Category: Q&A

Doctor of Chiropractic at Crossroads Chiropractic at Bedford

Explain your job and what it entails.

As chiropractors we analyze the spine or what we call subluxations, so misalignments in the spine, putting pressure on the nervous system. … Our main goal here is to remove interference from the nervous system…

How long have you had this job?

We graduated in June and we had an externship that we had to complete, so we officially graduated in September.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

Within chiropractic we have what’s called our chiropractic why. A lot of people associate chiropractic with, ‘Oh, my back hurts, I need to come in and get checked.’ For me, I actually grew up in a not so great home in Cincinnati, Ohio … I always grew up wanting more for myself. I was in Boy Scouts, attained Eagle Scout. I joined the Air Force … chiropractic actually kind of found me. Before my first adjustment I was experiencing anxiety on a very consistent basis … I also experienced GERD, [gastroesophageal] reflux disease…. After being adjusted and being adjusted consistently, I don’t experience those things anymore.

What kind of education or training did you need?

As chiropractors, it’s a doctorate of chiropractors so we had to go get our undergraduate degree. My undergraduate degree was exercise sciences. … After your bachelors you go for three and a half years for your doctorate and we went to, both Dr. Brooke [Mills, also a lead chiropractor at Crossroads in Bedford] and I, went to Sherman College of Chiropractic down in Spartansburg, South Carolina.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

I usually wear dress pants, dress shirt. Brooke will be usually in the same, maybe a sundress.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

I want to be able to take care of every single person in my community. … we’re definitely trying to attain that … go out to the community and meet new people and explain to them what chiropractic is and why we want to care for them….

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

I wish I had known about chiropractic right off the bat … I would have gotten out a little bit quicker.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I wish that people knew it wasn’t just for aches and pains. I wish that they knew that caring for your spine, spinal hygiene is just as important as going to the gym and brushing your teeth. It’s not something that you do only when you’re in pain.

What was your first job?

I actually had a landscaping business when I was 14 I started on my own.

– Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Favorite movie: Avengers: Endgame
Favorite music: country music
Favorite food: steak
Favorite thing about NH: I love the lakes because I grew up in Cincinnati, like I said, and we judged our lakes [by] the Ohio River, and don’t swim in the Ohio River because you might come out with a third arm. And up here you can pretty much drink the water. I love it.

Featured photo: Dr. John Schuessler and Dr. Brooke Mills.

Bedford physics teacher has big sabbatical plans

Jennifer Banney, a physics teacher at Bedford High School, was recently named the recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical award by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which gives a teacher a year off with pay and a materials budget to bring a great educational idea to fruition, according to a press release.

How did you get interested in science?

I loved computers from a very, very young age. My degree is in computer engineering. A lot of what I learned in that degree was very science-based. It kind of took me into teaching science naturally once I graduated.

Why is problem-solving important in life and how does high school physics help instill that into students?

One of our main jobs as teachers is to … teach them to be problem-solvers. I cannot predict, with how fast the world is changing, the actual knowledge my students are going to need in 10 years. What I do know is that there are going to be problems and there are going to need to be solvers. That’s really what I’m looking to do with my students, making them the kind of people who can come up against a problem, not know the answer, back up for a moment, and think their way through it. I think high school physics is the perfect place to do that. We integrate hands-on projects with mathematics and we do try to get kids to work through problem-solving, where there’s not just one answer to what we’re going to end up doing at the end. We’re looking for them to develop their own way to get there and that practice just of not knowing how I’m going to get there and working your way through it is incredibly important.

What do you hope to accomplish during the sabbatical?

My sabbatical project is developing tabletop escape-room-type games that students would have to use their physics knowledge to work through. I’m envisioning students solving a mystery or working through finding a treasure, or something like that, but having to figure out the angle we’re going to launch something at so it hits something over here, or designing a circuit to open up something. What I envision students doing is working in collaborative groups to work through these problems in a really engaging way. The same way if you’ve ever gone to an escape room with your friends it’s just really fun. You have all these things — you don’t even quite know what the problems are at the beginning, you have to figure out what the problems are, you have to figure out how to solve them and it’s just fun, engaging, and I’m hoping that really makes kids want to delve a little more into science.

Would you like to explain how science can be loud and/or messy?

Yep. Well loud, we have a unit we do in our science class all about sound. We have kids really investigate different frequencies of sound and where they resonate and a bunch of other things and it is definitely the day in my classroom that I may take a pre-emptive Advil ’cause I do have a lot of noise going on. My classroom is kinda messy. We build things, they spill out into the hallway sometimes and we have cars racing down the hallway and that kind of stuff. But I think that’s where real learning happens for kids. It’s where things get cemented in their head when they’re doing those hands-on activities that aren’t just them quietly sitting at their desks. So it can be a little loud and a little messy, but I think it makes it a little fun.

Will you miss the classroom?

Yes, I do actually think I’ll miss the classroom a lot. I am planning to work with a lot of different New Hampshire teachers. I already have a lot of people signed on who are interested in being play testers for what I am going to be doing. I actually see myself traveling to a lot of different classrooms in New Hampshire throughout the year to watch kids interact with what I’ve built, see what works, see what doesn’t work, and really keep in contact with a lot of different teachers…. I absolutely plan to have a website where teachers, in the future, after everything is designed and produced, they’d be able to download everything and use the games in their classroom.

— Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Jennifer Banney. Courtesy photo.

Builder of Cool Stuff and Owner at Kilted Moose Outdoor Furniture (kiltedmoose.com)

Explain your job and what it entails.

I started by building, essentially, outdoor furniture, Adirondack chairs and coolers…. It kind of progressed from there to looking at something and then trying to figure out, ‘How do I make this and what’s the best way to make it?’ So I’ve done everything from the chairs, different style chairs to coffee tables, cutting boards, charcuterie boards from different materials just to see if I can work through how to do it and how to build something kind of different and maybe unique.

How long have you had this job?

I started doing this in 2017. It’s not my full-time position but it’s definitely something that helps fill the time and keep me active. You can’t really focus on anything other than what you’re doing when you start using table saws.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I learned basic construction … from my dad. … I started getting interested in seeing the stuff people were making and wondering if I could make that and then I figured out that I could and then just trying to keep finding a way to challenge myself.

What kind of education or training did you need?

I haven’t had any formal education in making anything but I find that there’s a lot of really talented people out there, whether on YouTube or Instagram, who are really good at showing what they do. They kind of stress a woodworking community over competition, and helping each other get great ideas….

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Depending on the weather, usually shorts and a T-shirt. Some type of … protection and I use a mask because a lot of the sawdust, particularly with exotic woods, is a bit toxic.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

My biggest challenge is I’m my own worst critic.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

I wish I knew how to maximize what I am getting out of a piece of wood and to minimize waste. Particularly now when wood is so expensive. …. You want to be able to maximize every inch of that board considering the price of it these days.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I wish they understood what it costs to make something handmade.

What was your first job?

I worked at Burger King. I loaded hamburgers onto a conveyor belt,

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t take things too seriously, you have to enjoy the moment. You have to enjoy the process of putting together and creating something and not let the stress of trying to make it perfect overwhelm you. – Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Stand by Stephen King
Favorite movie: Death to Smoochy
Favorite music: I like hard rock, metal
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite thing about NH: I like that you can be in any environment within like 45 minutes depending on which direction you travel … the variety in New Hampshire is endless.

Featured photo: Chairs made by Joe Tuplin.

A talk with Henry Homeyer, the Gardening Guy

Henry Homeyer’s regular advice about all things gardening has appeared in newspapers, including the Hippo, around New England (currently, his pieces run about once a month, including this week on page 10). He is the author of several books, including The New Hampshire Gardener’s Companion.

What got you into gardening?

I started gardening as a young boy. I’m talking ages 2 or 3. My grandfather in Spencer, Massachusetts, he was an organic gardener starting back in the ’40s … I was born in ’46 — and he just made it fun. He was a fun guy. He taught me a lot but he didn’t tell me to do things. He didn’t give me chores I didn’t want to do, I didn’t have to pull weeds. I got to do things like stir a big wooden rain barrel full of chicken manure and water to … make a manure tea that we would then dip into and put on his tomato plants, and it was all fun. Gardening has been part of my life for 75 years.

What non-native plants do well in New Hampshire or are there any non-native New Hampshire plants you’d recommend?

Well, I recommend native plants whenever possible. If we can plant 90 percent native and 10 percent non-native, or 80-20, that’s a better mix. A lot of the non-natives are not useful to our pollinators and birds who didn’t evolve with them, so our natives are so much better. With that being said, there are certain trees and shrubs, particularly, that are so beautiful I have to have them. I have a Merel magnolia which is going to bloom … big white flowers, blooms in early April — fabulous plant. Not a native. Japanese red maple is another one that you see from time to time that has a deep, rich red leaf all summer long and brilliant in the fall.…. Go to the local nursery, don’t go to a big box store, go to your local nursery … They’re well-educated, generally, and can help you find just the right thing for you and for your part of the state.

Do you have a favorite plant that’s often overlooked?

I have over 100 different species of trees and shrubs. I have more than that in terms of perennial flowers. One that I really like is the candlestick primrose…. It’s a non-native but it grows in moist soil in partial shade or even full shade. It blooms in late May, early June, with a series of blossoms going up a stem. It comes in a variety of colors from magenta and pink to almost white. It’s not well-known but it does very well under old apple trees and that’s where I have a patch and they spread by root, which I like, they’re early, which I like, and they bloom for over a month, which is unusual for a perennial flower.

Besides garden beds, are there other structures you like to build or have in a garden?

Absolutely. I think that because we have such a long winter, and fall and spring don’t have much going on, we need to have things that are three-dimensional besides our flowers. At the entrance of my vegetable garden I built a cedar entrance arbor with cedar poles and a slanted, criss-cross roof, kind of hard to describe…. It is a good structure for growing vines on. I have wisteria growing up that. I have also another vine structure that’s a 10-foot hexagon with a tall roof, again made out of cedar. … In addition to that I have benches, a marble bench, I have sculpture, iron sculpture, ceramic objects, bird baths…. If you have a big garden, if you have some Adirondack chairs at the far end of it, it draws people toward them as a place to sit down. It’s good to have something comfortable and probably in the shade.

What can gardeners do in New Hampshire in the next two weeks for their gardens?

It really depends on what our weather is, but you don’t want to compress your soil by walking in wet soil. You don’t want to rototill your vegetable garden right now. You don’t want to walk in your flower beds to clean them up right now because it’s going to compact the soil. Plants get their oxygen from air spaces in the soil, they don’t get it through their leaves, they get it through their roots. So if the soil is wet and we step on it, it’s compressing it. This is a good time to take inventory on what is growing, what made it through the winter, what’s coming up, and what didn’t. … This is a good time for looking and planning, maybe do a little raking, you can rake the lawn now if it’s dried out, those sorts of things. — Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Henry Homer