Localler Travel

 

 

While Gail was across the pond, Roxy and I spent a few days out in Caroline with Connie and Andy.  No skiing, but plenty of sunshine.

 

And couch time.

 

Connie "hates" the section of the FLT I maintain, but she was willing to slum it and go with Andy and me to do a little work on it.  Getting to see these trees is totally worth falling in the mud.  At least that's what I tried to tell her.

 The warm temps brought a good flow of sap and Yaple Maple fired up the evaporator for their 31st season.  We've been getting ours there for about half of that.  Not sure why we didn't before, I used to live just down the road and C&A have lived in the hood forever.

 I signed the book and had a nice visit with Frank while he was idle.  He always remembers at some point when we talk that I'm "that guy who built the half-cabin on Honeypot."  Guilty.

 There's a lot to do besides tap, run lines, haul sap, cut, split and stack wood, feed the fire.  They have two or three different timers set to make sure everything gets checked and done at the right time.

 No timer reminds visitors to sample.  Roxy enjoyed her first taste of maple syrup.  But now she'll only eat it if it's less than an hour old.  Spoiled bitch.

The sunrises and sunsets were not to be missed while I was there.  I think I even put on a coat to watch a couple of them.

I hopped in the old neighborhood school bus but couldn't get the engine to turn over. 

 

They took advantage of trapped support to get started on a 2000 piece puzzle.  We got about 1000 together in the few days I was there, then the other half took a week.  That's not to imply anything.

Found a photo in an album that I've wanted to recover.  Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, 2002.

Didn't even know about this photo.  2005?

The second cairn I ever built.  Easter Sunday, 2003.  All the others of this style have fallen or been knocked over.

The pond went from solid ice to almost no ice in the four days we were there.

This week provided an unexpected opportunity to return to Caroline and ski.  Three times!  Gail and I went out after they got just enough snow to ski (we missed it by an inch in town);  I returned with a couple friends for a tour the next day, and made a final trip for an hour solo and 3.5 hours with Andy to the Summer Land Preserve and back as it warmed up.  It wasn't much snow, but the conditions were mighty fine where there was enough, and I got a rare chance to ski in single-digit F temperatures.