Did you see the BIG moon tonight? Actually, we didn't think it looked that much closer than usual as it came up over the hills in back of West Danville. There were trees in the way as it first came up, but it was still very nice.

Would you believe it? We awoke to a skimming of new snow this morning. The day turned out to be pretty nice, but this morning there was just enough snow to cover everything and make our world look clean and sparkling, but underneath was a grim reality of deep ruts, frozen rock hard and mud that had changed from slippery slime to a sheet of glare ice, made even more treacherous by the half inch or so of new snow.

We made our way carefully to the Maple Festival in Cabot - Diane expertly keeping her car on the road in spite of the glazed patches and deep ruts steering her in directions she had no intention of going. We all agreed going home would best be accomplished on paved highways. I spoke with several people at the Maple Fest who were complaining about their back roads, too. Mud season is here, but apparently winter hasn't given up on us quite yet. Tonight the thermometer is at 18 degrees and we're expecting more snow on Monday and Tuesday - or rain, depending on location. In the meantime, the ruts remain, defying correction by hone or harrow, and we all know this is only the beginning. The frost is far from being out, and the constant thawing and refreezing only makes muddy roads worse.

The Maple Festival had a lot going on, and we set up on our mark at around 9:45 a.m. Lots of folks had gone to the pancake breakfast, but we all had early morning chores to attend to like recycling, checking e-mails and such. You see, this is a really busy time for the Rossi and Brown households with the Ice-Out Contest heating up as it always does in the final couple of weeks, which in turn triggers the release of the Joe's Pond Association newsletter which is still a work in progress with lots of reports and ads still to come - so we all have to stay on top of things like e-mails, phone messages, snail mail pickup, etc., and were it not for our enthusiasm for keeping ticket sales equal to or preferably a bit above last year, none of us would have taken time out to spend a whole day at the Maple Festival.

We had fun at the festival and we met a lot of really nice people - some old acquaintances, many we'd never met before. There were interesting things going on, but of course we couldn't get to see and do everything, even though Bill and Fred were happy to help out by manning the table while Diane and I "worked the room." We took turns spelling each other, and it worked out very well. Turns out we each sold about the same number of tickets, but I'm sure Diane and I worked harder at it, on our feet and approaching people directly, while Fred and Bill sat calmly and let people come to them. My voice finally began to give out, as it often does after a day of incessant talking, but it'll be fine by tomorrow.

Fred took lots of pictures, and we have lots of new products and services to show you - some you'll see in the slide show, and others will show up as business cards on the website. Here's a sample of our day at the Maple Festival, Cabot, Vermont:
Maple Festival 2011