Not much new to report, except that the blackfly season seems to be in high gear, and we've received a lot of rain. Summer vacation rentals are picking up, and it looks like it'll be a big year for wild blackberries and raspberries. We've spent a lot of time working on fencing and finishing sugaring cleanup (washing and putting away many miles of tubing). We're pleased that Kimberly Orzakowski and Jeremy Clark are now working for us part time. Kimberly is a mom of 2 in her early thirties, who has lots of farm experience, and Jeremy is a high school student soon to turn 18. In addition to helping with farm work, Jeremy, who is very experienced with web design and the like, is taking over maintenance of our web page. In addition, we've found an experienced 17 year old rider named Michelle Roy to continue riding and other training of some of the fjords. We anticipate that Michele will help us show Oona and Ilsa at shows later this summer.

The site for Dad's house has been cleared, and Floyd and Ron Parker are removing the logs as well as starting to thin the rest of a new 10 acre "sugar bush" (i.e., a stand of sugar maple trees) which we hope will almost double our syrup production. As part of this job, we will be putting in a nice road through the 35 acres below the road, so neighbors, friends and guests will have another trail to hike and ride. This trail will open up access to the nearby Davis Mine Brook which is one of the farm's boundaries.