Quite the productive day

Every second or third Saturday is trash day. Once the weather warms up, it is almost every other Saturday because you just can't let trash cans full of cat litter go three weeks in the hot sun. Trust me on that.

The trash didn't even fill 1/3 of the truck, so I drove down to the lower barn to haul out yet more junk. I packed the truck full.

I've caught kittens (and a mom cat) for the Tioga County Solid Waste folks, so we get along pretty well. There's always a little cat chit-chat when I come in--not much, because they are always pretty busy. Today they pointed out their new wall-of-honor for their customer's visiting pooches.



They actually go right out to the parking lot and use their own camera to photograph the dogs riding shotgun who have accompanied their owners to the transfer station! I told them I was going to put Arthur in a harness and bring him in for a photo next time I came in, so there's a cat on the wall of honor, too. And I may just do that. Not much bothers Arthur.



On the way out to the transfer station, be-bopping over the hills, I noticed a sign for a maple sugar house. As I had promised to bring real maple syrup to the Humane Society of Schuyler County's pancake breakfast tomorrow, it was like fate dropped it right on me. I took a sharp right on the way home and got the most delightful surprise.



I thought I was going to find an open sugar house with the owner splitting wood outside or engaged in other chores to end up the season, and he'd come wandering over to let me in and sell me a quart of syrup. Instead, as I wound down the narrow dirt lane behind the dairy barn, I found a roped off lawn full of cars. It was an open house! OK, cool, LOTS of people buying maple syrup and getting tours, I thought.

Then I walked into a full fledged seriously country pancake breakfast! It reminded me of the roadhouses in Alaska, with the low ceilings and board walls. A young woman immediately invited me to sit at the bustling family-style tables, and I said I was just there to buy syrup, but I was grinning from ear to ear I was so surprised and pleased. Dad pointed me to the wall of syrup (liquid gold...ranging from tiny shot-sized bottles, to gallons. My quart was $16, and worth every cent). I paid at the kitchen window and Mom (I'm making assumptions here) was frying up a glorious pan of eggs. They were beautiful. The place was full of the sound and smell of cooking food, and the rumble of conversation and laughter. Maybe I should change my mind? But time was short. I asked how often they had an open house, and they said just once a year, the third Saturday in April--unless it was the day before Easter.

So remember that! I swear, I'm rounding up all my friends to go next year because this place was just about as as perfect as you could get.

Here you go! Real maple syrup for tomorrow. Although this time of year, you never know. Someone may have donated real syrup to the Humane Society for this event.



I love living here. Every time I contemplate moving, I run into something like this and am reminded of what I would never find anywhere else.