants from too much direct sun. To control the environment in the different plant rooms there are vertical windows between each and the hallways or vents in the roof open and close.

There’s also a multi-purpose room, which provides space to study, eat lunch or just enjoy the change from New England’s climate. For information on how to visit the greenhouses go to www.dartmouth.edu/~grnhouse/visitor.shtml.

General Manager Mimi Buttenheim

I paused for a moment and realized, while I had done plenty of beer and wine tastings in my life, I had never done a spirit tasting before. Apparently I’m not the only one.

“I think spirit tasting is new for a lot of people,” Buttenheim told me as I sampled a few of the distillery’s products, including the No. 14 Bourbon: a whiskey bourbon distilled with maple syrup that I was quite fond of. The distillery is part of a new wave of craft spirit companies in the state with many of them—including Vermont Spirits—now offering tastings so visitors can sample the products they make.

Vermont Spirits recently moved from its original location in Barnet, Vermont to Quechee in March 2011 and is now doing all production, bottling and packaging at the new facility. The distillery is known for creating high quality spirits made primarily with local Vermont ingredients. The distillery currently offers eight products including its popular Vermont Gold Vodka distilled with maple sap, and Coppers Gin which is distilled with hand-picked wild Vermont juniper berries. Now, with its new location in Quechee, including a wide-open view of the distillery, the company is able to educate the public about the distilling process, and offer tastings to further promote its brand. It is one of 18 distilleries in the state that is licensed by the Vermont Department of Liquor Control to have a tasting room.

The craft spirit movement

“The craft spirit movement is pretty new,” said Buttenheim, who, as general manager, oversees much of the marketing and daily business operations at Vermont Spirits and has been with the company for three years. “So the idea that you can make vodka from apples, or from whey, or from maple…it’s pretty foreign to a lot of people. But, I think people are very receptive to it. And they’re excited that we’re using Vermont products to make our spirits.”

Vermont Spirits was originally established in early 1999, but didn’t release a real product until 2004. Between 2005 and 2008, the company saw some ups and downs but was completely revitalized when current president and CEO Steve Johnson, a former investor in the company, stepped in in late 2008. Johnson, a Columbia University graduate who has lived in Connecticut since 1992, says the company is doing better than ever at its new location.

Distiller Joe Buswell

Herrell, Vermont Spirits sales manager who has been with the company since its move from Barnet, also views the move to Quechee as a positive one.

“Before, there was no retail aspect; no visitors coming in. Being here has given us the opportunity to have people try something before they buy it and get them to understand what they’re buying,” he says.
Using local Vermont ingredients

Vermont Spirits’ key selling point is its use of local, Vermont agricultural products as well as its careful distilling process using custom-made equipment, which is spearheaded by two distillers, Joe Buswell and Harry Gorman. With a small operation, the distillers are able to give the products the attention and care they need.

“Everything we make comes from something grown in Vermont: maple for Vermont Gold Vodka, corn for our bourbon, apples for our brandy and Crimson Vodka, and fruit for our line of liqueurs,” said Johnson. “We start from scratch whenever possible, to create the base alcohol and then work from there. Vermont agriculture is excellent and we use it to distill what we hope our consumers think are excellent distilled spirits.”

With use of Vermont products, support of local businesses and having “Vermont” in its name, Vermont Spirits is fully representing its home state. Its smart utilization of the Vermont brand has been very beneficial for the company.

“I do a lot of traveling to other states and Vermont has a great brand and great brand recognition,” said Buttenheim. “People have really fond memories of traveling to Vermont. So when they can associate a spirit with a place and the fact that we’re using Vermont sugars essentially to influence our spirits, that really resonates with people.”

Buttenheim came to the company from the vineyard wine industry in Napa, California. While the process to make wine and spirits is similar, said Buttenheim, spirits are more marketing-driven and brand recognition is key.

“To get people to hang onto something there’s a lot more that goes into it in terms of marketing,” she said. “When you see the brand, you’re more likely to order it at a restaurant. If you’re sitting at a bar and you don’t know a spirit, unless it’s in a cocktail, very few people are just going to take a chance on it.”

In addition to the brand recognition from the Quechee store, Vermont Spirits promotes its brand in other ways, including offering tastings at festivals and Vermont liquor agency stores, and also frequently sponsoring events. This year, it sponsored events with the Vermont Ski Association and also plans to sponsor Vermont Restaurant Week. Vermont Spirits is also a member of the Distilled Spirits Council of Vermont which now offers a stampable “passport;” similar to the Vermont Brewers Association passport. The company does business with wholesalers in Maryland, Washington DC, New York City, Boston and more.

As the company continues to succeed at the new location and increase its brand recognition nationally, Johnson is already thinking about expanding the company. Johnson says he’s looking to open a second Vermont Spirits facility by early 2015 to accommodate new stills and product inventory. He’s also planning to hire three to four new employees. Currently, the company has six full-time employees and a few part-time bottlers.

“We are growing and will add new production capacity, storage and employees all very soon…not soon enough,” said Johnson.

Both Buttenheim and Herell said they were excited to see returning visitors this year and they hope the trend continues.

“We’ve seen people who came last year and then returned this year and this is now a regular stop for them. It’s great,” said Herell.

Locally, people can find Vermont Spirits’ products at nearby liquor stores including the Vermont Liquor Outlet, Woodstock Beverage, and Jake’s Market & Deli in White River Junction, or at local restaurants including Simon Pearce, The Parker House, Carpenter & Main in Norwich, and Canoe Club and Salt Hill Pub in Hanover.

In his essay on fly fishing titled The Happy Idiot author John Gierach notes, “There are times when fly fishing seems to be suffering from the same malady that afflicts the rest of society: too many so-called facts and not enough real experience.”

When the Quechee Times editor approached me about writing an article on my favorite places to fly fish in the area I thought, “What? This woman knows nothing about the culture of fly fishing. You never tell where you caught the fish!” Writing such an article would be much like writing a book concerning all of one’s mistresses and then giving it to one’s wife to proof read.

My reputation is that of an “avid” angler, which is far and away a different animal than that of an “accomplished” angler. My enthusiasm more than compensates for my lack of ability. Many golfers will understand the subtle distinction. The fact that I’d rather be standing in the river waving a stick than being on a golf course doing the same thing does not mean I’ll catch anything or for that matter that a golfer will shoot par. Each to one’s own, as long as you have a nice day and don’t take any of it too seriously.

What can I pass on after 50 years of fishing? Primarily to find the fish, just as in life, you must leave the beaten path. Oftentimes, you need a rope for safe access. Take that advice anywhere you will.

Hire a guide service. I’m giving the best and most sane advice first. I’ve fished from Alaska through Colorado and in Florida and, when in unfamiliar water, I’ve always followed my own advice. Call Wilderness Trails over by Marshland Farm Inn (802-295-7620) and ask for Pete Meijer. He’ll supply you with all the necessary equipment, instruction and fun for your initial introduction to the wonderful sport of fly fishing. A full-day adventure will set you back about $350. Then, if you don’t really like it, well you still had a nice lunch.

Fly fishing tends to be an activity which finds its beauty in the isolation of man with nature. Oftentimes I find myself simply staring down the river, my mind empty but my heart overflowing with a feeling of “God, isn’t that beautiful?” If you’re uncomfortable being in your own head for long quiet periods of time, and you can’t stand the thought of no winners, no losers, no competition and no medal, then you might want to stick with a team sport. Your friends will be few and far between on the river – preferably at a good distance from you.

Fly fishing is about the details; don’t be intimidated. Hidden within secret pockets of my fly-fishing vest are boxes of flies separated into the categories of dry, nymph, bead head, streamers and terrestrials. I don’t tie flies. While I admire the beauty of some of my associates’ labor, I would rather buy from a local fly shop. Most of my flies actually look like insects that you might want to eat, presuming you were a fish or a bird.

“Match the hatch” is the common advice given by anglers. Find whatever bug just painfully bit you on the neck, kill it and then see if something resembles it within your fly boxes. And I do have the some flies that remind you of nothing more than clowns in a circus: with green feathers shot with purple and yellow marabou, maybe a couple of plastic eyes glued on, but no red nose. I use these gaudy streamers to entertain the fish. Simply drift one past a large brown trout hiding under a rock and you can almost hear him yelling to his trout friends, “Hey look! A parade!” I imagine that must be boring lying on the bottom of a stream all year long, and I gain inner peace by providing a diversion for the fish. Any fly will catch a fish and often the fun is found in exploring the riverbanks, watching for critters hoping to stumble across that one fish which might be hopelessly jaded.

Carry a net. They are useful for packing beer in, trash out and remain and inspiring symbol of hope. “Yes, I will put a big fish in this net,” it says to the world. But oftentimes our dreams are all we have. It’s enough, and I leave the river a cleaner place.

How well do you need to cast to catch a fish? First, you need to get it out of your head that you are in the movie a River Runs Through It, and like the actor Brad Pitt, you will loft two-hundred feet of fly line in gravity defying swirling arcs while egotistically etching your name in the clear blue sky for God to see and admire. Second, no fish was every caught in the air. Third, you are not Brad Pitt; that was a stunt double. Instead, you’ll cast up the stream about 15 to 20 feet, let the fly drift down and that is where you’ll find your fish waiting. I apologize for it being anticlimactic, but any greater aerial displays than that will have you climbing pine trees to retrieve your gear.

Death, taxes ad leaky waders are inevitable. I have four separate pairs of expensive waders for different water temperatures and conditions. They all leak. By the end of the day it doesn’t matter which one I choose. I get wet. When I was younger it always bothered me. That’s when I bought the waders. Now it simply falls into the Tao of fishing.

Make sure to pack a nice lunch. Some of my the finest moments on the river never involved catching any fish. They were the times spent with a friend, or my dog, watching the stream flow pass while enjoying our lunch in the warming sunshine. It’s all fishing and that is what is most important to remember. n

Editor’s Note: In my defense, I do understand sacred fishing spots. I grew up fishing with my dad, grandfather and uncle on lakes in Michigan. I love to fish, and I know that many of you do as well, that’s why I asked Cap’n Ron to share some of his fishing tips, even if he didn’t give up any of his favorite spots.

If life is a series of transitions, Myrna and Dick Brooks know that well. Their “transition” involved moving from urban Phoenix, Arizona, to moving to a house in the woods at the end of a dirt road in Quechee, where they now call home.

Deck Houses come to Quechee Lakes

In 2002, the Brooks bought a Deck House built in 1972, “the first house on Taft Family Road,” according to Myrna Brooks. The Deck House concept was a popular choice for early Quechee Lakes Landowners Association (QLLA) buyers. Art Garges, the owner of A.G. Design and the architect the Brooks eventually hired for their major renovation, explains that a Deck House representative and builder in the area helped advance this new concept in building to the earliest homes in QLLA. “Deck houses were pre-cut, not modular, often built into the hillside and energy inefficient,” says Garges. “People liked the open ceilings and exposed wood,” he says, as well there being a lot of windows to help bring the natural light from the outside in.

The house after renovations.

The Brooks’ house, like many in Quechee, was painted a dark color to blend with the natural landscape. That natural landscape was dense with white pine, hemlocks and maple trees and got denser each year. Dick Brooks said the former owner, now in his nineties, returned to the house recently. “He didn’t seem interested in the house renovation, but in the hill on one side of the house, where he toiled every year to clear the growth,” says Dick.

In the first three to four years of owning the house, the Brooks came twice a year for two-week stays until Dick retired from his medical practice and Myrna from her education career. At first they spent their summers in Quechee and winters in Phoenix, until they realized living in Quechee fit them best.

Major renovations begin

Wanting to make their dated house feel more like home, they decided to screen in the ground level porch facing their westerly view. That renovation started the Brooks thinking about how to improve the quality of their life in a home best suited to comfort, efficiency and beauty. Garges was the one who brought those ideas into a workable plan, with more light, a slightly larger footprint, updated kitchens and baths, and new siding. “The house was dated, a little too small, humid at times and dark,” Myrna said. “I was so excited about how well and beautiful it’s turned out that I wanted others to know it’s not that tough to convert [a Deck house,]” she says.

So just what happened to transform the old place into modernity, efficiency and beauty? Well, finding the right builder to start. Local resident Steve Dandeneau, the owner of River Street Construction, was just back from building houses on Martha’s Vineyard, met the Brooks’ standard.

A two-car garage was the first phase of construction. The newly configured house has the new siding, now not so dark and with a complementary trim.

Half the roof came off and a clearstory window on the added raised roof sheds more light on the great room. The exposed brick on the upper chimney is now inside, with a new face for the three-story chimney – a textured, layered stone tile.

The small entrance is larger, embracing the living room above. Most Deck Houses have a mid-story or mid-level entrance, according to Garges. The west side of the house, opposite the entrance, also became larger, expanding the living room and master bedroom on the main level. New white birch flooring blends in with the original floors. The kitchen, enlarged along with the entrance, contains an island with recessed shelves for dishes and cooking utensils. Granite tops cover that island and counters. A simple and unadorned Arts and Crafts dining table sits in an almost separate area nearby. Lauren Collins of Cabinetry Concepts in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was the guiding light for this kitchen design.

On the bottom level a living area with comfortable sofas and chairs serves as a den. There are several additional bedrooms; one for the grandchildren and Myrna’s office (Dick’s is upstairs.) A laundry room with a cedar closet, sinks and counter space completes the lower level.

The windows are new and energy efficient and styled in the Craftsman tradition. A new heating system assures energy savings and consistent performance.

Dick, a Dartmouth College graduate, familiar with the area introduced Myrna to Vermont. “Luckily she liked it,” Dick said. The Brooks love living here. They visit Phoenix in the winter, but maybe not as often as they used too since Myna has taken a liking to cross-country skiing and looking to downhill ski next. They both play golf and tennis. Dick, a gastrointestinal physician, volunteers at the medical school at Dartmouth teaching first year medical students the art of physical examination.