Pam – Page 95 – New England's Narrow Road

Halloween is a Few Days Late, But That’s Okay

Fall leaves and pumpkin — Celebrating Fall – Halloween is Today where I am – November 3rd

When your town puts off Halloween until a few days after the 31st, it’s just not the same. I’ve been reading blogs and Facebook pages all about an event that has gone by for most. Stores have moved on to putting out Christmas candy and the Halloween goodies are all half price. But here, in my area, we have not yet seen the Trick-or-Treaters.
I know that here in New Hampshire we are so very fortunate to have missed most of Sandy’s wrath. My heart goes out to those poor souls south of here who have lost their homes, livelihoods and even family members. I pray that they will find the strength to get through their difficulties.

I have lived through hurricanes – when I was in Florida. I have been without electricity and waited in gas lines for my ration of gas to keep the generator going so my well would supply us water. I sweltered in Florida’s unforgiving August heat for over a week. I have frozen inside my home in the north when the ice storm left us without electricity for eight days. But I have never had my home destroyed. I can’t imagine how desperate those people in NJ and NY and other places feel, and we all need to support the organizations who are there helping out.

Anyway, up here we did have power outages and downed trees. The kids missed 2 days of school. Also the water levels are high in the streams and lakes. So Halloween was postponed for the second year in a row. (Last year we had an ice storm in southern New England, and 2 feet of snow in my area at this very same time!)
But we are back to normal already, and we should all be thankful for that.
Happy Halloween a few days late. Bring on the candy munchers.

Bring the Kids to New Hampshire

While writing my page for the Wizzley contest: Things to Do With Kids in New Hampshire I discovered some places right here in my state that I had never heard of, like Stand Up Paddleboarding on the Saco River. Never heard of it, and I’m sure I am not coordinated enough to try it, but what fun!

I no longer have little kids (kinda happy about that) but I remember coming up to New Hampshire from Massachusetts for vacations. We had a little travel trailer and stayed at Newfound Lake camping with friends. We also hit Six Gun City, Storyland, and Polar Caves at some point. I did not include those places in my article. I was more interested in finding great outdoor places to visit since this state is very nature oriented and beautiful. But I included a few science centers as well.

I also didn’t want to forget about the older kids and teens who are harder to please when it comes to vacationing.

Where Would You Take Your Kids in NH? (newenglandsnarrowroad.wordpress.com)

My Thoughts on Trees and How They’ve Changed

tree branches in winter — Leafless Tree in Winter

I’ve always loved trees. They are just so amazing in many ways. But now that I live in a place where I have to burn firewood in winter, I look at trees differently. I look at a tree like the one pictured and think, “would that be great firewood or what?” Actually, I don’t know what type of tree this is, but probably it would be great firewood. If I had to guess, I’d say oak.
Without leaves, I have trouble telling an oak from a maple. The beech, with it’s smooth bark, and the birch with it’s white, are no-brainers, but the rest of them leave me baffled.
I don’t know how people go out and hook up their maple syrup collecting apparatus in Spring – and can figure out which trees are the maples.
Being a Florida transplant (even though I grew up in the northeast) I have to learn the tree types that grow around me. I have an acre of land now and out back I have a forest, with some trees that are dead or dying and when I have them cut down, I’ll use them to heat my house.
Trees are beautiful, but they were meant to be used and I don’t feel bad cutting down a tree to serve a purpose. It’s helpful to thin the forest and allow other trees to grow larger too. Then again, some trees are too beautiful to cut down.

♦The Chore of Stacking Firewood
♦Make Birds Happy With Homemade Suet

How to Remove a Tree (answers.com)
Halkias: A tale of two maples (vtdigger.org)

Teens and Halloween

Halloween is a fun time for kids. Everyone loves to dress up, and many adults attend parties where costumes make the event exciting.

But when the kids reach the teen years trick-or-treating becomes a problem. Kids in their early teens are just big kids for the most part and I always found it hard to tell them they were too big to go out and collect candy. If there are younger kids in the family it might seem unfair to them.

Instead of trick-or-treating have the teenager(s) stay home an pass out candy to the neighborhood kids, or send them to a Halloween party, or have one yourself (brave soul).

Most people who see “big kids” out on Halloween immediately assume that those kids are looking for trouble. Some are, but many just want to get one last year in as a trick-or-treater.

For many years my kids enjoyed these Easy, No Bake, Ghost Cookies which are simply Nutter Butter cookies covered with melted, white chocolate. If you are short on time and need holiday cookies, try making them.