Needless to say-I have learned a lot by just living up here. Prior to moving up-I lived a completely different life. I feel like I was a very different person and look upon it like a dream-it just seems so alien to my new life up here.
I learned that everything I thought I knew-was almost useless here. I grew up in an area that was filled with people milling about on warp speed-just thinking about the bottom line and at home on how to "Compete with the Jones next door". Now I don't even see the Jones and I don't care! Besides, only up here can I get away with not raking my yard or even mowing it-that is why I bought the sheep-I could not figure out how to fix the lawnmower when it kept breaking down on me-my neighbors suggested it. I laughed at first and then went out and bought one-well the rest is history on that cause!
Up here as a single Mom on a farm in Maine, there is a brand new perspective that I had to learn. Survival. I had to plan my trips into town in the winter around snow storms and I learned to watch the news religiously-to make sure that I had enough food in the house for my children and my animals that have made their home here. Not to mention the sheep in the barn. When the weather was too harsh to brave a trek into town- I learned to find everything else at the corner store at the bottom of the hill that I lived on. My money was very little, though I was blessed to not have a mortgage on my farm or payments on my van. I had to be very strategic with the very low incoming resources that I had to manage- with all that relied on me. I have also had to rely on some help from my parents, though after suffering quite a bit and finally breaking down after tossing my pride aside. Through out all of this neighter my children nor my animals felt very little of the loss. In the winter when they went to school-I would turn the hea down to 50 and put on a space heater in the rooms that I was working on until they came home-when I would turn it up.
I had troubles with the wood furnace and had to learn really fast how to stack the firewood overnight so that it would last. There is an art to it in using the right hardwoods and stacking it just right for proper ventilation-though not too much so that it would burn out in 3 in the morning! I would wait up until 11 pm to bank it and then be up by 4 am-just to make sure! I had worked on plan with a family down the road with now 12 children (They had a lot of sons who could work chainsaws) where they would cut down 6 cords of wood for me and have 6 cords for themselves. Then I would rent a wood splitter and load it in the basement when done. there is a special door on the other side of the basement to drop wood into! I was very upset and wanted to learn to cut wood myself and even bought a cute purple and green chainsaw for this at Wal-Mart, though was yelled at by every male that I knew in that they said I was too small and would probably cut off my arm in the process! So now it hang up in my garage for them to use!
By the summer of 2005, Tom (my neighbor's son was living with us and helping out a great deal.) He had finished the chicken coop and taught us how to take care of them. He showed the girls how to catch grasshoppers for the chickens and to throw them in the coop-the chickens would run around frantically to catch them-it was really funny and chickens loved the treat! He did not make that much money and contributed very little, if any to the household.
It was his company that we all loved. he would take us to local swimming spots in the middle of nowhere with the most beautiful scenery! At some of those places-we would be the only ones there! It was amazing how many gorgeous spots in Maine that one could swim at for free! In Mass, any natural habitat could be enjoyed for a fee. It was a new concept and welcome with very little money. I also spent a lot of that time working on two historical literary novels and had finished them in the time that he was with us.
He brought us back to life with everything that he showed us. He helped to screen in the front porch-this occurred as soon as we discovered the existence of black flies! I was anti-Deet before moving up here-here it is a natural staple. They especially loved my youngest and I would often find the back of her neck covered with bites from them! When we both coached the local T-ball team-called the Chipmunks-we would line them up between innings to spray them down with "Bug Dope" as they call it here. Our field was known locally as the worst one for black flies! They would swarm from every direction and loved the little ones especially! It was also the muddiest spot around and the clothes of the children here take a beating-with mud. I was told of the three seasons in the mountains of Maine: Snow season, mud season and black fly season! They are not kidding.
Before in the suburbs, you are lulled to sleep under the street lights and the distant hum of cars on a nearby highway. The nature in my backyard of Norton-always had the hum of traffic from Route 495-though I managed to block it out. Up here, there is none of that and it took a while to be able to sleep in the utter quiet. First it was the absolute darkness-the night skies are so incredible that you can see the constellations in a brilliant display with the Milky Way flowing through! We are also so far North that you can witness the Aurora Borealis-an incredible display of colors that dance across the sky in the right atmospheric conditions. One can not even truly describe the fascinating effect-until you actually witness it in person! Also, at night you hear the very LOUD sounds of nature-that echoed fiercly after bouncing off neighboring hills and mountains. First it was the howls of the coy dogs or Coyote that I learned to distinguish-and then the wolves-which are rare (they are only recently let back into our forests again-after having almost been extinct) and they actually sound like howls from the the horror movies. The first time that I heard a loud pack of dogs nearby-they seemed very close (There is a wild acoustical effect in the mountains-where they can sound closer than they are and even echo). I woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed my Wal-Mart gun and ran out to the barn (I feared for my mama sheep and her babies and I was ready to protect them!) I must have made quite the site in my Betty Boop sweat pants and flannel shirt -grabbing a gun. Anyways, it turned out that either they had left the area at my approach-or they were really too far off. I was kind of upset really. I was all Rambo'ed out and ready for action!
Tom was a welcome edition to the house int that he showed us how to have fun with out any money at all. He worked at Sugarloaf in the winter and one night he woke me up at 4 am (he had to leave extra early when there was snow). He told me to get up and to get dressed up. I asked why. He told me to trust him. I did and followed him in a daze. I blindly followed him out side across my front yard-we had to put on our boots (This was early Spring) and walk through the snow to my field on the side of my house. He then plopped down into the soft snow and told me to do the same. I did. I lay there insulated from the wind under the soft snow and looked into the beautiful dusk sky and all across it were brilliant colors flowing all around us as if we were hovering under a brilliant sea of Burgundy, Magenta, Indigo and other colors that blended and rippled across the sky. It was so incredible that I felt as if it were all a dream.
He also taught me how to use and clean the gun and set up cans out back to practice on it the Spring when the snow thawed.
I had grown to love snowshoeing-in that it was the only way to travel in my backyard at all. In order to get out there, you still had to climb up on the banks of snow that were a few feet up and then onto it and out you went! It was a great workout!
When I moved up I had renewed my acquaintance with my cousin Carol and had visited them a few hours South of us. Her husband Rick is an avid outdoors man-as most men are here in Maine. He took me out in my backyard a few times to hunt snowshoe rabbits. He was the one who taught me how to walk with showshoes. There is a technique to it and one had to learn it order to get anywhere. We went out back and found the trail that led to the river at the edge of my property a half mile back. I also learned to shoot a pellet gun on those treks. We never caught anything. I probably would have been too upset about that if we had and he probably knew it! He was testing me and I kept up pace. He is from Maine and wanted to see what I was made of. I let him go out there at another time with his sons (my cousins- Doug and Josh). I could not join them and went out to run some errands. When I came home they had already left. I was about to pull into the garage when I noticed something hanging from it. When I walked up close to see what it was I had to be very brave. Rick and my cousins had left a gift for me! Hanging from the garage door handle dangling was a skinned and headless snowshoe rabbit-ready for cookin'! Well, I would show them! I pulled it down and called my neighbor Angela and asked how I was supposed to cook it. She told me and part of the process was that I had to cut off its feet. I wanted to die! I kept thinking of Thumper-that adorable bunny from Bambi! But I wanted to show them that I could handle life up here. So I prepared the bunny and plopped him in a large pot with tons of garlic and Oregano, Thyme and Basil from my kitchen herb garden and waited for it to be done. When it was done-I could smell that it was probably a wonderful meal and could have been-though I could not get over the psychological impact of eating Thumper! I ended up feeding it to my dogs after a couple of bites. It really did taste like chicken adn was delicate and dainty. I am really trying!
I have a rough time eating game and of hunting myself when I can easily buy the meat at Hannafords! I know that would be different if we were starving-I would get over it. But growing up-all of the food that I had ever eaten was purchased at the Supermarket and processed with load of chemicals. I have since shopped almost completely organic, have a garden and visit the regular local farmers market and even purchase local meat from a farm store nearby-But I have never raised my own meat animals as a lot of my neighbors do up here. I cannot get used to the idea of breeding animals and bringing them to slaughter to have on the table. I have sheep and I work with their wool. I see each of the lambs born and I give them meaningful names. When my chickens died from the local predators-my neighbors and Tom told me that I could cook them for dinner-I just had to pluck them and prepare them and take out their guts, etc.... I really am not at that point in farm life and still am not there. I know I make a horrible farmer on that perspective. I will not cull my own sheep herd. When they die of natural causes-as have happened since writing this-I do not put them on the table-I bury them out back in my yard wrapped in an afgan that I made for them and have a marker over the site! All of my friends and family lovingly tease me about loving lamb chops and such! I am really trying. I guess I am the proverbial Pacifist Farmer!
One last note on the garage: I mentioned my garage in this blog and want to explain that anomaly to you. I bought this house and farm for many reasons-one of them was due to the two gar detached garage that it has. I felt that if I was going up to Maine where there would be a lot of snow-I would be able to keep my car in the garage-and would have less to shovel off. That was another misconception! I have since learned that my driveway is way too large in the winter. I could not afford to have it plowed and have had to shovel it by hand (The banks pile up fast to way over my head each winter!). Needless to say that after even a few storms of a foot or more in snow-your driveway (or dooryard) becomes smaller and smaller and the garage is now used to store hay and wool. My van found a new spot near the end of the driveway close to the road-so that I had less to shovel out-just to get out to the road. We have paths from the front door leading to the driveway and the garage (empty of my van) and barn!
Ayuh for now :)
I learned that everything I thought I knew-was almost useless here. I grew up in an area that was filled with people milling about on warp speed-just thinking about the bottom line and at home on how to "Compete with the Jones next door". Now I don't even see the Jones and I don't care! Besides, only up here can I get away with not raking my yard or even mowing it-that is why I bought the sheep-I could not figure out how to fix the lawnmower when it kept breaking down on me-my neighbors suggested it. I laughed at first and then went out and bought one-well the rest is history on that cause!
Up here as a single Mom on a farm in Maine, there is a brand new perspective that I had to learn. Survival. I had to plan my trips into town in the winter around snow storms and I learned to watch the news religiously-to make sure that I had enough food in the house for my children and my animals that have made their home here. Not to mention the sheep in the barn. When the weather was too harsh to brave a trek into town- I learned to find everything else at the corner store at the bottom of the hill that I lived on. My money was very little, though I was blessed to not have a mortgage on my farm or payments on my van. I had to be very strategic with the very low incoming resources that I had to manage- with all that relied on me. I have also had to rely on some help from my parents, though after suffering quite a bit and finally breaking down after tossing my pride aside. Through out all of this neighter my children nor my animals felt very little of the loss. In the winter when they went to school-I would turn the hea down to 50 and put on a space heater in the rooms that I was working on until they came home-when I would turn it up.
I had troubles with the wood furnace and had to learn really fast how to stack the firewood overnight so that it would last. There is an art to it in using the right hardwoods and stacking it just right for proper ventilation-though not too much so that it would burn out in 3 in the morning! I would wait up until 11 pm to bank it and then be up by 4 am-just to make sure! I had worked on plan with a family down the road with now 12 children (They had a lot of sons who could work chainsaws) where they would cut down 6 cords of wood for me and have 6 cords for themselves. Then I would rent a wood splitter and load it in the basement when done. there is a special door on the other side of the basement to drop wood into! I was very upset and wanted to learn to cut wood myself and even bought a cute purple and green chainsaw for this at Wal-Mart, though was yelled at by every male that I knew in that they said I was too small and would probably cut off my arm in the process! So now it hang up in my garage for them to use!
By the summer of 2005, Tom (my neighbor's son was living with us and helping out a great deal.) He had finished the chicken coop and taught us how to take care of them. He showed the girls how to catch grasshoppers for the chickens and to throw them in the coop-the chickens would run around frantically to catch them-it was really funny and chickens loved the treat! He did not make that much money and contributed very little, if any to the household.
It was his company that we all loved. he would take us to local swimming spots in the middle of nowhere with the most beautiful scenery! At some of those places-we would be the only ones there! It was amazing how many gorgeous spots in Maine that one could swim at for free! In Mass, any natural habitat could be enjoyed for a fee. It was a new concept and welcome with very little money. I also spent a lot of that time working on two historical literary novels and had finished them in the time that he was with us.
He brought us back to life with everything that he showed us. He helped to screen in the front porch-this occurred as soon as we discovered the existence of black flies! I was anti-Deet before moving up here-here it is a natural staple. They especially loved my youngest and I would often find the back of her neck covered with bites from them! When we both coached the local T-ball team-called the Chipmunks-we would line them up between innings to spray them down with "Bug Dope" as they call it here. Our field was known locally as the worst one for black flies! They would swarm from every direction and loved the little ones especially! It was also the muddiest spot around and the clothes of the children here take a beating-with mud. I was told of the three seasons in the mountains of Maine: Snow season, mud season and black fly season! They are not kidding.
Before in the suburbs, you are lulled to sleep under the street lights and the distant hum of cars on a nearby highway. The nature in my backyard of Norton-always had the hum of traffic from Route 495-though I managed to block it out. Up here, there is none of that and it took a while to be able to sleep in the utter quiet. First it was the absolute darkness-the night skies are so incredible that you can see the constellations in a brilliant display with the Milky Way flowing through! We are also so far North that you can witness the Aurora Borealis-an incredible display of colors that dance across the sky in the right atmospheric conditions. One can not even truly describe the fascinating effect-until you actually witness it in person! Also, at night you hear the very LOUD sounds of nature-that echoed fiercly after bouncing off neighboring hills and mountains. First it was the howls of the coy dogs or Coyote that I learned to distinguish-and then the wolves-which are rare (they are only recently let back into our forests again-after having almost been extinct) and they actually sound like howls from the the horror movies. The first time that I heard a loud pack of dogs nearby-they seemed very close (There is a wild acoustical effect in the mountains-where they can sound closer than they are and even echo). I woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed my Wal-Mart gun and ran out to the barn (I feared for my mama sheep and her babies and I was ready to protect them!) I must have made quite the site in my Betty Boop sweat pants and flannel shirt -grabbing a gun. Anyways, it turned out that either they had left the area at my approach-or they were really too far off. I was kind of upset really. I was all Rambo'ed out and ready for action!
Tom was a welcome edition to the house int that he showed us how to have fun with out any money at all. He worked at Sugarloaf in the winter and one night he woke me up at 4 am (he had to leave extra early when there was snow). He told me to get up and to get dressed up. I asked why. He told me to trust him. I did and followed him in a daze. I blindly followed him out side across my front yard-we had to put on our boots (This was early Spring) and walk through the snow to my field on the side of my house. He then plopped down into the soft snow and told me to do the same. I did. I lay there insulated from the wind under the soft snow and looked into the beautiful dusk sky and all across it were brilliant colors flowing all around us as if we were hovering under a brilliant sea of Burgundy, Magenta, Indigo and other colors that blended and rippled across the sky. It was so incredible that I felt as if it were all a dream.
He also taught me how to use and clean the gun and set up cans out back to practice on it the Spring when the snow thawed.
I had grown to love snowshoeing-in that it was the only way to travel in my backyard at all. In order to get out there, you still had to climb up on the banks of snow that were a few feet up and then onto it and out you went! It was a great workout!
When I moved up I had renewed my acquaintance with my cousin Carol and had visited them a few hours South of us. Her husband Rick is an avid outdoors man-as most men are here in Maine. He took me out in my backyard a few times to hunt snowshoe rabbits. He was the one who taught me how to walk with showshoes. There is a technique to it and one had to learn it order to get anywhere. We went out back and found the trail that led to the river at the edge of my property a half mile back. I also learned to shoot a pellet gun on those treks. We never caught anything. I probably would have been too upset about that if we had and he probably knew it! He was testing me and I kept up pace. He is from Maine and wanted to see what I was made of. I let him go out there at another time with his sons (my cousins- Doug and Josh). I could not join them and went out to run some errands. When I came home they had already left. I was about to pull into the garage when I noticed something hanging from it. When I walked up close to see what it was I had to be very brave. Rick and my cousins had left a gift for me! Hanging from the garage door handle dangling was a skinned and headless snowshoe rabbit-ready for cookin'! Well, I would show them! I pulled it down and called my neighbor Angela and asked how I was supposed to cook it. She told me and part of the process was that I had to cut off its feet. I wanted to die! I kept thinking of Thumper-that adorable bunny from Bambi! But I wanted to show them that I could handle life up here. So I prepared the bunny and plopped him in a large pot with tons of garlic and Oregano, Thyme and Basil from my kitchen herb garden and waited for it to be done. When it was done-I could smell that it was probably a wonderful meal and could have been-though I could not get over the psychological impact of eating Thumper! I ended up feeding it to my dogs after a couple of bites. It really did taste like chicken adn was delicate and dainty. I am really trying!
I have a rough time eating game and of hunting myself when I can easily buy the meat at Hannafords! I know that would be different if we were starving-I would get over it. But growing up-all of the food that I had ever eaten was purchased at the Supermarket and processed with load of chemicals. I have since shopped almost completely organic, have a garden and visit the regular local farmers market and even purchase local meat from a farm store nearby-But I have never raised my own meat animals as a lot of my neighbors do up here. I cannot get used to the idea of breeding animals and bringing them to slaughter to have on the table. I have sheep and I work with their wool. I see each of the lambs born and I give them meaningful names. When my chickens died from the local predators-my neighbors and Tom told me that I could cook them for dinner-I just had to pluck them and prepare them and take out their guts, etc.... I really am not at that point in farm life and still am not there. I know I make a horrible farmer on that perspective. I will not cull my own sheep herd. When they die of natural causes-as have happened since writing this-I do not put them on the table-I bury them out back in my yard wrapped in an afgan that I made for them and have a marker over the site! All of my friends and family lovingly tease me about loving lamb chops and such! I am really trying. I guess I am the proverbial Pacifist Farmer!
One last note on the garage: I mentioned my garage in this blog and want to explain that anomaly to you. I bought this house and farm for many reasons-one of them was due to the two gar detached garage that it has. I felt that if I was going up to Maine where there would be a lot of snow-I would be able to keep my car in the garage-and would have less to shovel off. That was another misconception! I have since learned that my driveway is way too large in the winter. I could not afford to have it plowed and have had to shovel it by hand (The banks pile up fast to way over my head each winter!). Needless to say that after even a few storms of a foot or more in snow-your driveway (or dooryard) becomes smaller and smaller and the garage is now used to store hay and wool. My van found a new spot near the end of the driveway close to the road-so that I had less to shovel out-just to get out to the road. We have paths from the front door leading to the driveway and the garage (empty of my van) and barn!
Ayuh for now :)
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