Scenes Of Isolation Amid Pandemic In The Vermont Countryside

Vermont is a state of vast beauty, yet for all its idyllic Green Mountain landscapes, living there takes a certain amount of grit. The state's bitter winters can last as long as six months, only to be followed by "mud season" – the character-building preamble to spring that turns the ground to sludge and makes dirt roads impassable.
In the best of times, a healthy portion of the year in rural Vermont requires a type of isolation and self-sufficiency unknown in many parts of the country. But the coronavirus has tested Vermonters like never before. The virus can be particularly dangerous for the elderly, and Vermont's population is the third oldest by median age in the nation.