Answerman . . .

Well, the big heat wave here has broken.  Just so my DC friends don’t have all the (dubious) bragging rights, it reached a record breaking 101 degrees here a week or so ago.  That was pretty bad, but besides many Mainers suffering from heat exhaustion (not much in terms of air conditioning here), they must also explain to visitors and transplants like us that it really isn’t like that here.  Well, truth is that it really isn’t like that here.  After a few days of heat, it is back down to the comfortable 70 to 80 range.

I had a couple questions from DSmith on the last blog and it gives me the opportunity to share the answers with you all and, of course, post another blog before the end of July.

But first, let me tell you that in passing Day’s Crabmeat and Lobster just a day or so ago, the price of lobster on the big sign had dropped from $5.29 to $4.69.  Will it go lower?  Maybe John and I will be tempted to get one and, who knows, make lobster salad, Lobster Newburg (never made this before!) or just about lobster anything at that price.

Also, for Washington friends who have never had a lobster roll before, you can get a decent one at Legal Seafood, oddly in Chinatown or what is left of it.  As stated it’s decent, but it does use a lot of mayonnaise-based dressing and lots of green things in among the lobster meat.  They also have a decent Maine crabmeat roll. 

Oh! . . . and that leads to one of the questions?  What about Maine crabmeat, I mean, what is it exactly?  As I have heard it is the meat from one or two or both species of crab found in the Maine waters, Rock Crabs (Cancer Irroratus) or Jonah Crabs (Cancer Borealis), which are different from the Maryland Blue Crab or the Florida Stone Crab. These crabs are relatively small, but their meat is fine, sweet, and delicious.  From what I understand it used to be a by-catch of lobster fishing, that is, often the lobsterman would find a crab in their lobster trap and toss it back in.  Now, of course, that doesn’t happen.  We have found that it’s good to eat.

Another question is about sea ducks.  What was I referring to exactly when I noted sea ducks off shore at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights?  Boy, you have just asked an avid birder about birds and now risk dead by boredom.  A sea duck is any of a number of diving duck species (eiders, scaups, scoters, buffleheads, mergansers, and so on) found typically near the ocean shore or a bit further out, especially in winter.  They dive into the water, disappear for a while, and then reappear on the water surface, hopeful after finding a tasty tidbit below.  The other ducks are dabbling ducks, which you see in shallow ponds (like Mallards) sometimes with their fannies up in the air and their heads underwater while they nibble green things on the bottom.  In summer here in Maine, when you see sea ducks floating around, they are very likely to be Common Eiders, the same eiders that have provided us with eiderdown for years to make comforters, mattresses, pillows, and such.  The nice thing about this source is that we don’t steal the down from them, the eiders give it away.  Although they are here all year round, many nest up north in the Arctic so their nests need to be warm.  To make the nest comfy they pluck the down from their chests and line their nests with it.  At the end to the short nesting season and the kids are out and somewhat on their own, the eiders simply abandon the nests, never to be used again.  Except, man (or woman) that clever guy (or gal) goes around collecting the down from the nest to be used for his or her nest, hopefully after proper sanitization, one would hope.  Nowadays, of course, with domestic goose down, “polyfil,” Under Armor® and such, plus the obvious discomfort in tromping around the tundra in chilly weather, you don’t see much eiderdown being used, at least not in the US.  By the way, a web search does pull up a few companies selling eider down comforters at about $3000 each.  Hmmm!  I think I’ve found a new summer job . . . encouraging eider chicks to get out of the nest early, so Uncle Harry can collect their bedspread while the weather is still decent.  With all the pictures I’ve take of the Maine coast you’d think I’d have a photo of a Common Eider, but I don’t and need to rely on this web illustration.  The black and white one is the male and the mottled one the female. 

Well, there you have it.  Hope you noticed the restraint I used in talking about the ducks. 

Lobster Rolls!

Sorry, I got sidetracked on the last post.  I meant to talk about lobster rolls. 

John has been preparing some excellent meals here in our small kitchen.  They are often accompanied with blueberry wine.  Yes, blueberries are so ubiquitous that they are squashed up for wine . . . not blueberry-flavored wine mind you, but wine from fermented blueberry juice.  We’ve tried two different winemakers.  One is made by Bartlett Maine Estate Winery and the other is the Winterport Winery.  Both are very different, so we really can’t say which is best, but Bartlett is definitely more elegant (and more expensive!) and Winterport is a regular everyday table wine.  Both make a number of other fruit wines.  Winterport makes an unusual cranberry wine, which as you might imagine is quite tart.  Fortunately, they use enough sugar to tone it down to drinkable.  In fact, it is so drinkable, you might not know you are drinking wine until it was too late.  They also make a strawberry wine that we have not tried yet, so I am looking forward to that.

Oh well, there I go again digressing!  Let’s focus on the topic.  Despite the good meals and good wine here, we do get a hankering for lobster.  Being the lazy sort, I lean towards a lobster roll.  Does anyone not know what a lobster roll is?  You’d find out fast in New England, but especially in Maine.  Basically for the uninformed, it’s picked lobster meat served cold in a grilled hot dog roll.  Sometimes the meat is mixed with mayonnaise (hopefully lightly!) and occasionally some green things, but the best lobster roll seems to be really plain and basic.  John and I have tried four different places for lobster rolls since we got here in May and now seems to be a good time to give our opinion of the best.

Our first lobster roll here was last year at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights.  OK, also for those who grew up elsewhere, a light is a lighthouse.  So at the end of Cape Elizabeth, there are two lighthouses, hence the name.  Don’t ask me why they have two lighthouses.  They have fog horn, too.  It just seems they need all of them.  What’s really important is the Lobster Shack.  It serves a really good lobster roll, plain and unadorned with a squirt of mayonnaise off to the side (for those who must).  And of course they have the Atlantic Ocean, the rocky shore, the crashing waves, sea breezes, sea ducks, the works.  Really, they could be serving beans and franks and you might still want to go there.  You need to get there early, because a line forms quickly around lunch time.

To the other extreme, John and I took the bus into Portland one day (whole other story, a trip to town and a show for only $1.50!) to reacquaint ourselves with downtown and eventually have lunch at recommended restaurant named Maria’s, which was touted as having very good and plentiful Italian food.  After a good long walk, we arrived at Maria’s at noon ready for a good plate of paste, but the door was locked.  The time was right, just nobody was there.  We walked around the block a couple times, knocked, nobody there.  Spoke a delivery man, said he didn’t see the owner truck, but that he’d probably be coming along sometime soon.  Well, there are only so many times you can walk around the block.  These things seem to happen in Portland (people are more laid back), so John and I headed back towards the waterfront area looking something to eat.  Along the way we passed through the financial district (Portland is very compact, so we are only talking about walking a few blocks), and spotted the Grill Room.  Hmm! Interesting menu, so we stopped in and of course we ended up having a lobster roll.  Now this was a really gussied up lobster roll, lots of lobster meat on toasted focaccia bread with garlic aioli.  Hey, it was really good, but it was an entirely different thing.

Heading back to the more traditional, we read about another lobster/seafood place in South Freeport (or just south of L. L. Bean’s), the Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company, right on an inlet off Casco Bay (off the Atlantic Ocean).  This place was right at the town landing, so had a much more “boaty” environment . . . lots of boats, fishermen, and the ubiquitous kayakers with kayaks in tow.  And to top it off we got a very good lobster roll, plain and simple.  Still, we didn’t think it surpassed what was becoming our standard at the Lobster Shack.  Also, the young fellow, about 13 or 14, who acted as the parking attendant/busboy at the place said although the food was good, he thought the place was a bit on the expensive side.  Obviously, the kid must have been the owner’s son or had some other form of job security.  Indeed it was a little bit more, $15.00, compared to the other places, where it was more like $14.00.

Then there was one more place.  Going back and forth for Freeport and most points north we have passed one place that doesn’t look like much, but then that is often what makes things attractive.  Basically, it was a lobster and crab shack on U.S. Route 1, but backed on an exquisite tidal marsh.  Still, we always passed by until Nan, someone we often speak to over at the Maine Audubon Sanctuary, recommended it as one of her favorite place, although she leaned towards their crab roll.  John is fond of Maine crab too, so soon after the recommendation, off we were off to (not to passed by but to actually spot at) Day’s Crabmeat and Lobster.  Day’s is very basic with one side selling crabmeat, clams, and lobsters au naturel, packed for your preparation and consumption at home and with the other side selling prepared food that you buy and then have two choices, take it home to eat or sit on a picnic table in the back and eat it looking out at a gorgeous tidal marsh.  We sat, John with a crabmeat roll and me with a lobster roll, and both with a Sea Dog Root Beer (brewed and bottled right in Portland).  Everything was fantastic.  Now they did use a little mayonnaise in with the lobster meat, but really just enough, really a perfect balance.  Oh, by the way if you look closely at the picture, that’s right, whole lobsters were selling for $5.29 a pound that day.  Since then we’ve seen it below five dollars.

After four tries, it would be hard to make a decision on the best, but maybe we’d have to say the Lobster Shack at Two Lights with Day’s as a close second.  Or maybe we’ll just need to try them all over again.

All for now!

PS:  We just returned from a store and saw Maine rhubarb wine.  I mean, pleeeeasssse! you Mainers don’t need to make everything into wine!

News in shorts

(Actually, we do not wear shorts here, although we are about the only ones not to.  With so many 80 degree days and with some flirting with 90s, it’s hard to find a true Mainer not in shorts.)

We read in the local newspaper the other day that three teenagers were arrested in a Portland suburb for breaking into cars.  The article noted they were targeting unlocked cars.  Sad to say folks in Maine may need to get used to locking up like us city transplants.  Amazingly, many Mainers don’t lock their cars or their houses.  Some even leave the keys in the car.  One person noted to us that when they lived in Bath, Maine, he misplaced his front door key and never got around to looking for it until he sold his house a year or so later.

In cheerier news, there is a whole new bunch of frogs down in the lily pond at the Maine Audubon Gilsland Farm site.  It is full of them.  We’ve watched them since they were tadpoles and now they are all grown up. 

Here’s Josh looking for Tiffany.  Hope those crazy kids aren’t thinking of trouble.

Holy preservation!  We were on Bailey Island on the Harpswell peninsula yesterday having lunch at Cook’s Lobster House (so-so for me with a fried haddock sandwich, better for John with deep-fried sea scallops) and looking out at the cribstone bridge connecting Bailey Island with Orr’s Island.  Who knew it was on the National Register of Historic Places (known as Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge on NRHP website)!  I didn’t even take photos of it and now need to rely on web pictures.  The 1,150-foot bridge was completed in 1928 by stacking granite blocks in a pattern that allows the 12-foot tides to pass through unimpeded.  It was just recently repaired because some of the stones had sheared.  It is purportedly the only one left in the world.  Someone told us there was another one in Scotland, but it was destroyed in World War II.  Whatever the case, it is really narrow with hardly enough space for two cars to pass.  Before it was built there were years of controversy between the residents of Bailey Island and Orr’s Island.  Bailey Island is the last major island out on the peninsula and was cut by a small piece of ocean from Orr’s Island, the next island in, which by chance was connected to the mainland.  Orr’s Island residents were content with having the only connection to the mainland didn’t want to spend money helping Bailey Island connect and potentially luring away the residents and tourists from their own island.  I guess people are people no matter where and when.  Finally, more rational thinking prevailed, the Maine legislature stepped in and the bridge was built . . . and there you have it, a piece of history.

Summer events



Phil Cunningham for the Forecaster

So why are all these seemingly impassive adults just sitting there as the little kid fends off a giant clam all by himself.  It isn’t what it looks like . . . it’s the Yarmouth Clam Festival, just north of us here in Falmouth and boy, is it big!  And that’s not any clam, that’s “Steamer” the clam, the event’s mascot.  As is typical throughout the country, summer is the time for festivals, fairs, field days, and so on, and Maine is not to be undone.  The town is expecting one hundred thousand people to attend.  I know, I know, it’s not the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall, but consider Yarmouth is a pretty small place; it’s a village for goodness sake.  Per capita, that’s a lot of people.  There will be a parade, lots of food (clams, of course), music (country, jazz, barbershop quartets, you name it), and a carnival with rides.  Lots of others things happen too that never happened when I was a kid like a bike, canoe, and kayak races (all separate events, though!), art shows, public library events, and the like.   Back then we would not have ever have imagined things like this.  About the most athletic thing at our Fireman’s Field Day in rural Scriba in central NY was the firemen’s push ball game.  A ball in a net was suspended on a rope stretch in the air between to volunteer fire department crews.  The object of the game was to push the ball over the heads of the opposing team using fire hoses.  The parade was on Friday, the push ball game on Saturday, and fireworks on Sunday, and boy! I think I liked the pull ball game the best.  Of course, the crowd loved it when in the heat of the battle they got sprayed accidently by the firemen.  It’s hard to describe the scene, but thanks to Google I found a picture posted by “eaglebear” of a game played recently in Pennsylvania. 

It looks similar to what I remembered, except we had a lot more people milling around our event and a lot more opportunity to get sprayed.  Well, that was our big event for the summer.  Of course, now with the great revival of the American small town and village there are concerts in the park, riverfests, and all sorts of things going on.

By the way, the true identity of Steamer, I understand from the local newspaper, is a closely guarded secret.  I am not sure if the secrecy is protecting anyone, the festival, or the just Streamer, him or her itself.  Also heard . . . next year there may be an additional, smaller mascot, “Littleneck.”  Who knows maybe next year maybe John or I could . . .

Looking for housing (bah!)

Whew! Another scorcher today, up to 84!

Some may wonder what we are looking at in terms of housing here in the Portland area.  Here we are a couple of guys who just sold their house in DC and now have a pocket full of money.  Should be easy, right?  Not really.  There’s a lot on the market here, but we simply haven’t found the right fit yet.  I’ll talk about our experiences and efforts here just this once.  I could talk for hours about it, but I’d just start ranting and that can get really boring!

First, when marketing houses here, realtors don’t seem to have the same finesse as those in DC.  They are a little more laid back and casual.  I mean when you come in to photograph a house for sale, wouldn’t you want to make it as attractive as possible?  Not always the case.  In so many cases here it seems the photographer comes in and just starts snapping photos.  Whatever is there is there. 

 

I mean I know this is a picture of a foreclosed condo’s kitchen, but do they really need to show the Ajax cleanser and all the other cleaning stuff on the counter?  What are they trying to say . . . you really want to buy this condo, because it’s really, really clean?

So what can you get for your money here?  Well, here’s a great 6000+ square foot Greek Revival (John Calvin Stevens, 1905) in Portland that’s close to the center city.  Only $495K (really!). Must be a mess inside, but no it’s seems all renovated and updated for the photos.  Too bad though, it’s only 5 bedrooms and 3 baths.  Oh! and that marble flooring in the foyer . . . so slippery in the winter . . . and who’s going to work in that humongous kitchen, all that running back and forth.  Only kidding . . . sounds like a good deal, but like many houses on the market here, too much for John and me.  We want something a little closer to some natural areas.  Still, couldn’t you just see a Maine version of Rhett and Scarlett standing on that second floor porch?

Kidding aside we have seriously looked at places a bit more modest and with a lot less upkeep.  Here’s something we looked at in a complex, a little pretentiously named Hobstone in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland.  No, we aren’t looking at a house with a three car garage.  It’s three condo units in one building.  It’s 3 bedroom, 2½ baths and about 1,800 square feet with an asking price of $270K.  The whole complex is 66 units arranged in the woods with rock outcroppings, walking trails and more.  The complex was designed in a style supposedly reminiscent of H. H. Richardson, hence the poor take off on his middle name, Hobson.  For a retired architect, this is enough to make me not want to live here.  Still, the surroundings are lovely and the layouts very accommodating.  This is the place where we made an offer, but then backed out of after home inspection, because so many little things wrong added up to a lot. 

Here’s another one that we were very interested in.  Isn’t this house cute as a button? It has a nice layout and cathedral ceilings, has four acres of really nice woods, and fit a lot of our criteria.  It’s 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,600 square feet with an asking price of $330K.  It’s just down the road from the Hobstone complex and it is actually built on top a rock outcropping that continues through to the backyard.  In fact, the rock comes right through the basement.  Of course with the rock comes a little radon and water.  Because of all the rock in Maine, a lot of houses have radon.  It’s easy to remedy with a small fan and a pipe vent to the roof.  Water is another problem.  I guess it is just too much to ask for a dry basement in Maine.  It is inevitable that you will see some moisture, but what’s important is how it is handled.  Most people handle it with a French drain and a sump pump.  These folks just didn’t do anything other than say the problem was minor and only when it rains.  Well, a little investigation shows that appreciable rain was recorded in Portland last year on 113 days.  So the “minor” problem might actually occur 60 to 90 days a year.  Come on people, install a sump pump.  Another problem was the kitchen . . . a little small, a little unworkable with little chance for remedy without some major redo.  Very tantalizing to us, but we let it pass.

OK, that's enough boring stuff.  So we continue to look and you’ll probably not hear any more about real estate until we really get excited by something.  Today, however, we tried a new place for lobster rolls . . . now that’s something to talk about!  We've been to four so far, but we'll talk about that next time.

Relocation, July 4th, and blueberries

We have been passing on advice to anyone who thinks they will be relocating (not just moving, but really relocating) in the next couple years . . . start dumping now!  We thought we were ahead of the game and we threw away so much, but still we have about one hundred boxes and assorted items in storage.  How did we ever accumulate so much in such a small house?  If you are planning to relocate soon, say in next twelve months, well then, you are just too late and will have to get through it somehow.


We saw a comment again about the weather in Maine in a local newspaper.  The columnists said that Maine has two seasons, winter and the 4th of July.  It's probably why we noticed recently that the 4th is a really, really big deal here . . . another reason to celebrate a brief summer.  But also, Mariner are really patriotic. It's like it is their holiday, even though Maine was still part of Massachusett when the independence was declared.  Still, some are quick to point out that one patriot or another was actually from the Maine territory or lived here or offshore for a year or so.  All this probably explains why the fireworks display was as long and elaborate as it was a few days ago.  John and I tend to shy around from crowds, but we did head down to the nearby shore here in Falmouth to look across the bay to Portland and the origin of the fireworks display.  Others had that idea too, so there was a group of people down there, but certainly not a "crowd."  It was really OK.  It was slightly foggy and they shot the fireworks over the bay, so you also got a reflection of the fireworks in the water.



We have a small conservation area within walking distance from our lodgings.  There are a lot of conservation areas in this part of Maine.  Basically, they are protected woodland between roads, so you have roads and buildings and then the woods inbetween which are left alone except for some walking trails.  What a wonderful idea!  They can be quite big.  Ours is big enough to support a Great Horned Owl and its well fed (and noisy) offspring, both of whom we saw on our walk. We also noted that the blueberries were getting ripe.

It's a pretty common thing for Mainers, but now for former DC residents this is quite a treat to see them.  Imagine walking through the woods and seeing low bush blueberries (yes, there are high bush berries, also) growing.  Regardless of the degree of ripeness at the moment, blueberries are cheap and plentiful in Maine since we've been here.  They are imported from all over (Georgia, New Jersey . . .) to supply Mainers' carving for this fruit.  We have pies, muffins, cakes, ice cream, you name it.  Fitting right in, we have them almost everyday on morning cereal or maybe after dinner ice cream . . . and we found an excellent pre-made blueberry pie right in the supermarket.

We had another nice picnic lunch over at Gilsland Farm today . . . low 70s, bright sun, a breeze blowing, big fluffy clouds going by, a bald eagle soaring up there among them.  Two seasons; winter and 4th of July, bah!  Who can even think of winter now.  Let's just fiddle away. 

Hey, as I noted in the earlier blog, we have critters around us at the farm. This is not a fat grumpy squirrel.  This is a somewhere older and somewhat plump woodchuck who was about twenty-five feet from us eating green apples while we ate our sandwiches.  I don't know why he was staring at us so intensely.

Starting up

I’m following the advice of a former work colleague, Debbie Smith, and starting a blog.  John and I (mostly me for a while) will jot a thought now and then, maybe include a photo, and see where it goes.

Well, we did sell the house in Washington DC and moved to the Portland, Maine area, so to speak.  Closing was a little over a month ago and we walked away feeling we made a fair deal, not a great deal, but a fair one.  Still, we have not found a house here, but are living comfortably in a small furnished apartment in Falmouth, Maine, just outside of Portland.  We had a contract on a condo in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland, but we backed out after the inspection . . . too many small things adding up to a big thing.  So most of our stuff remains in storage in Washington and live in an apartment at a motel in Falmouth, Maine, just across a bridge and northeast of Portland, while we look for a house or condo.  It’s taking more time than we thought.  I noted to someone that we are “fussy” about where we move next.  John corrected me in noting we are being “particular.”  He is probably right.

We've been here long enough to makes a couple observations.  Here’s one.  People in Maine seem to celebrate the summer.  They don’t hide from it or curse it as we did sometimes in Washington.  Here, it’s only a couple month and there is a flurry of activity.  There are paint brushes and kayaks all over the place . . . and where did all the convertibles come from.  Of course, the weather is for the most part splendid.  For example, we now enter a few days of sunny skies with the temperature in the low 70s.  Of course, there are warmer days too.  One day a week or so ago the temperature was going up to the upper 70s/low 80s and one Mainer exclaimed to us, “Whew! Another hot one” . . . such a refreshing comment for two who have endured so many DC summers.  Still, with such mild summers, some might give pause to the winters.  Another comment we heard at the front desk . . .  when we first arrived we had a few days with highs only in the 50s.  Someone at the desk commented to their coworker, “Wow! It’s beginning to feel like August.”  We’re hoping that remark was made by a playful Mainer fooling around with the new guys from DC.  We will see.

How do we spend our time?  No, we have not yet gotten to attending the Maine Potato Blossom Festival in Fort Fairfield yet.  (Although we still have a couple days to decide before they crown the Potato Blossom Queen.)  Occasionally we do look at a house or condo, but most recently, we just look at them on internet and quickly come to the conclusion they aren’t for us.  As many have noted to us, we just have to be patient.  So in the meantime, we have been learning our way around here.  We know the back ways to get into Portland.  We know a couple good bakeries, and who has the best cinnamon bun or who has the best lobster roll.  Of course, we have been up to L. L. Beans in Freeport a couple times.  The café there has an excellent croissant.  But a lot of time is spent at the Maine Audubon Center at Gilsland Farm, just down the road from where we are staying.  It’s a great diversion for us. 

Not in a very long time have I had the opportunity to walk through fields of buttercups and other wildflowers.

We go there often for a lunch picnic.  Sitting at a picnic table, we have the exceptional and guaranteed company of chipping sparrows and bluebirds.

We have a number of other visitors too.  Wild turkeys, woodchucks, and many, many chipmunks.  There just seems to be hundreds of these fellows all over our area in Maine.

Another place turning into a favorite place for us is Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park.  It’s so easy to get to the ocean or a salt water bay here, just a short drive and bam there it is.

So there you have it for now.  You'll find us sitting on the bench by the gallardias at Gilsland Farm.