Thanks and SNOW!

Though we missed being with family for Thanksgiving, we were lucky enough this year to share delicious meals with some new friends. Our afternoon began with a visit to “community supper” in our neighboring town of Hardwick. We have volunteered at community suppers two times now, and we try to make it out for the meal whenever possible. Local farms and businesses donate much of the food, and many of the smiling faces helping to cook and clean up are people from a wonderful community called Heartbeet Farm. The meal was fantastic. We were thankful for the abundance of many tasty meatless dishes and happy to feel at home in such a positive environment filled with love and goodwill.

Next, we drove out to Sky Meadow Retreat Center to have a Thanksgiving meal with our friend Miles and his family and friends. It was a vegetarian potluck style dinner, and people brought such yummy dishes, many made with vegetables that they had grown this year! The land is so beautiful there, and we arrived early to take some walks with the others.

We even went into the woods and saw a porcupine up in a tree! He was so cute looking down at us, a little face amid a ball of spikes. Later, we all gathered together to share words of thankfulness, and we ate! And we ate! Then, we learned about circle dancing from a gentleman named Gene, and that was a fun activity to participate in after dinner. Jon and I ended up staying hours into the night, playing music, dancing, and playing games with the three girls that live there. We went back to the cabin feeling happy to have been invited share in the festivities.

COLLAPSE!

Thanksgiving officially ended fall for us here in Walden. The following day it started snowing and kept up until the following day. We awoke to 7+ inches of the white stuff covering the ground. We also awoke to the surprising fact that our outdoor living room had collapsed! One of the hundreds of trees that fell in the night came crashing down on the tarp roof and flattened it covering our kindling. We later freed our wood and cleaned up the remainder of the mess, including chopping and sawing some trees that have fallen in less than ideal locations. After the rubble was removed we were able to forge out of the driveway and head to Montpelier to pick up a NEW used COUCH for the house! Just 5 miles out of Walden, we noticed less to no snow on the ground. Looks like we are just high up enough to get snow instead of rain.

The following days we wend out and enjoyed a hike with our friend Iza and our roomie Brook. We trekked thru the field and into the woods, squeezing between trees and under branches. We made it back to some familiar paths just before dark and then back home.

Just today we gathered some sleds and hit some slopes here on the farm. We are hoping to get more sledding in as well as other numerous outdoor activities this winter. The moon is just about full now and will be reflecting off the snow, lighting up the night helping us find our little trail back to the cabin. Until next time!

View more photos of our snow adventures on our Flickr page!