Laboring on Labor Day

As we start some vacation time I struggled with the thought of doing a day-by-day synopsis of our activities—a la our trips to London and Ireland—or wait until the end for an all encompassing post—another 39 Feet of Separation.  Day to day without some major travel or sightseeing involved seems a little narcissistic…I mean who really wants to read about what is happening every minute (for that you can go to Facebook or join Twitter)…and writing at the end may result in my forgetting something (or someone), or through procrastination not happen at all.


So, narcissism aside, I am attempting to hit somewhere in the middle…a little bit about our Labor Day weekend and then…who knows what.


Saturday was a good day to get some things done around the house—pick up chainsaw and hedge-trimmer from the service shop, trip to the transfer station, start filling in foundation holes before small animals attempt to move in for the winter, detail the outside of Cheri’s car.  But, the real highlight of the day started when we were joined by Steve and Lindsey Tosi for a trip out to the Golden Lamb Buttery.



The Golden Lamb has been a bit of a tradition for us—although we seem to have skipped a year until this weekend.  We often go there with our friends Jack and Stephanie Gosselin, but it is always fun to expose new people to this experience.

When you arrive at The Golden Lamb you are met by a hostess who introduces you to your waitress for the evening—they seem to always know where you are and literally wait on you ‘hand and foot’.  You are then free to explore the large post and beam barn that has been converted into a restaurant, lounge, museum and gift shop.

Another guest offered to capture a photo of the four of us…for posterity.

We had a cocktail out on the deck overlooking a portion of the 1,000 acre farm that makes up the estate.

Then we went on a hayride along with an accompanist…since there is only one seating for dinner the hayride is used to spread out the guests and helps to allow the waitresses to time their services.

The table was ours for the evening and we slowly worked our way through soups—corn chowder, borscht, chilled pear & pineapple—and salads before we got to the main course.  There are only four entrees to choose from and you can’t go wrong with any of them—slow roasted duck, chateaubriand, rack of lamb, salmon—but it seemed that Steve, Lindsey and I were on the same page with the chateaubriand and only Cheri stepped out with having the lamb.  Accompanying vegetables are served more family style and we tried them all.  Desserts went the way of entrees with the same three of us having the apple/blueberry crisp and  Cheri having a lemon tart-like dessert.


It was a wonderful evening of conversation, food, and the accompanist from the hayride made the rounds performing requests table-side.  She was very good and topped off the evening.  In the past we have often finished the evening with a nightcap back on the deck, but we thought it made more sense for us call it an evening—we did have wine with dinner and we all had to drive back home—and what a great evening it was.


Sunday we laid a little low.  My back was bothering me from some of the ‘around the house’ work on Saturday, so we limited activities…or at least I did.  Cheri had many activities she wanted to get done before we headed out to the Cottage later in the week.


Monday, Labor Day was our day to work at our church’s Chicken Barbeque booth at the Woodstock Fair (held every year over Labor Day weekend).  This year I was breaking in as the Day Manager—overseeing the Booth for supplies, heating and serving, and the pit crew for chicken preparation and timing—under the tutelage of John Cimochowski and Bob Donahue. 


Cheri worked for an extended shift in the booth serving barbeque chicken, potato salad, pulled pork sandwiches, pulled chicken sandwiches, foot long hotdogs (and some people wanted to know the exact length), and drinks.  It was a full day of activities and judging the flow of customers and food preparation. 


Sometimes a flurry of action followed by lulls of conversation…a great time.



The Woodstock Fair is what most New England Fairs have become—moving from diary, agriculture, 4H events with a midway to large midways and vendors with some agriculture and dairy events.  We didn’t see much of it…actually I stayed at the Booth and Cheri got around a little bit…but it still had a fair feel to it.  From our position it was fun to just do some people-watching as well.



It was a full day and a wonderful way to spend time with friends.  We were tired by the end and knew that we would wake up to actually be on vacation….


More adventures to follow….