It's hard to believe May will be here the end of this week! The meadow is really getting green, the trees are ready to burst their buds open, and sometime next month the cows will come back to hang out in our meadow. We had a chilly, wet week, and even more snow, but mostly just a few flurries. Unless you live further east of us, like my sister. They had a covering of white on Friday! We see the turkeys roaming around more often, lots of ducks and geese, and the birds are so busy building their nests everywhere. Last Sunday we even started our Summer ritual of getting a creamee in the afternoon. Who needs lunch when you can fill up on one of 98 flavors of soft serve ice cream? I started with one of my favorites: Reeses Pieces! But these past 3 days they had the Maple Festival in town, and I'm sure the visitor count had to be down. Not too many people would have wanted to walk around the food booths and ride the carnival rides when it was only 39° out!
Next Saturday will be Bucket Washing Day. We will all head over to the barn about 10am and start the task of washing all of the sap buckets, lids, taps and equipment from Sugar Season. It was a fairly good year, we collected and made 83 gallons of pure Vermont Maple Syrup. Some of it is being sold this year, which is rather sad, but it will help to regenerate some of the costs needed for jugs and supplies. We hope it doesn't mean that we won't have a stable amount of syrup! I use it so often in cooking now that it would be sad to have to go back to regular sugar. Or worse yet...to have to buy it from someone else!
Business is starting to pick up at the store, which helps the days pass quicker! We are seeing more tourists and people visiting for things like weddings and sports activities. The colleges only have 2 weeks left, then graduations will be the middle of the month. It feels so different in Burlington once all the students are gone. This past Monday I had 2 women come into the store from over in New York. They were fun to chat with and, as often happens, they asked for a recommendation for someplace for dinner. My first choice is always Leunig's Bistro, right next door to us, so that's where I suggested. The funny thing: Bill and I went there to eat after I was done working that afternoon. Just as we were finishing eating, the same 2 women came up to our table and thanked me for sending them to Leunig's! They said they had the best meal ever, and were so happy I told them to go there! It was great! And, we also had a fabulous meal, as always.
Here's a final photo to close out the evening. We get some beautiful sunsets from our bedroom upstairs, especially this time of the year.
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