Winter Shots around the Homestead

Most of us in New England will agree that it has been a very mild winter this season. Of course as I say this it is 16 degrees here with a light snow falling. To put it in perspective though we have only had the driveway plowed three times this winter and tomorrow is February 1st. Here are some winter shots I took around the yard.

The Stonewall

Redosier Dogwood?

 I think this may be a Redosier Dogwood but I'm not sure.  According to Native Plants for your Maine Garden by Maureen Heffernan this native shrub is grown for its red stems which add a nice contrast to the winter landscape. It is supposed to have small white flowers in the spring followed by rounded clusters of white fruit.  We'll see if I have identified this correctly as spring rolls along. 

Birch and Pine

Backside of the Bethel Inn

I'm on one of twelve local dart teams in Bethel and last night we played our match in the Millbrook Tavern at the Bethel Inn.  From the dart board I could look down the hill and see the front light shining from my house. I like that. 

Two Year Check Up

It was two years ago yesterday when we arrived in Bethel to make it our new home address.  Since then all of the things that mean “life” have been happening.  We’re making friends, finding our niches in the community and enjoying what we have.  Desire is something that brought us here, with intention, to this little speck of land, on this little planet we all call home.  Appreciation is the other thing that needs to happen every day and often. To appreciate health, love, family, and a cat who wakes you up at 5 AM. To appreciate snow, cold, and crystal clear skies that shimmering back to acknowledge your view. To appreciate the opposing polar forces inherent on earth and perhaps realize that this is what holds us together. If I close one eye I can see a dozen things that need to be done.  If I close the other eye I can appreciate what is. Maybe the formula is Desire + Appreciation = Balance.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Tax Dollars at Work

Road side signs can be useful although it seems like there are just too many of them.  It was around April or May of last year (2011) that the Maine Department of Transportation installed a new yellow diamond shape warning sign at the end of our driveway.  They dug the hole, put in the steel sign post and fastened a brand new sign that read “HIDDEN DRIVE” with the symbol below that indicates a hidden drive.  I can’t say I was thrilled about this new sign being erected at the end of our driveway but we are located on a State road where the speed limit is posted at 45 miles per hour (which of course means people drive 55 mph and faster) and not too far beyond our home the road begins to curve and there are homes located on this curve.  So it is true these driveways are hidden until you come right up on them and if it at all helps to protect our neighbors from getting hit by a fast moving vehicle then I’m in favor of the sign. 

Today we saw a DOT truck and crew working on this sign.  The sign had not been damaged in any way and we noticed that they were taking down the “HIDDEN DRIVE” sign and installing another sign that read “HIDDEN DRIVE” with the symbol below it.  That’s right…they were replacing the sign with a new copy of the same sign that wasn’t even one year old yet?  I asked the guys jokingly if the old sign was spelled wrong.  The response was ….well it’s a long story.  I asked if it was a slightly different color although it looked the same.  One of the guys said it might have a different reflective design for higher visibility.  Then one of them said if the signs aren’t dated correctly they have to replace them to “meet the mandate.”  It seemed that they were trying to find something sensible to say to me about a very non-sensible event. 

I’m not sure how much one of these signs cost and I’m not sure how much each of these three gentleman earn but if you add it all up you’ll have to agree that it doesn’t add up.  There has to be better use of time and energy for our tax dollars.    

HOPE

This is that week every year where the kids are off from school, tons of people are on vacation, and many others are “chowing-down” before they start their New Year diet which will be over by February 1^st.   It’s also where we look back over the past year and then look forward.  Looking back at this blog I have posted 26 times this year (unless I squeak in one more), so about one post for every two weeks on average. I could certainly post more and I often “think” about it but then days will pass and the reason to post whatever was then on my mind will seem old and historic.  In viewing the statistical analytics about this blog it tells me my most popular post for 2011 by far was about Hydrangeas and a Fire-Pit.

http://androscogginbloggin.blogspot.com/2011/05/hydrangeas-fire-pit-and-other-things.html

I not sure why this would be the most popular post but perhaps it is telling me people like to read about flowers.  With this knowledge in hand maybe I should post more about flowers to meet that market demand.  The thing is I’m not a flower expert and I have a limited selection in my yard but that shouldn’t stop me from trying right?  It’s hard to conceive about writing on things growing when the ground is now covered with snow and will be that way for months to come. 

Do I have goals for 2012?  Yes I do.  The first goal is to be here for Lauren. After her cancerous kidney removal last March we can’t take the future for granted.  The second goal is to be conscious of appreciating each person in my life and what they have to offer. This is easier said than done with some but what I mean is I intend to “listen” for understanding. The third goal is to earn a bit more money (or win the lottery). I’ve come to a point in life where I really don’t value money as that important however I do have those needs that require some of it and more then I appear to be making currently. The fourth goal is to do those house projects that I can which are on the inexpensive side.  One last word about goals; I’m currently reading The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown and she states that …Hope is a combination of setting goals, having the tenacity and perseverance to pursue them, and believing in our own abilities.

May you all have hope for 2012. 

A Letter to Smoke Alarm Manufacturers

Dear Smoke Alarm Manufacturer,

I would like to pass along a suggestion.  This suggestion could even set you apart from your competitor and help increase your sales if you implement it first.  My suggestion is: would you please design a smoke alarm that when the battery level gets low it only chirps between the hours of 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM.  For the past 30 years my smoke alarms only begin to do the low battery chirp usually between 1:00 and 4:00 AM.   Last night at 2:08 AM one of my First Alert smoke detectors began to chirp.  It woke me out of my sound sleep.  I was hoping it would not chirp again but then every five minutes…chirp…chirp.  I have five smoke alarms and one carbon monoxide alarm of which I try to change the batteries every year.  I even write the date that I install the new battery on masking tape and stick it on the back side of the detector.  Even with these efforts the low battery chirp seems to find me in my peaceful slumber usually about twice a year and usually on the coldest nights during the winter.  I really don’t enjoy leaving my warm comfy bed at 2:00 AM to stand in the middle of a cold room waiting for the next chirp to determine which smoke alarm I need to address.  Last night I picked the right alarm the first time and removed the battery but then I had a very hard time falling back to sleep.  Once I removed batteries from three different smoke alarms before I picked the right detector.

I do understand that this does not appear to be a problem for everyone.  For example my wife slept through this whole ordeal quite well, right next to me.  She never heard the chirping, never heard me get up, and never heard me drag the chair over so I could stand on it to reach the alarm.  But she is a member of the “sleep elite” who can sleep undisturbed by such noises as car alarms, passing trains, and police sirens.  

If you were to implement this new design suggestion I would gladly pay one to maybe two dollars more per smoke alarm for this feature.  Think about that.  I believe you might be able to increase your bottom line by millions of dollars with this new design feature.  Let’s do the math.  I have six detectors in my home but let’s say each home has minimum of just three detectors.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html there was 131,704,730 housing units in the United States in 2010. So 131,704,730 X 3 = 395,114,190 alarm units.  Now I understand that a number of homes are “hard wired” to the electrical system which do not require batteries.  So let’s just use some round numbers.  We’ll take a potential of 400 million smoke alarms and divide it in half to allow for hard wired systems and people who can sleep through air raids.  That leaves 200 million units in the U.S.   If you can charge one dollar more for this feature, which I think you can, then you have 200 million dollars to put in your bank account.  So please think about this and if you feel the need to pay me some sort of royalty for this suggestion then leave me a comment below and I will gladly give you instructions on where to send the funds.  Sweet Dreams….Peter

Two Years and One Room Done

Who said I wasn’t slow and deliberate.  It hasn’t really been two years since we’ve bought this house but close enough if you round up and we now have one room in the house that we can point to and say “finished”.  This would be the guest bedroom, the room Lauren and I use the least.  The last item to address here was the floor which like all of the floors on the second level was painted pine boards.   It was in pretty rough shape as you can see in this picture.

It was naturally distressed from I’m guessing ski boots and other wear and tear.  Lauren picked out a grey color paint designed for use on concrete patios and garage floors which is good because it should be durable.

After I had painted two coats on the floor which dried to a flat grey surface Lauren decided she wanted a high gloss shiny look whereupon she bought a gallon of polyurethane.

I dutifully (because that’s the type of guy I am) applied two coats of the polyurethane over the paint sanding between the coats with a 220 grit sandpaper for smoothness.  In the end it came out good, don’t you think? 

My only concern is the paint was latex based and the polyurethane acrylic based (although the fumes were intense) and to me these aren't as durable as oil (alkyd) based finishes. I don't mind using latex on walls and trim but if you are walking on the stuff it better be tough. A few days later I told someone I was glad it was warm so I could open the windows while I applied the polyurethane.  She proceeded to tell me she applied an acrylic based polyurethane (5 coats) on her kitchen floor just one year ago and it is now worn down to the wood.  I think she said she used California paints where we used Benjamin Moore but it still has me a little concerned how well our finish will hold up.  We will let you know. 

In other news most people around here know we received 8 inches of snow the day before Thanksgiving.  This put a lot of folks in an earlier than expected travel mode because they knew Wednesday was going to be crappy for driving.  This included my in-laws who drove up Tuesday to see us.  That would be Frank and Joan, also known as the Bo and the Dee because when our girls were young they called Frank “Bo-Bo” and Joan “Dee-Dee”.  Frank likes to read his daily papers and because we’re the last stop on our snow plow guys route we knew it was going to be a long time before our driveway was plowed. So I got out the cross country skis and skied into town to pick up the papers, the mail, and a few things from the grocery store.  It was fun skiing down the middle of Main Street. 

I'll send a postcard when I find work.

On the way back I had to force myself to fall on Mill Hill Road because it was too steep and slick going downhill.  I tried to snowplow but couldn’t so instead of reaching a speed of 65 miles per hour and maybe wiping out I decided a forced wipe out at 15 to 20 mph was a safer bet.  Near the end I let myself pick up extra speed and managed to stay standing.  I like this mode of travel and know it’s a good workout as well. 

A special shout out to Allan Stellar of Solar Compound and Robert Carlo new followers to Androscoggin Bloggin. Thanks for stopping by.

A Day at the Common Ground Country Fair

On September 23^rd Lauren and I took a bus trip with our friends from the Western Mountains Senior College http://www.maineseniorcollege.org and went to the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine.  The fair is put on by The Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association www.mofga.org  and they have been doing it now for 35 years.  There were twenty one of us on the bus that day and once we entered the fairgrounds I only saw one of them until it was time to return.  It seemed all of us had a different interest and with so many things to choose from we went our separate ways to enjoy. 

Quack

My favorite event of the day was to watch the Border Collie Demonstration which was put on by David Kennard of Wellcroft Farm in New Hampshire http://www.wellscroft.com/farm/farmHome.html  These Border Collies were truly amazing to watch as they directed the sheep to go exactly where David told them to.  The sheep were mixed in with a bunch of goats and the collies could separate them into different groups with apparent ease.  David said the sheep graze on the grass of a number of different fields around the town where his farm is located in Chesham and instead of trying to load and unload all of these sheep on a truck it just makes a whole lot of economic sense to have the dogs direct them to their next field. It must be an interesting sight if you are driving through town when this is happening.  

I found my way through the poultry barn, the goat/sheep barn, the rabbits, the horses and donkeys, oxen, and draft horse areas.  Because I’m thinking about getting chickens sometime I spent more time there admiring all the breeds that are available.  After that I walked across The Common to the exhibition hall where they were judging the fruits, vegetables, and wheat. The variety and beauty was very cool.  Later I caught up with Lauren and we had some food to eat while we listened to some fiddle and folk music played by Sassafras Stomp.  We saw a few more of the sights before it was time to head back home.  It seems we left the fair with one more body on the bus than we had arrived with. That’s because senior college member Scott Hynek bought a buck rabbit to bring back to assist in breeding his rabbits.  If you like organic gardening and farming you will love this fair.