Entering last quarter

Well, I have made it through three quarters of a century and today I start on the last quarter. It has been a wonderful ride so far. My two wonderful children have given me seven (yes, that's 7) great grandkids and above all I have three great grandchildren. What more could one ask except to have a loving husband? I certainly have that and have had him for over 54 years.

And as I thought about entering that last quarter, memories took me back in time to the fun we had with our tent camper forty years ago. We have years of wonderful memories with family and friends. Why not take a few more spins out in nature?

So, Tom and I found this used Coleman 2003 camper for $1500. We could't resist. There are National parks out there that have yet to be explored.There is so much Maine that holds new sights for us. We haven't lost our sense of adventure and I think when we lose that, we will have lost much of what makes us who we are.

Tom and I are like two young people, as we check out the heater, three way refrigerator, fans over the king size beds, crank up top and unique features that make this camper so much more user friendly than the wheel camper of the 19 65 era. Now all we have to do is wait until spring comes.

Elderberry Farm

Today we took drive up a long dirt road in Sumner
to a beautiful farm. It is a working farm with goats, a donkey,angora rabbits and three beautiful collie dogs plus another one I didn't recognize.

There were flowers and vegetables growing everywhere, but the highlight of the trip was a walk into an acre of elderberries. Some were blooming, some almost ripe an some still green.

The view from the farm was breathtaking with mountains all around. A retired orthopedic surgeon and her contractor partner do all the work around the farm and John has built the house himself.

It has sunporches, rap around verandas and windows everywhere.

It was a warm and happy place. You never know what you may find in the Maine backwoods.

Labor Day parade

Every year I get to attend the Labor Day parade in Buckfield and write a story for the Sun Journal. I enjoy meeting people and watching the children react to the parade.

The weather was perfect with a clear blue sky and temperature in the 70s. Hundreds of people lined the street as bands, floats, fire engines,horses, antique cars and such rolled along.

After the parade we ate pulled pork sandwiches and pie,but we could have had Polish sausage lobster rolls, or hot dogs. It was a festive time.

My own favorite fireman rode the Sumner Engine and threw out mardi gras beads to the crowd.

Paving Field's Hill

Today was a special day for us folks on Fields Hill Road. We all watched as a new layer of asphalt was put on our potholed road. The last time this was done was shortly after we moved here nine years ago.

Our road is not heavily traveled, so to have big trucks, pavers, etc. was a big event. I walked out to get the paper and felt intense heat coming from the new surface. This coating may last longer than we do, but we might live to see another coat go down.

September and fall are really here. Fall follows summer as you recall, but summer was only about 10 days long. I finally felt brave enough to put on my summer night gown, but before the week was out, I was back into the light flannels.

The garden produces more than I can use and I think next year we will just plant something to make the soil healthy. I don't think it is worth all the work. The pole beans are heavy on the vines, but the squash had too much rain. The tomatoes don't have the dreaded virus, but are just barely producing. The carrots however, are still growing and are delicious.

Garden produce in abundance

Yes, the rain has helped some of the crops, but the squash are beginning to rot. There is still enough for everyday use , but no extra. That, of course, keeps me from setting up a fruit stand on the street. I did pick several green peppers this morning.
The one tomato I picked may be bad inside. Farmers are pulling plants up and destroying them by the hundreds because of a blight. I'm not sure if my plants are affected. They look okay, but the fruit isn't.

The Kentucky wonders are just coming in and I may can some by the end of the week. I picked nearly a bucket full today, but we will eat on them awhile. At least I don't have to bend over to pick.

Carrots are such fun. I just love to see their bright orange bodies come out of the brown earth. It's like magic.

My ears were humming as the bees were all over the corn and bean blossoms as I picked. They left me alone. It was nice of them to share.

I'm sorry the pictures are all up top, but my Mac doesn't allow me to move them as they come up with numbers instead of icons and the strange formula doesn't move. I could do my blog on Beth's old computer she brought over, but it takes forever to work, so I just send my photos at the top. There can be no artistic placement. Enjoy anyway

Tornadoes don't come to Maine

I have often said in my blogs that we don't have all the extreme weather other states have, only snow.
But by the grace of God, many people could have died last Friday and many homes destroyed. The tornado was striking while I was telling Tom that something was happening that wasn't good.
The thunder was a constant roar, and the tornado was so close, I couldn't tell the difference except something wasn't right. He was on a conference call with the EMA director for the county talking about 'Bill' and I kept running into the office from the deck saying, "Tom, something is going on. I think we are going to have a tornado." They laughed!!!
Soon after, damage calls started, roads were closed due to hundreds of downed trees and still officials said,"It's not a tornado." They changed their minds when they saw the damage. Tom was out for eight hours on Saturday directing traffic and several hours on Friday.

The tornado struck not 3 miles from our home as the crow flies and nearly destroyed a selectman's home. It did considerable damage to his rental cabin. I can't believe how many homes were spared but by a few feet though many suffered damage. I'll try to send a few photos that show some of the damage.

The aerial view shows where it first touched down, then hit again a mile or so away.
The volunteer fireman sawing is a young lady named Brianne that I know from Canton because she used to play with our grandson all the time. The load of logs just shows how big the trees were.

Summer continues

Yes, Summer came and stayed. No more flannel PJ's or windows left open. The AC is running. I think we may have hit 90 degrees today and yesterday as well.

The garden didn't know what to do with the heat, so it just exploded in growth. I can't find the tomato plants for the weeds but today I picked enough beans to can 13 pints. I don't do quarts just for the two of us, so pints work. I've actually been picking beans and giving them away for a couple of weeks now, but there is still more. And to add to the misery of too much produce, the row of pole beans is full of tiny beans already.
Baby squash are showing their bright yellow bodies in the giant bushes that cover two rows in width. I pulled several carrots for supper tonight. We will have lots of carrots!!! But, enough about the garden.

As you recall, I am Dump Diva to the Transfer Station Swap Shop. I recently sent in a grant requesting $5,000 for closing in the containers for winter. Actually it will be a room connecting the two containers. I received a grant for $2,000 and the town fathers are meeting tomorrow night to get me the rest of the money. We plan to start construction in September. I'm excited about this because it is such a help to so many people who come and get clothing, appliances, dishes, books, toys, etc. Now they will be able to "shop" without completely freezing this winter. And my many helpers will be more comfortable.

We are missing Beth and Charlie as they are on route to Latvia where they will be looking for paintings by Charlie's great grandfather. I believe Charlie has made arrangements for going to all the churches where the paintings are located. Then they will be meeting Sara in Sweden for a visit.

Before Beth left, she and Tom checked on the bees. I thought you would enjoy this picture.

The daylilies are about gone and we are enjoying the phlox.

Summer has arrived July 28, 2009

I proudly state the date in the title so you can see that summer actually came this year. Up until yesterday, we have had no days over 80 degrees since summner began in June. We had a couple in the spring that hit 90 degrees. Today is the same with 85 degrees. My garden will now grow in leaps and bounds.

I have frozen enough brocolli already for the winter and look forward to using the side shoots the rest of this summer. I plan to put a sign out front in the next week or so......FREE BEANS PICK YOUR OWN.


My daylilies are doing as well as could be expected in the cool temperatures and much rain. All growers seem to be having the same problems.

We enjoy watching the yellow finches at the feeder. They are the best kind of pets...outside!!

This clump of daylilies is called "Happy Treasure". I registered this one back in the late 70's and to me it is still one of the prettiest in the garden.

A cool morning

As I sat on my deck this morning sipping my hot coffee and reading the paper while the rising sun warmed the back of my jacket on this cool 50 degree morning, I thought how blessed we are. What a beautiful country we have. What a peaceful day as tiny puffy clouds drift over the mountains instead of smoke rising from bombs in the distance. We are a blessed people.

The robins were busy looking and finding worms in the ground as bluejays and bluebirds flew overhead landing briefly in the birch tree. A chipmonk hurried across the yard with his tail in the air looking for who knows what. It is a lovely morning.

I look across the deck to my brocolli patch and see that yesterday's rain shower has washed the growing heads.

My beautiful daylilies are glistening in the sun.

I walk to the pond and see the fish swimming lazily around looking for more food. What a beautiful day.

I walk into the meadow and see a mashed down spot in the wildflowers and wonder who slept there last night. What a beautiful day!

Southern Fried

June has requested my southern fried chicken recipe. I will send it along, but remember when I was a child growing up in Mississippi, the chicken was fresh off the 'hoof" so to speak.

I use either a whole chicken which I cut up or purchase legs and breasts in packages. Now I use the boneless skinless breasts and cut each breast into halves. The bone in breasts give it a richer taste.
After drying on paper towels I lay the pieces out on a cutting board while the canola oil heats in the frypan. I generously cover the bottom with the oil, about a quarter inch.
After laying out the chicken I lightly salt and pepper each side then dredge in flour. I use only flour, nothing else.
When the grease is hot I put in the bigger pieces first and sprinkle each piece again with black pepper and lightly cover. If you cover tightly, the chicken will not be crisp.
As soon as I think each piece is browning, I turn it and keep doing so until it is golden brown and done. Drain on paper towels and enjoy hot or cold. You can't do too much else at the same time to keep it perfect.

Now for the southern daylilies. I am enclosing a photo I took this morning of one of my new hybrids which bloomed for the first time last year. I grow the seeds in the basement during the winter. Notice the darker yellow edging on the ruffling.
The eyed one is an unnamed seedling I brought her from Chattanooga when we moved here ten years ago.

I captured one of Beth's bees on a mallow this morning. The bushes were covered with the little critters.

A Sunny Day in July

Today the sun is shining. As you can see, Tom was able to till the garden but it was wet. Unlike some gardens that are suffering from mold and disease because of the rain, ours seems to be healthy. The front page of our paper had a story yesterday telling farmers they had time to replant if they did it this week. They predict our first frost to be September 15.

I sat on a sunny rock in the middle of the wildflower field and watched Tom wrestle the tiller. The flowers have been suffering, but it looks like we are in for a nice spell of weather. Notice that I am wearing a sweater in the sun. The temperatures hover in the low 50's at night and 60's during the day.

We had a partially sunny day on July 4th when we were invited to a friend's lake house for their annual family picnic. We get invited as Pastor Tyner and wife Jean's guests as the house belongs to Jean's sister Bev and husband Ed. The couple have a beautiful place on a lake and the boats were able to get out on the lake for some fun time before the rain came just about lunch time. Everyone grabbed food and headed for the house as the storm hit. One boat just rode out the storm but the food all got in.

I made my traditional fried chicken. Bev and Ed had picked fully ripe juicy strawberries for eating and for strawberry shortcake. No Sara Lee shortcakes either. Jean's daughter baked fresh shortcake for the event. And, I might add, the whipped cream didn't come out of an aerosol can.

The rain didn't dampen spirits a bit and we stayed late playing a game called Sequence and listening to tales around the supper table. It was a fun time.

Ed and Bev are our age, BUT the energy level of this couple spins my head. Ed was busy running the boat while Bev was in constant motion making sure things were just right. As we were leaving around 6:00 I realized Ed and Bev were going dancing. Not to mention that they were having another group at their home on Sunday. The Saturday crowd was around 32.
Somewhere along the line Tom and I lost the energy this couple seems to have.
We had a nice time.

Going on Forty Days

The county has already been declared a disaster by the Emergency Management Agency. The rains started on June 15th and only two days during this time has Tom mowed the yard. He mowed wet grass, but the rain held off until he finished.

My sunroom which is filled with gerananiums actually has blossoms rotting on the plant. This has never happened before. The air is heavy with moisture and we empty 2 gallons of water a day from the downstairs dehumidifier. Our sandy soil does not have a chance to drain because the rain is almost constant. We have thunderstorms and heavy rain storms.

Yet, we do not have hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, major forest fires and intense heat in Maine.

Oh yes, did I mention that we are still wearing jackets and blankets and comforters cover our bed?

My daylilies that would have peaked in blooms the first of June in Chattanooga, still have tight buds. I expect the peak this year to be around the last week in July. Our Dallas relatives will see daylily blooms when they come in September I'm sure.

The brocolli looks great and I saw one head yesterday. The radishes look good too. In fact everything looks like it is doing well despite all the clouds and rain. When the sun finally comes we should have a bumper crop.

I took the photo in Rumford on Tuesday.

Chris's Adventures

The two weeks have flown since Chris has been with us. We have played endless games of Phase 10, war and whatever struck our minds. I won't mention Mancala, because I was not a part of that marble game.

We have had many adventures and all of them have been fun.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse is always a fun day trip combined with the Maine Ocean Botanical Gardens. The wind was so strong, it nearly blew our picnic off the table and we had to resort to wearing jackets while we ate and Chris played on the rocks.

We had missed the rhododemdrums in bloom in the gardens, but there is always something colorful to look at on the trails. I captured one bush on the way to the gardens that was spectacular.

Yesterday we attacked the woods. I had not walked our moose trail in several years and it wasn't cleared at all last year so we had to guess where the trail was. I would not have made it without Chris along. Tom got us started on the right trail and then went back to drive the mule down to meet us on River Road. We only have a few trails the mule can travel. The rest of the trails are for foot traffic only.

I had planned to walk all the way to the northeast corner of our property in search of the elusive moose. So camera in hand we stuck out but no moose was found.

Beavers have made the pond overflow onto the trail that had been cleared and Chris and I had to bushwack our way to higher ground. He had a wicked stick that "killed" the ferns out of our way and we did make it.

After lunch, we went to a place to mine for gems. Mt Mica is a famous mine and this place hauls material from the mine and you can dig a bucket full for $10.00 and see what you can find.

There are nice tables with water trays. You sift the material first through two screens. Then you wash the bigger stuff, dump it on the table and sort before you get to the tiny stuff. We found three sandwich bags of "keepers" for Chris to take home. There were numerous tiny crystals of green tourmaline and other minerals.

And then there was the day for sailing, but alas, the sail tore and there was no wind anyway. However, the paddle worked and the two boys rowed across Labrador pond in the sailboat without a sail.

It has been a fun

Moose hunting

We didn't get a shot of the one moose we saw because she was flying across the road, but this deer picture is worth a few moose ones. We also saw wild turkeys.

The Rangley lakes are beautiful, even in the rain. Lake Mooselookmegunticook or however it's spelled, is pronounced the way it looks. We took several pictures of the lakes from different viewpoints. Chris was more agile on the rocks that Auntie was on the hike down and up the Wildflower trail on Saturday.

Our favorite spot was Small Falls where Chris posed beside the falls. We also stopped at Coos Canyon where they used to mine a lot of gold.

We all were enthralled with the lupines in full bloom all along the roads.

We ate at the Purple Onion (only in Maine) and saw a Sun Journal lying on the table. We told the waitress that the young man with us had taken the pictures for the Hartford Heritage story. She was impressed.

Enjoy the photos.

Tree Swallows

For the past 8 or more years, Tree Swallows have used a tiny nesting box on our front porch. They come every year without fail. I guess it takes a village to outfit a nesting box and feed the young, because this box is the most popular place on our farm.

I can't find any verification that Tree Swallows return to the same place and when everyone is dressed in identical tuxedos, it's hard to say from one year to the next, who is who.

But every year, before Tom can get the nest cleaned out, they start bringing in grass and nesting stuff.

Years before we have seen up to three in the nest, but this year, we have quintuplets!! Believe me, this keeps the " village" very busy. We have actually counted five beaks. The baby mouths are so gaping large that if I were the mom I think I would run in fright.

Tree Swallows are the only green backed swallow to live in the east according to "Birds of North America", but when they fly I see more blue than green. My birding Book published by Time Life actually says they have steely blue upperparts and white underparts, which is more correct from my point of view. Most authorities say they like nesting boxes. We can certainly testify to that.

The nesting box is just outside my kitchen window. I just went to get another cup of coffee and I saw three little beaks asleep at the entrance.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Another reason to visit Postlude Farms in June.

My hardest challage

There is no way to explain to anyone what I actually did today, but I will try.

First I must say it was a wonderful experience and if I have to spend the next few days in bed it was worth it.

Beth signed me up to take a wildflower walk on Mount Washington, the higher than a mile mountain in New Hampshire.
She and Molly picked me up at 7:15 this morning. I had been to the chiropracter four days this week for a back problem from working too hard in the yard and was prescribed muscle relaxants yesterday by my doctor. The injury affected my left leg.

Putting all that aside, I wanted to go very much.

When we got to the site, I realized that that the first .03 miles of the trip was straight down a boulder field. I looked at this path from hell and thought, I'm here, I have to do this!!

With two hiking poles and much help and encouragement from Beth, I made it to the Wildflower trail not too far behind the rest of the group. However, the trail was also traversing rocks.

The alpine flowers at this elevation were very small but also very colorful and covered most of the rocky terrain. Our guide pointed out white daipensia, pink alpine azelea, Alpine bluetts, colorful pink Lapland rosebay and many other plants growing over moss covered rocks and what ground there was.

It was a beautiful sunny day with a few clouds and the patches of snow kept our temperture great for hiking.

After lunch in a large boulder field, I decided that going back while I could still walk was a good option. Molly agreed, so the three of us struck out.

The left leg was almost impossible to lift as I climbed back up the boulder field from hell, but if the little engine that could could make it, I could and did!!!

Yard activities

A lot has happened on Postlude Farms over the last week. As I mentioned, the garden club came for a visit and the garden was planted. Christopher is getting a taste of work in Maine as he plants out the tomatoes and pepper, but I think he likes it. The day after we planted the garden it rained, which was good, but it was so cold I actually had the heat on in the house. So much for seeds sitting in the nice warm earth!

Apparently Labrador Pond is a popular spot for turtles laying their eggs as we saw one on Sunday and two at the same spot on Monday. I hope to catch them when they hatch, but that is not likely to happen. I'll keep the camera close just in case.

The pond is also home to a pair of geese who hatch their young every year. I caught these moms and babies just at sunset. If you enlarge the photo, I think you can make them out.

The garden club members were enchanted with the water feature. The most interesting feature is the old pump at the top of the rippling stream. The pump was actually used before the old farmhouse burned, but the shallow well was long dry before we moved here. We removed the pump and Tom saved it for future use somewhere. The new water pond was exactly the right place. It was originally painted blue, but blue just didn't fit the color scheme somehow and I talked Tom into painting it the nice brick red.

Anyway, the water ripples down over rocks that we took out of our mine and you can see tourmaline chips and other crystals in the rocks. The water just enhances the effect.

I bought some Louisiana water hycinths to help keep the water clear. The bog pond has native water iris and the cat tail we moved last year with great effort on my helpers part, actually has signs of putting up a new shoot.