When I first read this too fast, I read it as 'Balderdash Heritage Cheddar'. I was like, hmm, there's a cheese worth investigating, for the name alone.
Goodweed, do you read crime fiction? Do you know Jeremy Healy? His books are set in and around Sault Ste Marie. He is a recent discovery for me, and also my first exposure to your neck of the woods. My impression is of a region crisp and clear and clean, the people the same. But waaay too cold for this transplanted Southerner. (His books are very good.)[/quote]
Catseye; I haven't heard of the books. I will have to check them out.
As far as the temperature around here, it's colder than many places, but not as cold as others. We have no earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, monsoons, etc. We have no dangerous spyders or snakes, and our mosquitoes are normaly harmless, if pesky. My well water is as good as any bottled water and I'm surounded by forest, and water.
I do have to shovel frequently in the winter, but at the same time, that deep snow provided countless hours of pleasure in my youth, as I live near some very large gravel pits, and the slopes were long and steep

. Our summers are temperate, not usually rising above 87 and normally hovering between 75 and 80. I experience the occasional sub-zero temps in the winter (one year it stayed at minus 30 for 2 months straight, but that's in a 49 year life-span). The normal winter temperatures around here range between 15 and 28 degrees.
I laugh when I hear the weather channel talking about dangerously cold weather at 35 degrees. That's sweater weather for me. I've been known to sleep in a tent in minus ten degree weather. Never suffered a bit. All of my children (two boys and two girls) have accompanied me on winter camping trips. You sure don't have to fight the tourists.
For me, the weather is just right. And you all wonder why I'm so fond of good, hot chili, northern style of course.
Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North