That Darned Maine Wind!

Richard took me on a surprise getaway last Friday for our anniversary. We returned home on Saturday, packed the RV, and drove to our land in Western Maine. Richard finished the storage shed and set up a solar gizmo that provides us with power in the RV when we can’t or don’t want to use the generator. It’s pretty cool!

My weekend job was to keep an eye on Max and Mason, to pull ticks off people, to do all the cooking and cleaning (it’s not to hard to clean an RV!) and to help Richard with odd jobs, like holding a large board level while he had fun with the nail gun. He also set up the satellite dish so I could work (even though I took most of the weekend off) and he also put up a nice canopy so Max and Mason could play outside without getting a sunburn. The dish weighs a LOT and the canopy was bolted to the ground so we didn’t have to worry about losing them in the valley winds we get here.

While I’m writing this, Richard is at the store getting supplies. Just after he left, a huge gust of wind came along and inflated the canopy tent, ripping the bolts from the ground, and taking it for an exciting, airborne right, all the way into the woods. Before it got too high, it slammed into the satellite dish, knocking it over and well. Max and Mason were sitting by the window (IN the RV at that time, thank goodness) and saw the whole show! They were quite impressed. I only saw a white shadow of canopy as it raced past the window. The boys’ toys blew everywhere and our small outdoor table, which was piled high with tools, was blown over as well. Richard will be pretty surprised when he returns to our destroyed camp. It shouldn’t take too long to clean up.

Anyway, Ali and Matt F. came out on Sunday. Matt built a small stone stairway from our clearing down to the “farm road.” There was an old dirt road that ran through the property and it’s the only place you can really walk through the woods without getting shredded by blackberry brambles. I also started clearing a path to one of our streams. I have numerous scratches and scrapes to prove it.

I wanted to plant some pumpkins here to see how they’ll grow. I placed seeds in two different types of soil (dirty and sandy). When (if!) they emerge, I’ll have to put a small fence around them to keep out the deer. We have huge deer here. We never see them but they leave large piles of deer droppings in our clearing when we’re not looking. We also have coyotes. We can hear them singing some nights.

In Maine, you’re not supposed to plant anything until Memorial Day because the weather is so unpredictable. I jumped the gun and planted the pumpkin seeds on Sunday, the day BEFORE Memorial Day. The next morning, Memorial Day, the National Weather Service issued a frost warning for that evening…

This week’s Maxism:

“When someone smokes a cigar, their mouth looks like a train whistle.”

Hugs to all!

Angela

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