Meeko, a feline of intelligence and refinement, brought home a new friend from the jungle bordering our nascent lawn. We weren’t given proper introductions but let’s call the little field mouse “Mickey”. Meeko and Mickey enjoyed great times together, playing nearby. Sometimes Meeko would pretend to be distracted and Mickey would see if he could sneak away. Other times Meeko would toss her little buddy in the air. Mickey didn’t have the endurance that his big buddy had and took frequent rests, panting furiously to try to keep up.

Eventually Mickey seemed to collapse from overindulgence in the frivolity and Meeko tried to revive him, gently batting at him. Meeko eventually gave him a little nibble to try to provoke a revival. The revival did not come but drawn blood addled the refined sensibilities of the erstwhile friend, primordial instincts welling to the surface. One nibble led to a savage 15-minute long cannibalistic rending of blood, guts, and fur, culminating in the crunching delectation of the head. Mickey was no more.

Meeko retired a few feet away and groomed herself methodically after her savage meal. At length she paused, gazed to the field where she first met her little buddy, burped, and then resumed her grooming.

In retrospect, maybe Mickey wasn’t having so much fun playing with Meeko. What appeared to be playful taps from Meeko may have felt like being belted with an Ottoman with knives to Mickey. Perhaps the playful tossing in the air was more like being flung from a 4-story building by a thresher.

Ah well, life goes on. Except for Mickey.

Among the many things learned by European settlers from American Indians was the making of maple syrup. The methods have been refined but the basic technique remains the same: collect sap from maple trees in the spring while sap is rising and heat to remove most of the water to leave a sweet distinctive syrup (or further distill to create maple sugar for candy). Matt, our builder, gave us a jar of the maple syrup he produced this year. Having fond memories of maple syrup production when I was a child, I was eager to sample it so I cooked up a stack of pancakes to douse in butter and maple syrup. I served them up on one of Lori’s hand-crafted church-keyed plates and dug in. The verdict? Ambrosia! You just can’t beat the real thing. When you buy “pancake syrup” or similarly-named products in the supermarket, you are getting chemically processed corn oil with flavoring additives. The experience doesn’t resemble real maple syrup. There are a few ways to get your own real maple syrup. Our method was to contract the services of Ness Construction LLC to build us a house after which Matt presented us with a jar of his handiwork. This is an expensive way to acquire pure maple syrup but you have the added benefit of a new house to enjoy it in. Think about it: enjoy home-cooked pancakes smothered in home-made maple syrup on one of Lori’s unique hand-thrown ceramic plates in your new custom hand-crafted home. That’s quite a nice American breakfast experience.