Glass Chatroom Board

Mahnin' All: Been a wild couple of weeks here. A little over a week ago we got dumped on with 24" of snow And 200,000 homes without power. Took days to repair the damage, but all that snow melted in about 5 days as temps soared into the low 50's.

Just got out of the woods on that one when another one hit here yesterday. This one is much worse! Snowfall amounts vary widely around the state, from as little as 5-6" to as much as 22" of heavy, water logged snow. We got around 9-10" here. But, the damage to the electric grid is mind boggling. Over 340,000 homes without power & many will not get power back for 7 to 10 days! Hundreds of trees, poles & lines down everywhere. Entire towns & even entire counties are in the dark. Winds were gusting as high as 70 mph! And we're still getting some light, mixed snow, sleet & freezing rain.

We were lucky here. We lost power around 10 AM yesterday & "Jenny" kicked in. Figured we would be on Jenny power for a long time, but we got our regular power back just 2 hours later. Haven't lost it again since.

Looking forward to the solar eclipse on Monday, as we're right on the edge of the totality track, so we should be about 95%. Supposed to be sunny & temps in the 55-60 degree range Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, so all this mess is going to melt off very quickly.

Afternoon All: I haven't posted in quite some time, just life getting in the way I suppose. The last few days I've been busy setting up & getting acclimated to a whole new computer system, which took me from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in one fell swoop. It's quite a bit of a learning curve, so much is so different, but I'm getting there with it.

We were well on our way into Spring here, with pretty much bare ground, after the warmest & least snowiest winter on record. Only 52" of snowfall for the whole winter thus far (less than half of normal), but that's about to change. HUGE storm coming in for tomorrow and we're forecast for anywhere from 16 to 24 inches! going to be cold too, only in the teens, so at least it will be light, fluffy, easy to move snow.

So, made a trip up to the store for a few supplies we were low on, "Jenny" has plenty of fuel in case the power goes down, so we're in for the duration now. Won't be going anywhere for 2 or 3 days. Marley & Emma are both home for a few days & we were going to take them out for a seafood lunch tomorrow, but that's not going to happen now. The restaurant we were going to go to has already announced that they're not opening tomorrow (along with just about everything else). We haven't seen the girls for a year now & looks like we won't until summer.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Great News! Made it into Rumford this morning (the town is a mess & will take weeks to fully clean up) & the gal doing the bagging at the Hannaford Market comes from Canton, Maine, nearly halfway to Auburn & she said the road is open all the way to Auburn. So, we'll be heading down to see Marley & Emma after all! Can't wait to see them.

DW & I just took a little jaunt in the Jeep. Our road is now passable & open the entire length. We CAN get to the store in Andover. The road to there is partially washed out, but open in one lane. A fair number of cars are coming up our road now, which makes me think to road connected to it that goes to Rumford is now open. We'll find out in the morning as I'm going to attempt to get to the Hannaford Supermarket in Rumford. I should be able to find out in there if any of the roads to Auburn are open yet. If Hannaford is getting their grocery deliveries, then at least some of the roads to Auburn have to be open.

Just got an update from OCEM concerning our area:

"Route 2 in Rumford is now open from downtown through to Bethel. Please be mindful that road crews are clearing remaining debris. There is also fairly thick mud and some ice/water in spots. Please navigate the roadway slowly and carefully.
*To avoid the inevitable follow-up questions: Route 232 in impassable, South Rumford Rd is washed out in the area of 150 and is impassable in other areas, Wyman Hill Road is passable w some mud/ice. Route 5 is washed out just beyond the Rumford line in Andover. East Andover Road is impassable."

The East Andover Road is our road.

Mahnin'All: An update on the wild conditions here. It is far worse than the "passing mention" reported by most national news coverage. Yesterday water surged over the bridge on the Swift River, connecting Rumford and Mexico. A car with 4 people tried to drive over it anyway & was swept off the bridge. Two people rescued, but the other two & the car have not been found yet.

Right now, much of Maine is a case of "you can't get there from here". According to Oxford County Emergancy Management, Rumford is still cut off from everywhere else. All roads in & out are flooded, outright gone or blocked by trees & utility poles. Andover is the same. According to OCEM, we can drive down out road about 3 miles & up our road about 4 miles, but that's it! We can't even get to downtown Andover to Mills Market. There are 4 roads going in & out of Andover and all of them are closed. At least two of them are completely washed away & the status of the other two are both uncertain. Also, as of last night, even if we could get out of Andover, we could not get to Auburn to see Marley & Emma for Christmas. All roads between here & Auburn are closed at some point. In many cases rivers are still rising & haven't crested yet. The plan was to go down to see them on Friday, but we just don't know yet if we'll be able to get there by then. There are still almost 300,000 without power.

We're going to take drive in the Jeep today & see just where we can or cannot get.

Mahnin'All: Catastrophic day here yesterday & it's going to take days & even weeks to get everything back to normal. Over 6 inches of rain fell amid winds gusting 60 - 70 mph! Over 400,000 in Maine are without power this morning. Roads are flooded or completely washed out. Many more are blocked by downed trees, power lines & utility poles. Whole towns are completely isolated & cut off, with all roads in & out closed. Andover is one of them & so is Rumford. Virtually everything, schools, businesses etc., are closed. A foot of snowpack that we had on the ground is completely gone, which only compounded the flooding issues. In short, it's one horrendous mess!!

We were on "jenny" power for about 5 hours yesterday, but the got our regular power back mid-afternoon. Why, I've no idea! We are one of only 3 houses on our 4 miles long road that has power. Makes no sense at all, but I'm certainly not going to complain. Many folks will be lucky to get their power back by Christmas. Our road is flooded out at both ends, about a half a mile above us & about 3 miles below us, so we're certainly not going anywhere today.

Mahnin'All: Winter is certainly here in the north country. We've received about a foot of new snow overnight & it's still snowing lightly. VERY heavy, wet snow, too! We just got our regular power back about half an hour ago after being on "Jenny" power for the past 8 hours. Just got done clearing off the cars & re-shoveling the front deck & steps (3rd time for that). Going to sit & rest a bit and then tackle the rear deck & steps & path to the oil fill. Just waiting on George 2.0 to come & plow. I'm sure He will be along.

'Afternoon All: We're having a White Thanksgiving. Got a solid 6" of snow overnight & this morning. Just got done clearing off the decks & steps. Made a Pumpkin Pie this morning & DW is in kitchen right now making a Mince Pie.

We won't get to see Marley & Emma this week. They're both having to make a quick trip home & back this year, due to work schedules. Emma got in last night & has to go back Friday morning. Marley is coming in tonight & also has to go back Friday morning. But, they both have a lot more time at Christmas, so we'll be seeing them then.

Wishing All A Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie: Yes, Lewiston is only 60 miles from here. We go there at least a couple times a year for shopping. Anne & Tom ( Marley & Emma's parents) live just a couple miles from there, in Auburn. Lewiston & Auburn are twin cities, separated only by the Androscoggin River. Both cities are pretty much on lockdown right now, as the shooter is still at large. Latest is that 22 are dead and over 50 wounded.

On the positive side, we just got some wonderful news. Congratulations to Marley & her longtime Beau, Matt! (Note what's on her third finger.)

Hi All: just stopped by the say that I just heard that Dori Miles passed away on October 19th, after a series of strokes. She was one of the last surviving "old school" collectors, researchers and dealers of EAPG & I know many on this board knew her, both from personal contact and from the old Ebay Glass Chat Board. I had known her for 50 years!

Afternoon All: Glad to see a little activity here. We're getting busy with storm preparations, as the latest projections have Hurricane Lee making a landfall somewhere on the Maine mid-coast or down-east coast late Saturday/early Sunday as a minimal CAT 1 or strong tropical storm. We're 100 miles inland and in western Maine, but wind & rain effects will still be felt here. So, things to get secured & ready.

Shelly No, we did not get very good crops from our garden this year. Yields were very small, about half or less what we normally get. Tomatoes were small, the largest about the size of large lemons at best & not a lot of them. Peppers also small, thin skinned & not much flavor. Pole Beans less than half the normal yield. Only a few squash & very small. No lettuce & no rutabagas at all. All the rain just did them in & most of DW's herbs rotted away too. Just way too much rain & too little sun. Wettest summer on record up here.
And, we did not get to see Marley & Emma either. Changes in their work schedules & plans made for a very quick visit home. They were only home for two days & they had them pretty much filled up every waking hour. Hopefully we will get to see tham at Thanksgiving or Christmas. What can you do? They're busy living their lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIML!

Mahnin'All: Looks like we're finally going to get a break from this horrible, wet, humid weather pattern that we've been stuck in for the whole summer. We've had nothing but rain & brutal humidity for weeks. A front will finally clear us out tomorrow & dew points are forecast to drop from the 70's to the low 50's. Dry air with temps in the 70's.......my kind of weather!

Started harvesting our first veggies yesterday. Picked the first Roma pole beans & they're surprisingly good. Picked our first six tomatoes, such as they are, and they're okay. Flavor is decent, but they're small & there are not a lot of them. Just too much rain & not enough Sun. Sweet Banana peppers look nice, but there's very little flavor to them. Should be picking a few summer squash in the next couple days. They've been VERY slow coming on & they're not more than 5-6" long. Rutabaga's & lettuce have pretty much been a write-off. Not a good growing year up here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!

Shelly: Marley & Emma are both coming home for a few days near the end of August, so we'll be seeing them then.

Thanks to all for the birthday greetings.

Marson: Garden is not doing all that well this year. We're not going to get a whole lot out of it. Just too much rain & not enough Sun. In June it rained 23 out of 30 days & so far in July it has rained six out of the first 11 days, so not much better. Everything is WAY behind & the yield is going to be small.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!

Shelly: We haven't really had much smoke from the Canadian wildfires here, but when we have it's been from the Quebec fires. Just a faint hint of smoke a couple times. Smoke from the Nova Scotia fires pretty much blows away from us, towards the east.

Our biggest problem here as been WAY too much rain. It has rained 22 of the last 28 days! Our tomatoes & beans seem to be holding their own. Lettuce, squash & peppers are way behind normal growth & we've lost about a quarter of our pepper plants. Many crops in the area are not in good shape. Strawberries are very limited this year. Only small quantities available & they're going to go by quickly. About 50% of the strawberry crop have rotted or molded. We look forward every years to fresh, local peas which are due any day now, but I hear there's not going to be many of those either. Farmers are having a very rough year so far.

Just testing. Changed my profile photo.

Mahnin'All: Haven't checked in for awhile and I see not too many others have either.

We're in our first real heat of the season here. We hit 91 yesterday & will come close to that again today, before several days of on & off rain showers begin tomorrow. We've got our garden all in, so the coming rain is perfect timing. This year we're doing Early Girl Tomatoes, Roma Italian Pole Beans, Green Leaf Lettuce, Sweet Banana Peppers, Rutabagas and a new variety of Yellow Summer Squash that grows vertically, (you have to stake or cage the plants like you do tomatoes). DW also has some herbs planted, too. Hopefully we'll have a good crop.

In March I decided enough is enough: I've GOT to lose some weight. Cut down on my portion sizes, eliminated late night snacking, cut down on the bread & other carbs etc. My goal is to lose 50 lbs. So far, I've lost 26 lbs., so doing well!

Mahnin'All: We really dodged a bullet on this huge Nor'easter! We only got 4" of new snow & very little wind up here. Down in southern Maine they got 12-14". Some parts of southwestern NH and Northwestern Massachusetts got nearly 3 feet and one town in New York state, just north of Albany got 43" !!! Glad it wasn't us.

Julie: Yes, we're all dug out............just in time for the next one, which comes in tomorrow! Don't know where we're going to put it. The forecasters are all over the place on this one. Some are saying only 3-6", others are saying 4-8", & some are saying a foot plus! It will be what it will be.

Shelly: No intention of moving south at all. This is home. Doesn't matter what part of the country you go to, there will still be a price to pay for living there. Here, you have long, cold winters. In the south & southeast you have floods, hurricanes & now tornadoes. In the midwest you have tornadoes & heat. In the southwest, sand storms & heat. On the west coast, earthquakes, mudslides, winds & wildfires. There's good & bad points to everyplace & there's no running away from it.

Mahnin'All: Just a quick check in here, as we're still digging out from yesterday's snowstorm. It dumped 14" on us and was the third snowstorm in the last 5 days! We have a solid 4 feet on the ground right now. Thankfully there are no more major storms in sight for awhile. We just don't have any place to put anymore!

Mahnin' All: We were in the peak of the cold air this morning. At 5 AM we were at -22 below and the wind chill here was at -53 below! Pretty darn cold, but nothing compared to the new all time record set late yesterday at the weather station on Mt. Washington, just 45 miles southwest of here. The Summit of Mt. Washington stands at 6,388 feet. Late Yesterday they recorded a windchill of -106 below zero!!

Right now we're at a toasty -12 below here & the wind chill at -30 below, so it's very slowly easing up. We're forcast for highs today of from 2 to 5 above zero, 30's tomorrow and 40's on Monday, so the worst is over. We have both the Jeep & the VW sitting directly in the bright sun which should help to slowly warm them up. We'll try starting them later this PM.

Mahnin' All: We're bracing ourselves for some of the coldest temps here in many years.........dangerously cold! The Arctic Front sweeps through tonight. We're forecast for HIGH TEMPS tomorrow of around -15 below zero. The worst comes tomorrow night into Saturday morning. Actual temps will range from -25 to -30 below, with wind chills of -55 to -60 below zero! Last time we had temps like that was 33 years ago. So, we did our grocery shopping yesterday & I'll be running up to the store in Andover later today to get a couple things we forgot. After that, we batten down the hatches & we won't even so much as crack the door open for the duration. in temps like that exposed skin can freeze in a natter of minutes, so you don't even go out the door in it. Most everything will be closed anyway.

JimL: Nope, wasn't me, thankfully. I don't think I would want to win that much money. First off, the state & fed taxes would be at least half of it. Of course, one would have to hire attorneys, investors & financial managers to handle it all. Managing that much money would be so highly complex a task that all those people could be dipping their hands into it left & right and you'd never know it. At my age, way too much grief & hassle.

I'm much rather win a million or two. The taxes would be a few hundred thousand off the top, DW & I could divide the rest up easily in our various accounts & live out our senior years very comfortably & no big hassles and worry. The kids & grand daughters could get what's left. Much more enjoyable.

Merry Christmas From Santa Claws!

Mahnin'All: A VERY wild ride here yesterday & the after effects are still ongoing. We were on "jenny" power again for 7 hours yesterday, but we have our regular power back now. We feel very blessed to have it. There are still 172,000 homes in Maine with no power! At the height of it there were over 230,000 homes in the dark. They are working feverishly to restore power, but a lot of folks are going to spend Christmas without it. The winds gusting yesterday to 69 mph did a lot of damage to the power grids.

The other issue was the flooding caused by roughly 4" of rain on top of over 2 feet of snowpack. Four major roads in this area, including U.S. Rt. 2 are closed: Flooded, then totally frozen & now impassable. In effect, you cannot get to Rumford from here nor can you get anywhere to the south towards Auburn or Portland. Road closures everywhere. Fortunately, we don't have to go anywhere. We won't be seeing Marley & Emma on Christmas day. They are going to wait & try to come home for a couple days sometime next week & we'll all get together then.

Mahnin'All: Got our CMP power back about a hour ago. We were 37 hours on "Jenny" power. George 2.0 just left a few minutes ago & we're now plowed out. Still have to dig the car & the Jeep out, so I'll start on that shortly. We ended up with about 28" of snow, as near as I can measure. Some places just a few miles away got 31". There's still close to 18,000 homes without power in our county alone, out of a county population of 42,000, so we're lucky to have ours back. There is extensive damage, lines & trees & poles down everywhere & a number of roads still impassable. We haven't had a snowstorm of this magnitude in quite a number of years.

Mahnin'All: We're getting hammered, but good! They totally underestimated the snowfall forecast. They said 10-14". We've already gotten around 20" & it's still coming at us strong. They're saying another 6-8" before it's done. We've been on "Jenny" since about 9PM last night. The whole town's power is out. In fact there are 45,000 homes without power in Maine right now & 20,000 of those are in our county. Don't think the CMP power is going to be restored any time soon. Thankfully, we can run on "Jenny: for 9-10 days if need be, so we have heat, lights, water & cooking. Just cleared the back porch, steps & around "Jenny". Came in to get warm, rest & have coffee. Then I'll tackle the front deck & steps. Slow going. It's very heavy, wet snow & I ain't getting any younger!

Looks like we'll be getting our first significant snow of the season tomorrow. So far we've only had a couple of dustings, but we're forecast for 10-14" from this one. We'll see. Did grocery shopping early this morning & we don't have to go anywhere, so we'll just hunker down for the duration.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELLY!

Katie: All I get when I click on your link below is the Yahoo Mail sign in page.

Mahnin'All: Fall is certainly here! Leaves are turning quickly, days are cooler & nights are chilly. We had a killing frost on Thursday night, so growing season is over.

Went down to Cooper's yesterday & got our Apples; Half a bushel each of Mac's & Cortland's. Marsha is going to make an apple crisp today and we'll be doing up pies and apple sauce this coming week. We also stocked up our winter supply of good, farm butter and picked up some locally grown pears, too. Time for making baked beans, but they didn't have any Jacob's Cattle Beans this year. I'll have to hunt around some of the other farm stands & co-op's to find some. They are one of the oldest bean varieties and that's all I use for my baked beans. I'll find some somewhere.

Other than that, just cleaning up the garden plot, putting out door stuff away & getting things ready for winter. Going to get up to the mid 60's today so going to give the north 40 it's last mowing (mainly to use up the gas I've got left) before putting the lawn tractor away. Will take off the screen doors & put the storms on this coming week, too.

Speaking of storms, we've heard from family & friends down in Florida and thankfully all are okay. Going to take many years for the state to recover from Ian!

Just stopping in to say hello, too. We've just been really busy. On Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, our refrigerator died. Of course, all appliance centers in this neck of the woods were closed until Tuesday! we had to get all the stuff from the freezer compartment (mostly veggies) crammed into our big standing freezer with all the meat. Called Tom in Auburn & he brought up their small, apartment size fridge that they use when they go camping. We managed to get pretty much everything into that & it tided us over for a few days. Tuesday morning I went into Stanley's in Rumford & bought a new GE refrigerator. They delivered it Wednesday morning & all is now back to normal on the food front.

We've harvested all our cucumbers, green beans, roma beans, yellow beans & corn. All either frozen or canned & we gave a bunch of the canned to Marley, Emma, Ann & Tom and Amy. Been freezing Tomatoes by the gallon bag full & DW has been making pasta sauce. We still have tomatoes ripening, but not too many left. Have harvested & eaten all the lettuce & most of the scallions. Rutabagas are still growing. They won't be ready until well into fall. They can stay in the ground through at least 2 or 3 frosts, which will sweeten them up.

Pretty soon we'll go down to either Ricker's or Coopers Orchards to get our fall apples. late Summer & early Fall are busy times.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!

Apparently Fran Yorke passed away this morning. There are numerous posts on Facebook. I know that so many of us first "met" Fran on the old Ebay Glass Board. I first met her there 24 years ago. Remember all her posts about the frog jumping contests? I remember her glass board handle was dbfrogs. She was such a joy and will be greatly missed and dearly remembered. My sincerest condolences to her husband Doug and all of her family.

Julie: Okay, I just went on Facebook & found out that it is Fran Yorke. So very sorry to hear of this.

Julie: Are you talking about Fran Yorke? There are a couple Fran's on this board.

Thank You one and all for the birthday greetings. They are much appreciated.

Spent a quiet day, mostly just being a bum. We did do a little work in the vegetable garden, pruning, cultivating etc. Everything seems to be doing well and we'll likely harvest some lettuce this weekend. I think we're going to have more cucumbers than we know what to do with: Plants are just loaded with blossoms. Looks like we'll have plenty of Tomatoes, too. Rutabegas are looking good. Beans seem to be a little slow.......plenty of growth, but not blossoming yet. Time will tell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE

Mahnin'All: Thought I would stop by & catch up. Been keeping busy.

Both Marley & Emma were home for a few days last week, so we were able to get together with them for a family picnic. So good to see them. First time we've seen the two of them together since last Christmas.

Had a stinker of a time trying to get an electrician in here. Took 3 weeks but finally got someone over here. Lost all of our lighting in the main bathroom. We've been using a LED camping lantern for light in there. Turns out the double wall switch had gone bad & also shorted out a wire when it did. All fixed now, thankfully, but cost $125.00 and it only took him less than 1/2 an hour to fix it.

So far our garden is doing well. We went all out this year. We planted Early Girl Tomatoes, Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes, Bush Beans, Italian Pole Beans, Cucumbers, Rutabagas, Green Onions, Lettuce and several herbs. All are up, doing well & some of the tomatoes are blossoming already. On the downside, we took our Blueberry Bushes out last fall, as they were no longer producing much. They hit the 25 year limit. We also had to cut down one of our two Plum trees last week, as it too had reached it's limit (30 years old) and died over the winter. Still have one left, but without it's "mate" there won't be anymore Plums.

Gas has reached $5.02 a gallon here & heating oil is even worse at $5.49 a gallon! Our monthly budget heating oil payment doubled overnight! So, we're not doing very much driving at all & have postponed any trips & even day trips for now. We can live without taking joyrides & trips, We can't live without heat in the winter, so that takes priority.

Julie: If the buyer of the Shell & Sand was in the U.S., then whatever the sales tax rate is in the state the buyer lives in, he/she must pay it even if the seller is not in the U.S. That's why the $82. was added to the final price.

Julie: Ebay is now required by law to collect sales tax from buyers. Been that way for quite a few years. Whatever the sales tax rate is where the buyer lives, that's what the buyer has to pay, just like if you were buying in a store. And, Ebay's fees are always going up too. They can be anywhere from 10 to 15%, depending on the selling format. Then of course, if the buyer pays through Paypal there's a matter of the Paypal fees, which can run from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2%. Even though Ebay manages all payments now, they still pass on the Paypal fees to the seller. So a seller can now pay as much as 18-20% of the sales price in fees! Ebay has become less & less of a viable venue for small sellers & that appears to be just fine with Ebay. They would rather have big retailers using their venue.

Marson: So very sorry for your loss. We will all be thinking of you.

Mahnin'All: Been a busy week getting ready for summer. Got the lawn tractor out, gave it a cleaning, changed the oil, re-installed the battery & she fired right up. Gave the north 40 it's first cutting. Also getting our garden ready & have the herbs all planted. Going to plant Rutabagas today, a first for us. We're supposed to be in a perfect climate zone for them, so giving them a try. Tomatoes, beans & cukes will get planted next week.

Got all my reference books culled down from over 300 to around 100 that I'm keeping. Most of the others have already been given away. been getting my office & the mud/storage room cleaned out for it's renovation. Already bought a couple cases of very pretty Mohawk brand carpet squares to put down, It will be getting new suspended ceiling tiles & a paint job too. going to pick up the lumber needed to re-plank the back deck next week.

Julie: Can't tell from your photo if that's a Plate or a Bowl. It makes an enormous difference. Bowls are selling for between $30.-$50. Plates anywhere from $400. to as much as $700. - $900.!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON!

'Afternoon All: Just checking in to say "Hi" and catch up.

Gorgeous weather here, sunny & in the 60's. Going to get into the 70's & then 80's before the week is out. Been doing a little yard work (with the help of young handy-man) & getting things ready for summer. Also the planking has been ripped off the back deck & will be replaced within the next couple weeks.

Another ongoing project is completely redoing the back room (my office & the mud room). It's going to get a new suspended ceiling, a new paint job & new carpeting. It's kind of being transitioned from a business office to a more casual "civilian" office, now that I've closed the business & retired. I've been culling down my antiques reference books by a huge margin. I had somewhere between 300-400, but that's getting culled down to about 100 that I'll keep. Kind of a sad state of affairs on those. You can't get any money for them & the cost of shipping them now is way more than they're worth. I even checked the sizeable library in Rumford & they don't even want them! So, I've been putting them by the box full up in the "Free Shed" at the recycling center & people are grabbing them up fast. so at least they're being saved.

DW is going to go down to PA for Marley's graduation this coming weekend. She's riding down with daughter Amy. We simply both cannot go. I can't do that long a drive anymore (over 1,200 miles round trip) and the cost is prohibitive. Gas is $4.30 a gallon here right now & higher further south. It would cost over $500. just for gas, another $500. for hotel room for two nights, then the cost of food, tolls (a zillion of 'em) and all in all, likely around $2,000. for the trip. Just can't do it. So, Amy is going anyway & DW will ride down with her & they can share a hotel room. Won't cost us more than a few hundred that way. I'm very saddened not being able to see my girl become a doctor, but that's just the way things are right now.

NancyP: Yes, she specializes in Emergency Surgery. She has been doing her internship for the last year of her school at the largest Veterinary clinic in the Philly area. They have already offered her a full time position, at a terrific salary, & she has accepted. She & her boyfriend are already looking for a place together. He's a Chemical Engineer & they've been a couple for 6 years. They were just waiting until she completed school. So, she's staying put in Philadelphia. She loves it there.

The other Grand daughter, Emma, completed her Masters Degree in Data Management last December & already has a good job. So, she's staying put in Chicago. Looks like we will not be seeing too much of either of them from here on out. 'Tis the way of life.

Mahnin'All: Finally cleared out here after two and a half days of rain. Started raining late Thursday night & finally let up early this morning. I see some hints of blue sky out there now. there's some minor flooding in some of the lower areas around the river, including a couple spots in my woods. This rain came right during the peak of the spring run-off from the higher mountains & that's all it takes for flooding.

We went & got our fourth Covid shot on Friday. DW had minor reactions to all 4, including feeling a little "flu-ish" yesterday, but she's fine now. I felt tired on the day after my first one, nothing at all on shots two and three, and felt tired again yesterday after number 4.

Grand daughter Marley has just 5 weeks to go & then she will be Dr. Marley Byrne, DVM. It's been 8 long, hard years for her & I'm sure she's feeling elated at approaching the "end of the tunnel". We're playing it by ear as far as traveling to Philadelphia to attend the ceremony, It's an 11 hour drive from here & I just don't know if that's in the cards at our age, Not to mention we have to wait & see what the Covid situation will be by then. But I sure would like to be there to see Ol' Doc Marley graduate.

Mahnin'All: It's a chilly, blustery one, in the 30's, and we got a dusting of snow overnight. It'll be gone by noon. Front yard is completely bare ground now & back yard about halfway there. On March 30th I was sitting in the kitchen sipping coffee when 4 Robins flew in from the south & landed in the front yard. First ones of the season. Usually we don't see them until mid April, so they're about 2 weeks early this year. Hopefully, that's a good sign.

'Afternoon All: Just thought I'd give a quick check in here. A cold, raw day, in the 30's, but we're well on our way to Spring. Snow has been melting quickly here. Two weeks ago we had 3 feet on the ground. Right now only about 6-8" left & lots of bare areas. Our driveway is now bare & mud season is ripe! Last few days were in the 50's & we hit 61 last Friday. Ice went out on the river that day. Deer have been browsing our yard, munching out on last fall's Acorn drops, which are now exposed by the snow melt. There were four of them out there early this morning.

No, I'm not "on a warm cruise somewhere". LOL! You couldn't pay me enough to go on a cruise ship.

'Afternoon All: Been a wild couple of days up here. We had record breaking warm temps yesterday, in the 60's, but it came with heavy rain. Then a front from the Northwest ripped through here with 50 mph winds & plunging temps. Temp dropped to 3 degrees in less than 12 hours!! Power went out around 7PM last night & "Jenny" kicked in. We were on Jenny power until 6AM this morning. Just ran up to the store in Andover & there's cut-up evidence of downed trees on power lines everywhere. Now we've got 6-9" of snow forecast for tomorrow.

So sorry to hear of Bob Mason's passing. Hadn't heard from him in quite awhile. He will be sadly missed & fondly remembered.

Mahnin'All: We've had a couple mild days with temps near 40, so we're getting some melting. We got about 18" out of the storm on Feb. 4th and another 6" on the 8th. We already had 15-16" on the ground, so we ended up with a solid 3 feet. We're all plowed out & shoveled out now. I only have to go out a couple times a day & clear the decks from the snow that slides off the roof.

Mahnin'All: It's our turn this time. Last weeks Blizzard just clipped us with a few inches. We're getting hammered with this one. We had around 15-16" already on the ground. We gotten about a foot of new snow over night & we're forecast to get another 4-6" before this one is done. This is a heavy, wet snow & not easy to shovel. I've already cleared the front deck, the back deck & around the air intakes of "Jenny". Number of power outages around the state is growing, so getting the generator cleared out was a top priority. The rest can wait until it stops snowing when George shows up to plow.

Mahnin'All: We were at -4 below zero when I got up at 5AM. Windchill was about -18 below.

The big blizzard has come & gone and had minimal impact up here in the mountains. We only got about 4" of snow, some gusty winds & some drifting. About 100 miles south of here on the coast was another story. Brunswick, Maine got 18" and Roque Bluffs, which is only a few miles down the road from my BIL's house in Jonesboro got 17". I'll call him a little later to check up on him. The jackpot that I heard about was down in Sharon, Mass., just south of Boston, where they got 30.4 inches!

Mahnin'All: It's the coldest one yet. We're at -28 below zero. Sure hope the Jeep starts up later. It should. It has a brand new battery.

Susan: Yes, we're going to get some snow out of it, but they're scaling it back considerably as of this morning. They were calling for 12-18", but the models are now tracking the storm a bit farther to the east, so we're down to a forecast of 4-8" now. That could still change yet again, so we'll just have to wait & see. It will be what it will be.

Shelly: We have oil heat.

Shelly: Our propane tank is 200 gallons, but we only use it for the generator, so a tankful will last us on average a couple years at least. The generator only burns about 2/3 of a gallon per hour when it's running. You don't fill a propane tank totally full. You leave about 10% empty & that maintains the required air pressure in the tank.

Evenin'All: We had the coldest morning in several years this morning. It was -27 below zero when I got up at 5 AM. We've had several mornings with temps from -10 to -20 the past 10 or 12 days, but nothing like this morning. We went out around noon time, after the sun had been on the cars for about 3 hours and it was up to a sweltering 1 degree. DW's "Beetle" started right up, but no go on the Jeep. We had to jump it. First time that Jeep has ever failed to start. The battery IS about 3 or 4 years old, so likely a new one is a good idea. Of course, like everything else, car battery prices have gone through the roof. New one is going to be around $200.00! But, I think I will go into Rumford on Monday & have one put in. Not going to be anywhere near as cold tonight, but I'll run it for a bit before turning in & again first thing in the morning.

Susan: No, we never lost our power here so Jenny never kicked in at all. They did come & fill our propane tanks before the storm the other day, so we're good for the rest of the season & probably until next winter. They're forecasting -23 below here by tomorrow morning & -28 below on Friday morning! We get a brief moderation in temps on Thursday, which is good, as that's our grocery shopping day. Then the sub-zero stuff returns from Friday through Sunday.

Mahnin'All: It's 14 degrees and we're digging out from the snowstorm of yesterday. Not a real big one up here, but we did get about 9" out of it. We're heading back into the sub-zero deep freeze the next few days. Sunday morning we were -21 below & wind chills were running -35 below. Similar temps on the way for the next few days, so we're not planning on going anywhere. Just hunkering down & staying warm!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Just an update. Here's the link to my sister Sue's obituary, posted today on the funeral home website. This is about all the information that I have at the moment.
https://www.rivetfuneralhome.com/obituary/susan-aguiar?lud=140327594374B6FC7E93BB0502AC458C&fbclid=IwAR3xWBKx53Ly9qD1wHl0pLuvKIsY5T0fXWB8AkzGkRi7ZJwPHFNNRCl0938

Bad news is never a good way to start a day, but I know that many on this board would want to know. My sister Sue, (mainewildrose), passed away late last night from the many complications of the MS she suffered with for many years. She had been in a nursing care facility in Derry, NH since early summer. She contracted Pneumonia back in June, was hospitalized for several weeks and never fully recovered. She was 78 years old.

Of course, I will let everyone here know of funeral & memorial arrangements when they are settled.

Julie & Katie: What got you banned on FB was the word Gobbleygook". The bots picked up on the last 4 letters, "gook", which is a derogatory term used to describe people of Asian descent. Stupid to think that, but the bots ARE stupid in that they don't think (thankfully), but they just have been programmed to pick up on the term "gook". I'm sure that's what happened.

Mahnin'All: Just thought I'd check in. DW & I went & got our Covid boosters yesterday. We're both having pretty much the same reaction to it as we did with our second shot last spring. She was a little ache-y & flu-ish last night, but feeling fine now. I've just been feeling a little tired this morning, but it's already fading. We originally planned to have our young handy man come over to help us put stuff away & get ready for winter outside the house, but it's raining, raw & going to get windy this afternoon, so we'll put all that off until later this week. I did put the storm doors on & put away the screens, but that's going to be it for today. We just going to stay in & stay warm today.

Mahnin'All: Well, Ebay has finally done what many have long suspected they would do, sooner or later. They have found a way to get rid of sellers of antique & collectible items. They have just started eliminating those types of categories. As of last night, most of the specific categories for antique glass, china & pottery are GONE!!! As an example, the category of "Carnival Glass-Pre-1940" no longer exists. All the 14,000 plus listings in that category are now absorbed into just "Glassware". As an example, I had three items listed: an old Fenton Carnival Compote, an old Northwood Carnival Plate & a Dugan Art Glass Vase. They were now listed as, "Glassware- Cookware- Bowls" !!!

Most of the other specific sub-categories of antique glass & china ( like Opalescent Glass, Custard Glass, Stretch Glass, Ruby Stain Glass etc). & countless others, are all gone now too! Ebay has found a way to get out of the antique business. They just eliminated the categories! So, they're all done getting any money from me. I just ended all my listings & I will not sell there anymore. There's talk about this all over the internet this morning, on various group & club sites & pages.

'Afternoon All: Guess it HAS been a long time since many of us posted here. Been trying to balance my time between enjoying retirement & keeping busy. The two often do not go hand in hand. We've been doing some work around the property. Repainted the exterior of the addition on the house & some of the other trim work. Re-caulked the bay window. Removed all the planking from the back deck & it's going to get replaced. And, after nearly 25 years of Blueberries, we removed our remaining bushes. The yields have been steadily dropping (only got two quarts off of 6 bushes the last couple years) and the berries were getting bitter. The bushes were old & had reached the end of their time. We're not planting any more new ones at this stage. I think in the spring we'll plant some vegetables where they were. Going to give the yard a final mowing of the season this weekend & then get the lawn tractor prepared for winter & put away.

We have had the mildest fall ever this year! Temps in the 60's & 70's. We're into October and have still not had a frost yet! That's unbelievable. Many flowers still blossomed. The fall foliage here is not even at 50% yet! Way behind schedule. We usually peak between the 6th & 10th of October, but we won't this year.

Mahnin'All: Had a great time yesterday with Marley & Emma. It was so good to finally be able to see them in person again & spend some time together. (And yes, we got plenty of hugs!) LOL! Marley is just 8 months away from the end of the 8 year long, hard road to getting her DVM. Then, we'll have to start calling her Ol' Doc Marley. Emma is just 2 months away from her Masters Degree. They have both worked so hard.
So, we all went for a jaunt down to the coast, way down on the very tip of the point to Erica's Lobster Pound in Harpswell, sat out alongside the wharf and munched out on Lobsters & Clams, watching the boats come & go. Gorgeous day for it, sunny & temps right around 80. Had a blast! Won't see them again now until the Holidays. Marley will be heading back to Philly & Emma back to Chicago tomorrow.

Mahnin'All: Going to be another very warm, humid day here. We've had a lot of them this summer.

Both granddaughter's, Marley & Emma, are home for a few days. We're going down to Auburn on Friday to finally see them & have a Lobster & Clam bake. Because of the pandemic we haven't seen either one of them in 2 years! It seems like forever. We are both so psyched up & I can't wait to finally be able to hug my girls! We're all fully vaccinated, so we should be good to go.

JimL: Potatoes are still a huge crop up in Aroostook, but not like they once were. When I was a kid they were ranked #1 in the USA in Potato production. Now, they're ranked #14! Only about half the acreage of potatoes up there now that there was 50-60 years ago. They also once grew a lot of Peas up there & Birdseye had a huge processing plant in Presque Isle. That's totally gone now. They do grow a fair amount of Broccoli & Cauliflower up there now. But, “the county” has changed so much in the last 25-30 years. It used to be wide open, rolling hills farms as far as you could see. About half the farmland has now gone back to forest & the whole landscape & atmosphere of the place is changing. I hadn't been “home” in almost 20 years & DW had never been up there at all, so in 2018 we went up for a few days. I absolutely could not believe the changes. Both my cousin Ray's farm & my Uncle Tom's farms are totally gone (no buildings left) and completely overgrown in forest. Much of what I knew up there is un-recognizeable now. Changed so much that I drove right past the intersection of the road that went out to my family's farms & had to turn around to find it! It used to be wide open & visible from half a mile away. Now almost totally hidden by forest growth. So much change that it became a bitter-sweet trip for me.

JimL: Aroostook County is my family's home. They once farmed 7 potato farms up there just north of Fort Fairfield. Still have a couple cousins up there, one of whom still farms two of the original family farms. Spent my summers up there when I was growing up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIML!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY!

Thanks to all for the birthday well-wishes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!

'Afternoon All: Beautiful one here, 68 degrees, sunny & a gentle breeze. Same on tap for tomorrow & likely in the 70's by next week.

Got some bad news today. Our friend Harry Hutchinson is calling it quits with his farm 1 mile down the road from us. We've been buying our eggs, summer veggies & some of our meat from him for nearly 20 years. I guess it's a family situation. His wife is leaving & he's forced to sell off everything.........chickens, turkeys, cattle, pigs, horses, all his equipment & the farm itself. His poultry & cattle are already sold. Harry is 75 years old & still going strong. He LOVED his farm & his lifestyle. He has a son who farms in Vermont & is likely going to go and live there. We will miss him & we'll sure miss his eggs & great meat! What a shame!

Mahnin'All: Just checking in. It's 49 degrees and we're forecast for a high around 60. Been cool here, too and very windy the past couple days, but it's died down this morning.

NancyP: Up here at this time of year, if you have bird feeders out, it's a good idea to take them in for awhile. The Bears are out of their dens, on the prowl & hungry. Bird feeders are an easy target for a snack & if they get one from your feeder, they'll be back again looking for more. And they can get rather upset if they don't find a second snack. LOL!

Mahnin'All: Back to reality today. It's 49 degrees, raw & we're forecast for a high just a couple degrees warmer. Friday we nudged 70 & yesterday we hit 74. Felt good to open up the house & get fresh air in here. It's official: We've had the mildest winter in 73 years here!

Mahnin'all: It's another mild one at 43 degrees, close to what will be our high for the day. Getting another good, soaking rain today. Our snow is long gone, just a few dirty piles from snow plowing left here & there. April can be a tricky month & April blizzards are not uncommon up here, but the long range forecast is saying that Spring is here & early this year. It's been a mild winter with few sub-zero days & little snowfall. Our normal, average snowfall here is around 92 inches. Total for this winter has only been 46 inches. We never had more than around 15-16 inches on the ground at any one time & most of the time about half that. We've only spent $120. on snowplowing, compared to over $400. last year. All in all, I'm not going to complain about the winter season we just had!

Mahnin'all: It's 24 degrees and we're forecast for a breezy day with a high of 55. To say yesterday was a breezy day would be a considerable understatement. We had winds gusting between 50-60 mph! Power went off & "Jenny" kicked in around 11 AM yesterday & we were on Jenny-Power for a little over 6 hours. That's the 4th power outage this month. All told, over 73 hours on Jenny-Power this month, so far. More very strong winds forecast for tomorrow, so we may not be done with this yet!

Mahnin'All: It's 36 degrees and we're forecast for a high near 50. Supposed to warm to upper 50's & low 60's for much of the coming week.

Just got back from getting the second Covid shot. It was a couple hours ago & no side effects yet. Well, there is the thing where every time the micro-wave bell goes off I pee my pants & forget my name for about 15 minutes, but other than that..................

Mahnin'All: It's -1 below zero & the wind is howling through here giving us a wind chill of -20 to -30 below zero. This, after several days of temps in the 50's & even low 60's! We lost about two thirds of our snowpack. Back to the reality of March being a winter month in Maine. Have to go out in it anyway, into Rumford to do a few errands. We're getting our second Covid vaccinations this week, so need to get errands & grocery shopping done in case of side effects laying us up for a couple days.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Sue! mainewildrose

Mahnin'All: It's 16 degrees and we're forecast for a high of 34. Thankfully, the brutal winds have finally eased up. Rumford recorded a wind gust of 54 mph yesterday & some areas recorded hurricane force gusts.

The power went out yesterday morning at 8:15 and is still out. We've been on "Jenny Power" since then. Estimated time of restoration is sometime this afternoon, but that's "iffy". The damage is apparently extensive, as the number of customers without power in this area has been going up & down like a roller coaster.

We also have another issue to deal with. One of our huge White Pines came down & just missed the house. It did NOT miss the back deck just off my office! Top of the tree is resting on it & it did take out the railings on one end of the deck. We're talking about a 60-70 foot tall tree here. It's going to have to sit where it lies until the snow melts, as there's no way to get at it to cut it up & remove it until the snow is gone. Going to have to hire someone to do it, as my tree cutting & hauling days are long over.

Mahnin'All: It's -4 below zero, but the wind chill right now is running around -30 below. Good day to stay put & that's exactly what we're going to do. Power has already "blinked" off & right back on once, so we may end up on "Jenny Power" before the day is done.

Mahnin'All: It's 34 degrees, raining & we're forecast for a high of 42. The mild temps will be short lived. An Arctic Front will pass through this afternoon & temps will nosedive. Winds are forecast to gust up to 45 mph., and by tomorrow morning we'll have sub-zero temps and wind chills as low as -35 below zero. Going to head out this morning & get a couple errands done & they'll we'll just hunker down until the extreme cold passes. Only forecast to last a couple days.

Mahnin'All: It's 11 degrees and we're forecast for a high of 28. Some snow coming in, right on our doorstep now, but only a few inches. We have forecast high temps in the mid to upper 40's for tomorrow & Monday, so the snow won't be around long.

Yesterday was not a good day. Jeep wouldn't start yesterday morning. Wouldn't even crank, just dead silence. Had to have it towed into Rumford to Dan's (to the tune of $100.) and as I suspected, the starter was gone. Another $200. for the new starter & another $100. for labor to put it in. So, it was a $400. hit to the wallet. On the upside, I figured I wouldn't get it back until sometime Monday, but Dan called about 4:15 yesterday & said it's all done! So, DW & I drove in and got it.

NancyP: Yes, we got the Moderna. DW had a little soreness in her shoulder & was tired, but feels fine today. I have not had any soreness, but today I feel like I did two days work yesterday. VERY tired, but feeling fine otherwise.

Mahnin'All: It's 12 degrees and we're forecast for a high in the mid to upper 20's. Supposed to reach the mid 40's by mid-week.

Got the first Covid vaccine shot yesterday. We had to go down to Bridgton Hospital to get it, about 55 miles south of here. Still no place up this way to get a shot! So, we just considered it a nice ride, just to get out & go somewhere. Very nice little Hospital & their vaccination clinic is very well thought out & very efficient. From check in to "Okay, you can leave now", was only about 35 minutes & that includes the 15-20 minute wait for observation after the shot. So, we go back for the second shot on March 20th, the first day of Spring.

Mahnin'All: It's 6 degrees and we're forecast for a high of 28. That last storm on Tuesday was another big bust up here. The coast got some substantial snow, but we were too far inland & we only got a couple inches. Another inch or two coming in tomorrow.

Finally have the appointment to get Covid vaccination on Saturday morning! We have to drive to a hospital about 60 miles from here to get it, but there's simply no place with any vaccine any closer, even for those over 70, like us. This part of the state seems to be forgotten. Not even the health care facilities around here have received any doses at all! I guess they just figured to let the people around here get sick & die. It's disgusting! Walmarts around other parts of state are getting vaccine, but not the health care facilities around here. Whats wrong with that picture???

Mahnin'All: It's -12 below zero and we're forecast for a high of 20. This is our third straight morning of sub-zero temps, the coldest stretch of this winter, thus far. Don't really need to go anywhere, so we just stay in & stay warm. We do go out & start up the cars around mid-day & just let them run up to temp, just to keep the batteries up & the oil flowing.

Mahnin'All: It's 3 degrees, cloudy & we've got a little more snow coming in this afternoon, but only an inch or two up here. The coast could get 6", but we'll be too far inland to get much out of this one.

We registered the other day to get our Covid Vaccine shots & got the return confirmation call yesterday. Now we just have to wait for the appointment call, which could be anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. State is way behind & just not getting enough doses.