Top Stories for Tuesday February 19, 2013

Sharing Memories & Secrets Of FiftyThree Years Of Marriage With Raymond Paquette
By Cookie Steponaitis
    Raymond Paquette knew exactly when he met the love of his life. He looked across the room at a square dance in Cornwall, Vermont and that was all there was to it. Raymond had come to the dance as part of a blind date you see, fixed up by his sister who worked with this girl’s sister and ‘why she just lived over on the other road’ so what could it hurt to go to a dance?  [ more ]

Future Farmers Of America: Teaching More Than Just A Love Of The Land
By Cookie Steponaitis
The postcards of the quintessential Vermont farm with the red barn have been seen around the world and a lot of people have the misconceived notion of an idyllic and low key lifestyle of a farm family with a few head of cows, a tractor and a love of the outdoors. Vermont farm families in reality are more than just eternally linked to the land. They are hardworking, scientists, economists, entrepreneurs, inventors and have come of age at a time when the landscape of Vermont and the science of farming is changing more rapidly than at any point in American history. Farmers today have to learn more, work harder and balance more information and planning than their historic counterparts. In the midst of all of this change programs like the Future Farmers of America (FFA) at local high schools and vocational ce9ers serve as a vital link between the knowledge needed, the skills required and the age old love of the land, animals and outdoors.

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