George got us all plowed out & I got the Jeep dug out & moved. We've got to get Marsha's car dug out & moved today. Only thing now is the cold. We're at 4 degrees, but the wind is whipping & the windchill is around -12 to -15 below.

Autumn has come & is now going fast. We were at peak foliage about a week ago, but now well past that. Wanted to share this photo that our friend Cindy Gammon took. The Gammon's own the Bison ranch just down the road about a mile from here. She took this last week while she was having her morning coffee. I thought it was a great shot.

Garden had mixed results this year. VERY strange summer, weather-wise. Started off promising, but quickly went south. First half of the summer was cool, wet & only saw Sun about 1 day out of every three. Then it was just like someone threw a switch & exactly the opposite for the second half: Hot, humid but not a drop of rain for weeks at a time. We are in severe drought conditions here now. Never seen the flowage in the river so low, in the 37 years I've lived here! As a result we had a lot of cucumbers from the cool first half. Only so-so on tomatoes, very poor yield on beans, good crop of carrots, poor beets, fair harvest of turnips. Didn't do a whole lot of canning, as there just wasn't much to can!

Marley's Wedding was wonderful, but a bit too much. She went way overboard & the whole affair was drawn out for three days, between the welcome party buffet she had the night before, the wedding itself, the reception & dinner and then the day after breakfast. Each one held at a different venue, miles apart. Over 200 people at the wedding! Just too much for us to attend all of it. We just did the wedding & reception. They honeymooned at a lodge up on Moosehead Lake. Don't have any photos to post yet. She had 2 photographers working the whole thing & we've been promised some photos once she gets them. I just can't drag camera stuff around for two or three days & no way in the chaos of everything going on to keep an eye on it if you put it down. When we get some photos, I'll post a couple.

Picking Cucumbers now & eating them almost every meal, in one form or another. Also harvested our first half dozen White Turnips. Very tasty. Going to be a few more of them in the next couple days. This variety only takes 40 days, so we're going to do another planting.

We'll be picking our first Cucumbers within the next few days. Lots of still little, green Tomatoes coming on.....probably be a few weeks yet on those. Everything else doing well. We've got little Turnips & Beets coming on, but still quite a way to go on those too. Carrots have a long way to go yet.

We did get our garden going & everything doing well, so far. This year we put in tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, carrots, beets and white turnips. DW also planted her usual herbs. Been getting plenty of natural rain, so watering hasn't been needed & the next 2 or 3 days are forecast for sunshine & temps 75-80, just perfect growing conditions. Just waiting now for the first local strawberries. Lloyds Farm will likely be picking the first within the next 2-3 weeks. Really looking forward to them.

Grand daughter Marley's wedding is just 2 months away, so lots of anticipation building there. They had the bridal shower for her just 2 weeks ago & DW went down for that. Marley got quite a haul! Just about everything she would ever need for a kitchen. She & Matt have already bought a house in Pennsylvania & are getting it ready to move into. Really nice place in a wonderful neighborhood.

Not doing a whole lot of buying & selling glass anymore, as the market is pretty well shot on the older glass. Just enjoying the pieces that I kept & have displayed. I did the antique dealing for 50 years & that's more than enough of that. Just enjoying other things now (now that we're getting too old to do many of them). LOL!

We also got our first snowstorm of the season & got about 9 inches, so we wouldn't have gone much of anywhere, anyway. Roads around here were horrendous & they were advising people to stay put.

Marley & Emma did not come home to Maine for Thanksgiving, which was a first for them. Instead Marley & her soon to be husband Matt went to Chicago & spent Thanksgiving with Emma & her beau Michael. I imagine the two couples are having a great weekend together & Emma cooked her first full Thanksgiving feast. I'm sure we'll see them at Christmas.

Other than that, we're still chuggin' along & doing pretty well for a couple old codgers!

Our garden is finally done for the season. We got a pretty good yield of Cucumbers. We were eating them in some form just about every day for most of June & July. Our Roma Pole Beans produced a banner crop, the most we've ever had. We canned 24 sixteen ounce jars of them, blanched & froze 9 more quart bags of them & we're still eating the last of the fresh ones the past 3 days. Another day or two of those to go. We got a lot of Tomatoes, but with issues. I've been growing Early Girl variety for 40 years. We buy our plants from a local greenhouse that raises them all from seed. I think someone messed up this year, because no way were these Early Girls! The plants grew huge very quickly, the tomatoes were numerous, but very small. Most were golf ball size or small lemon size at best. They also had a problem with bottom rot, something I've never had with Early Girls. We had to pick most of them green & let them ripen indoors or they got bottom rot as soon as they started to turn color on the vine. I've never seen Early Girls do that. It's a common problem with a variety called "Celebrity" and I'm convinced that's what these really were. Still, they tasted very good & we've still got some that are ripening. Marsha's herbs did very well & we've got lots of Basil and Parsley.

Don't know if any of you have seen the Silver Alert on Facebook for a missing man from Aroostook County, Maine named Edward Bolstridge. He's one of my cousins. He's 68 years old, has MS plus memory & cognitive issues. He was last seen driving his car near Presque Isle, Maine on August 22nd. No one has seen him since. There's an awful lot of very wild country up there in the county, that can swallow you up very quickly. They have been searching by foot, vehicles, ATV's, drones, planes, helicopters for 18 days & there's been absolutely no trace of him. He had no cell phone or credit cards with him. It's like he vanished off the face of the Earth! He is not a close cousin. In fact, I haven't seen him in nearly 40 years, but still, he's family. After this amount of time, I fear this will not end well.

Other than all that, we're fine here. Leaves are starting to turn (late this year) and the days & nights getting cooler. Won't be that long & we'll be shoveling the white stuff! Hope everyone here (if anyone still is here) are fine.

Found this rare little cutie listed on Ebay by a dealer in Southern New Hampshire. It's an old original Carnival era Cambridge Nearcut Souvenir Mug, lettered "Souvenir of Wilton Maine". It's signed with the "NEAR CUT" trademark. Wilton is only about 35 miles from here by road (about 20 miles as the crow flies). I go thru there all the time. Very few Carnival Glass souvenir pieces with Maine places on them turn up. I've only had one other & that was 30 years ago. So I was really thrilled to win this little beauty & it came the other day. It's back home now & here it's going to stay.

The new road is a joy to drive. No more obstacle course or holes, cracks & washouts. There was a lot of road damage during the winter storms all over this area. They're still re-doing some other local roads & will be at it pretty much all summer.

We got our garden all planted this past week. We've scaled way back this year & likely will from here on out. We've got a dozen Early Girl Tomato plants, 4 bushes of Pickling Cucumbers and 9 poles of Roma Italian Pole Beans. Marsha also planted some Basil, Parsley and a couple other herbs. That's ample for our needs and those are things we like the most. Anything else can come from the numerous farm stands nearby.

They are re-doing our road.........FINALLY!! They've got the shoulders all re-graded, all the old pavement has been torn up & ground into new road bed. A large, 100 yard long, low lying section of the road just a 1/4 mile below us, which always flooded during spring melt or heavy rains, has been elevated a good two feet & a culvert installed which should solve that issue. They're going to start laying down the new pavement tomorrow. It's only 4 miles long, so shouldn't take them too long. I'm thinking they'll have it done by late Wednesday.

Yard is going to get it's first mowing of the season today. Early flowers are blossoming & our Hummingbirds are back. Things have greened up rapidly over the past week. They are supposed to start re-doing our road soon. It's been 25 years since the last re-surfacing & and there was tremendous storm damage to it this past winter. Lots of washouts, brutal pot holes & missing areas of pavement everywhere. People's cars are getting ruined on it & everyone is very upset with the town for letting it go so long. You have to crawl at about 20 mph on it or you'll start damaging wheels, rims, tires & all kinds of other stuff.

Just got my Jeep back after a week at Dan's shop getting a huge amount of work done. It has a new oil pan & seals. New muffler, tail pipe and intermediate pipe (whole new exhaust system). New brakes, pads & rotors all the way around. New tires. New air filter & oil filter. Virtually everything else checked, tested, adjusted as needed. It cost $2,500., but she runs like brand new now. It should be my "forever" Jeep. Sure can't afford a new one. They start now at $42,000.!! Even at decent used one will run you around $20,000. At my age...........Nope! This ones got to last, so the $2,500. I spent is an investment & well worth it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.