Where have all the tradespeople gone?
Executive Director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance By now, the shortage of workers across all occupations has been well documented. However, the shortage facing the skilled trades is not new or a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.The declining number of those entering the skilled trades — including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers — is reaching a critical point everywhere, the Upper Valley included. The result is long...
Finding ways to be energy efficient
Valley News Correspondent Kim Quirk, branch manager at ReVision Energy in Enfield, studies sustainability and energy efficiency. In 2009, she started Energy Emporium, a business that helped people move towards energy efficient, fossil fuel free homes. Quirk merged her business with ReVision Energy in 2019 and continues to provide the Upper Valley community with services such as solar panel installation, renewable energy products and...
Looking to the professionals
Valley News Correspondent Regardless of whether you find an electrician or plumber through an internet search, the recommendation of a neighbor or driving past a business, there are a few important steps you can take to ensure the work you have done is quality, up to code and lasting.If you are new to an area, it is a good idea to establish a relationship with a local business that can come to your house any hour of the day, and any...
‘We still need tradespeople’
Valley News Correspondent BRADFORD, Vt. — Garret Girard decided early on to pursue a career in the trades. For Marc Tetreault, the decision came a little later in life. Now both men have full-time jobs in their chosen field while enrolled in the four-year apprenticeship program for plumbing at Vermont Technical College in Randolph as they work toward becoming licensed as journeyman plumbers. “I was in the flooring industry from 2013...
How to protect old-growth forests
The Washington PostChloe Breyer and her husband Greg Scholl honeymooned in Alaska. The couple also sold her engagement ring years later and donated the money to conservation causes. So when they read about a soaring Sitka spruce in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest that The Washington Post featured recently, they were moved to act.After centuries of growing, the prominent tree now stands more than 180 feet tall and 15.7 feet around. It...
Business salvages, repurposes barns
The Blade DELTA, Ohio — Red, square time capsules adorn the flat plains of the Midwest, humbly standing through the harshest seasons year after year, renewing the symbol of the grit-filled American farmer rising and setting with the golden sun across amber waves of grain.Weathered and calloused hands made these heart-warming and dependable buildings that have now stood, some of them, for more than a century. Continued usefulness saves...
A guitar-maker passes on his craft
Advance Local Media HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — They didn’t really have a choice. After Huntsville couple Danny and Susan Davis decided to shut-down the music venue component at Tangled String Studios in July 2020 amid the pandemic’s devastating early phase, they had to expand the guitar-making side of their multipronged business. Or go out of business entirely.“Susan and I were gonna lose this space,” Danny says, “which means we sell...
Couple creates wood burning crafts
Aiken Standard NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. —From college sweethearts to starting a business together, Tera Cafro and Theo Eghdami’s relationship to woodworking came out of a sentimental clock in the shape of the state of California.“We met about five years ago, and so it kind of got started because we were doing long distance,” Cafro said. “I was from California, he was from Oregon… So this one summer during college, he decided to make...
Wood sculptor found art later in life
Greensburg Daily News DECATUR COUNTY, Ind. — Woodsmith and carpenter John Derheimer is one of the few artists who work for commission in the Decatur County area, and when you walk into the home he shares with his wife in the south-central part of the county you know instantly that someone in the house creates.The Derheimers, John and Nancy, are quite a creative pair. Nancy quilts, sews, dyes fabrics and cooks while John spends his...
Duo excels at woodworking, crafting
Journal Inquirer EAST WINDSOR, Conn. — After 10 years of crafting various wood and jewelry projects, Mike and Erica Giroux have finally hit a boom with their small business and have experienced a busy month of December.The business is officially known as The Playful Peacock LLC, but the couple also calls themselves Giroux Woodworking, which is based out of their home on Depot Street in the Broad Brook section of town.The two produce...
