Peter Langrock’s corner of paradise, in Salisbury, Vt., is filled with animals. Sheep graze in the north pasture along the dirt road leading to his rambling farmhouse. Just past the house, beef cattle roam beside a Standardbred horse barn, and next to that is a chicken coop. A noisy pack of English spaniels patrols the property. This is the place that Langrock, the grand old man of Addison County lawyers, calls home.... Read more

Brattleboro was Vermont’s first town. Colonists pushing north on the Connecticut River from more puritanical parts of New England must have recognized its potential as a progressive enclave. Over the years, the settlement has welcomed migrants of every stripe, including back-to-the-landers who established communes in open-minded Windham County. The hippies are still there, as evidenced by Brattleboro’s abundance of used counterculture bookstores and funky clothing and jewelry shops.... Read more

Peter Guetti’s home these days is a modest dorm room at a small Catholic liberal-arts college on a wooded campus in Rutland. He left his family’s home at age 11 and hasn’t lived there since. Having spent three years in guardianship and four years in two foster homes, he finds the concept of “home” something of a moving target. “The College of St.... Read more

The Vermont judge who ruled in favor of the Sierra Club. in a landmark auto emissions case is going to head up the United States Sentencing Commission. President Barack Obama nominated William K. Sessions III, 62, for the plum judiciary job in April. After a delay — thought to be payback for Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor — the full U.S. Senate finally confirmed Sessions at the end of October.... Read more

You may know Manchester as the land of shop-till-you-drop, but its charms extend beyond the destination outlet mall. Yes, you can do J. Crew and Ralph Lauren, but you can also take in Hildene. The summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln — son of Abraham — is a lovely spot to spend a day. The grounds are glorious; the formal gardens were designed to resemble a stained-glass Gothic cathedral window. In winter, the extensive walking paths are transformed into a network of cross-country ski trails.... Read more

Chris and Amy Hagan spent two months looking for the perfect apartment in Barre. It had to have two bedrooms to accommodate their two young children. It had to be dog- and cat-friendly, and the rent had to be low enough to conform to the requirements of Section 8 subsidized housing.... Read more

Karl Hammer makes his living in a way most of us can only dream about. He takes waste, which nobody wants; uses less-than-cutting-edge science to turn it into soil, which many people want; and finally makes it into money, which everybody wants. How’s that for a business plan?... Read more

If my first liver transplant was a miracle, my second was a miracle squared.

In a country where at any moment more than 16,500 people are clinging to life, waiting for new livers, only 6500 of them got transplants last year. Yet, somehow, I received livers within weeks of being added to the long waiting list, once in 2006 and again in 2008. Why? Because not everything in life is equal.... Read more

The relationship between the town of Middlebury and its eponymous college has entered a sort of “Pax Middleburiana,” with a friendlier town-gown ethos than has reigned in decades. The new mood has a lot to do with the largesse flowing from the college to the town, which has consisted of some big-ticket items and lots of smaller ones, not to mention an increased downtown presence.... Read more

Diners at good Vermont restaurants have come to expect menus featuring fresh radicchio or local broccoli rabe. But the eating options haven't always been so vast. Thirty years ago, it wasn't uncommon to find canned veggies on the plate, even in fine establishments. Culinary standards have risen. Chefs all over the state seek out foods from the farm down the road. But only one company delivers them fresh, on-time, six days a week: Black River Produce.... Read more