Firewood Week

This is firewood week here at our house. We can see and feel the passing of summer so it's time to begin preparing for the long winter. My son Jake and I have been going out on Plum Creek land cleaning up (scavenging) in the yarding areas of an area east of town that was cut last winter. We have a permit for five cords of firewood but have only managed to collect about two so far this week. Tomorrow morning we will go after another half-cord load to finish off the week.
Tomorrow evening my wife and I will go to the opening of the American Folk Festival in Bangor. Bangor has hosted the National Folk Festival (yes, that's where it went for all of you who have been wondering) for the past three years but the seed was planted and this year the American Folk Festival was sprouted, potentially long-term. It's always fun to attend this folk festival because of the variety and the energy of the music and the fair-like atmosphere in the food court. There's a beer tent too on the hillside overlooking the largest of the five performance stages, but I don't take advantage of that. Most of the fans seem to be there strictly to enjoy the music, the dancing, and the food. The festival begins at 6:00 tomorrow evening, begins Saturday at noon, and finishes up on Sunday. The weatherman is promising lots of sunshine with high temps in the low 80s, just right.
My wife's on vacation next week all week so I think I'll put off the second half of firewood week till September. Today we went grocery shopping, went for a swim in the cold waters of Wilson Pond, and went blueberry picking up on our hill. I picked for awhile and then just totally went into munch mode and ate a bunch of berries fresh off the bush. That is so good!
Winter... I cringe...