Sheltering in place, shutting down all but essential businesses, wearing masks in public seems to be working in Vermont as it is predicted the peak of Covid19 infections would be this week. We are grateful for our governor Phil Scott who has kept abreast of the science and has acted aggressively to slow the spread of the pandemic. The shut down is scheduled to end May 15th but will probably be extended with a slow roll out of opening social interactions. The girls are doing well; reading, painting, bouncing on the trampoline, staying up late and watching the Lord of the Rings movies over the past week and sleeping in late.
Colleen is in the tail end phase of boiling the sap and it has moved into the house for the final boil on the stove top; so far she has 2 gallons of syrup with just a bit more sap to go.
On Saturday Night we had our first Country Line Wii Dance Off with Jakobi emerging as the champ followed closely by Colleen and Moch,
Our mountainside is full of springs and this year I am creating some pools for the water to collect in rather then just let it seep down the accumulated hummus of leaves and branches. The plan is to line the pools with rocks and create a beautiful landscaped series of descending pools. This is Phase 1: the mud pools.
Hawkins Pond
We have sen Hawkins Pond on the map for years, Colleen has even hiked to a look out above it years ago and a couple of years ago she and I tried to find it but were turned back by time constraints. So we made it our mission this Sunday to find it.
It was a beautiful spring day, 60 degrees and sunny and we set out at noon with two goals in mind: 1) to follow the power-spout creek to it’s source and 2) to find Hawkins Pond. We thought maybe one would lead to the other.
The creek rambled through a series of gentle gullies before petering out ina marshy spring fed meadow. We could see Hobart Mountain from there and knowing from the map that Hawkins Pond was at the SE corner of the mountain we headed in that direction.
We traversed the base of Hobart marveling at the huge slabs of exposed rock and the clear views through the leafless forest.
At one point we were at the base of a one hundred foot sheer cliff of rock. I proposed that we make our way back over Hobart but no one else was interested wanting to save climbing the mountain for another day.
We thought at first that this beaver pond was Hawkins Pond but Colleen said it was too small. We took a break and admired the lodges and poked around picking up beaver chews.
At last success, just beyond the beaver pond we came upon Hawkins Pond and even saw a couple of other hikers sitting in an open spot on the other side of the pond which is not a surprise as with all social activity on hold what better way to spend a beautiful spring day then to take a hike to a beautiful spot.
Grandma
My Mom is doing well as can be expected in Montana. Her shared living facility is on lock down and Katie visits her through the window. They did a family themed crossword. I spoke with her a few weeks ago. Her memory is not what it once was and I had to remind her of her kids names and where they lived and what they did. I suppose that was the intent of the crossword as well.
Gaelen’s Snowboard Video
Gaelen worked really hard on making this snowboard video and it shows. ENJOY!
Work
Work continues to be super busy. Last week we had 1248 orders. We are not accepting anymore new customers as we are at capacity at the warehouse and with our trucks and with the current situation growing the business at the expense of the safety and well being of the crew is not in our best interests. We have more than 700 people on a waiting list and once the pandemic is behind us we will focus and serving more people.
We now pick on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and send 3 trucks down on Wednesdays and Thursday. Our local hub pick up went from 27 people to over 70 and several sites in Boston grew that much as well. My 3 sites in Lexington, Arlington and Porter Square serve 248 people.
We have changed the hours so each site now lasts 2 hours and we start at 11:30 am in Lexington instead of 12:45 pm and end at 1:30 pm instead of 3:15 pm so we can have 2 hours at Arlington (2-4 pm) and Porter Square (5-6:45pm). We manage the sites to maintain social distancing and the customers are super patient and very grateful. Lines to get into grocery stores in Massachusetts can exceed 3 hours. Covid19 cases in Massachusetts have not peaked and I have no contact with any of the customers and do not come within 6 feet of our site hosts and helpers and wear a mask, gloves and coverall suit the entire time.
Construction Update
This weekend I made stained glass window #4 and installed it in the mudroom door up at the Long House. This one only took me 5 hours to make as I realized our batteries were not heating up the soldering iron hot enough and this time I plugged it directly into the generator and it got super hot and the soldering took 1/2 the time as the last one
I also installed the last 3 orange tiles on the tub wall and grouted the tiles. I ordered the clay for the 2′ diameter tile that I am going to design and make that goes in the center. For the middle ring I still need to come up with some way to mortar the seashells in place on a black sand looking background.
