A Sheep In Wools' Clothing

Blizzard Leavings

We got a true Nor'easter last night, complete with this gift at the mudroom door this morning.  That is indeed snow against the door, not a Dutch door left in place.  One can see the divot on the right at the top of the snow drift where the doorknob was.

The boys decided during the storm not to clear the doorway, as we have a guest "from away" arriving later today, and they wanted to let her see it for herself.  The decks around the house were cleared earlier in the storm, of over a foot of snow.  There's maybe 2-3" again.

In the background, one can see the snow against a picket fence - the wind drifted snow up against the door, and away from the fence.  We even have snow on the screens!  LOL

Pre-Nor'easter Blizzard Snowfall

We have a Nor'easter in action tonight.  We were predicted to get 4-8" of snow this afternoon, with an additional 18-22" overnight with blizzard conditions and snowfall up to 3"/hour overnight.

This photo is of my back deck just now.  The red thing on top of a black blob is my 6' 1" son standing at the bottom of the deck steps.  The snow started around 2 this afternoon..... on the mudroom deck, when one opens the door, there is a door imprint on the side of the snow packed there.  And that is in a relatively protected space.  

My sons want to wait until after our last out of town guest arrives tomorrow afternoon to remove that snow so she can see the door imprint on the snowbank.  They did get out the little snowthrower and remove what has fallen so far from the back and side decks, as one can see in the photo (snowthrowing in progress).  It is looking like a white Christmas for us, and we have three more days of snow predicted this week.

Landscaping Continues

I've lived in eight states and three foreign countries.  I've never lived anywhere in my life longer than eight years, and I generally enact my ideas for my homes just in time to sell them to someone else to enjoy.  I've NEVER landscaped for myself.   This first pic is what most of our drive entrances look like here.  Natural.

When I moved here to Maine, I was traumatized, terrified and worn out.  I bought my place in the woods on four acres, on a dirt road some 14 homeowners share the maintenance.  I cannot  see any of my neighbors from my home, and we each have 4 or more acres on this road.  We all have wells, and septic systems.  We aren't off the grid like Farm-Witch, but certainly a far cry from living in cities like Denver, SLC, OKC, Bombay, Alexandria (Egypt) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).

I've been here almost seven years now, almost a personal record for retention.  Three years ago, I began having sections of landscaping done on the place.  I moved in to the house brand new, without even tufts of grass growing.  I found a landscaper with creativity, originality and an artisitic background.  I told her I wanted a beautiful yard, but didn't want to be married to maintenance because of my work schedule.  I didn't want to have to edge the lawn, I wanted perennials in at least one area, and I wanted the place to be welcoming to my family and to visitors.

The first section was all about foundation plantings on the public side of the structure, and about making the entrance welcoming.  Here in Maine, we don't use front doors.  Many houses here no longer even have steps to the front door.  We use the mudroom entrance where snowy and muddy boots can be taken off before entering the house proper, and where there is usually some sort of heat transition into the home to keep those heating $ from flying out each time the door opens.  In my home's case, many people couldn't even figure out where the door was, so I wanted to define that and make it welcoming.  My landscaper added whimsy with awesome bird houses and even a fairy house with custom landscaping which mirrored that in my own yard.

The second section put in a pond with a super filtration system for the geese I used to own.  Three weeks after the pond went in, my dogs did in the geese.  I didn't replace the geese, but I kept the pond.  It has a rock waterfall, a rock island, a bog area with logs and stumps (brought in for interest), and many rocks on the bottom (hides the lining).  I have a rustic bench with an arbor over it which overlooks the pond.  And I have a little gargoyle reading a book next to the rocks.

My latest section just got started, and completed, today.  It was to spiff up the end of my driveway one sees driving up to the drive.  It doesn't get direct sun ever.  It is a LONG ways down my drive, so it needs to be zeroscaped to survive.  And, I wanted a piece of sculpture that would go with one in the first section of landscaping - the shower Buddha.

Mo McGlinn (McGlinn's Wee Gardens, Brewer, ME) found a companion carved tree trunk statue for this greeting section - a Forest Spirit man.  He is the centerpiece of this new section of my place - a landmark and greeter in a natural habitat.  She put in ferns, shrubs, fall flowers, and rustic logs.  Now, we have a landmark people can use to find us, and we've dressed up the road a bit, while we are at it without being over the top.  I'll take more photos in daylight, but couldn't resist getting some tonight as I drove back in.

Megan's Playhouse

My friend Megan has a day job (well, okay - a night job) as a labor & delivery RN.  She is married to a dairy farmer who works on his father's dairy farm.  Together, they have a little barn with a spinner's flock of sheep, some chickens, a couple of farm dogs, and many out buildings.  Most farms' out buildings serve as storage of equipment, animals, or feed.  On Megan's place, the outbuildings seem to be what I like to think of as adult playhouses.  (Get your minds out of the gutter - I'm being apple pie here).

Since Megan lives on a farm, and her husband has all sorts of testosterone toys like real John Deere green tractors, front loaders, trucks (did I mention tractors), etc, they can do things with their little outbuildings most of us can't - like move them around, or relocate them half a mile away for a view of the water.  And so when I visit Megan's farm from time to time, I find the configuration of outbuildings has changed.  And so it was last month when Sam & I went to spend the day at Megan's.

The playhouse I have taken the most photos in and of used to be up next to the barn, near the real house.  This spring, Megan painted the door and window box to remind her  of doors she saw in Ireland last year.  This summer, Robert moved it with the tractor down by their waterfront about 1/4 to 1/2 mile down a dirt road.  So, Megan, Sam & I went down to the water to see the playhouse, walk down by the water and look at lichens and moss and other wonders of the outdoors.  In its original spot by the barn, another little house is now in its place, with a retro bicycle and milk can planters as landscaping.  And on the way to the new location of the fancy playhouse, is Ben's house.  That is a two story little house her son, Ben, built as his a few years ago. 

And so while in the time since I got Sam I haven't gotten to do much in the way of fiber pursuits (he's too interested in customizing my fiber and wheels and other tools), I have gotten to spend time with my friends - Megan and her playhouse, and two other friends have been helping me repaint the inside of my home, clean & organize my storage room in the basement, repair the screens in the screen room torn by dog nails, and clean out my garage.  As much as I love my fiber stuff, good friends definitely surpass it!  (And it is especially cool if they share their playhouses with you.)

PS  These were taken about three weeks ago, and Sam is MUCH taller and longer now than even depicted here.  The water pic was the first time he'd seen a lake or pond, and he seem puzzled over why his paws didn't stay on TOP of the water rather than sinking to the bottom...

You'd Better Watch Out...

We had a special visitor Thursday night here in rural Maine..... he even sat on my friend, Megan's lap (but there was no groping since we didn't want to make it to CNN)....

Adventures of the Bubba Tree

Warning:  picture heavy post ahead.  My apologies to my dial-up readers!

The Bubba Tree story:  My knitting/spinning friend, Megan (whose sheep and chickens you have seen here) is married to a dairy farmer here in Maine, who has a family owned woodlot for their wood heating stoves.  Robert, Megan's husband, and his friend, Billy, were sent out one year (after the dinosaurs died off, but not much after) in high school to find, fell and bring a Christmas tree home for one of their mothers.  They went off to the family wood lot to do so.  It was an afternoon adventure of poor planning and preparation in the way that teenage boys have.  (Mothers out there, I know you know what I am speaking about).

Over the ensuing years, they got driver's licenses, got their trucks stuck in the snow.  They had to trudge back to the farm to get a tractor to pull out the truck.  Illegal underage beer entered into the picture (and reportedly might have had something to do with the truck getting stuck).  They have each gotten married and had kids and even some grandkids.  And still, getting a Christmas tree has remained an annual event for these two lifelong friends and their families.  With a twist.  When Robert married Megan (my friend), Megan wanted to purchase the perfect tree from a tree farm.  She won, but Robert held out for his annual tree from the woodlot, which has fondly become known as the Bubba Tree.  The Bubba Tree is supposed to be far from perfect, and manytimes, several trees are felled for the purpose of finding the perfect Bubba Tree.  (The extra felled trees are used to heat their homes - it is not wasteful cutting).

And as the Adventures of the Bubba Tree matured, even in high school, the two friends learned to take a snack along, which has evolved to red hot dogs.  Initially, the hot dogs were cooked over a fire, and now on camping stoves on the tailgate of a pickup.  There is soda, and other things like Pringles and Twinkies that have shelf lives of at least 100 years.  Nothing healthy on the Bubba outings!   The family dogs come, babies supervise in layers of warmth, and extended family and significant others have joined in.  But, it is only the original two friends along with a third man who actually fell the trees and drag them out of the woods.  A sort of rights of passage underway?  They haven't had the next generation start helping with the work part of this annual ritual.

This year, I was honored to have been invited along on the Bubba Adventure.  My personal preparation rivals Margene's attire for walking Moxie.  We were doing this adventure with predicted daytime highs of 7 degrees F, with a windchill well into the negative numbers.   And so, I pulled from both handknits and well purchased wool items from my wardrobe.  I started with long johns, SmartWool top, handknit worsted weight Watermelon socks, my Orkney Islands aran sweater in North Ronaldsay sheep wool over a shirt, jeans, Ugg boots to my knees, and a heavy Lands End jacket, four layer handknit Malabrigo cap, handknit Malabrigo mittens, handknit Cat's Cradle scarf.... you get the Michelin Tire Man picture!

In honor of the occasion, I had a custom made Bubba wreath made.... and yes, those are empty beer cans in with the North Carolina pine cones, red balls and ribbon on the wreath.  (Many thanks to Mo of McGlinn's Wee Gardens of Brewer, ME for her role in the Bubba wreath!)

Snow Snow Snow and Cold Cold Cold for Demented Snowmen

We have enough snow that we have to push the doors through the snow to open them.  And the windchill is in the negative. (Still not close to my personal record for cold, which was a wind chill of -85 F.  After about -20, there are not degrees of cold.  At that point and below it is just freaking cold!)   I've been knitting along happily through the storm on Sunday, even through the power outage with lasted until a few minutes ago.  I had my sportsman headlight on so I could see to knit, and continued my gift knitting.  The German shepherd actually got on the bed and stayed close for warmth until the heat came back on.  I have been wearing my SmartWool long johns, handknit worsted weight wool socks, and staying under the quilt for warmth.  The great room managed to stay warm with the propane fake wood stove installed just for this reason.  Joys of living in rural Maine!  It is looking like a good snow year, and that we will have a white Christmas here. 

Anyone up for a demented snowman building contest?

Foliage Gone Past

Our foliage has gone by, aided greatly by the 90 mph gusts we had last weekend.  I have lived all over - Texas, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Maryland, Argentina, Egypt, India and Maine.  Nothing quite compares to a New England foliage display! 

Before the leaves fell this year , I did manage to get some shots of the foliage at what was retrospectively, probably our peak.  I generally make the mistake of saying I'll get the camera out tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, the leaves suddenly dropped & I've missed the beautiful color.  Even though late, here are some foliage shots....  already the deciduous tress are bare, and soon the bare branches will be crowned with snow.  I can't wait - I love the snow with the soft crunch underfoot, and the hushed quiet.  Especially wonderful on a clear night with a full moon!

New England Falls Are Unsurpassed

I've lived in eight states from the southwest, to the west, to the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.  Nowhere I've ever lived has quite achieved the storybook beauty of fall quite like New England. Our drought this summer has brought incredible bright reds and oranges this fall - almost worth the drought!

Lobster Find