New Durham, NH- Richard Leonard grows apples, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. This year due to weather, he was unable to grow apricots. He also boils and creates maple syrup. He lives on 40 acres of land and also owns a Belgian Horse named Fritz. It was a beautiful place to visit on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon last week. A lot different than the coverage earlier in the week. None the less, it was still a weighty topic on climate change and an extended winter that has hurt or delayed a lot of crops for many local farms in the region. He gave us a great guided tour around the area.
(Brentwood, NH)- What turned out to be a fatal shooting and a fire inside a home that resulted in something inside creating an explosion, the next day seemed to finally hit home to those who lost fellow Brentwood Police Officer Steve Arkell. Unfortunately, having covered vigil's in the past, this was not my first... but it never is easier. In fact, I think at some point it becomes a little worse every time. I'm not sure I know how to properly express how I feel other than to show what I covered. It was tough as the TV media and still photographers were asked to be out of the way. We were able to find a respectable vantage point that was able to get the story across but also allow those to grieve, which is never an easy situation for anyone involved. I'm not sure 'happy' is the appropriate word, but rather I am glad I have been able to cover this story exclusively for Foster's. I am hoping that I will be able to carry out the story to it's finish and put this behind me.
(Brentwood, NH)- Monday afternoon started really quiet. I had no initial assignments scheduled for the day. I came into the office, grabbed the weekend papers and sifted through them like I do pretty much every week and walked around and briefly said hello to some co-workers. I got an assignment for 6.30pm for a sports game.
I got a call just before 5 o'clock, from a writer I work with. I was told that there had possibly been a police officer down in Brentwood and that the house they were in was on fire.
I know for me at least, the first thing I thought of was Greenland. I was just hoping it wouldn't end up in the same manner. I hung up the phone, grabbed my gear and headed south on Route 125. During the ride, which was about 30min or so, I received numerous calls from people. I could sort of feel the intensity growing in me as I got closer... I just had a bad feeling and I couldn't shake it.
I pulled up to a street called Mill Road. It was blocked off. I saw a couple of TV cameramen shooting some B-roll, but it didn't seem like an intense area. I must be in the wrong place I thought. So I went further down the street and finally reached Rt.107. I moved about a half-mile down the road before I saw the plume of smoke with a hoard of people on the side of the road watching. You could see the alertness right away from law enforcement and safety workers. People were asking questions, 'aws' and 'oh my gosh' were common among the crowd. Most of them were residents of the area blocked off. 
Emotions were running high and a woman who appeared to live in a house near to that of Walter Nolan's home, father of the man who we now know allegedly slain Brentwood Police Officer, Stephen Arkell, passed out multiple times and is seen here in green being comforted.
As the end of the night approached, many questions were still being asked. What happened? Why? Was the officer involved(who at the time I did not know the name of anyone) okay? Things certainly calmed as the sun went down. The once black plume of smoke had softened to a slower, white blend. The media set up their cameras and a large microphone stand. Certainly you could get the feeling that graver news was coming. But nothing was for sure. Finally at about 10:15pm, a group of officials starting walking towards us literally coming from the dark street of South Street, into the lit spot of the press area. It was comforting to see the Governor, but also a terrible sign that the worst was about to be told. It was unconfirmed at the time until just before Governor Maggie Hassan spoke that Officer Arkell was deceased. Unofficial reports were swirling the area that the Arkell was okay and was air-lifted. Attorney General of NH, Joseph Foster, confirmed Arkell's death.
The day ended in tragedy and so many questions were unanswered. It would make for a long couple of days and a heartbreaking goodbye to a small community.