Helping Out and Sugaring

Just to make things a little crazier, it actually snowed yesterday, and it was cold. We spent some time outside taking care of things in preparation for Spring and heard the sound of chainsaws nearby so we went to investigate. Our neighbor, EB, was out there cutting down a beech tree and he was all by his lonesome, so I offered to help out and he gladly accepted, not that I can do much of anything. Either way, another pair of hands can't hurt, and when doing dangerous work, it's not a bad idea to have another body around. It doesn't get much more dangerous than logging.

I got to learn a little about cutting down trees, and it's interesting when you consider that it takes decades for the tree to grow, and it really doesn't let go easily. Why should it? In fact, it seems to hold on for dear life in the worthwhile quest for survival. Makes you realize that you really have to have respect for trees, they are an amazing thing. After cutting the tree, he realized it wasn't going to fall, even after cutting several sections off, and EB decided that he'd come back and with his tractor and pull the thing down. In the meantime, he cleared some brush and cut some small saplings, things I could help out with. It was a beautiful, cold Spring day and it felt good to be outside. And I was happy to spend some time with one of our many iconic neighbors (they have a street named after them), not to mention a source for future maple syrup. We put our order in.

Later that day, after hanging out around the house, we went for a walk and once again passed EB's house (it was actually his parents-they are four generations all living within a mile of eachother-kind of cool) and he was boiling the maply syrup, so we stopped by for a visit and got the tour. His son SB was there and the grandkids, and eventually EB's mom, the great-grandmother stopped by to finally meet us. It was really cool, and she's the sweetest, nicest woman. How lucky to have all her family so close by.

The kids had a blast, got to play with our neighbor's kids, and they made some new friends. Best of all, we connected with our neighbors, who just happen to be real Vermonters.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Joe Zlomek for the pic.