I am a once and future Vermonter. For some years I lived out of my Dodge Ramcharger in mostly the Montpelier area doing odd jobs for folks and farmers in exchange for a place to park/camp and access to showers. When winter arrived I rented a small apartment in an old schoolhouse and defrayed part of the rent by painting and rough carpentry. In those days one could legally barter without needing to file a tax document and I lived on about a thousand dollars a year from a part time "real job," making up the rest of my living needs by using my energy and my red truck. People would give me stuff for a job like stacking fire wood and I would trade that for other stuff, then keep trading until I had what I needed. To this day my friends from those years know me as Auntie Ra, a name given me by my oldest nephew who I would take every Thursday to visit friends living out of old school buses, in treehouses, and otherwise off the grid or nearly so.
My nephew lives in Marshfield now and works as a logger and farmer when the work is there. This is what most of my old rural Vermonter friends do though many juggle several jobs. For now that work has been largely washed downstream or lies in muddy flooded fields. The effort all over rural Vermont is to get food, water, and needed medications to those who are cut off due to roads and bridges washed away. There is a massive helicopter effort, and a less publicized grassroots response involving ATVs, mountain bikes, and endurance horses. The modern and important element is Internet coordination.
These are people who know how to take care of themselves and their neighbors. But it is tough to see what remains of your firewood strewn across a field with the remnants of your shed, to know those garden vegetables are no longer safe to eat, that the hay for the animals is ruined, and winter is coming.
It takes at least three winters to become a Vermonter, and even then you won’t be considered a native though your kids will be. These folks will make it because they have a fine sense of community, because they love where they live, and because they are Vermont Strong.
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