We're into another soggy day here at Joe's Pond, but we've been promised a nice weekend - for the most part.

I was glancing through a stack of newspapers this morning, catching up on clipping sudoku puzzles and crosswords for when I'm watching TV, and checking through news items, when I came across a very nice item about Joe's Ponder Linda Garey receiving the first Dr. John Elliott Community Service Award at NVRH. Linda works in the operating room at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital. Sarah Garey, Linda's daughter who is also a nurse at NVRY received an award for 10 years of service. Congratulations to Linda and Sarah.

Linda and her husband, John, have a home on Otis Drive here at Joe's Pond.

I got my newsletter from Burr Morse at Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks today. Something Burr mentioned led me to do a little research on maple products, and in so doing I came upon "birch syrup" made in Alaska. I thought this was pretty interesting. It takes almost three times as much birch sap to make a gallon of syrup as it does maple, and sounds like the taste is different. I thought you might like to read about it, so here's a link: Birch Syrup

You know how it is when your mind starts to wander and you have a little time on your hands - so then I began to remember my father talking about "birch beer" folks used to make years ago. We used to make root beer every summer, but as I recall we bought a special syrup and mixed it with yeast, sugar and water and then set it in the cold water in our spring house. During haying, I was often the go-fer sent to fetch a few bottles my father and uncles on a hot day. We kids weren't allowed to drink it, but sometimes my mom would buy ZaRex - the concentrated flavored sugar syrup that came in glass bottles with a little handle on the neck. My favorite flavor was lime. I remember watching the transparent swirls of the syrup as it colored the cold spring water a lovely bright green.

Years later, when my own children were little, a huge treat for them was to stop at the root beer stand on the Barre-Montpelier Road for a "baby beer" whenever we were in the area. The stand was only open during the summer, and there were wails of disappointment if we got there too early in the spring or too late in the fall and found it closed. Having a soda of any kind was a treat for them. Being a farm girl, I made milk the rule for my family, and they never objected, but having any soda drink was a special event. I still drink milk at least twice a day, and miss it if I don't have it.

Jamie just came to get Fred to help him turn the Correct-Craft hull over so he can scrape and paint it. He and neighbor Luke Persons pulled the motor out of it the other day (it's an inboard) and Jamie is excited about refurbishing our family's 1962 woodie, "Raja" - again. I can't count how many times the boat has been re-done, but it's been quite a few. Jamie said it'll look great and be all set for next summer. It's a plywood hull and surprisingly light once the motor and shaft are out of it. We all still love that old boat, so I'm delighted he's taking such good care of it. A whole lot of kids learned to water ski behind it. With only 70 h.p., it worked perfectly, even towing five or six kids. That was before many people were using slalom skis. Now we have plenty of high-powered plastic boats around for water skiing, and "Raja" is used mainly for long, slow evening cruises around the pond. There's something special about the steady chug-chug-chug of the inboard motor as you take in the scenery and chat. A boat ride at that speed can take about two hours if you go around all three "ponds" and hit all the coves. That's not counting stopping to chat with other boaters or people out on their docks. Summer on Joe's Pond. Can't beat it.