Covered Bridges in Lyndonville

View Covered Bridges of Lyndonville, Vermont in a larger map

Story:

Covered bridges have been around for many years, they have been used to help keep animals and people out of the rain during a storm. They also are used by the wildlife such as flocks of turkeys to get out of the elements. Covered bridges have became a thing of the past, they aren't built anymore and have become a rare entity in today's world. Most covered bridges have been either destroyed or are rotting away in the woods or a swamp.

Lyndonville was one of the few towns which took the intiative to save these great pieces of architecture. These bridges can tell so many stories without saying anything on them. People come from all over the NorthEast to catch a glimpse of these incredible bridges. Possibly the most impressive of all the covered bridges is the Millers Run Bridge because it is the only bridge in all of Vermont that is still part of the State Highway System in Vermont which is an incredible feat considering it was first created in 1878, and still is around for the rest of us to use over a 130 years later.

The reason I did this project on these bridges is because I have cousins whom live in Colorado and they visit only around once every 6 or 7 years. The last time they came up was this past summer, while they were up I was suprised at the fact that they wanted to see the covered bridges. I have always looked right past the covered bridges because I see them everyday. My cousins how ever were instantly taken in by the bridges and how amazingly crafted they were. My oldest cousin Nick who is 22 now, is trying to become an architect so he loved seeing how the old bridges were put together. After seeing how amazed and enthusiastic he was it brought back an interest of the bridges for me. I honestly have never researched or learned about the bridges, but I have now and am surely glad I did this project.

Tropical Storm Irene Aftermath Video

Hurricane Irene occurred on August 28th, 2011 it completely destroyed the Northeast, but in particular Vermont. It was the first major storm to slam into the region in quite a few years. It did a considerable amount of damage to the state of Vermont. It washed out roads and completely destroyed some people's homes and in some cases their towns. The overall damage caused by this storm is in excess of 700 million dollars, every single river and stream in this state suffered from severe flooding due to the storm.
Tropical Storm Irene is only the second Tropical Storm to ever hit Vermont the other occurred in 1938. Sadly, during the storm some of Vermont's most prized artifacts were swept away such as the covered bridges which Vermont had become very famous for having. Towns such as Killington were completely blocked from contact from outside sources for about two weeks, and the total death toll within the state of Vermont was three. Rural towns in Vermont that were completely shut off from help were given supplies via helicopter because that was the only possible way to make contact with them.
Although when times are tough the best in people tends to come out as well. For example, the Phish benefit concert which all money raised was given to the victims of the storm. Phish is a Vermont born band and even though they have become national stars they haven't forgotten their roots in Vermont and showed their appreciation with the benefit concert. Another band which helped Vermonters by hosting a benefit concert was the band out of Waitsfield, Vermont, and that is Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
At the end of the storm everyone was affected to a certain extent some much more than others. For example, I was not personally devastated by the storm due to the fact that our home is located on a hill and the town of Lyndon wasn't completely demolished. Yet, the logging trails in which we use frequently were completely washed out and are unusable at this time. On the flip side would be my friend Ian whos house is located directly beside the river, and was flooded very severely. The water completely filled his entire basement as well flood around two feet of water into their first floor.

Video Project Idea

For the video project our group will be video taping the Islam debate this thursday. We will provide people with the jist of what the debate was about and why the debate is being held. It will have audio from multiple different people that are attending the debate.

Story for Slideshow

    Changing a tire is an experience everyone will face at some point in their life, and if you don't know how to do it yourself you can have some problems. I have heard some horror stories about people attempting to change a tire and I will tell you some of these stories.
    One of my good friends Ryan was out mudding his truck during mud season in early spring. It was a usual day of mudding we have gone out to that area multiple times to go mudding, but on this particular day he went out by himself. He was going through a stretch of mud when all of a sudden the right side of his truck dropped right down and he came to an immediate halt. He got out of his truck and looked at his passenger side front tire and what he saw was his tire had came off the bead. So he needed to put his spare tire on and that is where the problem began. He had all the proper equipment to do it but he was in a foot of mud and his jack would just sink to the bottom every time he attempted to jack his front end up. He realized he wasn't going to get out of there himself, he was going to need some help. Where he was mudding had no cellphone service so he had to walk out of the woods and call a tow truck service, and he had to make sure they had a 4 wheel drive wrecker. He got ahold of them and luckily for him where he got stuck there was a road that made it easy for the wrecker to get to him, but the wrecker had to drive 25 minutes just to get to him. Ultimately he was charged 100 dollars just to have the wrecker pull him out, because they winched his truck up onto the flatbed and drove to a flat place and unloaded it so he could change his tire. He learned a great lesson that day, he learned to make sure to check his tires before he goes out mudding.
    Changing your tire is vital knowledge especially if you are by yourself and are out of range of other people. Although as my friend Ryan found out theres times where you have no choice, but to try to find help he had a situation that required the services of a wrecker. I myself have been in a situation like that, but it wasn't over a flat tire.

IReport Critique

Tear Gas in Oakland
This was the first video I watched and I enjoyed the video because it shows what is truly happening in Oakland and how upset people are about what is happening in this country. It is surely news because it shows how upset some of are fellow citizens are and what they are facing. The teargas being shot into the crowds really shows you the severity of the problem. I don't believe I could do better because I don't see lyndonville having a riot like this anytime soon.

Hurricane Rina
This was a picture of the Hurricane moving in on the United States. I believe this is surely news because a natural disaster is always possible when a hurricane is involved. It is interesting because the picture shows how the hurricane produces a wall of darkness in the sky and looks like it will be a strong hurricane. If I was a CNN reporter I believe the photo could help to show that the hurricane is coming. I don't think I could do better because I have never seen a storm that looks quite like that.

Protests in Athens
This showed the problems athens was facing and the uproar the citizens were having in that area. It is interesting because it shows that oakland is not the only place where citizens are fed up and fighting back, tear gas was also used in Athens as a form of crows control. If I was a producer I would surely use this because it shows the severity of the problem in athens. I couldn't do better because yet again I have never seen a riot before.

Synopsis for slideshow

For my slideshow project I will be doing how to chane a tire on a vehicle. I will show each step that goes into changing a tire. I will also incorporate narration to help people better understand each picture that is on the slide show. I will show them to properly loosen the lug nuts, which spots on the vehicle are proper places to place a jack, and I will also show them how to correctly tighten lugnuts and what order to tighten them in. I will also show people what kind of jack should be used for each kind of vehicle, because if you use to small of a jack then your vehicle could ultimately collapse the jack and that could cause alot of bad things to occur. I will also show them where to properly place the jack stands under the vehicle so that you have something else to support the vehicle besides the hydraulic jack, because once in a while those can fail.Overall my project will be to show how to properly and safely change a vehicle tire.

Slideshow Critiques

http://www.slideroll.com/slideshows/members/petrepan/show/taurus-405-2/
I enjoyed this slideshow because it showed all the key parts of the gun and what size bullet the gun takes. On the other hand it could have been a little longer and more in depth about the dimensions and actual size of the gun.

http://photopeach.com/ (Polar bear project)
I liked the amount of photos that was imbedded within the slideshow, I also liked how it showed all the animals that are in their dog sledding video it gives you a great visual as to the amount of animals this person has. I also like how it described what was happening in each of the pictures and showing what kind of natural elements they face.

http://photobucket.com/images/black%20and%20white/
There is a lot of great photos within this gallery and they are very well done. Although it doesn't appear all the pictures were actually taken by the uploader and that they just took photos and turned them into black and white on photo shop.

Overall:
I feel that slideshows are a much better tool for storytelling because each picture plays right infront of you and they normally have a certain order that they go in to make the story more realistic. Also, the addition of sound to a slideshow greatly improves how appealing the slideshow is especially if there is someone narrating because you feel like you are watching a t.v. show, but instead its just pictures. In my opinion slideshows work much better at conveying pictures.