With each new election cycle, the primary season starts earlier and lasts longer. Although New Hampshire’s presidential primary is still at least eight months away, a number of prospective and declared candidates have already visited the state, including Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, among others.

Most homebrewers can quickly cite the favorite batch of beer they’ve ever brewed. Portsmouth resident Raymond McGill, founder of the Seacoast Homebrew Club, pointed to a double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout, better known as a Founders Breakfast Stout. For Dover resident Ken Dunnington, it was a chocolate hazelnut porter. Rochester resident Dan Caldwell was particularly fond of a dark caramel porter. The possibilities are virtually endless. Last fall, Dunnington brewed a pumpkin ale, made with a real roasted pumpkin smothered in maple syrup. Caldwell once cooked up a recipe he calls the “kitchen sink porter,” which included jalapenos, ginger, molasses, licorice.

The subtle scent of beeswax and wood, the steady hum of worker bee wings, and the perfect combs filled with golden honey are among the simple rewards for beekeepers like Wendy Booth. She gets stung sometimes—about 20 times a year—but even about that, she says, “I like it.”  She's one of about 1,000 beekeepers in New Hampshire, helping to produce honey but also to ensure pollination of important crops like apples, strawberries, blueberries, squash and cucumbers.

Portsmouth's new poet laureate wants to win you over with the power of words. “Well chosen words can stick with people and influence the way they feel the rest of their lives,” says poet John-Michael Albert.

The N.H. House of Representatives' budget would dismantle the Department of Cultural Resources and eliminate the State Council on the Arts. Opponents hope the Senate will recognize the value of art and restore at least some of those funds to the final budget bill. What follows is a series of short essays written by local people who connect arts and the community on the Seacoast. This is their argument for the future of the arts.

Despite a thousands-strong rally from state workers and citizens, the N.H. House has approved a state budget that includes drastic funding cuts to many vital services.

Shouts reverberated outside the entrance to the State House in Concord on March 31, from thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, health care workers, municipal employees and religious leaders gathered on the lawn. One repeated chant was specifically directed to the Republican lawmakers who, at that moment, were defending a biennial budget bill that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars for public services: “Shame on you!”

A century ago, the Weeks Act paved the way for the creation of White Mountain National Forest and 40 other federally protected lands. Locals look back on the law’s history and ahead to the next 100 years of forest conservation.

Andre Dubus, fresh off the release of his nationally acclaimed new memoir, “Townie,” describes how growing up poor and street-tough in the Merrimack Valley helped shape him as a writer.

In his new memoir, “Townie,” Dubus recalls fist-fighting his way through his teen years in the ramshackle mill towns of the Merrimack Valley. Punching someone, he explains, requires smashing through two invisible barriers, one that surrounds you and another that surrounds your opponent. It’s a violent but distinctly intimate act.  Writing is like that, too, he says. “While it is a peaceful act to become another person and write, you still have to enter the private space and actually get behind the private skin of another human being. I’m just happy I found a way to do that that’s no longer violent.”

In the waning days of winter, dirty snowbanks full of trash and pollutants are melting away—and so are winter maintenance funds.

A mountain range of hard-packed snow is the dominant feature of Peirce Island in Portsmouth, its peaks towering over Little Harbor. This is where the city disposes of the snow it removes from streets and sidewalks after a major storm. What once was pristine white flakes is now brown, crusted sediment speckled with cigarette butts and plastic bags. And there’s more pollution that’s not visible to the naked eye: dissolved road salt and de-icing materials fill snowbanks with chloride and other pollutants. It will all end up in the groundwater and could eventually make its way into streams that feed into our local estuaries.

Two locals attend the space shuttle’s launch in Cape Canaveral, as Discovery’s final flight winds down an era of space exploration

We had the privilege of watching Discovery lift off for its final mission from the Launch 39 Press Site—the very spot where, in 1967, at the Apollo 4 maiden launch of a Saturn V rocket, Walter Cronkite had commented, “Our building’s shaking here...the floor is shaking...this big glass window is shaking, we’re holding it with our hands!” Our observation would be similarly historic— the workhorse Discovery has been the go-to shuttle of the fleet, and now, it will be the first space shuttle to retire as NASA winds down its Space Shuttle program. Before the final countdown for its final mission began, we had a chance to wander the grounds and soak up our nation’s long history of space exploration.

Seacoast fans unite to promote the growth of their sport

Popular culture is filled with sword swinging heroes from Robin Hood and Peter Pan to Zorro and Westley to Captain Jack Sparrow and Hit-Girl. And yet the sport of fencing doesn’t appear to be all that popular. It’s one of the things Mike Grosse hopes to change by increasing accessibility with his TV show “Bladework.”

winter recreation and wildlife abound on Mount Agamenticus

No matter the season, you might cross paths with Steve Jacques on Mount Agamenticus one to three times a week. There’s always something to do on this southern Maine mountain, he says. “One week you’re skiing in knee-deep powder, and the next you’re on frozen hard-packed trails ripping it up on your bike,” Jacques said. 

As the major record labels collapse, local, independent labels are rising to fill the void.

Though the market for mass-produced CDs is continually shrinking, demand for small labels that offer limited runs is on the rise. There are still plenty of collectors out there who want to hold a physical recording and admire its cover art and liner notes. That’s where labels like Burst & Bloom, Milltown, Lost Sailor Records and Flyrock come in, ensuring that the experience of a new CD is memorable. They are among a handful of small, independent record labels operating out of the Seacoast, providing myriad services to local bands. “Studio, distribution, replication of the album, booking shows, getting the artwork done, having a place to come to think and create,” says Flyrock artist Eyenine. “Pretty much everything.”

The sixth annual RPM Challenge has attracted many first-time participants. A few discuss their plans and ambitions, and what they hope to take away.

Dover resident Andrea Szirbik has been an active songwriter for roughly 10 years, and yet, she’s never recorded an album. She intends to change that as she participates in her first-ever RPM Challenge. The high school Spanish teacher is one of more than 1,500 artists from around the world who had signed up to take the sixth annual challenge as of Jan. 31. The goal is to record an entire CD of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes of original music within the 28 days of February. Signups remain open throughout the month at www.rpmchallenge.com.

Other than a finished CD, there is no material reward for completing the challenge. But participants hope to realize the personal goal of recording their own artistic creations and sharing the experience with others.

Dover resident Hao Nguyen has been following the challenge since its inaugural year in 2006, when participation was limited to New Hampshire residents, but he’s never had anything to contribute until now. “I’m out for fun. It’ll be fun, right?”

Welcome to our inaugural Readers’ Poll—it’s one part looking back, one part looking ahead, and one part gazing at our navels. In other words, it’s a perfect snapshot of the life we’re living on the Seacoast right now. This is a Readers’ Poll, not a “Best Of.” You won’t see any plaques or decals announcing the winners. This is just for us—all of us—and we hope you enjoy reading it. Go out and explore!

‘A Winter’s Tale’ and other Seacoast events foster the ancient art of storytelling.

Anyone can get together with friends or family members at a local café, bar, or in their own home to exchange stories around a cup of coffee or beer. This January, there are several opportunities to share stories in public settings.  It’s a cozy way to spend a winter’s day, and it sure beats most of the crap on TV. In the spirit of the upcoming “A Winter’s Tale” event, a number of Wire contributors have shared “starting over” stories from their own lives.

While New Hampshire’s new legislature has begun its work for 2011, assessing hundreds of proposed bills and examining myriad issues as they prepare to craft a new biennial budget, many of the Democrats who were ousted in the election last November intend to remain active in politics, and their peers say their past accomplishments should not be forgotten. On Friday, Jan. 21, an Appreciation Party will be held at the Gas Light Co. in Portsmouth to honor former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, as well as state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, Executive Councilor Bev Hollingworth and others who recently left office. The Wire reached out and asked them to reflect on their time in Concord and look ahead to what they’ll do now.

November’s landmark Republican sweep in New Hampshire produced an all-Republican Executive Council, matched by red super-majorities in both the House and Senate. Gov. John Lynch was one of a relative few Democrat survivors, and he faces a big challenge in working alongside veto-proof majorities who might not really need this historically popular governor, who’s heading into his fourth consecutive term, to get their way.
So, what’s  likely to get through the State House this year?

With growing competition from chain stores and the Internet, independent music shops are adapting to the times to keep locals rocking
A bass player trying to make a living as a musician, Gary Traversy recognized the opportunity to fill a niche on the Seacoast when he opened Gary's Guitars in 1989. At the time, the area lacked service shops that conducted in-house repairs. He opened his business and set up an Atari computer with two megabytes of memory, just enough to keep track of the store’s inventory. The business climate for music stores around the Seacoast has changed immensely in the 20-plus years since.

Sunday River was the first ski area to open on the East Coast each of the previous three seasons. This year, it was the first in the nation to open on Oct. 22.  About two hours from Portsmouth in Newry, Maine, most of the snow currently on the mountain is man-made, a costly feat of modern technology that can make or break a New England resort. Less than two months after opening, Sunday River now has top to bottom skiing with 17 miles of terrain on more than 40 trails open out of more than 130 total. But not all resorts are so successful. Jeremy Davis is an avid skier who founded New England Lost Ski Areas Project at www.nelsap.org and wrote a book on the subject. He has also been appointed to the New England Ski Museum Board of Directors. “It is fascinating, but also sad when you see photos of a thriving ski area and then visit it in 2010 and see that it has returned to nature,” Davis said. Today’s expansive resorts offer better skiing on groomed man-made snow, fast lifts, large base lodges and slope-side lodging. Resorts that can’t keep up often are lost.