Maple Syrup

Well, its the end of January. Hasn't been a very hard winter in Chardon this year, rather more snow than usual for November and December, but considerably less in January. Next week our neighbor from Punxsutawney will let us know what to expect for the rest of the winter. Regardless of his prognostication, with February just around the corner, we're coming into maple syruping season.

Villa Mir has a small but nice sugarbush woods, though our sugar house is regretably beyond repair. Paul has been leasing the woods out to a syrup producer who collects sap - using an innovation our dad would have marveled at - plastic tubing! - for sap collection. Back when we were kids, our sugarbush produced about 100 gallons of syrup a year, with every bucket of sap collected by hand in buckets using mostly slave (kid!) labor. I remember with little fondness how cold it was and how heavy the buckets were and how just when you thought you couldn't stand it anymore, your arms would start to shake and you'd spill an entire bucket of icy sap down your boot. Sounds like fun, no?

But I also remember the roaring fire in the sugarhouse, where you could warm yourself and rest before going out for the next run. The feeling of shared accomplishment when you were finished for the day and all the pails were empty and the big tank was full. Taking dad his dinner - he would stay out all night until the syrup was ready to 'sugar-off' - and then sitting quietly in the dark by the fire, talking. No TV. No radio. Just whatever was on your mind. Or a companionable silence, just the crackling fire, the sounds of the night woods and your own thoughts.

More later on the technical aspects of maple syrup! Meanwhile, wish for overcast skies on Feb 2!!

Teddy Vukcevic

We lost a good friend of Villa Mir Farm on December 23, 2005. Teddy Vukcevic - Uncle Teddy to many of us! - passed away at the age of 93. I had the chance to visit with him and my aunt Mary at their home in Euclid last August. Uncle Teddy - who had lost his leg to diabetes several years ago - was waiting for us on the sidewalk in his motorized wheelchair, golf cap on his head, great tan. He was a man with a seemingly infinite capacity to look on the bright side of things - always with a laugh and a smile, and a wonderful sense of humor. We will miss him very much.