Land Ho!

Our land offer has been accepted!!! The sale is moving forward as of noon today, April 24!!

We looked at a lot of properties, and none of them were quite right. Either they were neat parcels, but so far from towns we had some trepidation, or they were wonderful pieces of land besieged (sometimes on all sides) by really run down, just depressing looking places. This little piece, when we rolled up to it (on a different day than this, it was just before the Nor'easter rolled through that we first saw it) and thought, "hey, this is really neat. We could do something here!" The road is a quiet one, just 2 miles from downtown Belfast, but apparently in another dimension for the way you feel there, with a horse farm on one side and a huge acreage on the other (this acreage is owned by the people selling the acreage to us) with a marvelous Maine style farmhouse with huge attached barn (these are some of the most fantastic homes out here, and they are everywhere! It's such a shock to the eye, still, to be seeing these antique capes and interesting homes all over the place, they were such a comparative rarity in the other places we have lived). The acreage is just over 18 acres, with light tree growth covering much of the land, and a beautiful little stream toward the rear of property. The stream runs all year long, and we are hoping to be able to source a bit of micro-hydroelectric power from it once we are settled in a bit more. It's surprising how difficult it is to find information about this type of renewable, but we've got a few leads and will keep trying. The stream is also one of the few left in Maine with it's original stocks of native brook trout still doing their thing in the water. This is pleasant! Lots of other wildlife on the property, wild turkeys for one. These were nearly extinct in Maine for sometime, but have made quite a re-bound. I think they may wreak considerable havoc in the garden, and we are already plotting some ways of dealing with them, though frankly, these evasive measures are quite unimpressive for the time being! Deer as well, coyote, fox, we also saw a small and beautiful quail moseying about while we looked at suitable building spots...this was a surprise and was a reminder of our funny old friend Mr. Pheasant from Point Roberts, who is sadly no longer among the moseying. The birds are still new to us, and I'm having trouble identifying them without better views. We have seen the eastern blue jay and cardinal that I remember from childhood in MD, the mourning doves are prevalent, and their lovely sombre cooing is ever so evocative - which is a lovely thing to be re-introduced to! Also, flickers are abundant here as there, and Shawn saw a pileated woodpecker while down near the stream. There are some other birds we haven't been able to identify yet. And hopefully many more we've yet to spot.

One of the most wonderful things sound and animal (or amphibian) -wise are the peepers that are chorusing their mad love songs all over the rear of the property. Outside our little cottage rental here, too, the night is alive with their sounds - a wonderful ringing, happy sound. I love it! They start pretty early and ring the day and night away - making the night inviting, even if it is still chilly in the night hours.

This land is lovely!! There are some pine, particularly further back on the property, some firs, quite different from our familiar douggies out west, some white birch, (ahhhhhh!) alder, an ancient and currently dilapidated apple tree or three up in the front of the property, some maples, identifiable in that their red flowers are out already, and some what are probably young oaks and other things that we just aren't sure about. It's more than twice as hard to identify trees right now as our spring is quite late this year (even given that it comes later to this part of the country than the warm Pacific Northwest) and the trees are just coming into bud. It's going to take a lot of time!

The land is level, with a slight slope that will make for a good walk out basement, and aid in drainage provided we place ourselves high on the slope. It's very lightly wooded in many ways, and is yearning for some management! We have some high hopes for this adventure, and will keep posting. Thanks for all of your good wishes and words of encouragement! They are much appreciated! Cheers!

No longer pushing toward Cushing...We've arrived!

We've arrived!! We've actually been here since Saturday evening, but are just getting back online now. The phone was connected today and we signed up for internet and are happy to be writing again!

The cottage is comfortable, though not the greatest for the unseasonably cold weather we are having (even by old time Mainers standards, this is a late and cold spring). Tonight's forecast includes 4 to 7 inches of the white stuff for the coastal region and temps are in the 40's by day, 20's by night. Brr! It's currently 21 degrees! We had 8 inches on the ground when we arrived, and it actually had mostly melted by this afternoon, but now we are replenishing the supply. Maine roads are quite simply amazing. When we arrived Saturday, they had received at least 8 inches and in many places along the coast upwards of 14 inches on Thursday evening. ALL the roads were completely clear, from the freeways to the tiniest of arterials (those were really fun in the moving truck!). The local driveways are plowed by locals who run routes and rig up plow attachments to their 4 x 4's. It's amazing, especially after being in the Seattle area and its environs for so long.

We've got a phenomenal view. The scene is always changing and as you can see, Felix is being richly rewarded for his lengthy cross country journey. He's adjusting really well, it seems. There's a lovely spot for a garden, at least a small one, out the window this picture is taken out of. The cove you are looking at is called Maple Juice Cove, and it's one of many in this area. There's water all around and wonderful architecture abounds, lovely capes, painted from the most austere New England white on white, to other variations on that theme, fantastic barn reds, even a pumpkin orange. Others are sort of a soothing yellowish or pale green with bright white trim and a high contrast color for the doors, which is especially gorgeous to look at when the fields are bright and clean with fresh snow. It's very cheery. Lots of lovely capes and the Big House, Little House, Barn style of attached buildings is everywhere. Wonderful!

The small towns near us, which include Friendship, Waldoboro, Thomaston, Rockland, etc. are wonderful little towns with vibrant downtowns, lots of people all about (very friendly people with great accents, impossible for us to imitate) - there are so many little local businesses, and everyone seems to know one another, as in Point Roberts. It's fun to start getting acquainted with the roads and the towns and the people. It feels like we have come home - which is a darned good thing, too, since we've come over 3000 miles and have left everything familiar behind!!

Tomorrow we may be snowed in for the morning, but we're thinking of heading north about 35 miles to Belfast on Saturday to start looking at some of the homes and land we've been hankering to see for what seems like forever now. It's still sometimes hard to believe that we are here! It's very exciting. It's also sort of disorienting to have left the springtime of the northwest coast and come to the Northeast, where spring isn't even peeking out yet! A few bulbs have begun up front of the cottage, but they are surely paying for it with this weather. The trees are all bare still and the only green out there for trees is in the evergreens (fir and pine in this immediate vicinity). And interestingly, the grass dies back completely here during the winter. It's as brown as our grass in the west gets during high summer when no rain has fallen for over a month.

Move in day was quite a crazy ordeal, and we worked like crazy. We couldn't use the dolly as the ground was covered in about 8 inches of snow, some of which had frozen to a crust, and some of which was banked in inconvenient spots. We got it all in, taking it box by box from the truck and transporting it the 150 feet or so to the cottage. Phew were we tired at the end, though at least we got some much needed exercise after being in the truck so long.

This cottage is going to be absolutely marvelous for the summer months, though, and that kept us going during the hard sloggy part of the actual move in. And sleep was very sweet that night!

We're glad to be back online and in touch with everyone through the blog. We'll be back!

Nearly there

Good Evening, Good Friday.

It was an uneventful driving day today, no problems of any kind. There were snow flurries in Cleveland that obscured our view of the lake, but it was nice to see a great big body of water again (even if it was only a tiny view) and we are really looking forward to getting back near the coast. The cats are getting a bit on the tired side, but tomorrow is our last expected travel day, with only 466 miles to go, it's hard to believe we'll be in Maine tomorrow!!

It seems we'll be arriving just between snowy breaks, so if we can get all unpacked before the snows fly again, we'll be delighted, and even feel a little sneaky too. Although, there is currently more than a foot of snow ON THE GROUND at the place we'll be arriving with more expected next week!

Tired from the drive, we wish you good night and a wonderful Easter.

fabulous forests and concrete jungles

We were so thrilled to see the forests start reappearing outside of Saint Paul this morning, especially as we got further and further into beautiful Wisconsin, that we forgot to take pictures of them. No leaves on the trees yet (in fact, not even much budding out just yet, probably for the better after this cold blast!) but the forests appear to be predominantly oak. Some pines started popping up, but the forests are largely winter-still, towering deciduous forests, virtually bare underneath, wonderfully walkable, it was hard to want to stay in the truck with forests like those out the window...they seemed to be beckoning us.

What an absolute treat to drive in the clear, cold sunshine of a beautiful day for driving. No ice, no snow, no heavy gray skies. Glorious blue skies, warming sunshine, dry highways. And forest galore.

We managed to arrive in Chicago exactly at 5 pm, which we want to personally recommend as the most opportune time to enter rush hour traffic through a giant city of nearly 3 million. You will not be disappointed. Thousands and thousands of cars, and a truly impressive vehicle repertoire featuring weaving cars and a possible display of extreme car psychosis characterized by driving down shoulders when the lanes are too crowded, and zipping wildly from lane to lane whenever the sparest car space appears. Cities are not places for driving. But actually, the drive was quite smooth, it did take two hours, though. But no real problems and we got the full vantage of the city, which is HUGE and has wonderful brick buildings and townhomes building up all the way into the center of the city. Next time, we'll take the train and not set foot in a car, unless it's a cab. Mike Sanchez, we said hello into the traffic, hope you heard us.

And finally, an update on the cats. The cats are doing GREAT. They stay in their carriers all day and don't meow much except in the mornings when we first start out. Poor old Pen, our little orange terror, has taken to sitting in a total depression in her carrier. She won't come out during the trip anymore, being totally terrified and apparently completely defeated by the strange rush of sights flying past her eyes. It would appear that Penny has finally realized that she is NOT the boss. She is deeply depressed and silent during the drive, but rallies beautifully when we let her out in the hotel rooms, rushing about in sheer glee, rolling on her sides and jumping from bed to window sill to tub, to top of the TV cabinets. She loves hotels.

A much needed sleep awaits. Tomorrow it's on to New York and then it's MAINE!! It hardly seems real!!! It's getting warmer, too. Tomorrow will be in the low 30's. G'night.

LIVE from St. Paul, Minnesota!

We got into St. Paul with no incident and no trouble with traffic through Minneapolis or St. Paul. Jake recommended a perfect accomodation in that it was in city (close to him) but next to a bottling plant that had pretty constant work going on, the hotel was very safe. Visiting cities is lovely, but it's a bit more fun A) in a car, preferably UNDER 10 feet long and B) without ALL of your belongings with you.

Our visit with a dear friend named Jake Esau, whom we haven't had the good fortune to see in person in for about 3 years since he left the Seattle area, was worth the hazardous driving. He took us to the local co-op to replenish our veggie and other supply stocks, have dinner, and then regaled us with his latest work in progress (a remarkable one called Voices of the Bible) for the evening entertainment. His work is amazing for a few reasons, one because he is a "one man show" - a character actor of great talent. His voice has a fabulous resonance, and his care for the characters, his phrasing, and the stories themselves make for a mesmerizing performance. His pieces from the Old Testament included the stories (personally paraphrased, sometimes dramatized in prose and sometimes in a rhyming couplet format) of Ruth, Deborah, Tamar, Job (especially powerful), Daniel and others. The grand finale was a 6 minute humorous piece by Twain. This was a fabulous treat. Jake's works are thought provoking and highly professional, if you ever get the chance to see him, especially if he is performing his latest works "Voices of the Bible" please do! You will enjoy it immensely.

Till we meet again in person, Jake! In the meantime, we'll both read Martin Chuzzlewitt next, though perhaps not at the same time.

So Far To Go From Fargo, ND...

This was the lovely driving scene greeting us as we left our little hotel room in Fargo, ND. Fargo got 6 inches, and the winds were still over 25 mph when we pulled out in the morning. It was about 16, but wind chill made it much colder. That wind chill really does its work.

The first 65 miles on the I-94 E were literally horrible! Big areas of packed snow, thick ice, black ice, white ice, gray ice, more packed snow, and then occasional stretches of wet road stretched out for 40 feet or so, like 3 second oases in the ice desert. The winds were blowing snow about making visibility pretty much non existent for brief, but harrowing times. Then, 65 miles into the trip (we were travelling at 35 mph with jackknifed tractor trailers all around us), the roads cleared, the snow stopped blowing, and the roads gradually lost all traces of ice and became blessedly clear and simply wet. I can't tell you what a treat this was! Shawn drove beautifully, but it was truly an experience we don't need to do again any time soon! The long drive the day before getting snowed in was probably the thing that really logistically saved us, as the roads may have been icy coming into MN, but they were flat, flat flat.

Springing into Winter: The First Three Days of Our Trip!

Well, here we are in Fabulous Fargo (thanks for that, Jake!) for our second evening. We drove 600 miles through the end of Montana (something we weren't sure we'd ever come to) and across North Dakota (a blessed, mere 349 miles!) all the way to Fargo, hoping to beat out a spring snow storm. We had snow the whole way, and came out of it just upon reaching Fargo, but it caught up with us while we caught up on much needed rest. Perhaps that's not such a bad trade off. The wind was over 30 mph this morning, it was snowing, and visibility was about 1/4 mile, so we decided to stay another day here and let the storm get ahead of us for good. It still looks like we'll have snow showers the whole rest of the trip, but showers we can cope with. Accumulation is not so fun in a 16 foot truck with another 16 feet at least of car towing behind us. The cats were delighted to get to avoid their carriers and the rumble of Budget Bertha, our big rental truck. They've been comfortably sleeping in various parts of the room today, taking brief waking spells to clean themselves and sit in the window and survey the wintry landscape. We got the chance to try out our cold weather gear purchased this winter in anticipation of NEXT winter in Maine. Who knew winter would be in April!! We are pleased to report that even in 16 degree weather with a windchill of -2, our clothes kept us toasty and warm, no chilled fingers, and the neck mufflers really provided the piece de resistance, clothing wise. No rush of cold wind down the necks of our coats, that's bliss!

It's hard to believe that only a few days ago, we were in the midst of spring in Point Roberts, with the bulbs all up, the leaves of the maples and birch unfurling in earnest, and gardens starting to burst forth. We'll look forward to a second spring in Maine, getting back on the wintry road tomorrow and the next leg of the journey as the adventure continues...

G'night!