A Summer Saturday in Maine

That's right the Banjos and Brastraps duo are back together this weekend in Maine for a summer Saturday!  After a series of subtle and somewhat blatant hints about coming up to see the wildness that is Kristina's garden, Carrie crawled through Boston rush hour late Thursday night to arrive in the balmy foothills of Western ME [That's "Maine" for those of you who don't know your state abbreviations.  Its ok, we still love you] where the temp that evening was in the mid-50s.

Friday's adventures included a trip to Frost's Antiques where I found a hinge for my porch windows that I'm in the process of refinishing.  Let's not talk any more about that project right now.  Ah hem... we then took a leisurely drive to Gardiner ME - after driving through semi-conjested traffic in downtown Farmington because apparently it was "Summer Fest" in town.  There were people all over the place - Carrie notes: "there were more people in town then I've ever seen in Farmington!" and then proceeded to note that the one weekend that something big was going on, I was taking her on an out-of-town adventure.

We met up with our buddy Jordan for lunch (who is a new Pastor w/the Methodist church - at some point we'll probably be reporting on "Party at the Pastors" since he's got new digs near the ocean).  I decided it was time for Carrie to visit the A1 Diner, which is fairly famous in foodie circles.  It carries local food, everything is homemade and you can find everything from a hamburger made of local organic beef to funky Asian dishes w/tofu or a Mediterranean Tajeen (sp?).  Jordan had a blue cheese burger, Carrie had mac-n-cheese and peas (Carrie notes: "not together"), I had blackbean and sweet potato chili with a side of homemade, homecut fries.  If it was a little later in the day we would of had beers but we were onto a shopping adventure at Chez Reny's and then Target. 

Later that day ....

I was in the process of making hamburgers, fresh yellow wax beans from my garden and sliced cucumber from Gretchen and Ruth's garden when Ruth called.  She had put in a 12 hour day working on a report (she is a fluvial geomorphologist), she needed me to come get her and take her to get her pick-up truck so we could be successful on our Saturday morning adventure - and - she might be out of gas.  So after dinner I grabbed what gas I had for the snow blower, Carrie and I hopped in the car and went and got Ruth.  We finished with that around 10pm, went and got our own gas and then when we returned home, I gathered my morning outfit together and had a wee bit of wine as I was getting nervous for my first time playing 'catch and toss the chicken'.

For the next four and one-half hours I had crazy dreams including one where I was surrounded by chickens going "Oh NO, I can't do this, I'm totally letting Ruth down!", to waking up two or three times worried that I was going to oversleep.  But, the alarm rang at 5, I quietly moved about the house putting on my carharts, worn 'work' MGFD (that's Maple Grove Fire Department) sweatshirt, work gloves and worn-out smokey the bear ball cap on while Carrie slept soundly for ten hours.

It was an absolutely beautiful, sleepy, coffee-filled morning.  As I was leaving my house the sun was starting to rise but I could still see the moon clearly in what was left of the night sky.  It was cool out and quiet.  By the time I got to Ruth and Gretchen's house, the sun was up and all kinds of wonderful colors and light was filling the sky - yet there was a bit of a feeling of uncertainty as we got ready to gather the chickens.  {Carrie says I'm being too wordy so I'll move it along} - we basically took the chickens out of the outside cage (aka 'chicken tractor') they were in and gently tossed them into the back of the pick-up truck.  Only one managed to get past us so we ran around the yard a bit but I did not freeze up as in my dream.  It was a little difficult but ok once we just focused on what our task was.  We drove about 25 minutes to the processing place which was very interesting and I won't share those details (it was humane) and it was a powerful experience.

When I got back home, I worked in the garden until Carrie got up - she's bringing home some yellow wax beans & patty pan squash from her adventures.  Later that day we happened to find some blackberries at a friends' house nearby who happen to be out of the country right now (thanks!). We walked

to town and had some gelato at the new Wicked Gelato store and then came home.

Tonight we decided to stay put, have a nice dinner of chicken speedies (but not chicken from today's adventure) and relax.

Best misheard comment of the day: "How long do you want to marry Nate the Chicken?"

Clearly back in Maine

This weekend Carrie and I are decompressing from our adventure in very different ways.  Yesterday she was roaming around Boston with a pal from undergrad and I was at the famous Ice Out party in a secret location in Western Maine.  The party is a tradition that was started a while ago which celebrates the end of winter.  Whomever best guesses (although some claim using secret scientific tests) the date that all the ice is out (that's 'all melted' for you Southerners) on Egypt Pond, becomes the Ice Queen or King (see the foto of this year's queen (again!) and her dancing princess on the right).

Her/ his responsibility is to plan a menu and the rest of us (can you tell I've never won?) then make.  Once we find a day in which we can all get together, we kayak / canoe out onto the pond and share our meal via a series of courses and varied locations on the pond. [This photo of the sign above is a clue to the name of the owners of the house at which the festivities took place].

In the four years I've been participating, we've had mixed results in terms of eating on the pond and yesterday was no exception.  This year's theme was Mexican food.  We had Mexican salad with corn and black beans, cheddar jalapeno corn bread, guacamole with chips, pico de gallo, chile rellanos, Oaxaca tacos (pictured on the right), churros, margaritas and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting - perhaps due to the margs.  As usual there was a ton of yummy homemade foods complete with assorted giggling.  Due to rain, we ate on the screened-in porch and when things let up we loaded up the watercraft, bug spray and desert and were on our way.

It was a beautiful day - most folks went swimming and a few of us kayaked or canoed.  Everything was perfect until I was attacked by a pond shark named Gretchen.  Jordan and I were hanging out by some rocks, he was in the process of winning the Egypt Pond belly flop competition, when I felt this pulling on the back of my kayak.  Before I knew it, the shark was on the back of the boat and we were tipping back-n-forth and slowly taking on water - soon it was all over, I was in the water.  Luckily for me, pond sharks usually only attack watercraft.  Once I recovered my hat (my glasses somehow stayed on), the shark calmed down and helped me to right the kayak.  In gratitude, I towed her back to the dock.  If you look closely, you'll see two heads in the water - Jordan looks like he's attacking us but he's really helping us out. 

Thankfully I had a change of clothes and we spent the rest of the night playing games and attempting to play music. 

Today I began to deal with the weeds in the garden, mowing the grass that's roughly shin-level and harvesting the last of my radishes.  I did manage to find some ripe red and black raspberries. I think I'll eat them with a chocolate covered ice cream bar later today.

Now that I'm feeling like an old lady, I'm going to go post garden pictures on facebook and then take a nap, mow or actually do some work.  ta ta