Tag Archives: Windsorcty

Extending the Growing Season: How to Build and Use a Low Tunnel! 

You can grow fresh veggies in Vermont well into the fall (and early next spring), all the more so as our climate warms. Don’t wait until August to start thinking about it! This presentation includes basic guidelines on cool weather gardening including what and when to plant, problems you might encounter (not many!), and step-by-step instructions on how to build and use the basic tool for cool season gardening… the low tunnel! Presented by Gordon Clark, a UVM Extension Master Gardener and Coordinator of Vermont Victory Gardens. A Windsor Public Library event (Windsor County.) Email librarian@windsorlibrary.org for zoom link.

Zoom Presentation: Residential Solar Energy Roundtable

Curious about solar energy and if it might be a good idea for your home? Whiting Library will present via Zoom a virtual roundtable discussion on residential solar energy on March 8th, 2022 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. If you’re interested in renewable energy, come listen, learn, and ask your questions!

This roundtable offers the opportunity to better understand solar technology and will provide useful information for those considering converting to or expanding home solar systems. Topics will include the efficiency of solar energy in southern Vermont, incentives to reduce costs, battery storage, and the siting of solar arrays. The roundtable discussion will include representatives from Green Mountain Solar, Net Zero Renewable Resources, and SunCommon. Chester resident and retired solar industry executive Tim Roper will moderate the discussion.

This free informational event is open to everyone, not just Whiting Library patrons, and will include time for your questions to industry experts. Attendees are encouraged to register in advance by emailing: whitinglibrary1@gmail.com. All registrants will receive a reminder email prior to the event. A Whiting Library event (Chester, Windsor County.)

400 Miles Down the Connecticut River

A Vermont Humanities Council series hosted by the Hartland Public Library (Windsor County.)


Michael Tougias (pronounced Toe-gis), author of several books, will present a narrated slide presentation about the history and natural history of the Connecticut River based on his book River Days.

Tougias will take the viewer down the entire 410 miles of the river on a journey through the past and present. Along the way the author will discuss wildlife, environmental issues, Native Americans, log drives, major floods, and more. Practical tips will be given, including his favorite sections of river to paddle, fish, and camp. Tougias’ slides will also help the viewer find the best spots for photographing wildlife, such as moose and bald eagle. Humor is woven into the talk with a focus on some of Tougias’ misadventures.

Tougias also talks about the river’s connection to his life for each of the 6 decades he has been exploring it. Each period ties into a different source of inspiration. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.

The program is suitable for all ages.

Michael Tougias is the author of 29 national bestsellers including several books about true survival stories such as A Storm Too Soon, Rescue of the Bounty, Overboard! So Close to Home, The Finest Hours (now a Disney movie), and Fatal Forecast, which the Los Angeles Times called “breathtaking…a marvelous and terrifying tale.” Tougias also authored an award winning nature and adventure book titled There’s A Porcupine in My Outhouse: The Vermont Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe. His latest history book is Above & Beyond: JFK and U-2 Pilots During the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Booklist gave Above & Beyond a starred review and called it “superb and suspenseful.” His newest book is The Waters Between Us: A Boy, A Father, Outdoor Misadventures, and the Healing Power of Nature.

Visit www.michaeltougias.com for more information.

Vermont Women and the Civil War

A Vermont Humanities Council series hosted by the Hartland Public Library (Windsor County.)

Join us as we welcome speaker Howard Coffin – A seventh-generation Vermonter, and the author of four books on the Civil War with a focus on Vermont and the Champlain Corridor. See full biography.

Event Description:

“Vermont women enlisted for the duration.” So said a Vermont historian assessing the war years of 1861-1865.

Vermont’s remarkable Civil War battlefield record is well documented: breaking the flank of Pickett’s Charge, the great stand at Wilderness, the climatic assault at Petersburg.

But little is known of how Vermont women sustained the home front. With nearly 35,000 of the state’s able-bodied men at war, the monumental tasks of keeping more than 30,000 farms in operation became very much a female enterprise.

And women took the place of men in factories and worked after hours making items needed by the soldiers. A Vermont woman edited anti-slavery newspapers, and others spoke against slavery. Also, Vermont women served as nurses in the state’s military hospitals and in the war zone, and taught newly-freed slaves in the South.

This story is told in their words, from letters and diaries that describe life during the Civil War in the Green Mountain State. And at least one Vermont woman appears to have secretly enlisted and fought in a Vermont regiment.

Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Vermont Humanities Council (VHC). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the NEH or VHC.

Snow Sculpture Creation!

Adults and kids are welcome to come learn and create. Come join snow sculpture aficionados Rebecca Haynes and Mark Eyerman and work to create the snow sculpture of your dreams! Bring gardening tools, shovels, maybe even a hand saw, and of course your imagination. We’ll meet in the Windsor Library’s front yard but may expand across the street and into the Town Common. This is of course weather and snow dependent.

A Windsor Public Library event (Windsor County.)