From Baffin Island to Tierra del Fuego, people are scurrying about putting the final touches to their Earth Day celebrations, and so why should Farmington be any different?

Just take Royce Hodgdon for example. There's a man working against the clock in an effort to get his stoves and freezers crusher into a compacting mode by April 22, and the latest word is that he is going to make the deadline. Just last week he gave Farmington Corner exclusive assurances that by Earth Day, 1992, his mechanical contribution to the world of recycling will be chugging out those three inch cubes of heavy metal.

Meanwhile, for those thoughtful members of the population who buy second-hand appliances to help Mother Earth and Father Bank Account, Royce should be puttering around his South Main Street building come Sunday, the big day. And, just because you don't feel the need to change your kitchen appliances is no excuse for not patronizing Royce. As discussed in a previous column, fridges with the doors removed can make excellent feeding troughs, window boxes or canoes, while what better use for a good, cast iron stove than to be adapted as a ship's anchor? Mutation in the buzz word for the nineties.

Meanwhile, down in Farmington Dump, how are things going with the recycling effort, I hear you ask? Well, there is a problem. So keen are some townspeople to recycle that they have been sneaking into the landfill at dead of night and stealing aluminum cans from the bin for the sheer joy of recycling them again somewhere else.

Unfortunately, this has had the side effect of depriving the town of money and so, to dampen the ardor of these recycling addicts, administrative assistant John Scruton points out that a fine of up to $3,000 and a one-year jail sentence can be levied against those caught stealing items from the bins. Farmington can can can thieves. And will. To this end, police patrols have been increased, while a well-known member of the Highways Department living near the dump entrance shall soon be able to leave a window ajar at night to better hear citizens tip-toeing around with bulging sacks of Bud cans. Their capture is surely just days away.

While in the vicinity of the recycling bins, I pass on an appeal to place the correct plastic items in the appropriate containers. Milk cartons - they're those big, opaque things that had white stuff in 'em - should not be mixed with the clear plastic Pepsi bottles.

Penulitmately, one must ask the public to keep its eyes peeled for the ticket booth which was used to shelter dump attendants from the worst of the elements. Yup, someone has hauled the landfill gate off and stolen the shed.

"The town only had $30 in it but it's the principle of the thing," said John Scruton, predicting the booth will recycled as an ice-fishing shack.

And finally, to the surprise of some, to the relief of more, and to the utter disinterest of most, Farmington's recycling program is not yet mandatory, but is in a sort of developmental cocoon. Education is seen as a way to breathe life into it, and thus town fathers are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to locate someone to head up a recycling program suitable to take into the schools. Any interested parties please call 755-2208.

To some dozy bibliophiles shuffling around the Goodwin Library it may look like an empty display cabinet. But really, the seemingly vacant show case is the location of Dorinda's marvellously innovative contribution to Earth Day - a Clean Air Exhibit.

One hundred years worth of Farmington News editions are currently out being microfilmed at the New England Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass., says Dorinda. This company comes highly recommended by the New Hampshire State Library, and they will preserve forever the gossip, scandal, sensation, rumour and innuendo of yesteryear as recorded in the yellowing pages of journalism.

The Hay Day Committee met recently, and decided upon the date of this year's festival, Aug. 25 - with or without snow. The 1990 theme will be the Hay Day Circus. Further opinion on all of this as it leaks out.

Church News

On Earth Day Eve, April 21, Rick Clogston will perform a concert at the Hidden Place Coffee House on Route 75 (Elm Street to its friends). Rick's original music ranges form folk/gospel to rock. Admission and refreshments are free. Full info from 473-2892, or write to P.O. Box 369, Farmington 03835.

Home Economics night was on March 28, with Master Ralph Russell opening proceedings. Carol Borg, the basket-weaver of Poor Farm Road, gave a demonstration of square basket making and a brief history of the craft in New Hampshire. Ten members of Strafford Grange were also present.