We were all up early this morning so that we could have breakfast with Pam and the kids before they headed off to school. We said thank you and goodbye to Bonny, Kelby’s mom, and headed out across the river. The steam hovered above the glassy still water reflecting perfectly the white houses and flora from the opposite bank.
The phone camera does not due it justice, the sunrise over the fields and forest was so beautiful.
The chickens, turkeys, ducks and guinies were taking full advantage of their free range this morning and were all the way up at the house. I love their guard turkey, definitely earning his keep. Well at least enough to save him from being Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
Caleb was standing close to the turkey for a size comparison. Reese loved Hannah’s hair, it doesn’t look like she minded Reese playing with her hair either. Again I should have taken more pictures, but I was enjoying the visit and didn’t take very many.
The girls loved this little duckling sticking so close to it’s parents. We said our goodbyes shortly after the bus came for the kids. We needed to get a move on as I had to get home to work Thursday. We are all hoping we can make it back up to Maine before the first of the year as we hear that is when the bad weather hits and they have below freezing temperatures until Easter. 
Driving across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont was amazing with the mountains and lakes. Enough evergreens to have beautiful color and even a few fall leaves were left on the trees. The houses and old churches were all so amazing and even the dilapidated ones had charm. In Vermont we decided to tour a Maple farm instead of the Capitol.
Maple farms came about during WWII as a way to help with meeting sugar needs due to the sugar rationing.
Maple season is only two weeks long at the end of March and beginning of April. It is no longer harvested via buckets but via a plumbing system about 8 feet off the ground. A 1.5 inch hole is drilled into the tree and a spigot is placed that feeds into a tube connecting the trees and drains into a bigger and bigger pipe. It is collected all in one place. At the end of the season the spigots are removed and the tree heals over the spot. It is drilled in a different part of the tree each year.
The farm was just outside of Montpelier where we turned the car south back towards Virginia.
Up state New York was also nice although not as charming, it was most definitely completely different than NYC. I don’t know about you but I always think about NYC when I picture New York and really that is such a small portion of the state. We will stay the night here in Pennsylvania and go the rest of the way home tomorrow.
Owens Endeavors 