Cassie Carter works at Daddypop’s Tumble Inn Diner on Main Street in Claremont, owned by her mother, Debbie Kirby, for 13 years. The following is an edited interview.

My Grandpa Kenny owns a diner in Pennsylvania called Daddypop’s, so we called this Daddypop’s Tumble Inn Diner, because Tumble Inn’s what’s written on the side.

I was really excited; I remember, the day we first opened. It was in January, and we were selling hot chocolate out the window. I was 5 years old, but I felt like such a grown-up. It felt like it was my own place.

When I was younger, I’d stop in to get my breakfast on my way to school. Then, after school, I’d be right back in here doing my homework. I pretty much grew up on diner food. » Read more

Joe Vachon worked a variety of jobs — from being a busboy in restaurants, to working in a burial-supplies warehouse, to assembling semi-truck engines — before discovering blacksmithing. He moved from Peoria, Ill., to Dorchester two years ago to join the staff at D Acres, an organic farm. The following is an edited interview.

It’s all about recycling. That’s the function of blacksmithing nowadays. You can’t compete with industry, of course. But you can make useful and beautiful things from its waste.

I don’t buy new steel, ever. I don’t think it’s necessary. I get what I need from scrap yards and builders. Like the rebar that goes in concrete foundations, there’s lots of cut-offs lying around they don’t use. Generally, it just goes in the Dumpster or gets buried.

I’ve made everything from fireplace tools and barbecue forks to doorknockers, knives, cheese-cutters and hairpin. » Read more

Carl Russell has operated Russell Forestry Services in Bethel since 1986, specializing in low-impact timber harvesting with draft animals. Along with his wife, Lisa McCrory, he is the organizer of the Northeast Animal Power Field Days, held this weekend at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds. The following is an edited interview.

People are convinced that they can’t make it without machinery, but I never really bought into the tractor thing. From the beginning, it’s been about sustainability and energy independence for me.

When I moved my horses out here, there were several older men in the community who had significant disdain for me because they’d given up horses 40 years ago. What the heck did I think I was going to be doing? I was wasting my time. So much of the modern farming enterprise is working in a market system that’s so much bigger than you and largely out of your control. If you’re not spending 100 hours a week in the dairy barn, if you’re not striving to earn that extra $10,000 a year just so you can pay off your equipment, that’s seen as a certain kind of failure. There’s this pride factor that either you’re a big-time farmer, or you’re no farmer at all. » Read more

Lisa Cilley owns a flock of about 60 homing pigeons, also called “white doves,” which she releases at weddings, funerals and Memorial Day events. The following is an edited interview.

I love to let them out in the morning. They’re so pretty. I just go sit in the chair by the house and watch them fly. If you get a beautiful day, white birds flying against a blue sky, they’re absolutely gorgeous.

Every morning, I come out, open up the trap door and say, “Everybody come out!” and they all go out and fly around. When they’re done, some of them sit on my rooftop for a while or play around on the ground — but I encourage them not to play around too much — then they go back in the trap door.

Of course, because of their color, they stand out, so we have to be careful with the hawks. I haven’t had a lot of trouble with hawks this year, but a couple years ago, as soon as I’d open the loft door, they’d hear me and start circling. » Read more