Two of our neighbor friends stopped by today, and we started talking about a special building project they have going on at their house. 

Her husband is in the process of enlarging an existing woodshed.  The humble lean-to is becoming a three-sided shelter, complete with a roof.  They have plans to get electricity to it, which will allow them to run heaters, too.  The front will have space to build a fire, and they are thinking about a few more strings of light.

And just what is their reason for the expansion?

Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving in Vermont can be almost anything for weather.  I’ve only lived for almost three decades (which means I am still a newcomer here, by the way).  I’ve experienced some lovely Thanksgivings, the type that looks like those magazine photo spreads with people happily sitting around long tables with the leaves falling about them.

But here, by the end of November, our leaves are long gone.  It would be a very strange Thanksgiving morning if the day did not start with at least frost.  Many times, we even see some of that famous “frozen precip” stuff, even sometimes what the weather forecasters like to term “plowable snow”.

Our friends are thinking well ahead for their typical family gathering of twenty-two.  The shed will be ready; their Thanksgiving will go on in the safest way they can plan.

And after the festivities? They will have an extra place to host their outdoor gatherings—or store stuff or just pile up more wood for the winter.  It will be their own little silver lining shed, nicely christened with memories of that special Thanksgiving of 2020.