Our year of the weather diaries has come to an end. Many, many thanks to Alan Berolzheimer for sharing his diary throughout 2023. His wife, Nancy, has just made him a new book in which to log his observations which will carry on.

Ebenezer also carried on. His December entries record some illness and doctor’s visits.  The doctor visits increase and Ebenezer’s visits to the barn decrease as 1874 progresses. Ebenezer dies in September, surrounded by his family having made an entry in the diary, just the day before.

Life carried on at the Brown farm. The yearly activities were deeply entwined with the seasons in a cycle of sugaring, plowing, planting, and harvesting with neighbors stepping in to help and the dog named Turk romping along.

Inside there was the yearly spring whitewashing of the kitchen walls and the deep cleaning of the sitting room, parlor, pantry, and the chambers above. There were candles to be dipped in the fall and kerosene lamps to keep clean.  Weekly music lessons on the Estey organ and a fiddle filled the home with music.

There were fall husking parties, winter singing schools, and spring school meetings. The recordings of funerals and births reveal the loss of one generation and the movement on to the next.

And so the land and farm cycled through the seasons and through the generations with son, Charles, taking up the care of the barns, animals, and fields.

Today the maple trees, apple trees, lilacs, and walls remind us of a life well-lived.

Join us this spring for a tour of Ebenezer’s farmland (which is now Parcel 5). Explore with us as we read between the covers of the diaries and uncover the story of the land. Mark your calendar for May 5th.