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Archive for the ‘Maine’ Category

The big snow

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Before I got mired in the packing, I took some pictures of the big snow…they were lovely enough I thought I should still share even though it was a week or more ago…time has run into a big blur this month!

Here’s the view of the front porch–the snow piles up in the corner next to Joshua’s window, and it has never been this deep–the window was half covered!

I don't think we've ever had this much snow on the roof--we've had deeper snows, but the winds have blown it off the roof.

Then there are morning walkies:

The pugWonderfulness LOVES rabbiting through the snow!

I was so glad we got a deep snow, as I had never taken a photo of one of my favorite views in this house..out the window at the third floor landing, looking out over the garage roof (which has my studio on the 2nd floor).  It is a quick and easy way to see how much snow we got…in this case, a lot!

Looking out the 3rd floor window...see that sliver of dark, that's the roof over my studio with about 12+ inches of snow!

And here’s the view to the other side:

There are three small gables facing the street and the sunrise

Paul had to scrape up extra bits so he could back out of the garage. The plow pile at the end of the drive is as high as the garage doors!

I love the coneheads on the propane tank (left) and doghouse (right)...and the mound in the back is that snowplow mountain! Eli and a friend sledded off of it down into the back yard

The new owners of our house (we were renting back for a few weeks) parked their car here while they returned to pack up their old house. Their car has a thick blanket!

I love Maine so much—our new house has great views, and I can’t wait to sit, snug and warm, in the living room and watch the storms blow in and the snow swirl around!

Moving, Day 1

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

The moving van arrived this morning, and we were pretty much ready!   This is what our back entry hall looked like at 8 a.m. this morning:

As you come in the back door...a wall of boxes

And then you turn left:

Looking into the kitchen, aka chaos zone

That’s dear hubby’s noggin on the left–he’s cleaning the woodstove doors to lay a nice fire for the new owners.  Good hubby!

The hallway:

The upstairs hall

Then they moved boxes into the living room to shuttle them out to the truck:

The used the living room as a staging zone...fortunately it is cleared out tonight as there is nowhere else in the house to sit!

Here’s what my studio looked like in the morning:

My studio, after the packing, before the moving

By the 4 pm, it looked like this:

My studio, by the end of the day....seems so much larger without all my STUFF!

And the end of the day:

The truck toward the end of day 1

It is SUCH a relief to be at this stage….by Friday we will be asleep in Hope, Maine!  And we’re eating carry-out this week <grin>!

Packing in the cold

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

The lack of posts is due to mostly one thing:  packing.  Can you say UGH?   I HATE moving. It also has been wicked cold.  This was the weather station report this morning–exactly ZERO (that’s Fahrenheit for my non-US readers…about  Celcius minus 18):

6 in the morning, zero degrees outside, 63 inside, no wind chill....

That is a vast warmup from this time yesterday:

Jan. 24, 2011: the lowest temps since we moved to Maine. It was MINUS 11 Fahrenheit (-24 Celcius); the wind had almost stopped when I took this photo. At one point wind chill was -18 F.

I also have too much stuff.   I had cleared out some stuff, but as I pack my studio I clearly need to clear out more.  When I unpack, I do believe that I will finally cull and sell some of my quilting books! As you can (maybe?) see from the chaos below, a fair bit of packing has happened—five low shelf units, all the patterns that I sell (half the filing cabinet), the knick-knacks inside the Hoosier (and do I really need all of *those* dustcatchers?).

See all those awful cardboard boxes? At least the shelves behind are packed up!

Ugh again.  Here’s another view toward a different corner.  Ugh.  The blue on the sewing tables is my recent project, which I can’t show you.  Bummers.  It is for a juried exhibit with a mid-March deadline.  I knew I had to finish it early or it would never happen.  I finished sewing the facings on Sunday mid-afternoon, then started in on packing boxes.  I still need to sew my name to the front and make a label, but since the quilt won’t ship until late May/June (if it gets in, that is), I’m gonna let that slide for now.

Another shot of the rampant chaos in my studio. I hate being in anyplace this disordered. No more moves!!!!

So for today?  More packing!  UGH!!!

Local populations

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Just a quick addition:  I was curious about the combined popoulation of the “five towns” area, which is Camden, Rockport, and the “H-A-L” (Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville) towns, plus the “big” town and county seat, Rockland.  It’s smaller / fewer souls than I thought:

  • Camden population:           5,254
  • Rockport population:         3,209
  • Hope population:                1,310
  • Appleton population:         1,271
  • Lincolnville population:    2,042
  • Total for the 5-towns:      13,086

Rockland population:                     7,609

Total for our immediate “area”   20,695

(Sorry about the wobbly formatting…it is nice and even in draft, but on the web stuff “moves”)

I also just discovered a brief history of  Hope, Maine online.  One local landmark is Hatchet Mountain which got its name because local “warring” Native Americans literally buried the Hatchet on the mountainside.  COOL!  And there are apparently 513 households in Hope, and we get to be one of them!  WOOT~!

Hope house and snow

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Thanks so much to the many who wrote and who surfed in to read the tale of nutsoidness about our move!  The great news, of course, is that we will be moving to a house we LOVE, with good karma, in a town called Hope.  Several of you asked for pictures.  I feel a tad awkward about sharing pictures of the house and its insides now (will when it is ours!), but I can share some of the outside and view.  Yesterday a big storm blew (and boy did it BLOW) through.  This was our current front yard as we left the house to trek out to  Hope, about 10 minutes west of where we are now:

At home in Camden-still snowing furiously on Weds. afternoon

On Tuesday we had gone out to the Hope house for the septic inspection.  It was a glorious winter’s day in Maine, so I took these photos looking toward Freedom and Liberty (ya gotta love a state with town names like these!) and uphill of the house, which is surrounded by 11 acres!

Looking towards Libery and Freedom, Maine from the top of the driveway

and looking uphill from the top of the drive:

Looking uphill from the driveway into the winter sun. The path in the snow leads to the porch off the kitchen..you can see the tip of the roof on the right edge of the photo.

and another of the “main” views:

My shadow is the one to the left; I think our realtor Mary and hubby Paul are on the right. What BLUE skies!

Yesterday during the storm, our house inspector, Peter  T., took this photo which he shared with me.  It is of the front of the house, and as you can tell it was windy with snow going sideways! The lights on the right are in the living room.  The dining and kitchen are to the left and there is another covered porch off the kitchen on the driveway side of the house.

The Hope house in this week's storm

Just imagine....this will be OUR view soon! Taken from inside the living room.

And dusk was falling as we made our way home to Camden at about 4:20 p.m.  Took this from a moving, bouncing car…good camera!

Dusk (at 4:20 pm...the days are getting longer!) and the road to Camden