March is blooming

Two weeks ago we had snow but this week was a gift of unusually gorgeous weather. The crocus are blooming and tomorrow we will have daffodils. Every day this week I said, "I need to take the camera" but each day I forgot it. On Saturday we drove back up for pictures but it was rainy and cloudy so the crocus didn't open up. They are still pretty don't you think?
We have all been working hard and long this whole week. Mike has been working especially hard, shoveling, raking and running a power broom that really beats you up. Each night he came home sore and tired, falling into the chair and expecting to get up the next day with sore muscles (or not be able to get up at all) but each morning he got up pain free. IT IS A REAL MIRACLE!

I will give you an update on the sugar story. While this has been great weather for us, it has not been good for the maple sugar makers. The extra warm weather affected the maple trees and the sap only flowed for a short time. The yields are way down this year and wholesale prices have gone up to $40 a half-gallon (previously $60 a gallon)
The sign on the left tells about the process of making maple syrup. (I will explain more below) I took these pictures at Eaton's Sugar Shack a few miles down the road. It used to be a regular maple sugar shack, but now it is a restaurant and gift shop. As you walk in you see this amazing glassed in diorama of a mountain scene with the guys sugaring.
There are men with horses checking the trees and hauling the syrup and on the left is the shack where they boil down the syrup. I love miniatures so I was totally fascinated with this diorama. The little shack on the left of the diorama has icicles hanging down from it and there is snow all around.
Now back to the sign above. The writing is small but it explains the sugar-making process. It tells how it takes 4 40-year old maple trees with the sap gathered every day for six weeks to make 1 gallon of syrup. I explained earlier that it takes 40 gallons boiled down in the "evaporator" to make 1 gallon of syrup.
It took a four foot log, sawed, split, dried and burned in a raging fire in the "arch" under the evaporator for each gallon of syrup. It took the whole sugarmaker's family to continually fire the "arch, operate the evaporator and sterilize, filter, grade and pack the syrup. Right now it costs $12.50 for an 8 1/2 ounce glass maple leaf of syrup (same price for a log cabin),

Sorry the diorama picture is kind of blurry, but you can get the idea.
The little house below, with the red tin roof, is a real sugar shack. We drive by it every day on our way to work. Next week the weather turns cold again, but we have sure enjoyed this week. Hope you are enjoying whatever weather you are having. Have a great day and a great week. Can you believe it is almost April?

We love you all!
P.S. Be sure to click on one of the pictures so you can see them screen size.

Recovering from Hurricane Irene

You may remember seeing these pictures on our blog back in August. There was mud everywhere. Both the restaurant and the mobile home behind it were covered with the sticky smelly stuff. It took a LOT of shoveling. The flood water came up to the eves of Sandy's Restaurant (top right). A lot of places were not so lucky. Many people lost their homes and everything in them. If you google "Hurricane Irene Bethel VT" you will be amazed at the pictures of damage the flood did. Mike spent two days working in the trailer and I spent one day in the trailer and one day in the restaurant.

The next pictures show what it looks like now. Sandy's Restaurant and ice cream shop opened March 15th (8 months after the flood). We ate there on opening night and gave her some pictures we had taken. Sandy's is the only restaurant in Sharon. There were two, but Dixie's has not reopened.

The owner of Sandy's is named Sharon. She was not planning to reopen in the beginning, but after the volunteers came in and cleaned everything up, she changed her mind. She said, "I just can't believe what these Mormons have done for me."

A group of young men and young women from our ward in their yellow Helping Hands T-Shirts spent an entire day shoveling mud into buckets and carrying it out of the restaurant. Our ward made 100 sack lunches for Saturday and 200 for Sunday for all of the people helping at various sites around Sharon. Those same kids from our ward continued to help flood victims in neighboring towns every Saturday for more than 2 months. We have amazing young people in our ward.
I tried to take a picture of them when they were working in Bethel, but I only had a second to snap the picture and I pushed the wrong button and turned the camera off. The town of Randolph gave them an award for their amazing service.

Anyway, when the inside of Sandy's restaurant was rebuilt, insulation was added. It never had any when it was originally built. Because of the insulation she decided to open year around instead of just in the summer. The restaurant is really nicer inside than it was before. By the way Mike had a double hamburger and fries. I ordered a fish sandwich. The food was good and the fries were some of the best I have ever eaten. We haven't tried their ice cream yet.

The next picture is the home of Paul and Dietre Feeney in our ward. They have 3 children ranging from about 6-15 years of age. I had two pictures but one ended up getting deleted accidently. A lot of dirt has already been put back in and you can't really tell in this picture, but the water from the nearby

river swirled around their house

creating a whirlpool that took all of the dirt away leaving the house sagging on both sides like a big frowny face, balancing like a teeter-totter. Most of their belongings were washed away. Sister Feeney has spent years making darling scrapbooks. All of her scrapbooks and pictures are gone. She made the comment that it will be nice to go home, but it will never be the same because your neighbors that you love are gone. If you look just to the left of their house you can see all that is left (the top story) of their neighbor's house. I had a picture of the finished Feeney house, but when I was deleting some extra spaces the picture went with it. (Blogger is not really user friendly)

Anyway, Feeney's have had an amazing lot of volunteer help but everyone loves them. They are just great people. It's time for prayers or I would tell you their story.

Rachel just said it was snowing in Arizona and I heard Utah had a storm today too. WELL GUESS WHAT. It was warm and sunny and we worked out on the grounds today. It felt like spring and WE LOVED IT!

COUNT YOUR MANY BLESSINGS! WE SEND OUR LOVE TO EVERYONE.

March and Maple Syrup

As you travel down Route 14 from our apartment you come to this sign at the bottom of Dairy Hill Lane. It tells a bit about the Joseph Smith Birthplace Monument. Just past this sign you turn right and head up the hill for about 2 miles to find us. Thirty-five people visited on Saturday. Today there were several visitors (but I did not get a count). There was a nice family from Nebraska who had Mormon friends back home who told them to stop by and visit, so they did. There was also a family from Czechoslovakia. I have met people from New Zealand and England, as well as from all over the United States. It is quite amazing.

I know, I know, I was supposed to tell about Maple Syrup. As you travel up Dairy Hill Lane, the last road on the left before you come to our road (LDS Lane) is Sugar Hill Lane. Across the street from it the road is lined with very old maple trees. If you look closely in this next picture you can see the buckets where the sap is being gathered to make Maple Syrup. These buckets were put out toward the end of February and enough sap has been collected that some of the guys have begun boiling down the sap to make syrup. We saw steam coming out of one of the "sugar shacks" today. I wondered why they needed sugar shacks until I visited with a lady at church who tried to make maple syrup in her kitchen. She said all the wallpaper started peeling off the walls in her house because of all of the humidity. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. That's why it is so expensive. You can pay $7-$8 for a half pint of syrup. It is quite an amazing process. I forgot how many trees it takes to make 40 gallons of sap. (I was going to go down to the Sugar House Restaurant and Gift Shop and re-read their big poster describing the process, but we have been pretty busy)

Friday night was our anniversary and we went out to dinner in Lebanon. We later stopped at McDonalds for fried apple pies and ice cream and there was a tiny bit of snow. We got home and there was none. The roads were dry. We were surprised to wake up Saturday (March 10th) to about 7 inches of snow.

Mike and Elder Starley went up to the monument to clear the sidewalks. Just the day before Gene Hill took the big snow blower off the small tractor so they are loading up one of the little snow blowers in this picture. It took 3 hours instead of one to get the job done. (Who thought we would get 7 inches of snow!)

The snow in this picture was gone by this morning (Monday) but it sure was pretty as you can see by the pictures below.

I snapped this picture of the visitor's center and residence before they began clearing the snow.

(It 11:00 PM - way past our bedtime. I am having trouble getting used to Daylight Savings time.)

During Daylight Savings Time we are 3 hours later than our family in Arizona. Hope you folks in Arizona are enjoying your lovely weather.

It is supposed to be in the 60's this week. We plan to enjoy it.

The next picture shows our church
and the last picture was taken in front of our shop. In the summer we drive down this road, but we don't use it in the winter time. I think it is the prettiest of my snow pictures.

Well it's really time to say good night. WE LOVE YOU ALL! CATCH YOU LATER!

P.S. If you double click on the pictures you can see them larger.

March 1st

It snowed all day long on March 1st. By the end of the day we had 6-7 inches. (This picture was taken early in the day) We haven't had much snow this winter so we didn't mind it at all. In this picture Mike is headed down to the memorial to clear snow from the sidewalks.

How do you like his snowblower? He likes it a LOT! It's almost his favorite toy. The bigger tractor on the left (in the back) is his favorite. It has a big plow blade on the front. He's been going over to Camp Joseph to clear the roads with the bigger tractor, and using the smaller one with the snowblower on the front for the sidewalks.

I already explained that we got all the lights down from the trees and are busy putting them away. The blue and gray baskets you can see in this picture are full of tangled bunches of lights (like the ones down in front). Patsy Starley and I have been spending our days untangling them, checking and replacing bulbs etc. That pile that looks like shredded paper is really white lights with white cords. We have somewhere between 20 and 30 boxes of lights finished and put out in the storage shed. Each box holds from 30-50 light sets. Over the next few years we will be changing over to LED's. In 3 years time we will save enough on electricity to pay for all the new LED lights.

We have ordered our flowers for spring but we won't be able to plant them until the end of May or first part of June. We hear that everyone in Arizona is having spring weather.
We will just have to THINK SPRING.

Have a Great March everyone.