Country living large

The stack of boxes in the garage keeps getting smaller, as do the piles of stuff on the floor in the house, so I know that we are making progress. As yet, about 50% of what I look for, be it a plate, as tool or a shirt, requires a multi-location search , so there is still work to be done before I can truly say I'm at home.

Another neighbor came by this morning to warn me that there is a big moose visiting in our neighbor hood. He says, they can be quite dangerous when provoked. He also told me not to put out bird seed as this is the bear's favorite treat. Can't wait to see what happens when the moose and the bear meet,

There is no trash service in Waterford. This morning I went two miles down the road to the town "dump", or transfer station, to use its proper name, with the week's recycling and trash. We pay for dumping trash ($3 for a large bag). Recycling is free and covers everything but foam-based products. Recycling is a sort/dump it yourself affair, but even with the extra time required, the per bag fee is a strong incentive to recycle. Vermont also charges a 5-cent deposit on glass, aluminum and plastic soft-drink/beer containers, so those get saved up and carried to the "redemption" center, for a refund. I thought most states did away with these deposits in the 80's, but not here. Fortunately, the center is on the way into town.

We did take time out from unpacking on Saturday to go into town for the farmer's market and a quick walk around in the commercial part of town. The farmer's market was similar to the Red Stick Market, but very few craft items. Lots of flowers, most of which are new to us really caught our eye, but the most surprising item was fresh rainbow trout! Getting some of those will require some planning to transport and cook at home the same day. We ended up with fresh bread, spinach and some Vermont cheese.

All the local products have been really good so far, with several old standards having 'Vermont style'. The most unusual are the Vermont hot dog buns. These are basically a 2-inch high loaf of bread, cut alternately all the way through and half through from the top. Pat claims to like these better, but I'll stick with the old standard, which is also available. The best find of the weekend was a real meat market, complete with meats cut-to-order and home-made sausage in several varieties.

The summer cultural/social season is getting into swing this weekend. A community supper with fireworks will kick things off at the school here on Saturday, and the St. Johnsbury band will begin is 100th something consecutive season on Sunday night. The band concert should be fun, even though I have no idea how big/good the band may be. They play every week or so in the town "square" which is a green space by the courthouse. There are several other activities in outlying areas, much like the spring festival season in south Louisiana. Doubt if many ofter, much less feature crawfish or boudin or jambalaya.