Monday, November 29, 2010

Vermont Vibes New Home


This current site for the Vermont Vibes Blog has moved!!! The new site is www.VermontVibesBlog.com and is also the online road diary of Rachel Carter's exploration around the State of Vermont as the new co-author of VERMONT: AN EXPLORER'S GUIDE along with respected travel writer and guidebook founder, Christina Tree! Please visit and subscribe to the new blog and thanks for your patience as all of this came together!!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

VermontVibesBlog.com

Ok, so my summer hiatus from blogging lasted a lot longer as there aren't any leaves on the trees while I write. To diffuse the rumors of me off chasing butterflies and rainbows, I still worked this summer, I just didn't put in 80 hours every week and I stopped writing my blogs and social twittering and face cracking so I could actually see some of Vermont beyond looking longingly out of my window.

After The Mitch and I's darling vacation in our own dear cabin on Lake Willoughby in the middle of August, I was back at it in a fervor - trying to make up for time off and trying to figure out where it was I am going...

And now I know...

And you have to wait! Wahahahahahaha! Besides the fact that some fellas bought the URLs vermontvibes.com and vtvibes.com while I was dipping my toes in Willoughby's aqua waters - they weren't able to snatch up www.VermontVibesBlog.com. For now it links to my website which is also ready to disappear...

So, for a short time being (I promise!), enjoy the pictures of Lake Willoughby and please don't forget about my travels around Vermont, in my Vibe, reaching towards being a journalist, and spreading positive Vermont Vibes...















Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Vermont Vibes on Summer Hiatus

I am taking my own advice to consolidate and prioritize and in doing so need to shift my energy to other areas right now. I am going to take some time away from my Vermont public relations business this summer and enjoy traveling in Vermont and elsewhere. I will also be updating my website to be more effective in streamlining all of the social media tools I use and in doing so will be getting up and running with mobile devices so I can reconvene the Vermont Vibes Blog with more frequent, quicker posts really showing interesting tidbits, landscapes, and explorations around Vermont. I have some really big news to announce officially in the fall in regards to Vermont Vibing and exploration and in doing so will reintroduce the Vermont Vibes Blog.

Thanks you all for your interest and please subscribe to the RSS feed so you can be quickly updated in the fall when Vermont Vibes reach a whole new level!! You can also connect with my business on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RachelCarterPR and follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/RachelCarterPR

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Where Is Spring?

Fear Not! It will be back! As I spend this snowy day with The Mitch doing wedding errands and long term preparations for our 2011 extravaganza, I think of the lovely spring we are having - minus the white hiccup - and share some pictures I took Monday during an East Charlotte neighborhood walk.

MitchaRachia Insider Wedding Tidbit - the budding trees of a Vermont spring exemplify the color scheme of our wedding.










Friday, April 16, 2010

How MitchaRachia Celebrate Easter

Usually, Easter is celebrated by attending a decadent Vermont brunch and this year we narrowed down the options to The Village Porch in Rochester, J. Morgan's at Capitol Plaza in Montpelier, Norma's Restaurant at Topnotch Resort in Stowe, or G's Restaurant at The Sheraton in Burlington.

However, the gorgeous, sunny weather that blessed Vermont that weekend changed plans around a bit. We spent Saturday waterfall hunting - always a favorite Vermont Vibes activity. We visited the East Middlebury Gorge first and were amazed to find three college students jumping into the April 3rd in Vermont water. Ah, to be young - no, forget that! I was never one for cold water jumping at any age.


Then we vibed down to Texas Falls and the Falls of Lana only to learn they were stilled closed from flood damage a few years ago. The nerve! We did manage to walk a bit of the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail where I interpreted in a very "Anne" voice to the point that The Mitch actually ran away.

We did swing by the reliable Moss Glen Falls where we snapped a few pictures like everyone else, but as you can see, we captured some orbs!





Saturday night we finally made our way to the Bluebird Tavern and enjoyed a warm patio dinner with good friends and the live music of the Vermont goddess of song, Myra Flynn. The Bluebird Tavern was worth the wait and I have never seen such a groovy selection of drinks!

Sunday was a glorious Charlotte Farmhouse day. Being believers of metaphysics, energy, and nature, The Mitch and I do not celebrate Easter in a traditional sense, but I do enjoy the giving thanks to spring, bunnies, eggs, and daffodils. Especially since spring is the season of my existence! We relaxed, enjoyed our beautiful yard, and I made a spectacular dinner in our newly rearranged dining room. I cleared out the freezer of the remaining frozen veggies from last year's harvest, combined that with an eclectic mix of canned items still hanging out on the shelf and some Vermont ham and made a three course brunch of our own! And I was able to use the very first fresh herbs of the season. The Mitch claimed it was a party in his mouth which is the highest culinary compliment I get!





Friday, April 2, 2010

A Friend to Tea

I love tea. This probably stems from my mom and I's post homework weeknight chats when I was in high school when she would bring me tea and we would gossip about all sorts of things. My dad didn't really like the gossiping and I think my mom might feel guilty about it sometimes. However, I have realized how very important those chats were. They were the only time mom didn't hound me about things moms hound about. Instead we were girlish and giggly - just what you are supposed to be when having tea. Giggles caused by the simplicity on a friendship and a conversation, without the need for wine.

My delights in the thrills of tea also are steeped in Anne of Green Gables tradition and now that I am re-reading the entire series as a 34 year old, I am realizing just how much of an impact that Anne-girl has had on my life. In fact, I plan to shut down the Vermont PR office early today so I can frolic alone in the bountiful mirages of a budding spring.

There is nothing more special between friends than sharing the sanctity of kindred spirits and the always sought after bosom buddy; so on a sunny day in mid-February, I did just that...

Skipping work like a true manifestor of my destiny to be able to put aside the grind for when the truly important things in life present themselves, I vibed off to my fellow kindred spirit's farmhouse in Northern Vermont and we had tea. And we watched all eight hours of Anne of Green Gables and Avonlea.

We began with a tea spread which was complete with nice napkins, dainty finger pastries, a tea pot and fun cups, candles, rocks and crystals, fresh flowers, lady fans...




Half of the day we watched, cried, ate naughty little treats, and drank delicious tea from of dried spearmint, peppermint, and chamomile from my garden last year. We also decided I was Anne and Christine was Diana, determined we most definitely are bosom friends, and Christine (aka Diana) shared a lock of her fine, black dreads - sigh....

Of course I forgot to mention the day started with Christine's nub tailed little kitten climbing to the roof of their barn, walking the ridgepole, and then falling to the ground where he bounced up, quite proud of himself. Christine was in hysterics. I was in total amusement as it was, well, so Anne!

The second part of the day we completed watching Anne and enjoyed sushi and some more tea - tea and sushi also do create quite the spread!




I have a few blogs in my queue to write and was sparked to get to this one when I saw a Yankee Magazine Teahouse article written by another blogger who writes all about tea! Check out the Tea Pages Blog - http://teapages.blogspot.com.

PS - To Katrina of the Tea Pages Blog and other tea enthusiasts who enjoy Vermont Vibing - please check out the Harmony English Tea Room at Brandon Music! Perhaps it can be considered to be in the tea anthology!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Kitty Spa Day: Avoid Taking Cats to the Vet

A crazy cat lady is another talent to add to my interesting assortment of activities and shenanigans. In addition to relishing in this role with my award winning beast Fee, my vocal sour puss Tela, and my naughty bombing around Bonhan (The Mitch made us get Bonham so he wouldn't just have step-cats), I have also had my share of costly run-ins with the vet and have learned the disheartening lessons of the sometimes shifty business of making money off of the aching hearts of pet owners. So, I thought it was high time I share some of my expertise in the area of cat health management...

Overall Wellness Tips:

1.) Whenever you bring a new kitty into a home or move a kitty from a home, take it immediately to the bathtub and wash it with a high gloss flea bath shampoo. This will do two things:
- Kill off any possible fleas before they can infest your home (no matter where meow meow comes from, this is WAY better than having to deal with an infestation - even if you are told there are no fleas).
- Immediately conditions your cat to want to be clean as it territorializes its new home.

2.) Share bathroom positive time with kitty. Many cats already like running water and allowing them to hang out in the bathroom with you should be considered a bonding experience. This serves a variety of very useful purposes in communicating with your cat:
- Cats respond to bathing and grooming - owner grooming encourages cat grooming. The bathroom is a great place to brush your cat, check kitty over for signs of health issues, and other "spa" activities (see below).
- Water drinking (like sips from the sink) encourages water drinking which is very important for cats, especially with so many prone to urinary tract infections.
- The steam from the shower is great for respiratory infections and cat herpes (when a cat has a cold).
- Water and bathroom noises are good for cats to feel less skittish and being used to the bathroom will help matters greatly for when kitty might need first aid and keep him from being so freaked out.
- And in my experience, the most important reason for consistent and positive bathroom bonding with kitty is when your cat does not feel well, they will go into the bathroom and act weird when you are not in the bathroom. It's their way of telling you they don't feel well and it is time to check them over or actually make a trip to the vet. People say they wish their cats could tell them when they don't feel well and if you engage in bathroom time, they will be able to tell you when.

3.) If you want your cat to be able to travel in a car, it must start as a kitten by bringing them on trips that do not involve going to the vet. It is easy for cats to learn and adapt when given the chance while they are young. Bring them to a friend's house or home for the holidays with a smaller litter pan and food bowls. Set up the items as soon as you enter the visiting house and kitty will love the exploration. Then he will equate traveling in the car with visiting a new home. This will also help your cat be more social with people and less skittish in new environments.

Remedies:


1.) Runny eyes, puss in eyes, aka pink eye - other wise known as conjunctivitis. Before you go to the vet, purchase some basic saline solution with boric acid as an ingredient. Drop one drop in each eye twice a day. Should clear it up!

2.) Sneezy kitty, cat has a cold - most likely this is cat herpes - highly contagious and it seems cats can get it from the human cold - weird. Do a few things:
- Run the shower without the fan on and let kitty have a sauna! If you have been hanging out with your cat in the bathroom like suggested above, this won't freak them out and it will really help clear them out - just think how much better you feel when you breath in lots of steam when you have a cold!
- Give kitty Lysine. Lysine is recommended to help reduce flair ups in human herpes and works for cats too (remember, we have lots of the same diseases at kitty)! Lysine comes in big white pills and cats can't handle the same dosage as humans so what I do is crush it up and make a mixture of one pill and water in a little container where I can extract the liquid with an eye dropper or liquid use syringe. Then I squirt a mouthful or two in my cat's mouth twice a day until well over the cold.
- I keep kitties eyes cleaned out with a warm, wet Q-tip. You should clean out your cat's eyes of sleepy seeds daily - it will help prevent eye problems and help your cat be used to you poking around its face for when he really needs it!
- Force feed water - using the eye dropper or liquid syringe, I give cats with colds lots of forced extra water when they have a cold. They need prompting just like we do!

Cat Spa Day:

A proactive way to take care of your pet and to limit vet visits overall is to not simply engage in at home emergency management, but be proactive and keep tabs on kitty. So, every couple of months (I should do it more), I have kitty spa day. It consists of:
- Using an over the counter ear mite solution and cleaner to clean out kitty ears. This doesn't work if your cat has mites - for that you need to go to the vet, but it does help ears from getting infected and more prone to mites. So, I make sure I carefully clean out any gook from the ears.
- Brush their teeth! Yes, they hate it, but it is so good in the long run. I have cat tooth brushes and toothpaste and scrub their little teeth (The Mitch has to help with this). My two older cats have gingivitis and I am trying to avoid the several thousand dollar charges to clean their teeth, so I have been cleaning them. If the gums bleed, I also carefully apply hydrogen peroxide to them to help fight infections. And, I will tell you, Fee's teeth are starting to clear up - it's working! Hydrogen peroxide is also great to use in any open cut or wound - but very very careful in the mouth as it's not meant to be swallowed. I dab with water after and rinse their mouth with the eye dropper/water syringe after brushing and before using the hydrogen peroxide.
- Clip the nails! They have gotten used to this and I am now comfortable with where to cut (BEFORE the pink - that is tissue!).
- Bath them! Ok, Fee is weird and likes the water and a bath, but for the most part, I use cat bath wipes and wipe them all over. Then I brush them which they LOVE! The they are soooooo happy and purr and rub all around and of course I finish with tarter control cat treats.
- The Vet - I am not a vet avoider - just a minimalist since half the time they don't even know what to do or just prescribe stuff to get you to spend money. But, it is important for cats to have their yearly check up and be up to date on all shots - this I definitely do!




I hope this helps some folks and cats who need it!