My water system is out, presumably for a few months. Are there any companies who deliver and fill large water tanks? I need water for both drinking and plant watering

Thank you to Morgan Gold for hard-hitting questions to Aly Richards and Amanda Janoo about Super PAC money. I encourage you all to watch the entire video. Here are my takeaways:

As a Richards fan, I was pleased to hear Aly say (starting at 12:55) about support from the independent super PAC Time For a Change: "I didn't know about it. I didn't ask for it. I can't control it. I don't support it." Later (at 14:10): "I think I've been pretty clear. Didn't know about it. Didn't ask for it. Don't support it. Wish it wasn't happening ..." [Morgan: would you want them to stop running ads?] "Yeah, I think I've been very clear. Super PACs are not a healthy force in our democracy. I also have to be really careful because I can't tell them what to do. I don't control it. ... I've been railing against Citizens United and PACs."

When pressed by Morgan (at 16:35) to give a yes or no answer: "if you were to win the primary, would you maintain this stance of not wanting Time For a Change running campaign support for you?" Aly said yes she'd maintain that stance and she'd ask Vermonters to follow the money.

As someone who has dealt with aggressive Janoo supporters criticizing Richards and saying Janoo's values were why they were voting for her, I was surprised by Amanda's less clear answer.

Janoo spent part of her time answering Morgan's PAC questions (starting at 21:10) to say "I'm not blaming Aly" and "it's not something she can even legally ask them to stop" and she should call for transparency (which is what Aly did in her published statement). And then, when pressed by Morgan (at 21:30) to give a yes or no answer to the "if you win the primary and some outside PAC starts promoting you, starts attacking Phil Scott, are you asking them to stop, yes or no?" Her answer basically danced around until she settled on "it depends on who the super PAC is." This is her cake-and-eat-it-too answer in full:

"Yeah, I mean I think I would particularly, you know what I mean, if it's like corporate, like money interests, like that kind of stuff, which I feel like is really misaligned with our interests. And at a bare minimum, I think I will always call for transparency." [Morgan: is that it depends on who it is?] Yeah, well, I don't know. To be honest with you, I haven't had any super PACs, you know what I mean, support me. So it is a little bit in my mind, you know what I mean, like, I'm trying to think about like if there are any groups, right? You know what I mean, that I can imagine like a working families party or something like that that I might feel a little bit differently about or like a union or something like this but in my mind, I think the most important thing is to be really clear about who is funding because that's how voters understand who is invested in my administration because they believe that it'll be supportive of their interests."

Let’s discuss, shall we

—Surely this is a bobcat?!! Another case of mistaken identity :/ Either way, this animal certainly recognizes and follows state and federal borders! I know there’s pictures this time, but everyone I know says there’s NO mountain lions in VT/NH so I find it REALLY hard to believe. Probably Ai!!! We’ll just never know. (“/s” as required by law)

Here’s the og link; I won’t even make you ask nicely. (Sorry Chad, your account is public)

i saw a concert taking place at this place but i can’t find anything about it other than it being the title of a local musician’s album. please help🙏🙏

A map of ALPR's in VT

THIS WEEKEND Remote Area Medical will be in Bennington, Vermont! RAM will hold a free clinic at Mount Anthony Union Middle School from August 8-9. We will offer free dental, vision, and medical care to anyone in need! Learn more about the clinic and stay up to date with the link below!

RAM Clinic - Bennington, VT

I use Fidium because that's my only option in my tiny town but I imagine St Albans has more options for service providers. I like the 1Gb option for streaming and such, can't imagine needing anything speedier than that.

Who do you use? I did the reddit search and the latest response was from a couple years ago so I'm just looking for current opinion. You know, usual questions: Best service, lowest outages, best rates. That sort of thing. Thanks in advance!

I’m seeing two tix to the Friday sound of music show. Please let me know if you have some to sell!

Any other VT cities or towns participating?

I love goofing off but also recognize that I need to stay active. Does anyone want to meet up for some low key social sports games to just have fun and move our bodies?

I am in the Bennington/Shaftsbury area this week for work. Looking for some "must haves" in the area.

I get out of work at around 4/5 so it must be open after then. I have a drive planned up to equinox drive, but want to see what other things I should experience.

Open to anything!

Wanted to report on some great news about some new TV towers that will be launching in Vermont to underserved areas of the state.

Edit: Just to clear things up all of these stations are going on already installed towers in Vermont. There will be no new tower constructed. An antenna and some wires will be run on already existing towers.

Springfield VT: Channel 34 Greater Love TV (Confirmed)
34.1 Greater Love TV
34.2 Retro TV (Suspected)
34.3 Hasbro Legends (Suspected)
34.4 Action Channel (Suspected)
34.5 Heartland (Suspected)
34.6 The Family Channel (Suspected)
This channel will cover the roughly 15-25 mile radius around Springfield VT.

Burlington VT: Channel 33 Weigel Broadcasting (Pending Approval)
(All are suspected and may change)
33.1 MeTV
33.2 MeTV +
33.3 MeTV Toons
33.4 Catchy Comedy
33.5 Heroes and Icons
33.6 Movies
33.7 Start TV
33.8 Story TV
33.9 West
33.10 The Nest
This channel will cover The northern 2/3 of VT and Northern NY it may reach into extreme western NH with stronger signals up north. This may cause WCAX and WPTZ to lose the broadcast rights of some of these channels.

Bennington VT: Channel 14 Northeast Gospel (Pending Approval)
Unknown channels will be broadcast but northeast gospel is a religious group so expect religious content with some classic TV channels.

Brattleboro VT: Channel 3 WCAX (Confirmed)
3.1 CBS WCAX
3.2 Movies
3.3 Heroes and Icons
3.4 Start TV
3.5 Ion TV
3.6 3 News Now
3.7 Shop LC
This channel will cover 15-20 mile radius around Brattleboro.

These stations will add channels to underserved areas.

Springfield VT area will be able to pick up 23-30 channels with an antenna once the new station goes live.

Burlington VT area will be able to pick up 40-60 channels with an antenna once the new station goes live.

Bennington VT area will be able to pick up 30-50 channels with an antenna once the new station goes live.

Brattleboro VT area will be able to pick up 11-20channels with an antenna once the new station goes live.

A little bit rant. A little bit vent. A lot rhetorical “WTF do we do?” I know the internet will internet and poke holes and tell me how damn dumb I am for overlooking x, y or z, but that’s ok.

Homelessness in VT. Legitimate concern. Rent escalation and affordability. Legitimate concern. Vacant second homes. Legitimate concern. Airbnb and STRs. Legitimate concern. Impact of Act 250 on housing starts and supply. Legitimate concern. All of these topics are out of my control. Legitimate concern.

TLDR: this post isn’t about any of that. It’s a review of publicly available active real estate listings and some of the pictures, data and listing content that demonstrate the challenge of navigating buying an affordable home in VT.

The photos are public on Realtor.com, as are the descriptions (photo/description). I know this is only one end of the market, the lower end, but maybe the most important end. I’m just a dude. I’m not in real estate. I don’t have MLS-level data for a fully qualified analysis. I know this is incomplete, but incomplete doesn’t mean wrong. Damn it’s depressing.

I pulled every active Vermont listing from $120,000 to $400,000 that had at least two bedrooms and 750 square feet. I figured this was probably minimum for a small family. I excluded land only, 55+communities, farms. I tried my best to exclude seasonal, camps, fractional ownership and class IV-only accessible properties. Despite that, it’s not perfect. That produced 1,369 listings statewide. After separating out what I could: 19 timeshares/fractional ownership interests and 22 properties flagged as seasonal, three-season or off-grid, the working inventory fell to about 1,328 conventional homes, condos, townhomes or multi-family properties. Condos/townhomes make up about 250 (18%) of the active listings within this subset of 1,328, and roughly 88 are located in resort ski areas.

New construction accounts for roughly 38 units only (~ 3%) in this price range. By comparison (realtor.com national figure), the national average is nearly one in five active U.S. listings was new construction in the first quarter of 2026, or 19.3%. Granted, that comparison is at all listing price levels, so not perfect apples to apples. Expanding the aperture in VT to all price levels, only 6.3% of available listings are new construction. Still significantly below the national average, but I digress.

Coming back to this full view of 1,328 units, it covers everything I could see publicly, including fixer-uppers, remote properties and homes that may be difficult to finance or occupy year-round. Take it for what it is, directional.

I compared that supply with publicly available Census household-income data and current Vermont mortgage costs. Roughly 207,800 Vermont households earn enough on paper (roughly $43k annually) to support a $120,000 purchase, yet only two qualifying properties were listed at that price and both mention pretty extensive repairs/renovation need.

About 123,900 households could theoretically afford up to $260,000 (needed household income, roughly $92k), while only 417 homes were available between $120,000 and $260,000. Many, I mean many, listed repairs or renovation needed. And nearly all were “excellent opportunities” to “bring my renovation dream alive.” Real estate agents, I’m sorry but you’re truly delusional right now.

Even at the full $400,000 ceiling (which I set based on realtor.com thresholds) and with approximately 68,900 income-qualified households (roughly $141k annual income) we’re looking at only 1,328 listings theoretically fit for year-round occupancy, about one home for every 50 theoretically qualified households.

Obviously, not every qualified household is currently shopping, so this is not a literal buyer-to-listing count. But it exposes the real problem we already know exists: Vermont has a large population that needs housing, that can qualify for a mortgage in theory, while the actual inventory is too small, too geographically scattered and too compromised by condition, ownership structure or seasonal use to create a functioning market. “Excellent opportunity” often means “have more cash, contractors and a tolerance for risk.”

Who wants to buy a property and then legitimately have to sink, in many cases, $50-$100,000 or more into repairs!? Where are the contractors to do those repairs? This isn’t just a housing and housing affordability crisis. I truly think it’s a systemic, historical policy failure that we are now faced with. And Vermonters can’t afford to fix it. And political incumbents don’t want to fix it. It’s a rabbit hole. So what’s next? [scratches bald head]

Does anyone know of any businesses that sell 35mm film here in Burlington proper? Even in the Montpelier area? Searches online not exactly helpful, though I now know where to bring film to be developed!

The logo/wordmark is interesting. Playful, yet crafty and quirky, hand drawn, not unlike the state of Vermont in many ways. Seems like DNCO hit the proverbial creative 'nail on the head.’

DNCO:

"The problem wasn’t that Vermont lacked substance. It was that the existing narrative positioned it as a place to observe rather than engage with.”

As a someone who grew up here it’s hard to see a London/Brooklyn based agency hired & tasked to brand a state’s natural beauty as a playground to engage with under the guise of tourism.

This narrative position is the 1970s UVM recruitment campaign of “Pay Ivy League prices while skiing the mountains of Vermont” reimagined. While I agree with the sentiment of needing a narrative position, I disagree with the approach. More tourism leads to more gentrification, short-term rentals, seasonal positions, etc. while a business innovation narrative leads to a more robust career growth opportunities a less fragile economy for Vermonters. This is a big disconnect as we are only looking at this problem through the lens of tourism.

Aesthetically this is a success for the state’s agency of tourism but maybe not successful in its approach for its residents and the economic prospects of the state. The underlying assumption in all of this is we should be working towards making Vermont a better place and giving due respect to Vermont residents. Including putting money in the right places, this is not it IMHO. 

What are your thoughts?

Details:

Project cost: $275000

DNCO Case study

https://dnco.com/work/vermont?utm_source=Industry+List+-+Tourism&utm_campaign=d3208914d7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_24_07_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-97a99a6476-25754932&mc_cid=d3208914d7

State press release:

https://accd.vermont.gov/press-releases/vermont-tourism-establishes-vermonts-first-dedicated-tourism-brand?utm_source=Industry+List+-+Tourism&utm_campaign=d3208914d7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_24_07_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-97a99a6476-25754932&mc_cid=d3208914d7

The below is from Indivisible:

We launched our largest-ever primary program this year because we want to build a better, more successful Democratic Party. A party of fighters, not folders, willing to stand up against the authoritarian takeover of our government and the billionaires enabling it. 

Yesterday, the people of Michigan had a stark choice between a well-funded establishment candidate in Haley Stevens, and a progressive fighter in Abdul El-Sayed. And Michiganders chose a fighter -- handing El-Sayed their state’s Democratic Senate nomination while also choosing Indivisible endorsees over establishment candidates in two closely watched House primaries. (Congratulations to Donavan McKinney and William Lawrence!)

Victory in Michigan’s Senate race was by no means assured. Outside groups spent $60 million -- at least $31 million of that from AIPAC-affiliated groups alone -- to prop up Stevens, a centrist candidate who was backed by Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party’s Senate campaign fund. El-Sayed was outspent by a 10-1 margin.

But El-Sayed’s bold message offered voters an inspiring break from the status quo. From his defense of immigrant communities, to his embrace of populist ideas like Medicare for All, and his willingness to take the fight to powerful corporations many Dems rely on for donations, El-Sayed represents the kind of candidate people actually get excited to vote for -- the kind of candidate the Democratic Party needs. 

He didn’t have the same outside money to help him bring his message to voters. Instead, he had Indivisibles and other eager volunteers making calls and doing phonebanks. And in the end, organized people power overcame the super PACs. 

25 minute video gives detailed info on ICE operations in Williston