Same Day Activities

After our tour of the State House, the next stop was Barre, Vermont where they are famous for their granite...Rock of Ages.

We took a short tour of the factory where huge slabs of granite would move suspended on belts from the ceiling.  Some would move around on conveyor belts.

This fellow was working on a headstone.

Next we hopped on a bus for a drive out to the quarry.  The granite dome is 10 miles deep. That is a lot of granite.  The minerals in the granite shavings create that color of water on the right.

The huge slabs of granite are cut with a saw by using a cable like the portion to your right, that has diamond chips in the gray rings.  Some slabs weigh 23 tons.



Then we went to a cemetery in town where some of the headstones were put in place.

Just a few samples.  They are really huge!!!

Then it was over to Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks where we enjoyed a maple "creamee."  We didn't need Ben & Jerry's.  It was sooo goood.  

The place has been run by 8 generations, and are the oldest maple family in Vermont.

They make four grades of syrup...light to dark.  We went to the woodshed to watch a video about how the process works.

Maple facts:
*  it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
*  one tap hole can produce up to 15 gallons of sap a season which     means it takes up to 3 maple trees to produce a gallon of syrup       a season.
*  to get a good sap run, it needs to freeze at night and thaw by day
*  sap runs best when the winds are from the west...sap runs least       when from the east.

  

A visit to Vermont is not complete without a stop at this place to pick up a few items like cheese (where you get to sample all kinds) and the dip.  I sampled the habanero..whoo who!!! I like it hot and that was hot.


That evening, we enjoyed a game of hand and foot.  The guys get to brag because they won by 85 points!!!

Until next time...