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Lots of good responses here, Burlington is a city of over 40,000 people, so you'll naturally be interacting with people from all over the social spectrum. It's also a "college town" so there is an open minded sociality that you may find rather comforting.

I would focus on the fact that you're going to be cold, like all the time cold because you're coming up in the coldest season and it takes time to acclimate, also it just doesn't get as warm in Burlington as it does in NC.

Layering is your friend and a good base layer will keep you insulated from the worst of the chill. Avoid cotton for any garment that will be next to your skin, it hold moisture and moisture is dense and density pulls heat from your body. Silk, good wool, and/or syntethics will insulate very well as a next to the skin layer. Hats, scarves and gloves are often a must, have more than one set because they're going to sometimes end up wet, and wet is bad.
I will grant that this type of clothing is more expensive up front than the low end big box "winter clothing", but IMHO, pro rated it's about the same cost but with more comfort. I've got 10 year old silk base layers that are still in use, silk feels like flimsy nothing as far as bulk, but it's really rugged fiber.

"My feet are always cold!" Try something like these, As a student you're often going to be sitting in classes when not moving between classes (in the cold). Warm feet are happy feet!

Hope this helps you stay warm and comfortable while you get your bearings in a new environment, It's basically my winter dress code.

Enjoy your new environment, and, Have fun!

The biggest thing I have noticed is that no one else has commented on letting yourself climate to the climate. As it cools off let your house cool with the outside. Personally I like a house in the mid 50's during the winters. This really lets your body get in the mode of heat conservation, while not required it does make going out far more enjoyable. As far as clothes here is what i wear.

Hat: It changes based on the year, currently rocking a generic knit hat like this. It covers my ears and keeps them warm.

Coat: This is similar to what i have as an outer layer. Nice and heavy, with a canvas shell to keep the wind out, as a bonus it is fairly water resistant. Under that layer one or two sweatshirts depending on the weather.

Gloves: This is fairly similar to one of my pairs of gloves, mine are older and more generic looking. Get several pairs of gloves, they take forever to dry.

Pants: You could get a pair of snow pants, and that would be the best if you are planing on being in the snow. If you are just shoveling or some other activity where you aren't planning on being in to much snow then jeans over sweatpants work wonders.

Boots: I believe this is the brand my boots are, similar style too. They are overkill unless you plan on being in the snow for hours at a time. Nice and puffy to keep my feet warm. Its important to keep your limbs warm as your body will slow circulation to the extremities if you start to feel cold.

Socks: Smart wool sock are a godsend, i swear by these things.

This gear is what i wear in the coldest of days out shoveling and generally fooling around in the snow. In most cases a couple of hats, couple of pairs of varing weight gloves, a good heavy jacket with some flannels or sweatshirts will serve you well. If you are living and working in the city its not a huge deal as you are never too far from somewhere warm. The most important thing to remember is that wetness and wind are what makes the cold feel cold. Beyond that it is just a case of being comfortable. winters aren't as bad as people make them out to be, a little forethought is all you really need. 90% of the times you go out full snow clothes will be complete overkill as you will be going to somewhere warm and only out in the elements for a couple of minutes.

Subnote about footwear, snow doesn't magically disappear from walking paths, and salt just turns it into mush. Make sure you shoes are waterproof.

There are SO MANY! Too many to list!

Mount Philo is great, relatively easy, close to B-town, has beautiful views from the summit.

I'd really recommend picking up a day-hike book at Outdoor Gear Exchange or something to give you more ideas. Like this one or this one.

For shorter walks and hikes, Local Motion's Trail Finder is a great resource.

Welcome to Vermont and happy hiking!

>Just give it a read and let me know what you think. Thanks

sure, have an upvote and a real reply: I think the Forbes article makes a bunch of big, ideological claims that I simply don't agree with, such as

> The U.S. government has shown time after time that it is ineffective at managing much of anything.

I don't want to get into a big debate overall about liberalism versus libertarianism, so I'll just say that a comment like this is flamebait which is going to rile up people who disagree, and get those who agree nodding their heads. So, we should should instead try to focus on very specific things. I think this article does a very bad job of that, to me it reads basically "private industry good [citations needed], government bad [citations needed]." If we look at what we have in other utility industries (I work in Power) -- power is mostly a confederation of regional monopolies which have been very tightly regulated. I think in 2018 internet access is more like a utility than it is like television, and I think that model might work to some extent. Now we're in an era of that regulatory grip loosening in the power sector, and there is certainly interesting innovation happening as a result, but, two key thoughts there:

• The starting point for deregulation was already being in a situation where every household in the US could get electricity. We're nowhere near that with broadband.
  
  
• The kind of deregulation happening is far short of the complete land-grab "let the telecomms do whatever they want" that Ajit Pai is suggesting.
  
  > If the telecoms are forced to compete in a truly free market, Comcast and Time Warner won’t exist 10 years from now. They’ll be replaced by options that give us better service at a lower price.
  
  Again, huge red flag and citations needed from where I sit; the existing entrenched telecomms in many cases own the lines and the copper right down to the last mile. Disrupting that is not going to be as "easy" as disrupting the cab industry or something.
  
  I am equally dismissive of the second article because the author very clearly states that they're not a subject matter expert and then makes a bunch of dubious claims. Comparisons to the early days of the internet do not hold water for me; I was online through a VAX server in 1991, it was a completely different landscape, it was mostly limited to military and academic use and had almost no utility to the average person. Also, the internet was (and still is) a government weapons project. That's tangential, but this book is pretty good because it paints the whole mythology of the internet in a very different light and makes a strong case that at its core it's a surveillance system for government and corporate interests: https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025
  
  The article suggests that there is zero middle ground by which we could have basic neutrality ensured and also allow, for instance, T-Mobile's Binge On to be legal. That's much too black and white, so it strikes me as either naive or willfully obtuse.
  
  Okay, I read your articles end to end, here are a couple I would offer:
  
  https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/11/the-conservative-case-for-net-neutrality/382650/
  
  https://www.ft.com/content/1a421e0a-b4d7-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1
  
  Just my .02 as someone who requires broadband to eat.
  

Glad you had a good hike, and day for it!

Much better than the last time I was up there in winter. Got about 2/3 the way up Sunset Ridge, just past tree line, was pelted with ice pellets and 70+ MPH wind gusts that literally knocked me off of my feet. Needless to say, we turned around and went back to our start (forecast had not been so vicious for peaks that day). Winter hiking is always pretty and fun, but always respect the mountain and it's temper-tantrums lol. Just make sure to have the right gear, extra layers for warmth, a bivy, sleeping bag, backpacking stove, etc. A good read on how vicious these mountains can get: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-Peril-Misadventure-Presidential/dp/1934028320

A great book is People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia. Rainbow Gatherings have been happening since 1972 after a spiritual calling for a community of people wanting to shift the societal paradigm was felt after the Vortex I Festival (inadvertently created by Nixon!)

I've been to the Rainbow Gathering a couple times and was attracted to it initially because of its egalitarian philosophy based on interconnected wholeness of all living systems and likewise reflecting this in their actions. Of course, there are takers, so-called "drainbows" that are basically street kids that had messed up childhoods and ran away from home or became vagabonds for some other reason who are not living the Rainbow ideals (there are exceptions though and I've actually camped with the so-called "dirty kids" that weren't bad people and they definitely weren't hippies).

Overall, they're a really nice group of people. Note that if you want to come, alcohol is forbidden inside the Gathering but at the Front Gate there is a camp called A-camp where you can drink to your heart's content if that's what you like to do.

Everyone is welcome, as long as they're not harming others which is a pretty basic rule for being a functioning human being, which is why the Rainbow Family says anyone with a bellybutton is welcome.

Also, if you see a white person that has dreads and is wearing tribal-esque clothes it doesn't necessarily mean they're a hippy...they could also be a pirate. you'll know what I mean when you see it.

Yes, I agree. We currently have two different types of fuel containers, and they're both fantastic.

We have one of these which is fantastic for pouring. I don't know why all the stores have those garbage, stiff hoses that end up getting gas everywhere, but this thing is fantastic.

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We also have one of these, which is more expensive, but oh man it is a fantastic piece of work.

I used something like this to get the hang of flying and to be able to practice indoors: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MNG37C2?keywords=syma%20x5c&qid=1457981447&ref_=sr_1_4&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-4

It is cheap enough that a crash won't be too devastating and it is actually really durable - I have had countless crashes with no damage other than scuffing up the body.

I have never used one of these, but they are commonly recommended for beginners who want to try a drone with First Person View: http://www.amazon.com/Hubsan-Quadcopter-FPV-Camera-Toy/dp/B00GSNWB5K/ref=as_li_bk_ia/?tag=rccrunch-20&linkId=e522285040ac3b30a050de062892e974&linkCode=kia

Let me know if you have any questions and good luck getting started! Drone flying and photography is a blast!

Hello, sorry you have had such a tough time here, and that people are not social to you. As a fourth generation Vermonter, I just want to say welcome to Vermont. I wish you had it better here. Also, it is what you make of it. Taxes, and stuff are undoubtedly high, everything here is except peoples pay. It is getting worse as time goes on too. Also, you may be suffering from a lack of sunlight, a buddy of mine has one of these:

https://smile.amazon.com/NatureBright-SunTouch-Light-Therapy-package/dp/B000W8Y7FY/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=sun+light&qid=1554918077&s=gateway&sr=8-10

and it helps him with getting through the winter, you should give it a try.

​

I mean no ill feelings, and wish you the best of luck. We are not all unfriendly here.

I'm considering returning the foil and buying a real tent, but I'm still waiting for my seeds to show up. I might pick up something like THIS after Christmas as a present to myself. It would keep everything all enclosed and it would look nicer than a giant home made tent from 2x4's.

I agree with everything you wrote about how slow upload speed is a major factor in what is going on. I experienced all that you describe several years ago and was very frustrated with not getting what I was paying for. However, the problem you are seeing is due to a combination of slow upload speed AND a second factor.

This second issue is that Fairpoint/Consolidated uses ZyXEL, Comtrend and Westell modems have firmware that is inadequate and unoptimized for the slow upload in their DSL networks. If they had better firmware that acknowledged and properly treated their slow upload speed, there wouldn't be anywhere near as many angry customers of theirs out there.

So here's the fix. Routers that run OpenWRT/LEDE can install Smart Queue Management (SQM), which contains several bufferbloat mitigating protocols. There's also the IQ router that was developed by people who live with crappy DSL in Georgia. These act as a traffic cop to manage the packet traffic so that now you can have both your slow upload and "fast" download streams going at the same time without one killing the other.


I don't claim to have the best solution, but after seeing hundreds of angry posts about crappy Fairpoint/Consolidated service on my town's listserv, a few of us got tired of this impotent pounding of sand, gave a presentation (link)) to several dozen people at our local library, and then went out into the town and got the new or upgraded routers running in people's houses. It has worked very well.


If you want, let's figure out a way for you borrow the loaner IQ router (which reduces bufferbloat) I have, so that you can test out if such an option would work or not. I'm in the Upper Valley and can mail out the router if you want to give it a shot (but please mail it back when you're done!) Send me a PM if you want to try. You can also try flashing your own router with OpenWRT (list of supported devices here) and then install SQM, or buy the router that is optimized for dealing with bufferbloat on DSL networks. If it doesn't work, just return it to Amazon for free.

Seconded!

It's also not about how dangerous you're driving with only half of your windshield cleared; it's about the snow on the roof inevitably sliding off in front of/onto the vehicle in back of you.

I've been using this extendable brush for a couple of seasons on my RAV4 and love it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D2QLEO0

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American Flatbread in Waitsfield.

Backcountry skiing, pretty much anywhere.

4th of July parade in Moscow.

Winter time sunrise hikes on peaks that are not on the Long Trail. (The Worcesters and anything in the Northeast Kingdom really come to mind.)

At least visit if not purchase your food from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)...If this is not an option and growing a batch or two of food in the summer is, try that out. If you're really into this, you might check out this book.

As long as we keep putting people in office willing to out pace the rest of the world in defense spending, any aspiration to overthrow our government is laughable. defense spending

As far as having an open mind, I suggest you read Cuba Libre l just finished it and am forming my opinion based on a successful demonstration of revolution.

My favorite Vermont book: Out! The Vermont Secession Book by Frank M. Bryan

Additionally, if you like mysteries, check out the Joe Gunther series of novels by Archer Mayor. He lives in Newfane and most (all?) of the novels are set in Brattleboro.

You might enjoy books by Joe Citro, who documents Vermont 'hauntings' and other oddities.

https://www.amazon.com/Green-Mountain-Ghosts-Joseph-Citro/dp/1881527506/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1/142-6985337-0300352?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4Q98GDBESRP1DEQN6H9R

(But don't buy it at amazon. Get it at a local bookstore.)

https://www.amazon.com/Vermont-Secession-Book-Frank-Bryan/dp/0933050526