Is there anything more strange than the weather this time of year? I've always been told that old men have little else to talk about other than the weather, while old women have little else to talk about other than old men.

I'm not saying that's true, but if they're talking about the weather last week, they've got plenty to talk about. On Wednesday I was outside wearing nothing but a T-shirt. I guess I better clarify, I had pants and shoes and all that other stuff on, too. I spent some of the latter part of the day stacking firewood in my lawnmower cart up on the side of the hill near the house. I've been stacking wood in between the pine trees and then transferring it to the front porch all year. With the winter having been as warm as it has been, I still have quite a bit of firewood stacked up, about two cords or so, but if I don't use it this year, it'll be there for next year.

With the temperature somewhere around 70 degrees, it really seemed odd stacking firewood on the porch for a fire. By Saturday, I was glad I had dry wood near by. I was wearing a parka as I walked out to throw a little feed to the chickens and fetch a few sticks of wood to build the fire up in the living room.

The daytime high dropped more than 30 degrees in about two days. But that's just the way things go in March and April; you never know what you're going to get. There were even some snow flurries Saturday. I would have expected cherry blossoms to be falling by the weather earlier in the week.

I usually plant my potatoes sometime around Good Friday, but I haven't even cleaned and raked the garden yet, let alone till it for the potatoes. If the weather turns nice again, maybe I'll take a little time off to get some of that stuff done.

As for this weekend, I'm probably not going to do anything on the garden until after I go to the Maple Syrup Festival in the Whitetop community. I try to go to Mount Rogers School every year and have a few pancakes and sausage, along with picking up a year's supply of good, old-fashioned maple syrup.

As a child, my parents used to buy the fake stuff in the glass bottle. I never knew what real maple syrup was until I happened to have some at someone else's house. I've never been able to eat the fake stuff again.

Real maple syrup is made from the sap that flows around the first of spring from maple trees, which is then gathered into large vats and 'cooked down' or condensed by a huge amount to produce syrup. I think the rate of production is about 40 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. Members of the Mount Rogers Volunteer Fire Department gather the sap for the event, which is the only such festival this far south in the United States.

There is another similar festival in Highland County, Va. near the West Virginia line, but most of the time when people think about maple syrup, they think about Vermont or some other place in the far northeast.

With prices of around $12 per quart for the fresh syrup, it costs about the same as a quart of honey. My family usually consumes some two to three quarts of the maple syrup each year, along with some two gallons of honey. Now you know why we're all so sweet.

My occasional morning treat of pancakes and waffles just wouldn't be the same without maple syrup and it usually turns out to be a fun day if the weather is nice. Their are tours of the 'sugar house' and of the tapping trees, including showing both the old and new ways of gathering the syrup.

But the weather is even more unpredictable there than here. Last year it was fairly decent in Sparta, with temperatures somewhere in the upper 40s, but it was snowing and blustery with temperatures in the lower 30s near Whitetop. It's elevation is quite a bit higher than here and it is positioned to the west, making the weather less predictable.

I sometimes like to take the opportunity to visit Whitetop mountain and the Grayson Highlands State Park while I am up there, enjoying the view from some 5,000 feet of elevation.

I also hope to see the wild ponies there at the park. 'Wild' might not be the right word for them, since many of them are tame enough to walk up to and pet. I always thought I'd like to buy one of them at the auctions they hold there every now and then, but the practical side of me then responds, "Why?" I usually listen to that voice, since it is the same one that beats me up with "I told you so," if I don't listen.

It's the voice that reminds me that dogs leave calling cards in the driveway that end up being stuck to the bottom of one's shoe sooner or later unless someone shovels them up daily, that chickens have to be fed and watered the same amount when it is 10 degrees as they do when it is 80 degrees and that gardens grow weeds as well or better than they grow vegetables and other desirable plants.

Anyway, one of the things I hope to do this year is spend more time doing things I really enjoy doing with my family, instead of always spending time either doing nothing or on things that have to be done.

With a big building project planned for this summer, lawnmowing, several other home improvement ideas and gardening, I figure I better get in my fun time while I can. I do enjoy the work as well, but it is still work after all.

Of course I realize the importance of the day-to-day living that makes our time here in this world worthwhile. Even so, at least for one weekend, I plan to shirk all common responsibilities and move toward a more maple syrup pancakes and sausage kind of day. Everyone should have one of those once in a while.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

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