Greetings of the New Year!

I’ll get right to the point: It is time to join or renew your membership in CCG#469. All memberships run Jan-December. Membership costs$30/year; check or money order made payable to CCG#469. Send to CCG# 469, PO BOX 208, Northfield Falls, VT 05664. There are several reasons why you should do this:

FIRST GOOD REASON

Capital City Grange #469 was chartered by the National Patrons of Husbandry in 1914 in Montpelier. In 1952-53 the members built the Hall in Berlin and this is where so many of you find activities you enjoy. (You can check us out on the web:  capitalcitygrange.org)

As long as CCG#469 remains an “active” Grange, the members hold the deed and the Hall remains a community center open to and serving all kinds of folks.  But if CCG#469 should fold for lack of members, the Hall will be sold by the State Grange. It could become a funeral parlor or a restaurant and any one of an infinity of things that benefit from “Location! Location! Location!”

SECOND GOOD REASON

The Grange comes to us with a legacy of 19^th Century Rural Populism. Really! Between the Civil War and WWI, Grangers advocated for Women’s Suffrage, rural cooperatives and supported a host of progressive practices in farming and domestic arts and government regulation. Granges supported and assisted individual self-improvement and social responsibility. Ideal Grange virtues articulated even back then include frugal personal practices enabling each of us to do more for others. Eleanor Roosevelt was a member. So was Norman Rockwell.

THIRD GOOD REASON

The members of Capital City Grange #469 are striving at both the local and state levels to make these quaint verities relevant in the 21^st century. The ritual we use at meetings poetically articulates these values, but we regularly update it to remove sexist or racist or theist language. New songs are learned and sung. New issues are discussed.  Another example: the CCG proposed, and the State Grange adopted a resolution to support S1034, a bill in the US Congress that would provide a legal status for long-term agricultural workers, plus a path to citizenship for immigrant farm workers–check it out in more detail at:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1034.

If you don’t see described here the good reason(s) you come to the CCGHALL, maybe you can let us know. Come tell us at the next meeting:4:30 pm, on next Saturday, Jan. 6th!  You can bring your dues check to the meeting!  Most meetings are on the first Saturday of the month at that time, and are followed by an excellent potluck dinner.

Check the Calendar on the website for details and, while you’re there, scroll to the bottom of the Home Page and sign up for GRANGE NOTESif you aren’t already on the list!

“Like” us on Facebook, too!  “Capital City Grange Hall”
This message brought to you by our Grange Treasurer, Merry Shernock

Grange Meeting will work on planning ahead

Our usual monthly business meeting will start at 4:30; in addition to the usual reports and discussions about Agricultural and Legislative developments, we will have the next installment in the novel practice of financial planning for the Grange.  We have now had a couple of years of enjoying a closer relationship with the Town of Berlin, solidified with the Town Meeting vote in 2015 which has relieved us of property tax payments.  This has allowed us to actually stop losing money, for the first time in many years!   This has in turn allowed us to consider our future needs, beyond just trying to survive, year by year.
In the past couple of meetings, we’ve talked about future needs for building repairs, upgrades of our kitchen appliances and our water heater, contributing to the improvements planned by the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall, and about how we can put aside money to be ready to respond to our needs.
Come help us deal with these questions–we need all the help we can get to build a good financial foundation for the work of the Grange!

Revisiting our Resolution

I reported in the last Grange Notes that the National Grange had rejected the resolution we proposed, and the VT State Grange endorsed, which Merry mentions above.   The National Meeting chose to see our support for legislation designed for workers who are full-time agricultural immigrants, as concerned with the seasonal workers who are already addressed in the National Agricultural policies.
Let’s start working on a new version, to make the need for protection for the year-round workers who immigrate to Vermont and other states.   U.S. Senate bill S1034, designed to provide a legal status for just these people, is a good vehicle to achieve this, and we’ll do what we can to support it.

Potluck dinner after the Grange meeting

Every Grange meeting is followed by a potluck dinner, which lets us all share good food together–while we also chew over what we’ve discussed at the meeting…and the songs we’ve sung!   YOU are invited to join us–whether or not you’ve come to the meeting!   The dinner starts about 6:00, come on down and eat with us.  The CDU contra dance starts at 8:00, if you want to stay for that as well!

Grange Friends’ End-of-Year Fundraising Campaign

The FCCGH has been soliciting donations for the next large Grange Hall project:  improvements in the basement level including waterproofing, insulation for the exterior walls, floor finishing, heating improvements, new tables, and more.   Starting in mid-November with mailed appeals to previous donors, the campaign has been
As of today, over $4,500 has come in, by checks or by direct donation via Paypal on the Grange website.  This gets us well on our way to the $20,000 or $25,000 we need to raise–and you can help us keep moving toward that goal.   Make your check payable to “FCCGH” and send it to:

FCCGH
PO Box 192
Northfield Falls VT 05664

Or you can give securely via the CCG website:  http://capitalcitygrange.org/donate/
And your donations to the FCCGH are tax-deductible for you (to the extent allowed by law) since the Friends are a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. The Donate page lists the wonderful projects which have been completed with their help since 2012.  Also on the website, the “Hall Projects” page has information on the scope and plans for the “Mess Hall to Dining Hall” project.  As one of the donors said, with all the great work that has been done on the Grange Hall, shouldn’t the basement be a nice space as well?
We give great thanks to those who have already donated, and we hope many more of our Members and Friends will join them.

• #2 restrictions on “neonicitinoid” pesticides (very well researched and documented)–passed
• #12 increase font size on prescription bottles–amended to increase font size on info sheets accompanying prescriptions instead–passed
• #13 advocating better enforcement of seat-belt laws–amended to specifically call for primary enforcement–passed
• #14 calling for Drivers’ Ed to be offered at no charge in all VT high schools–passed
• #17 to actively support the Equal Rights for Women amendment–passed

On November 4th, we will be invaded!
No, wait, that’s not exactly right…

actually, Vermont has already been invaded.    So, at our November meeting, Errol Briggs, an environmental consultant (Gilman & Briggs in Barre), who isalso an actual Past Master of the VT State Grange, (and a winner of the cast-iron frying pan throwing contest) will present a workshop on… invading species, those visitors that have been introduced into our state, or have hitch-hiked their way in.

Many of us are familiar with some of the “usual suspects”–Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, garlic mustard and wild parsnip, to name a few invasive species.  Now is your chance to learn more about their habitats, dangers, victims and predators from an expert.

Brother Errol has a long career working in the field of environmental consulting, and knows his way around the roadsides, wetlands, fields and forests of New England, working with homeowners and contractors.  He’ll be speaking at about 5:30 PM, hope you can join us!
At our meeting, we will also be discussing providing holiday food baskets for needy families, based on contacts Merry has been making with Washington County Head Start.  We’ll also talk about the information Merry & I plus others saw at the State Session about the Grange supporting Farm to Schoollinks as part of the official program for the next year.
We’ll also talk about the food donations the State Grange is soliciting, and how FCCGH board member Elizabeth Templeton is taking this on as a project.   She’ll be setting up donation boxes in our foyer(s) to accept non-perishable products for those who need help getting good, nutritious meals.  Look for the signs!

Chow down with us–Community Potluck at 6:00!

Our meeting and the Invasive Species program will be followed as usual with a tasty potluck dinner.  Bring your favorite dish, made from the local harvest if you can.  The gardens and Farmers’ Markets have given us a great bounty of vegetables and other goodies in the growing season which is finally coming to a close.   We’ll have the usual combination of great food and great socializing, please join us!

Since last writing Grange Notes in early October, we’ve finished up the plantings in the new beds.  

Gerald & Carol Noyes planted the plants donated by Carol & Ann Pearce as well as purchased on their advice; I shoveled a mix of compost and topsoil purchased by the Grange and carried water….and now we have garden beds!   Merry Shernock led this whole project to improve the attractiveness of our official Main Entrance, making a big difference in the ambiance!

Feeding the Grange with Cellulose Soufflee!

Thanks to Bill Hulstrunk, who also organized our insulation of the attic of the Grange Hall in 2007, we now have a north-end wall filled with dense-pack insulation!   With the help of Patty & Kurt Giavara, plus me and Merry, Bill helped us make short work of removing the thin batts of fiberglass we could reach from under the stage, and blowing in cellulose with Bill’s blower.   In the photos below, you can see Bill under the stage, and filling other bays from the outside while talking with Patty.   Kurt is filling the hopper of the blower in the other picture.
As you can see, the north end is suffering terrible paint peeling–we think that stopping the airflow in the wall will really help.   The Friends is also planning to have that end strapped and re-sided, with a drainage plane behind, to keep moisture from being trapped.
Besides stopping air-flow, the dense-pack insulation gives us about R=14 in these 2 x 4 walls–a big improvement!
(For those curious about the spelling of the French above, note that the bilingual labeling of the cellulose bales taught me the French for “blowing cellulose!)