Diary: May 1999

Everything is green and blooming and beautiful.
Because of road construction, our dirt road is in better shape than the main road leading into our neighborhood; the highway department says they will not be paving until sometime this fall. If you’re planning on visiting, we’d suggest renting a Hummer.
The local bear is making nightly visits to our neighbor’s house and completely trashing bird feeders, porch steps and anything else he can get his hands on. We don’t give him too much thought until we’re halfway down the road walking the dog. Of course, we normally walk the dog around 7:00 and the bear doesn’t show up until at least 7:03.
You can mow four fields in one day if you try really hard… and if you have a weekend guest from the city who thinks the tractor is just a big 4-wheel drive to play with.
No mud in March and fewer black flies in April obviously means many more mosquitoes in May… we’re starting to worry about being carried off in the middle of the night.
Ten to fifteen 20-foot maple saplings will chip down to two bucketfuls of mulch.
After all we’ve learned in the last 18 months, we still love New Hampshire.

The Bells