Sunday we took a load of firewood down to family friends in MA, Priscilla and John. Although we told them we would unload and stack the wood for them, they insisted on helping and my goodness, they were quite hearty! Priscilla is 86 and John is 89 and they are avid walkers, sometimes 3-5 miles a day, which certainly keeps them fit and agile. After we got the wood stacked we enjoyed a visit with coffee and some snacks they had set out for us. It felt good to know they would be sitting by a fire in short order!

Just after the mud starts to loosen making travel a real challenge on the back roads, the annual town meeting happens. In our town we do all the voting for selectmen, town clerk, librarian, constable, and the moderator; that’s the person in charge of keeping peace at the meeting! At 7:00PM tonight the town will gather to discuss and vote on the annual warrant which entails a number of items from raising money for a new town history book, to bridge repairs, to refurbishing one of the fire trucks. We usually have a couple of “hot” topics which is where the “lively” comes in. New England is the only region in the US to have town meetings. In the 1800’s I can only imagine getting to town for the vote and town meeting was a all day event. The road we live on has always been dirt and until 1997 it was a small windy road with no real gravel base so it must have been damn near impossible to get to town and back in the 1800’s.

Update: Bob Moore didn’t make the seat for selectman; Marjorie Marena won. Good luck Marjorie! And we voted down a bridge and road repair which took a couple hours of deliberation and two ballot votes. Town meeting this year was LONG. We finally closed the meeting someplace after 11PM, which on a work night has a number of us yawning big time!

Picture: Bob Moore, speaking on behalf of the budget commitee about the road and bridge repairs. I forgot to take more pictures; too much yak and controversy going on!

All over New England the smoke is pouring from sugar shacks where maple syrup is being made. Life just isn’t right without a jug of real maple syrup at the ready for pancakes, waffles, ice cream or even when you need a fast and powerful sugar boost straight from the jug! Today I stopped by Ted and April Ferguson’s sugar house here in Westmoreland to see how things are going. Ted said the sap isn’t running like it should. In fact the man that taps our trees, Bill Sargent, came by to collect sap here today and said the same thing. Our sugar bush tends to be a bit later to yield as it is down in a grove where the sun doesn’t melt the snow as quickly, so maybe we’ll get a better yield this next week, but the sugaring season is coming to an end, so all fingers are crossed. The temps have to be below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. It takes a lot of time, expenses and energy to turn maple sap to syrup. Pictures top to bottom: Ted checking the consistency of the syrup before drawing it off. Matt brought his young team of oxen to help gather sap, good experience for the team and a help for Ted. These are the four sections of the boiling process, as the sap thickens it travels through the channels from left to right, the channel on the right being where the syrup is drawn off. Last, Ted draws off the syrup into a bucket, making sure the consistency holds as it leaves the channel. It is then sent to a final tub where it will cool and be bottled. If you are interested in buying some syrup from Ted and April log in at http://www.millbrookfarm.com where you can contact them for more information!

Today is town voting day in Westmoreland, as in many other New England communities. Our town votes on Tuesday and holds town meeting Wednesday evening. We have a race for selectman this year and each candidate got a lot of backing from townspeople in the days and weeks before today. It’s a great social occasion, sliding down out of the hills into town, through the mud, which is deepening by the day, to vote at the town hall, maybe buy a raffle ticket for the quilt offered by the Ladie’s Aid, and just chatting before and after voting with friends and neighbors. Top to bottom: Bruce Smith with Evelyn Hunter, Bob Moore, Peter Heed, our moderator and Fran Clapp of Ladie’s Aid.

I can feel it in my bones, sure as anything ever was, mud season is just starting to stretch his legs and yawn, realizing the days are warming and it’s time to do his work. This is our road this morning, pre-mud. Followup in a few weeks. Logging operations are suspended until the earth dries up, later in the summer or even next winter depending on the rainfall. The town closes the roads to heavy trucks this week in anticipation of the mud. What some call spring we call Mud Season. But on a sweeter note the maple trees are tapped, some 400 taps, and the sweet sap is flowing!