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Our daughter believes in being as self sufficient as possible. So through the years she has learned many skills including blacksmithing, sheep tending, wool spinning, carpentering, gardening, soap making, candle making, sewing, vehicle repairing, solar and wind power harvesting, etc. The current focus in on animal raising and butchering.

Here’s Alexa feeding the pigs:

The free range chickens try to get a good share before the pigs, well, make pigs of themselves.

The pigs need to be watered, too. This one actually drank from the hose but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get a picture of that.

Alexa says when the weather is hot and she’s filling the big bowl behind the pig they stand in the stream of water and use it to scratch their itches. It wasn’t hot when we were there so we didn’t get to see that.

Here’s some large scale container gardening.

Try that right outside your front door and you might get some complaints from the neighbors. That’s one of the advantages of living on a BIG piece of land in Maine with friends. You can do this large scale living while still being a minimalist. And we got really FRESH eggs.

TTYL,

Linda

Intriguing concept, isn’t it? How can one waterfall go one way then the other? When I first heard there was one of these in Maine, I quickly put it on my list of things I had to see for myself. Once we were actually in the right neighborhood I learned there are lots of reversing waterfalls. They are also called tidal falls. Here’s how it works.

At low tide a river runs under the bridge from right to left towards towards the ocean and down a set of rocks which makes a waterfall.

At high tide the ocean runs the other way, up river, under the same bridge, over the same set of rocks, making a waterfall that goes the other way.

So which way does the water fall?

Down, of course.

TTYL,

Linda

This blog is dedicated to Jeri and Terry and their granddaughter.

In Maine, I was told, one must eat lobster. Do I like lobster? The last time I had it I was a teenager raised inland where lobster is a very foreign creature. I was also told a lobster roll is the best way to try lobster if you are uncertain. So in Ellsworth, Maine, we went to:

You order at the windows seen here and are given a number. When your order is ready you are welcome to take it to the building you can sort of see on the right above. Closer up it looks like this:

That’s the dining rooms. In a separate building next door. On the other side of it is an open air pavilion. There is also a stage where bands play on Friday nights. And on Wednesday nights they have classic cars.

Oh, the food?

Lobster roll with fries for me and the haddock lunch with onion rings for Dave. And while it was tasty I won’t be spending $13 again on a sandwich anytime soon. But, I would go back to Jordan’s if I was still in that area.

TTYL,

Linda

We all know the song, right? “In 1814 we took a little trip…” We all know the war of 1812 was about the Battle of New Orleans, right? Ever wonder why that battle of The War of 1812 took place in 1814?

Because the battle of 1812 took place in Plattsburg, New York. On September 11th. Today Plattsburg is commemorating that battle with a parade and other events. We celebrated it by going to The War of 1812 Museum.

Why there was a war:

Where the battle took place:

The women’s perspective:

Most of the displays in the museum did not photograph well. Suffice it to say there were displays about women soldiers, sailors, spies, and keeping the home fires burning. With the normal lack of recognition for most of that.

But, some women became famous:

Note that Fanny Doyle was compared to the “Maid of Orleans” not New Orleans. The Battle of New Orleans was still two years away. But it is the only one most of us think about when we think of the War of 1812.

Someone needs to write a new song.

TTYL,

Linda