Nature & Outdoors Blog Posts

So far, this autumn has been very nice. It’s been dry and just the right temperature. There were a few hot and humid days thrown in there about a week ago, but they passed quickly and we returned to our regular temperatures. Around 40 degrees at night and 55 during the day, although last night was pretty chilly. Colder than 40 degrees. People around here have already begun burning their firewood. I can understand their eagerness because I’ve begun to burn mine as well. I mean, it’s just sitting there, after all. And I have tons of it. There really is nothing better than relaxing in front of a wood stove with the fire going.

Since autumn days are hit or miss, you have to take the sunny ones when you can get them. Yesterday was perfectly sunny. Today, it’s raining, but yesterday was one to write home about. Because of all the sun, we decided to head up to the “trail near the cemetery,” which is otherwise known as Pico Ridge trail. It’s a relatively short trail that traverses up a hill past a small local cemetery, continues to climb a small mountain and ends up at a cliff that overlooks Clearwater Lake. This is one of my favorite hikes because it’s so short. I get the feeling of being outdoors and having done something, but I don’t have to put that much work into it. If you know me, you know this is the way I roll. I really don’t like long hikes. I do them, but I don’t particularly like them. I’ll never admit that to anyone though.

Have you ever hiked to a cliff with your camera, all excited to take pictures, and found that you kept taking the same photos over and over again? That’s what I felt like yesterday. There’s only one view to be had and that view can be captured with one photo. Yesterday’s view was spectacular and as I stood there snapping away, I wondered how I could mix things up. I did manage to get some diversity, so I decided to write a post to show you some of the photos. There aren’t many, but they’re pretty nice.

Here’s the view from the top of the cliff overlooking Clearwater Lake in Industry, Maine.

And here’s a nice shot I got with the sun in it. I was all the way zoomed out and my aperture setting was F11, so I managed to get the starburst effect I was after. You can generally capture the starburst effect with an aperture setting smaller than F11.

Here are some oak leaves I thought were pretty. There were just hanging out next to me so I took a picture of them.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is Mount Blue or Tumbledown Mountain. I’m probably wrong with both of those guesses. It sure is pretty though.

Off in the distance, we saw two wind farms. One of them was the Spruce Mountain wind farm and the other is called Record Hill Wind in Roxbury, Maine. Here’s a photo of the one in Roxbury.

It’s neat to watch those turbines spin off in the distance.

I just took a look through the rest of the photos and I think if I post any more, things will get repetitive. So I guess I’ll leave things here. I do have lots of pictures from our recent visit to Sugarloaf Mountain though. We even rode the ski ride up to the top of the mountain, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday was car inspection day. We have a car and a truck that both need to get inspected annually. A few years back, I decided to get them looked at in the same month, so things would be easier and I’d remember when that month was. For some reason or another, I thought that April was appropriate because spring would be in full swing and the weather would be fine. Well, unfortunately, I miscalculated because in April around these parts, while the weather is fairly decent, the towns have yet to grade the dirt roads. And ungraded roads after a long winter means potholes. If you have ever lived anywhere dirt roads and potholes exist, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some of these things are so big you might just lose a car in them.

Locals plan their trips around the roads in this area and if you know what you’re doing, you’ll avoid certain areas. We don’t know what we’re doing and we like adventure, so we took pretty much all dirt roads to the inspection site. While I did very well in the car and only hit one pothole, Laura did much better in the truck. She had it easy because the truck’s tires are made for potholes. It eats them for breakfast. I actually prefer to drive the truck this time of year and leave the car behind, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, the point of this post isn’t to talk about the roads or the potholes; it’s to talk about the waterfall we stopped at on the way home. Just a few miles from where we live is the one and only Mosher Hill Falls of Farmington, Maine. I actually took photos of these falls a while back. You can view them here. Unfortunately, every single one of the photos I took yesterday was completely awful. They were all blurry, except for one. I guess I’m still working out the focus operation of my new Canon T7i. Here’s the good photo. It’s of a hole in a tree. Good thing I got this or there would be no photos at all for this post.

I’d say that’s a pretty good photo.

Oh wait, I just stole some of Laura’s photos. She always takes better ones than I do, so here are a few of them.

The real surprise from yesterday was how good the video I took came out. This camera of mine really rocks with video. I didn’t even think of taking any until we began walking down the trail, but when I did remember, I took it almost the whole way through. I wanted to test out the auto-focus capabilities (which are awesome), the zoom and I also wanted to practice walking as steadily as possible. While the auto-focus part is pretty much settled, I need to really get a handle on the zoom and the steady walking. It was a real chore to try to keep the camera steady and walk through the snow and ice with my Crocs on. They felt like slippers and about half way through this video, you can hear me yelp as I slid down part of the hill. Good thing I didn’t end up in the water.

We also walked down the wrong side of the stream, so we couldn’t cross over to see the falls from below. That’s where the good view is. Next time, which will probably be in just a few short weeks, we’ll walk down the proper side of the stream and I’ll get some nice photos and video for you then. In the meantime, enjoy what I have today. It’s completely uncut and it’s everything I took. Be sure to notice when I walk on the side of the cliff. It was awfully scary, but that’s why they say my middle name is “Danger.”

Also, if you’re reading this post via email, you’ll need to click through to the post itself. Video doesn’t show up in email for some reason. And if you’re watching the video in the post, you might want to click to enlarge it. I captured it in high-def, so it’s really clear. Enjoy!

UPDATE: We went back to the falls on May 9, 2018 and I took some pretty decent photos. Instead of writing an entirely new post just to show the photos, I decided to add them here. Check them out below.

Also, check out the new video I took the same day I captured the above photos.

Hiking a Beautiful Maine Waterfall – Mosher Hill Falls

What a perfect day. We just got back from exploring the wilderness and I have to tell you that this winter hiking really is a thing. There were people all over the place in the woods. I was so surprised. I even snapped some photos of them to prove it.

I used to think that only people on Youtube actually hiked around out there in the snow. That really isn’t the case. From what I saw today, half the state of Maine was either skiing and snowboarding at Sugarloaf Mountain, snowmobiling through the thousands of miles of trails we have here, snowshoeing up in Carrabassett or cross-country skiing in the same area. It was crazy. I was actually very pleased with all of it because seeing everyone out and about inspired me to get out there more. There really is no excuse. Lord knows there’s enough gear to keep me warm and trust me when I say that there’s no shortage of opportunity. Within minutes, I can be on brand new cross-country skis and up in a trail trying them out. It’s nuts, really.

I have a fun story to tell you about today. Earlier in the week, I made a plan to get out there and do some hiking in an area I found online. Laura and I have been nearby this area before, but never in the snow, nor the winter for that matter. The problem was, since I have never actually seen any of the trails I wanted to visit in person, I had no idea what the topography was like. Also, after looking on a web page that described the area last night, I learned that the dirt road I had planned on driving up was closed for the season. That was fine. I told Laura that we would just hike up the trail that traveled the length of the road, right next to Poplar Stream. Sure, it was two and a half miles each way, but we’d make it. No problem.

The goal for today was to visit Poplar Stream Falls. This is a waterfall that sits up inside a nook on a mountainside about three miles from the closest paved road. To get up there, you either have to drive when the weather is good or hike when the weather is bad and the road isn’t passable. If we were feeling extra good, we could continue past the falls and visit Poplar Hut, which was built and is operated by Maine Huts & Trails. I’ll write a post that describes this organization at a later date, but let me just tell you that they really do have something spectacular going on up here in Maine. I’ve never even heard of something like what they have and it’s inspiring, to say the least.

During today’s hike, I took tons of photos. As I usually do, I’ll share the photos below and offer some commentary to go along with them.

When we first arrived, we decided to park at the Carrabassett town offices. They have a parking lot that anyone can use when they’re hiking. The Maine Huts & Trails Poplar Stream parking lot was closed. So basically, we had to park all the way at the bottom and walk up the road to see how far we could get. After that, we’d cross a small bridge and enter the trail.

Here’s the first photo. We just parked and I asked Laura to grab one of me. I was feeling very handsome.

The Carrabassett River is right near the parking lot and there was an extraordinary amount of huge ice chunks all over the place. I tried to get some decent photos of them. Here’s one.

Look at how clear that ice is.

As soon as we made it out onto the road, five snowmobiles passed right by us. I grabbed a photo of them when I thought about it because I’m still in awe that these things are allowed to drive around anywhere like this. In this photo below, they are heading down Carriage Road and are ready to cross Rt. 27 to head into some other trails.

You know you’re in snow country when you start seeing a-frame houses. On Carriage Road, this type of home is quite popular. I took some photos of the different styles of houses here, just in case you’re interested in that. Check out these photos.

Here are two photos of the road itself. I took these after we walked about a quarter mile. The first is Carriage Road facing south, towards the parking lot from which we came and the second is Carriage Road north, where we’re headed.

Here’s a photo of one of the entrances to the Narrow Gauge Railway Trail that we’ve hiked in the past. I wrote about this trail many times. You can read one such post here. There’s a parking lot in there, but this is the one that was closed. People still walk down there to access the bottom of the trail though, so that’s why I suspect the area was so popular.

And here’s Poplar Stream itself. This stream goes all the way up the mountain to who knows where. It’s pretty long. It feeds right into the Carrabassett River.

Okay, so here’s where things get interesting. As we were walking, I noticed an open gate at the bottom of the more rugged part of Carriage Road. Since I read online that the road was closed, I was expecting the gate to be closed as well. Apparently, it was not. And to make matters worse, as we were standing there looking at the gate, I waved to two SUVs as they passed us by and headed up into the mountains. I started walking back to the car and as I walked, I explained to Laura that we were about to take a risk. I had no idea what was up that road, but I did know that the car has all-wheel drive and we were going to go for it. If the SUVs can do it, we can do it. The very worst thing that could happen was that we’d somehow drive off the road and plummet to the bottom of the ravine. The second worst thing that could happen was that we’d get stuck and have to do a lot of walking. The third worst thing that could happen is that we could have to turn around and come back, only to repeat the walk that we just did, which would be really annoying. But, if things turned out in a more positive manner, I said that we would reach heights of glory we’ve yet to experience here on earth. That’s what I was hoping for anyway.

So, with all this in mind, we walked all the way back to the car, started it and drove up the mountain. The road was plowed, but it had a snow-packed base. I actually hopped out of the car half way up, just to get a photo.

This car is actually a lot of fun to drive in the snow.

The spot where I took the photo is obviously flat. There were a lot of ups and downs though. I’ll tell you this – there was one area where I almost lost my cool. We were climbing the mountain and the road narrowed quite a bit. To the right was a deep ravine with Poplar Stream at the bottom. I didn’t really know how slippery the snow was, but we didn’t have any issue. What I did know was that I wanted the parking area I had seen on satellite view to appear very soon. I had no idea how twisty and turny this road was. Plus, there’s no cell coverage up here and if we got stuck, there would be no one to call. We were on our own. It was exhilarating. I mean, really, when do you get the chance to do something like this?

Apparently, the parking area/trail that I was expecting to find wasn’t as easily identifiable as I thought it would be. We passed right by it. By the time we turned around, we were a good five miles into the mountains. I knew we had gone too far when I saw a large pond that wasn’t supposed to be there. We were actually very close to Flagstaff Lake as well, which wasn’t supposed to be there either. We eventually turned around and decided to hike into the area that looked closest to what we were looking for. There was even another car parked there.

In the above photo, you can see the car I just mentioned to the right and in the back is Little Bigelow Mountain.

After we parked, I was so excited to be out of the car that I just had to have a photo taken of me. I really should be a model for some sort of clothing line with these types of poses.

Now before you think I wasn’t wearing enough clothing, I’ll tell you that I had a t-shirt on, a thermal, a wool sweater and that hoodie. I was pretty damn warm. I also had my trusted Dr. Martens on my feet, so I was in good hands. I’ll also tell you that I ordered some winter hiking boots just a few hours ago. With this type of thing right in our back yard, we’ll be going back a lot. I’m getting serious about the whole idea.

Anyway, here’s where we parked the car for the afternoon. I’d say the time was about 11am by this point.

Just a few dozen yards into the trail, we found an abandoned snowmobile. If I had to guess, I’d say this belongs to the Maine Huts & Trails people. It’s strange for it to be just sitting by itself there though.

You can also see the tow sleds next to it to get supplies to the huts (I’m assuming).

This is the trail that leads to the waterfall. The hike to the falls is about a quarter mile.

After walking through the snow for a while, we came across a bridge. This assured me that we were in the correct place. There were only a few bridges up in this area and I knew exactly where we were. I had no idea where we were going, but I knew where we were.

What I really wanted to see was the waterfall in action. I knew it was closeby, but I didn’t hear anything. Apparently, according to this sign, I was standing right on top of it.

The falls were frozen solid and getting down to the area where they were visible was a bit treacherous. We did make it down there somewhat, but not enough to get a great view. The snow was pretty deep and the terrain was steep. We’ll have to wait until spring to get down there for some photography.

As we were walking around, we began noticing signs all over the place. Because of this, I knew we in the proximity of the Poplar Hut.

We began hiking into one of the trails. I really didn’t have any intention of visiting the hut, but since we had already gone about half a mile and stumbled across this sign, I said, “Let’s go.”

In all, the hike to the hut would be just over a mile into the woods. There are no roads that go there. The hut is completely off-grid and in the middle of nowhere. You really need to learn about this operation. As I said, it’s remarkable.

This particular part of the trails weren’t groomed at all. They traversed through a beautiful hemlock forest and were quite narrow. What we walked through was just packed snow from others before us. We walked through over a half mile of this.

After a while, we made it to the next sign. I read it and knew we were onto something. The trail we intersected with was wider and well groomed.

If memory serves, there was less than a half mile to the hut to go, so we kept on walking. It was very pleasurable to do so too. The weather was cooperating (minus a few flurries) and it was about 40 degrees out.

Finally, we heard kids laughing and we saw them sliding down a big hill on a sled. They were really having the times of their lives. Such a great experience for kids. We walked a bit farther and saw Poplar Hut through the trees. There were a few people bustling around outside of it.

Since we were up there, I thought I should take some photos to show you how things looked. There were a few buildings and inside of the main one, you can eat lunch and warm up. We didn’t do that because we were all about business. Here are some photos of the complex.

If you wanted to, you could rent a room up here to stay overnight. That’s what the hut system is all about. Today, we saw so many people snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and just hiking around. We also saw the guy who grooms the trails on his snowmobile. He was having a good time.

We hung around exploring the hut for a while and then decided to leave. On our way out, we heard some sort of a commotion towards the bottom of the first hill. When I looked up, I saw a bunch of guys on mountain bikes. Those bikes with the really fat tires. I had no idea you could ride those things in the snow.

Check them out as they’re riding down the trail.

The trails were so packed that people really didn’t need their snowshoes. Many simply took them off.

There were those who insisted on keeping them on though. Also, we saw hikers of all ages. It was nice. It’s really great exercise to be out there in the woods like this.

Overall, everyone was very friendly and we had a lot of nice conversations.

I don’t know why I did this, but I saw a nice cluster of hemlock pine cones, so I picked them up and snapped a photo of them . I thought it was a pretty nice picture, so I’m sharing it with you.

After an hour or so, we made it back to the bridge, where I grabbed a better shot of Little Bigelow Mountain. You should see this thing. It’s not visible in these photos, but this mountain is very imposing. It’s huge and right next to it is the Bigelow Mountain range.

Now, as a little surprise for you, I took some video of us driving on the mountain road. I just uploaded it straight to Youtube, so there’s no editing or anything. I simply wanted to capture how fun it was to drive on this thing. This is a relatively flat area. If you’re on a computer, you can see this. If you’re reading this in your email account or are on a phone, you can’t. If that’s the case, click the link below.

Driving Video

Overall, this was a spectacular day. My favorite part was driving on the mountain road and hiking all the way to the hut, which was unexpected. We’ll be spending a lot more time up in this area because there are a few more huts and endless hiking. It’s like a giant playground for adults.

UPDATE: If you want to see a video that deals with Poplar Hut, check this out:

Poplar Hut Video

Today was a very adventurous day for us. After a bit of work this morning, I suggested that we get out there to enjoy this wonderful fall weather we’ve been having. Apparently, there’s a gigantic state we’re living in that has yet to be explored. We’ve seen, I don’t know, maybe half of a half of a percent of it. Let’s just say we have a long way to go.

The western part of Maine is chock full of mountains and trails. I’ve been looking at a place called Mount Blue State Park for a few months now. It’s a huge area that covers many miles right in a town called Weld. Really, this is a magical setting and if you ever get a chance to visit Maine, put this park on your places to visit. There’s Webb Lake, which is rather large. Right off its shores is a park campground with tons of sites. As we drove through the mountains this afternoon, I felt like I was visiting Vermont for skiing. Lots of mountains up there.

Here’s a view of Webb Lake from Center Hill in Weld, Maine. It was sunny when we left the house and, of course, it got cloudy just as we arrived at the park. That’s my luck. I’ll take blame for it.

There was a small parking lot off the side of the road where we pulled over. I took so many pictures and I would really love to post them all here. The only problem is, they all look the same. Mountains. Oh yeah, and the lake. I did make sure to take many photos in succession because I wanted to test out my photo editing program’s panoramic capabilities. It did a really great job. Check this picture out. I shrunk it down a lot, but if you want to see it just a bit larger, you can right-click on the photo and then click on “Open Image in New Tab” or whatever menu item like that your computer offers.

That’s fall in Maine for you.

The funny thing about researching areas like this on Google Earth is that I can’t really gauge the topography. For some strange reason, I completely forget to take it into account too – every single time. I thought Mount Blue State Park would be sort of flat with a mountain in the middle of it. No, it’s not. The roads wind around and the entrance to the smaller area we visited today was like climbing the beginning part of a roller coaster. It was really steep. Here’s a photo of me in the parking lot of the Center Hill Nature Trail. Right behind me is the drive into this dirt parking lot. It was like a cliff, as you might guess from looking at this photo.

Those stones in the picture prevent your car from going down the hill if it accidentally rolls. You really don’t want that to happen.

Center Hill is a self-guiding nature trail. There’s a small wooden container with brochures in it that you can pick up as you walk towards its beginning. Inside the brochure are descriptions of 11 trail-stops that you can make while you’re enjoying the hike. At each stop, there’s something to learn, from what mountains can be seen from a lookout point to why a bog exists at the top of a mountain to what types of trees grow among others on a particular side of the hill. It’s pretty cool. I actually stopped hiking to read the description for each area. Luckily, the hike was only half mile, so I didn’t really feel the need to rush. A half mile might sound short, but they really packed a lot into it. There were so many cool features. I’ll try to show you some of them below.

The very beginning of the trail is a small, grassy hill with stone steps ascending it. When we climbed that small hill, we found a shelter like something you’d probably see along the Appalachian Trail.

There were picnic tables too. The view was perfect, so maybe I’ll bring some sandwiches next time. The both of us kept on commenting how much the trail looked like it should be in Ireland or Scotland or a place like that. Lots of grass and moss.

Right after the shelter, the real trail started. I took one look at it and thought it was going to be a doozy. There were some steep steps made from wood and stone. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed after this part.

Okay, I have only one more picture of me to show you. I wanted to post just this one, but the first one I posted was the only one of the parking lot with the mountains in back of it. Here goes.

At least in this one, I’m half smiling. It’s not easy being in these photos, but I try to get at least one for every post. You know, to keep things personal.

The entire hilltop consists of a mix of hardwood trees as well as pines. I’d say the majority is pine, so there are some rather dense areas. These are my favorite type of trails and parks.

It wasn’t too long before we saw a sign for an overlook. Things were about to get interesting.

A short distance beyond the sign I just showed you was the very top of the hill. Like many mountains and other hills in the area, the top was completely rock.

This is the trail that leads to the peak.

And this is the peak itself.

You know I had another picture taken of me on top of this mountain. I just can’t bear to show it to you though. Three in one post? I don’t think so.

Another lookout point had a picnic table and a bench available for resting. This was probably the half way point of the trail.

Remember I told you there was a bog here? Strange, right? It really is. It’s such a small hill on top of a mountainous area and to have a wetland situated all the way up there was pretty weird. My guess is that there’s some sort of a spring that feeds it. It’s been dry recently and for it to be marshy at all is a wonder.

This is the final lookout of the trail. It’s of the mighty Mount Blue itself. I thought this was a really great shot because of the framing involved. I didn’t even have to do any work.

By the way, there’s another hike that begins at the base of this mountain. It’s 3.2 miles long and it goes straight from the bottom to the top. They claim it’s a challenge. I believe them. I’m not interested in hikes like that. I enjoy mozying more than hiking, to be honest with you.

We continued walking and finally made it to the end of the trail. This was probably the most challenging part of the whole thing. It’s sort of a cliff. We both made it down just fine and I decided that one last photo of the field with the picnic tables in it would be in order. I kept saying that if I was a kid again, I’d be running around these grass trails like a nut.

So there it is. A nice day at Center Hill in Mount Blue State Park. Overall, I thought the area was very exciting and we plan to visit again soon. I’d like to hit some other trails. There are quite a few of them. Also, I want to visit the campground on the other side of the lake. I haven’t gone camping in years, but hey, you never know.

Until next time. Thanks for reading!

PS – Obviously, Laura and I went hiking in this area together and as you may already know, we both have cameras. What I posted here is my perspective of the nature center. Why not take a quick peek at Laura’s perspective? Her photos are rather good. Also, sign up for her email list while you’re on her site. She’s got some really posts that she shares.

It was surprisingly warm today. The last time I checked, the temperature was at 49 degrees. Not bad for January 11th. I think tomorrow is supposed to be fairly warm as well. The forecast is telling me it’s going to be around 42. Of course, it’s supposed to drop back down to -3 on Friday, but that’s par for the course. Having the temperature fall 36 degrees in one day isn’t anything new.

A few days ago, Laura and I went for a walk up our road. It’s been a while since we’ve gone very far outside because of the cold weather. We braved it this time though and had a good time.

When we made it to the end of the road, we happened to bump into our buddy up there who was putting out some food for the deer. He and his wife apparently have a herd that passes through daily. They like to put out some feed they either get from the local hardware store or from Tractor Supply in an effort to supply a bit of entertainment during the evening hours. Their house is perched up on top of a hill and they can clearly watch the deer chow down on the food they leave for them. I think it’s nice they do this, especially during the winter.

Anyway, our friend happened to mention that our neighbor caught a photo of a huge moose on his secret trail camera. Our property sits right next to his, so there’s a good chance the moose walked across our land. Our friend told us that he saw the picture and he said that the moose had some very large antlers. This frustrated me a bit because I’ve been living in Maine for three years now and haven’t seen a moose yet. I keep asking people if they’ve ever seen one and they laugh. “Of course we have!,” they reply. And then they call me a flatlander. That’s a term of endearment I think. I’ll take it as that anyway.

Since today was so warm, Laura and I thought it would be fun to put on our gigantic boots and trudge through the deep snow to the back of the property. Our goal was to locate some moose tracks. We knew the camera was back there somewhere, so there had to be some accompanying tracks. We’ve gone back there in the past looking for similar things with no luck. Today, we had a feeling luck would be on our side.

First of all, the snow is still crazy deep back there. Poor Laura almost got swallowed up. I had to walk in front of her to blaze a path. She followed, putting each of her steps in the ones I left behind.

Second, there’s a bit of storm damage back there too. In the winds, the tops of the pines like to fall off. That, and some white pines fell over from the roots. Nothing big or anything, but there’s a difference that would require a chainsaw to clear out.

Third, we found the ever elusive moose tracks. A moose walked right across the back of our property. It came from the field next to us, crossed the small stream, crossed our property and then went on his way. That’s probably when he got his picture taken.

The footprints were big. Laura took a lot of pictures of them, but I think this was the best.

These tracks took one path and then merged with another. My thinking is that either the same moose came back and took a different route to the field or there was another moose. Perhaps a lover. I’m not sure.

After the excitement wore off, we continued on to the small brook that runs across the back of the property. I knew it was frozen over, but I wanted to see if there was any water running on top of the ice because of the melting that was going on. Sure enough, that was the case.

Every time I go back there, I have these visions of cleaning up the entire area come spring. Then spring comes and I get busy with planting the garden and all that. I’ve come to realize that, as humans, we basically concern ourselves with our immediate circles. It’s rare that we give much attention to what’s outside of them. I think that can be a good thing because it promotes focus. If I went nuts with cleaning up the back of the property, a place I only visit about four times a year, I’d surely waste a lot of time. Nothing much else would get done and I’d suffer in different ways. Ah, the challenges we face.

Whenever we come back from the woods and approach the house again, I just love the view. It looks like we live in a forest. Today, I decided to take a picture of what I’m referring to, so you can get a better idea of the layout.

I’ll tell you one thing, it’s damn cozy up here. I never thought it would be so cozy. Also, today I realized that in just two short month’s time, I’ll be getting ready to tap the maples for syrup. I can’t believe the time has come so fast. This year, I’m upgrading my operation. I’m going to buy a huge pot to boil faster and would love to get my hands on another wood stove. One I can keep outside so I don’t heat myself out of the house like I have for the past two years.

Over and out. Thanks for reading!