We were only ten minutes from home and this festival has gone on year after year but this was our first time and we were surprised at it's scale - for a homegrown, handmade, backwoods kind of thing.

It's all mud and snow and more mud and we wandered a long trail deeper into the trees until we found the barn where they'd been cooking pancakes for hours.  They loaded our plates. Pancakes. Sausage. Baked Beans. Enough syrup to make it a soupy, delicious mess.  This is how we began - with stomachs filling as a lady in full clown makeup crooned old country songs from a stage in the corner.

It was all very adorable and makeshift and we meandered around, learning how sausage is made and how sap is boiled and miles and miles of tubing connecting all those trees for all that sap.

REMINDER: May is Joy Month here at SelfBinding Retrospect. I am partnering with DaySpring Cards Inc for a lovely little giveaway and hosting a Joy Link party opening on May 1. If you've got a post to share about something that brings you joy, whether it's old or new, be sure to come back on the first and link it up. I'll feature some of my favorites throughout. It's all about spreading a little happiness after this very long, soul-sucking winter.

P.S. You can jump start your chances on the necklace by liking my facebook page - it will award you 2 free entries into the draw the first time you enter - just click the button below. {You'll have to earn any other entries by sharing little Joy Snippets so start collecting them and you'll be able to enter every day in May!}