Bear signs

Tom and I walked around the woods a bit today. It was his first time in weeks to venture down to the river. He found this tree in the photo that has recently been gorged out while 'someone' searched for bugs to eat.

Now we have never actually seen a bear. We have seen signs of scat and the neighbors have seen the bear himself. He attacked their bird feeders all summer.

We can only guess the size of this one from the height of the top scratches on the tree. They are easily 8 feet high. Now it is Halloween today, but when Tom says it looks like bear, that's good enough to keep me out of the woods by myself!!!

We had a flake or two of snow on Wednesday, so today I got the daffodils in the ground and finished clipping the last of the phlox stalks. We can almost say to old man winter, "Bring it on."

The wetlands are filled with red berry bushes. I took this photo at the river today. I really need to look up the name, but my identification books are in the other room and I just can't remember what they are. I'll just say that they dress up the woods which are really baren of colorful leaves.

We had a heavy rain recently, but the beaver dam is still holding water two feet higher on the upstream of the river. Just wanted you to know that the bear didn't displace the beaver watch.

Only in Maine

Well, it started out as an invitation to go to a concert tonight with our pastor and his wife. We were picked up at 5:15 and our journey began. We were basically being kidnapped as we didn't know where we were going or who we were going to hear.

We traveled through the towns of Peru, Dixfield and into Carthage. By now it was beginning to be dusk and I began to get a little uneasy when I realized that our kidnappers had only been to this "place" once before. They told us we were going to the Skye Theater. Well, that told us nothing other than it might be up high, but then again, you really have to trust your pastor.

Pastor decided that he had the correct turn after passing on a couple of others and we quickly left a nice highway, Route 2, for a dirt path wide enough for a car. Nice log houses along the way led us to believe we were still in civilization.

After several more side roads that were little more than trails, we arrived at the top of a mountain to a large building under construction. Pastor backed into a spot in the parking lot, (I use the term loosly) and I hopped out to take this picture of the theater. (I'm still not in a complete trusting mode.)

We were early, but it was a sold out crowd and we had to come early as we wanted seats together. We heard fiddles in the outer rooms where people are invited to come and jam with the guest artists before the concert begins.

Finally it was time to enter the building. The bottom floor was filled with construction material, but when we went upstairs, the stairway walls were filled with branches and vines lighted with tiny white lights. What a nice feeling! Maybe this wasn't going to be a disaster after all.

The room was filled with 115 plastic chairs. (We had been warned to bring cushions) and those chairs filled up quickly. How in the world did so many people know about this place and not only know about it, but were able to find it??

When the performers, Evergreen, walked onto the tiny stage, magic began. There was one lady who played stand up bass, guitar, mandalin and autoharp, her husband who got more out of a harmonica than I though possible, a guitar player and a school teacher who was the winner of this year's Maine blue grass banjo playing.

Not only could he play a mean banjo, but also the accordian. He had a wonderful voice that was just pleasant and restful. They all had nice voices and unlike most bluegrass music, you could hear most of the lyrics. I'm not a true bluegrass fan, because the real stuff all sounds alike to me. However I am reminded of people who walk into my daylily gardens and can't tell the difference between all the hybrid yellow ones, or red ones or whatever. You get the drift, I'm sure.

You get the idea that the evening was a wonderful surprise. We were not taken off to some faraway mountain for a small concert. These people were pros. In fact, if you google the group, Evergreen band, you can find out all about them.

The theater gives all ticket sales to the performers, many of which do Scottish and Irish concerts and many come from the Cape Breton area.

I rest now from our big adventure. You see, we do have other things to do that watch beavers in our woods!!

Clarification

Beth gave me information on Katahdin which she had already told me, but I wasn't near a paper and pen, so the gray computer in my head didn't save. Actually I was in the car looking at the mountain on the way home from Caribou. Anyway, I think I spelled Katahdin wrong in the last blog, so will correct that.

Katahdin is a large mountain with three peaks, Baxter, Hamlin and Pamola. Baxter and Hamlin Peaks qualify as 4,000 footers because there is a 200 foot drop in elevation between them but they are on the sam massif-Katahdin. Now I think the record is straight.

I'm doing blogs today because I am sore from a lot of exercise yesterday. Beth came over with camera in hand and we headed to the river. I drove the 'mule' to the river, but we took off on foot to investigate the beaver activity. We walked along the river through the rough, no trail there, until we determined that the high water is all due to the large dam near the mine. We thought there may be another one, but there was no other

Then we took a beaver trail and found a darling little lodge. Their trail was as good or better than any of ours. Beth walked upstream to determine there were no other dams that she could see.

We walked up from the river to see where the little critters have clear cut the land.

I guess my adventures seem pretty boring to most people, but we love the land and having some animal activty to follow just adds a little more interest as we see how the river changes with the efforts of these little busy beavers.

Tamarack, Eastern Larch, Hackmatack Trees

Something that was new to us southerners was to see a conifer tree shed it's needles in the fall after the needles turned yellow. The trees go by several names such as tamarack, eastern larch, hackmatack and even eastern juniper, though they are not a true juniper.

Anyway, our woods are full of these yellow conifers at the moment. The proper name is actually Larix laricina. Now you know more than you wanted to know, I'm sure, but they are unique to us.

The wood is used for planking, timbers, ties, poles, sign post, pilings and pulp, being heavy and strong.

Tom and I went to Caribou which is at the top of Maine this week to attend the Maine American Baptist Annual Conference where he is on the Board and was a delegate. On the way the predominant tree, it seemed was the tamarack. They stood out so vividly with their shining yellow color among the firs along the highway. It was a six hour drive so we saw lots of trees and nothing else except potato fields for miles and miles.

We also had wonderful views of Mt. Katadin, the highest mountain in Maine. A recent snow had made the view very interesting, though the range was not completely snow covered. Daughter Beth says there are actually two mountains in the range with 4,000 foot elevation separated by a small valley between. She should know having climbed them! I forgot the camera, so no image.

Tom and I visited the beaver dam again today. The little critters have actually made our river almost into a large pond. There is still current but my favorite spot at Poet's Point is nearly still water.

Rain last night caused more to flow over the dam but the structure seems strong. The water level has about a two to three foot change at the dam.

Our Family from Chili

We have been doing a lot of touring as we introduced our new daughter-in-law and her son to rural Maine which is a long way from Chili.
Luz Maria and Nacho had never been to the states so everything was new to them. They were delighted with the beautiful autumn we had and spent lots of time just looking at leaves and taking photos.
One nice trip was to the Pemaquid lighthouse. The water was calm as glass which is very unusual. We usually have waves lapping up over the rocks. However, it made for good tidal pool searching. Luz Maria is a lone figure as she stands on the rocks overlooking the Atlantic.

Pemaquid is one of the long fingers that reach down from land into the ocean and has a park, museum and tours of the working lighthouse.