THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, April 29, 2010

SOCIETY NEWS

HISTORICAL

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“Moultonborough’s Estate Builders”

The Moultonborough Historical Society will host the

Community Landmarks program “Moultonborough’s Estate

Builders” on Monday, May 10th at 7pm at the Moulton-

borough Public Library. This event is free and open to the public.

Cristina Ashjian, Chair of the Moultonborough Heritage Commission, will speak on Moultonborough’s significant country estates. The lecture will focus on the Greene broth- ers’ estates on Long Island (Roxmont and Windermere), Du- maresq’s Kona Farm on Moultonborough Neck, and Plant’s Lucknow in the Ossipee Mountains, known today as the Castle in the Clouds. The Community Landmarks Series is intended to promote the recognition and appreciation of Moultonborough’s historical and cultural resources. The Moultonborough Library is located at the intersec-

tion of Routes 25 and 109 in Moultonborough village (www. moultonboroughlibrary.org; 603 / 476-8895).

Genealogy Expert in Franklin

The Franklin Historical Society proudly presents Donna

Hague Blinn, the Founder of Heritage, a family genealogy research firm, as well as an approved Researcher for Ances- try.com and listed on their Expert Connect program, who will be speaking to our members and guests on Thursday evening, May 6th, 7pm at the Webster/Tay House, 21 Holy Cross Road (at Webster Place, off Route 3, three miles south of the intersection of Routes 3, 3A, 127, and 11 in Franklin). The evening will be a journey to simplify and identify a

path for you to pursue in discovering your roots through genealogical research. The event is free, and light refresh- ments will be served after the talk and before the business meeting, to which all who attend are invited. Additional information about upcoming events is available on the So- ciety’s web page at www.histsoc.org/NH/FHS.

Shaker Forum at Enfield Shaker Museum

Enfield Shaker Museum will host its annual Spring Fo-

rum on the Shakers on Friday through Sunday, May 7-9.

The weekend-long program includes Shaker-inspired meals, presentations, tours, new exhibits, receptions and optional overnight stays in the 1841 Great Stone Dwelling. The Shakers, a communal sect, settled in a beautiful val-

ley between Mount Assurance and Mascoma Lake in 1793. They led a spiritual life and achieved perfection in all things. They were known for their agricultural produce, industrial products and beautiful architecture and furniture. They published herb catalogs, had a lucrative herbal medicine business, and were among the first to sell vegetable seeds in paper envelopes. Registration will begin at 10am on Friday, May 7. At

4pm guests will tour the Laundry/Dairy, the Museum’s oldest building. Dinner will be served at 6:30pm., featur- ing Shaker cooking and a very entertaining program. Wine will be served. Reservations must be made by Wednesday, May 5. For details, contact Mary Boswell, Executive Director, at (603) 632-4346 or email at maryboswell@shakermuseum.org.

HISTORY from 22

was sought for and always came. There never had been within our remem- brance a sugar season without her. We suppose her name was Sarah, it might have been Saman- tha, but to us she was always “ Sa Jane “ that helped out. The wood road had been

open all winter, but a road would have to be broken out to the trees. The snow was deep and the oxen slumped, but we got round all right and left the big sled at the camp, loaded up with our buckets and spiles for an early start in the morning. It froze hard that night, and, af- ter breakfast, we took our handsleds for a short cut across the fields, leav- ing the rest of the crew to follow the road with the oxen and sleds; “Bose” ran ahead, barking and pok- ing his nose into walls for a squirrel. It was a large sap orchard, and some- times it took two days to get tapped out, but we kept busy and had a good many buckets hung up when “Sa Jane” blew the horn for dinner. While the crust lasted we had fine coasts. After a high wind, when some of the buckets had blown down, or, after a storm, were full of rain or snow, we would start for the woods with our sleds, and when we had the buckets righted up, go out into the clearing and coast down the steep hill to the camp. Sometimes, on a frosty morning, we would be at the highest point of the hill when the sun rose, and a the bright rays streamed up, the air would seem alive with thousands o sparkling little crystals. We had a famous ap-

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Send your historical society news to history@weirs.com, or mail to PO Box 5458, Weirs, NH 03247.

petite in those days. The brick oven was heated twice a week in “sugaring,” and the beans and brown bread, pumpkin and apple pies never tasted any bet- ter than they did then. Sometimes grandmother would stand the thin baker in front of the fireplace and say “Sh’ gessed she’d clap a few bis’kit in f’ supper.” We used to eat syrup on these and how good they tasted ! We cold make way with a lot, too. Sa Jane would say “sh’ sh’ld think

we’d bust.” Grandfather knew the

signs of a good or poor sap’ a high wind would stop the flow; or if it was too cold, he thought sap ran better after the brook back of the camp opened. We were having a big

thaw - the wind out for a storm, and it looked like rain ; the buckets were running over,and holders at the camp full. It was great fun in the camp after dark. The fire roared and crackled under the pans, and there were red gleams from the open arch door. The sap boiling up in little white foams, and throw- ing off clouds of steam, through which the light- ed lanterns, on the pegs, looked-like glow-flies. As a great privilege we could stay until “Sa Jane” blew the horn; then we had to start. She had a wonderful memory. We used to think, reproachfully, that she might forget us once in a while, but she never did. The rain was over and

in the clearing sky was a prospect of good weather. The snow as settling fast, and the waters that now came rushing and foaming down from the high moun- tain springs, had been cleared the snow as if by magic. The little brook was open. Not until sugaring was well over, did we have our annual “sugar party,” for the first runs were the sugar maker’s harvest, as the sap was not only sweeter, but made whiter sugar and brought better prices in the market. To our party the young and old in the neighborhood were invited. The sugar- ing-off pan was half filled thick syrup and put on the stove. Grandfather sug- ared off at these times, and had his little twigs twisted in little hoops at the end to dip in the syrup and blow bubbles through as a test when done. We filled tin with snow, pressed it hard

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to run the sugar on; or, instead of the brittle sugar on the snow, you could have a “toad in the hole,” which was a pine stick thrust in the hot mass, before it had time to cool, and twisted round and round; or some cooled in a saucer and you could have all you wanted, too, for the rule at a sugar party was to eat all you could and then eat some more. We noticed that on these occasions tha “Sa Jane” would sit near the cellar door. It was a wise precaution that she seldom failed to observe since the time we ate the pickles all up in the pickle tub, for pickles and sugar used to go well together. The only one of the party that didn’t enjoy himself at these times was “Bose”, and he was a dog that had a sweet tooth too. He re- membered a time that he had been used roughly, though in fun, and his jaws shut down on a “wob” of hot sugar that burned his mouth. On the eve of a sugar party be would discreetly disappear, and go under our bed upstairs. And, turning a deaf ear to all calls, would stay, until in the night we would hear him jump on the bed and with a wag of his tail curl down as much as to say, “they didn’t come it on me this have time.” Sugaring was over; the

buds were starting on the maples and robins swayed on limbs in the high tops. There had been a general cleaning up and putting away ‘till another season, and our hard work was over; but through it all we had many good times that are not to be got out of a sugar season in these days. Old sugar days, you are

but a memory, gone with our youth into the un- changing land of the past.

Proverbs Moment

“All hard work brings a profit,

But mere talk leads only to poverty.”

Proverbs 14:23

www.ProverbsMen.org

"Building Godly Men, Men of Character, Men of Integrity One Day at a Time"

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