An afternoon on the Sandy . . .

First of all, Time Warner sucks, and we havent had one day so far when everything worked. Every hour, it seems, either the phone, cable, or net doesnt work. The guy is coming Friday. Between 8 and never o'clock.

I took a break from all the yard work and wood splitting I've been doing, and joined my friend Dave for a canoe trip up on the Sandy River in Norridgewock. Jen, his wife, dropped us off at a "put in" in Norridgewock, and then, a couple of hours later, she picked us up when we landed the boat in Madison--all in all, we did about a 7 mile trip, and the water was HIGH and the current was STRONG! Usually, the Sandy is pretty shallow and clear . . .with a sandy, visible bottom. Today was different, as the feet upon feet of snow melted into the river, raising the water level and increasing the speed of the water. It was a beautiful afternoon (high 70's) to be on the water, and I can't believe its gotten so nice so fast here in Maine. We're being spoiled. Below, check out a bend in the river. Notice there is still a bit of snow on the banks. As early as this past Monday, Dave still was able to snow shoe in his field. The river below is the mighty Kennebec. The Sandy dumps itself into the Kennebec river, and we needed to cross the Kennebec to reach our rendezvous point (sounds very "special forcesish" doesnt it??). This was interesting. The Kennebec, a MUCH bigger river than the Sandy, was crazy, fast, and high. And we had to paddle across from the other side. Against the current. It was fun though, and this was one of those rare trips where I actually WORE my life jacket, versus just keeping it by my side in the canoe. The picture below is where we actually landed the canoe.

After the trip we went back to Dave's house. He lives on a beautiful piece of land (I think its like 60 acres or so). Jen's parents also live on the land, just down the dirt road. Dave, Jen, their sons, and Jen's parents all do maple sugaring in the early spring. Below is the sugar house Jen's mother built (he's a master carpenter). Amanda and I have been over a couple of times while they've been boiling down the sap into maple syrup. Its great to sit by the fire, talk, and sample some delicious syrup.
The white barrel off to the right is a sap bucket, and, during the maple season, these jugs are full of sap. The sap is then poured into the tray you see on top of the wood stove, and its boiled down until syrup is rendered. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup! Ortiz: this is where your syrup comes from!
Lastly, we took a walk down to Dave's trout pond. Dave, a brilliant fly fisherman, had this pond "made" in back of his house; he keeps it stocked with Brook Trout, and he goes down to feed them each evening. He doesnt fish for them or eat them--he just likes to admire the beauty of these unique fish. The pond is pretty neat . . .its spring fed, and he's made a dam on the other side to keep the water intact. Behind the bridge is one of the many trails that traverse the property. All in all a great spring day! I came back home, did some errands, put up a clothesline for Sally, split and stacked some wood, and had a little brush fire in our firepit. Now I am tired. Have a good night all.