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Dear Diary,

We are entering the Memorial Day weekend here in the states.  It is a time people visit the graves of family members and leave flowers.  I planted my parents and grandmother's graves last weekend when I was in Massachusetts.  Here in Maine you can find lots of old farms that have private cemeteries right on their property.  People were buried close to home.  Some still are.

This is the Chapman cemetery on the farm where Beulah and Gertie live.  (The pig and sheep I want to do a book about).  When my friend purchased the farm years ago she also took on the care of this little cemetery.  The Chapman family settled in this area in the late 1700's.  A member of the family later gain fame as Johnny Appleseed, a folk hero who traveled across the country planting apple trees for the new settlers.  But now that the farm is no longer in the Chapman family, this cemetery must be tended by the new owners. 

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.  ~Daniel Webster