Bridgewater Raft Race - 2009

Last Saturday, we went to the Bridgewater Raft Race. This is an event that never disappoints... plenty of interesting, hand-made raft, plenty of interesting characters, and plenty of destruction.

Some rafts are minimal and are built for speed more than entertainment...

for some, it's all about style...
or costumes...

or supporting their favorite team...

For others, it's a feat of engineering...
For most, it's just a matter of seeing what junk you have laying around that might float when strapped together...
or maybe they just want to channel their inner Wizard of Oz...
A few required a little on site construction...
There was even an Elvis sighting...

At the cannon blast (I'm not kidding. There's a real cannon.), everyone runs to their raft from the starting line and chaos ensues. Many have never been float tested and some instantly discover, they don't. There's some instant destruction, as some discover that a little more duct tape and a couple more screws might have been helpful. And there are the inevitable log jams as around 50 rafts hit the water at simultaneously....

Whatever their reason or method, it isn't about coming in first. It's about having fun and thinking about how they'll do it differently next year.

Signs of Spring

The snow is dwindling and there are definite signs of spring outside.

Towns put up signs like this near dirt roads. Why, you may ask? To prevent things like this from getting worse.
How come when I'm out looking for them, I can't find a decent mud rut to photograph. When I'm not looking, they're lurking around corners, ready to swallow my car whole and spit it back out again if I'm lucky. Seriously, they can get pretty deep... I've seen them over a foot deep. There are over 73 miles of dirt road in our town, so we take mud season pretty seriously. The worst of it is usually over in two or three weeks. Then the town moves through with some big equipment and grades it smooth.

There are lots of buckets hanging from sugar maple trees and miles of tubing running through the woods. With the few warm days we've had, the sap is running like a water fountain.
There are huge maple sugaring operations, but there are lots of "backyard" sugars that only make a few gallons. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. That's a lot of water being boiled off.

Even the small operators have a sugar house. No one will boil in their house because it will steam the wallpapers off the walls.

The sheep venture out of the barn hoping to find a few fresh shoots growing up from the bare spots.

The donkey, their companion and protector, gently accepted an offering of Pipsqeak's apple core. Donkeys are often kept with sheep to protect them from coyotes.Many people can't understand why we would want to live here and put up with long, cold, snowy, icy winters. Winter has it's fun and challenges, but if we didn't have it, I wouldn't get to enjoy the overwhelming sense of well being I've had the past few days when I feel the warm sun and get to roll the car windows down a bit.