A Whole Summer of Fun

It's amazing how time can fly by. I've been putting my on-line communication efforts into FaceBook lately and of course email. With two requests to update this "antiquated" form of journaling, here I go. I have decided that talking about all that's transpired since July would just be ridiculous (aka, boring), so how about just a few highlights?

Summer defined by most of the country starts in June, but not here this year. It rained almost every day from June 1 to July 11. Glorious sunshine broke out July 12 and was worshipped by 700 people who turned out for the Georges River Land Trust's 18th annual Gardens in the Watershed Tour. A grand time was had by all, and it was a great fundraising success too. Of course, we would have gone out for any activity in the sun by then. Here is one of the gorgeous gardens.

August flew by too fast and was delightful. I made my first trip to visit Pete and Sal in Glassville, New Brunswick. We

had a great time visiting them and their friends, touring the farm, and even paddling the Miramichi River.

I have definitely decided September is my favorite month here due to terrific weather and changing colors. It was warm and mostly dry. We had a great time when Brent and Janet came to visit. I took almost a week off and played tour guide. It was really fun because in addition to the old favorites, we did several new things for me as well. I headed to Florida for the end of the month to share some beach time with Ruth, Sara, Beth, and Josh. A beach house right on the sand at Ana Maria Island is pretty hard to beat.

October is also a terrific month for weather and fall color. Thanks to Craig for visiting because I again took time off and played. We took a couple great hikes, ate great food, went to Liberty Tool, and even put him to work a little. He helped me dig up my dahlias for the winter, and helped Rob haul the old oil tank out of the cellar. I thought I was going to take them both in for hernias after that! Thanks for doing work on your vacation!

The most recent house project is a new stone walkway from the driveway to the front porch. We had mechanical advantage for the digging part, but placing and dragging and shuffling and pushing and leveling all those granite slabs was all Rob and me! Just a few finishing touches tomorrow and it will be ready for winter. It's a beaut!

Start planning your Maine escapes for next year - there's always room for you!

The 4th Report

I've now ventured into mid-western Maine. We were invited by friends to go up to their camp on Lake Moxie. Laurie and I drove up together and made a nice stop an an antique "mall." She is a wealth of info since she used to own a small antiques business. This was a place made up of stalls, each one "owned" by a separate vendor. There was a lot of the usual stuff, but some odd things. One whole stall was filled with maple sap cans. Must have been about a hundred, and they come in three sizes. Who knew?

Phil's family has owned the cabin for a long time, but about 10 years ago it got hit by lightning

and burned to the ground. Phil, being a skilled carpenter, rebuilt the cabin all by hand with logs from the surrounding woods, and it is beautiful. Better yet it sits on the tip of a peninsula on the lake so the views are amazing. We heard but didn't see loons, and the distant lightning provided nature's fireworks. Unfortunately, it rained and was windy more than not so we didn't do any boating or swimming. It gave us time to break out the cribbage board.

By Saturday afternoon we decided it wasn't going to quit raining so we ventured out to walk to Moxie Falls. Nothing like hiking in a downpour in the rain forest! But it was worth the effort as you can see. I'm always surprised at what other people will do. We passed some families on the trail with kids in swim suits - as if they were going to jump in the raging torrent of the Kennebec River! Just a couple miles downstream, the Kennebec joins up with the Dead River and then flows south and gets to the ocean just south of Archie's, near Popham Beach.

Late Saturday afternoon, Rob and I decided to head home by driving north to Moosehead Lake. You should look at it on a map sometime and you'll see

why it's named that. We drove across Plum Creek land (major logging company) which had a beautiful series of bogs and ponds - perfect moose habitat, but didn't see any.

Moosehead Lake is said to be the largest fresh water lake in the U.S. that is wholely contained within one state. It's a major destination for summer visitors. Plum Creek has proposed a massive development on the shore that is one of the biggest environmental controversies in Maine. We tried to find a local watering hole in Greenville for a burger and a beer, but they closed down the grill at 5 pm. Wierd. We'll have to go back sometime when it's not raining. Oh yeah, and it rained all the way home.

Sunday dawned clear and warm - FINALLY! It was about 75 - really the first day of summer. I could almost hear the tomato plants stretching and saying aaahhhh. We did lots of fun yard chores and then some of Gretchen's friends came over for a 5th of July BBQ. A spectacular day! A dry and calm evening was also perfect for the lightning bugs to come out!

New bathroom

The upstairs bathroom was desperately in need of a makeover. For some reason, the former renovator had hauled an old, incredibly heavy cast iron tub up the stairs and installed it. It was so old that the porcelain finish had been rubbed off and it was rusting from the inside out. They then put new tile around it - but only on two sides. It didn't have the wall for a shower head! Makes you wonder. Rob set up a makeshift wall which we used for the first couple years.

But spring is a time of renewal. The first picture is post demolition - always a good time. Rob said he used a large sledge hammer to demolish the tub so he could cart it out. He later found porcelain chips out on the back lawn - they'd flown out through the open window! Then we had a new cork floor installed. It's really beautiful. Next a new tub and toilet - nothing fancy. And just yesterday they finished the tiling. We used a really pretty marble tile cut to 4" x 12". I make that sound really easy, but there were several hiccups along the way. Mainly that we ordered the marble based on two samples and when the shipment arrived about 1/3 of them were a different color. They were different enough that the tile guy said he wouldn't recommend we use them. So we had to wait for a reorder. Then we didn't have enough to finish, so we had to wait for another reorder. The accent row is a really fun collection of other pieces of stone. I almost decided not to have them add it because it's so hard to decide how things will look together on the wall. Rob had expressed some hesitation too. But the tile guy thought it would work, and now we agree. Long story short, it is beautiful!

As for the new cabinetry, we met with this great guy who is building cabinets for Rob's work site. It will just be a cabinet that extends from where the sink is now across under the window to the wall, about 7 feet. It will have room for 6 big drawers. It will be basic bead board painted white, nothing fancy. Well, we still have sticker shock over the price to have it custom built so we haven't decided what to do. Rob needs to finish the new shelves at the end of the tub too. But overall, very good progress!

This n That

Just some things to catch you up...

Rob and I went to watch the St. George River whitewater race Saturday - yes, March 28 in Maine. Notice the snowy banks in the picture. Folks use canoes (1, 2 and 3 people) and kayaks. We watched several people fall out into the freezing cold water and were fascinated when they got back in their boats and continued! This is the first race of the season so there were about 50 boats entered. Every weekend from now on they travel around the state for more races. I prefer to watch (at least until the temps get up around 70!)

Here are some new backyard visitors from this winter. It was cool to see them up so close. I guess they came around for the bird seed leftovers. They left these great tracks across the snow that we could see for weeks afterward, sort of like fossilized dinosaur tracks.

A couple months ago, we went out for a winter festival on Chickawaukee Lake, 

just west of Rockland. Notice I said on the lake. It was during the mid-winter thaw (quit laughing) that seems to happen every year around January-February. We have a series of really warm days (40ish) and the top layer of things that should be frozen turns sort of slushy. On this day, they had cleared snow off of the lake in hopes of having a skating area. They must have sprayed it with some water to see if they could put a nice smooth surface on it. But it wasn't cold enough to freeze it quickly, so it was more like a wading pool. For the rest of the activities, conditions were great. Out on the lake there were trucks with trailers for snow mobiles, a tractor pulling a sled-train as a ride, a giant slingshot that jettisoned kids on 

sleds, sail sleds (or wind skaters?), and ice fishing demonstrations. A bald eagle was cruising around hoping for a fish. The ice fishermen throw the trash fish out on the surface of the lake and the eagles get a free meal. So many new things for a displaced California girl!

 

Snow fleas?

Winter time offers a lot of opportunities for getting outdoors. Last weekend I went on a winter ecology walk sponsored by the Land Trust. It was led by a local forester so I got a great lesson in identifying Maine trees in the winter. It can be done with no leaves! The highlight of the walk was when I looked up to find a barred owl sitting about 25 feet away just watching us. It was not the least bit bothered by our chatter. On our way back to the cars we broke out of the forest into the clearing and the leader stops and bends down to look into the foot prints in the snow. She announced that she could finally show us a sign of impending spring - snow fleas! Microscopic insects that jump around - they are a species of springtail. It looks like fine ground pepper. Who knew? You can see pictures of us on the walk on the Georges River Land Trust Facebook page.

Here are a couple pictures of my new office with the beautiful desk that Rob built me. He's

been a great handyman for the office too, fixing doors and hanging up a towel rack. It's a really nice place to go to work and overlooks Rockland harbor.

This winter I've been doing indoor projects (duh). I painted the living room (Perennial Gold) and the dining room (Desert Sand). I bought a nice blue for the kitchen but wisely only tried it on a small section. Too much. That'll probably be perfect in the guest room. Back to the drawing Board for the kitchen. Rob, the king of khaki, even likes the color. Victory!

Inauguration fever!

We just got back from the inauguration!! I have a cousin who lives a few block off the mall, so we had a close place to stay. It was an amazing experience in so many ways. I always feel that way about going to WDC with all the monuments, memorials, and the Smithsonian, but with the new Prez the town was all a twitter. We started off on Monday by visiting the Museum of American History which was just recently reopened. Overall it was a disappointment with only about 50% of the floor space with exhibits. However, there were some cool things. We saw the original American flag except for all the pieces that were hacked off through history as souvenirs. They had some historical actors giving speeches as Jefferson and Lincoln. And there was a civil war band playing instruments from that era and in full authentic uniforms. They even had eye glass frames from that era that they put their own prescriptions in.

Then we headed out to tour the whole mall and see what we knew we'd never be able to see on Tuesday. They were playing a recording of the concert from Sunday night at the Lincoln Memorial on all the jumbo trons. There were 7 jumbo trons and all were mounted on a semi-trailer. With some circuitous walking we were able to get right up to the fence at the back of the chairs set out on the hill leading up to the capitol. While standing there taking pictures, all of sudden the announcer starts talking and introduces Aretha Franklin! The music started and she started singing! We didn't have our binoculars, so we couldn't really tell if she was there (probably didn't have her gianormous hat on that day). She broke off in the middle and the music kept playing, so maybe she was there! Even though there was nothing official going on, it was just great to wander around so close to where history would be made the next day.

On Tuesday morning, we should have headed out at O-dark thirty if we wanted to get anywhere close, but we didn't. We headed out about 830 and decided to not even try near the front. Instead, we hit the streets to walk to the area near the Washington Monument where the last big screen was. There were tons of people out streaming toward the mall, blocking traffic on most streets. We had to hop a fence once we arrived at the mall, and then we were jammed into a sea/throng/mob of people. There was a palpable sense of excitement, enthusiasm, happiness, and goodwill. All of those good feelings were especially important while we stood like frozen sardines for 3 hours during the inauguration. We were on the opposite side of the mall from the jumbo trons. I could see the screen most of the time except for when the crowd shifted and a tall person was in front of me while Obama took the oath, and we could hear everything. [This picture shows Obama during his speech.] People cheered and sang and we all talked to each other. Even though we were strangers, I guess we felt united and familiar in that moment. What a wild experience! Great to be a part of it. I have a new sense of hope after 8 years with none!

It was a 13 hour drive home on Wednesday with stops for Starbucks, Trader Joes, and the New Hampshire liquor store! We've had quite a bit of snow at regular intervals. It's really beautiful, but it's also been pretty cold. I've now experienced an all time low temperature of -9 degrees. Brrr..We went out yesterday to try out our cross country skis in our back 40. Very nice snow and sort of fun (but for the 25 year old equipment). Today I'm going walking on a frozen lake!