On my morning walk this morning I made it back to the road to find seven highschoolers milling about on the dirt road. They were cracking jokes and being loud the way kids ought to be, so I asked them what they were up to, since it’s not a common sight. They explained that it was green up day and they were cleaning up my road, then they complimented my shoes and asked which asshole was dumping tires into the river. My neighbor Jim, I explained. He wasn’t such a bad guy, but you know, he did throw tires into rivers which docks him significant points. 

I told them to knock on the door of the blue house when they got there. I went to the hardwarestore / grocery and explained the situation, had a mini debate with the manager and his attendant about what to get a group of teenage boys. I felt bad getting them soda, but they were adamant that was the only option, so I did. They were fancy sodas, but they were still sugary drinks. Looking for something that isn’t sugary will really open your eyes to how few options there are and how much sugar is forced down our throats by industry, but I digress. 

They plowed through the cleaning and spent a few minutes chatting with us in the yard. Their teacher asked about my wood shed and asked if we’d vote for his school budget when the time came. They mentioned something about finding a turkey nest and when we asked if any of them had had turkeys, a few said yes. When we asked if any of them had processed turkeys, one said yes. A short kid with a strong face and grey clothes.

That’s a thing I love about Vermont, there’s not a lot of places where a good number of highschool boys have knowledge of turkey farming and are eager to share their knowledge.

“They’re basically the same as chickens, but some of them get mean some times.”

Sage advice. 
He told us we could go down to the turkey nest he found and snatch up a few eggs, there were about a dozen in there.