Useless in Eustis

   I'm sad to say that this past Sunday was the very first time we were able to make the trip to Eustis this year. I'm hoping we can get up there at least once more for some fall hiking.

Camp

   Our typical Eustis trip begins with sleeping in- it's only and hour and a half away, so no big deal. We stop and pick up lunch in Kingfield, at Anni's Market. They have great sandwiches! Our next stop is less than a mile down the road at Tranten's. I'd say this is your best pick for groceries in the area. From here it is about a half hour to camp. After we pass Sugarloaf, we stop in Stratton at Diamond Corner Bed and Breakfast to pick up something sweet. The woman who owns this B&B bakes the most fabulous pies! This time we picked up a small cheesecake with blueberry topping.

View from Camp

  Once we get into camp, which is not hard to get too, as it is right on route 27 between Cathedral Pines and The Pines Market, we sit down and eat- and go from there!



 On our previous camping trip we had our last ride in the Subaru. The amount of money that was required to fix the head gasket issues, among other things, was not worth it, so although this is not the best time for us to take on a new car payment, we went out looking, and came away with a beautiful 2005 toyota tacoma with very low miles. Eustis is a great place to have a truck, so we tried it out!

trying out the new ride

  We drove all the way around the back side of Flagstaff lake- this entail going north from camp and getting on King and Bartlett road, which is currently being logged, so the road had been improved a bit. We continued along, stopping at a few places- the Dead River and Spring lake, and eventually hooked back up with the Carriage road, about 15 miles south of camp. It was a super fun ride!

Spring Lake/Flagstaff Mountain

 

 

 

 

The Dead River

A typical night in Eustis means eating dinner and then driving down into Stratton, turning on to route 16, and then pulling off at the town salt and sand pit- below the sand and salt piles is a big bog that attracts moose! This was the first time that we did NOT see one though. Oh well! We then drove up on top of Eustis Ridge, where we saw two deer cross in front of us.

 

No moose, only crows.

 

 

 

The Bigelow's from Eustis Ridge

 

 

   We headed out before lunch the next morning and stopped along the carrabassett river and walked up aways on the narrow gauge pathway, which runs along the river- we will check that out more on the next trip!

Joe and Tikaani enjoying the Carrabassett River.

My Photos On Display

     For the past year or so I have been trying to get my act together to local display some of my photography. Well, I finally got it together! My work will be on display at Lisa's Legit Burritos in Downtown Gardiner. I thought I would share some of the work I plan on showing....

 

The Nasty Grub And One More Trip Down East

       I posted a photo of one of my damaged potatoes- which was minimal compared to others, but I did not post a photo of the culprit- well here it is! If anyone has suggestions about how to rid my plot of these buggers please let me know!

We made one more trip to Cobscook Bay earlier this week. We had nice weather while we were there and stayed in another great site. Good thing something was nice, because the old Subaru almost didn't make it- it was majorly overheating and we stopped to have someone check it out and they said we have serious head gasket problems. Armed with the jug of coolant and blasting the heat in the car though, we made it home without a tow.

Along the "outlaw" shortcut- somewhere near Cherryfield.

I told Joe I'd get him some clams. I failed!

Joe, on the other hand, was very successful!

Best way to start the day- view from the campsite.

Intruder!!!

We have plenty of wild turkeys around- and I see them cross our lawn quite often, but for some reason, they have yet to cross paths with the chickens- this morning we had a near encounter though! If it was not for me scaring the turkey off ( accidentally!) we may have had a little face off- I'm very curious to see what ensues....

Chickens are too busy stuffing their fat faces to notice the visitor at the back left corner!

Bad Chickens, Cockchafers And Being A Domestic Queen.

      Oh where to begin!! Lets start with the bugs. Cockchafers- I had never heard of them before, but let me tell you what, they did a nice bit of damage to my potatoes. In grub form, they are huge. I mistook them at first for giant stag beetle larva, and was very concerned when I found so many- I could not imagine a swarm of giant stag beetles emerging from my garden. I researched a little more, and surprisingly, there are a number of beetles that start out in similar form- this form being huge grubs with large scary mouth parts. Because of the number of these little jerks, I decided I better dig up all of the potatoes immediately. I ended up with about 25lbs of good potatoes, and I had to toss around 5-10lbs because of the damage. Jerks.

damaged potato

 

    I also have bad chickens. They won't stay in my yard. My yard is huge- 2 and a half acres and most of it is lawn. One neighbor is fine with roaming chickens, but the other, come to find out, does not want to be "invaded" by my chickens. We put up a make-shift fence to block to main area they were accessing his yard- but they found out how to go around it. A better fence will come. Today though, I called them all into their run before I was going to leave for work, all of them except for the 2 barred rocks- Baby and Gerda. I ran like a fool all over my yard chasing and trying to shoo them into the pen. I finally got Baby in, and just as I was about to get Gerda in, all of the rest of them came back out!! I tried and tried, bribing them will all sorts of treats, but they knew my plan and they were not falling for it. They stayed out today. I hope they did not invade the neighbor....

Baby




   I truly enjoy baking, gardening and just doing things around my house, and I just had not had a chance to do any of it lately, but since this weekend I have been on a roll! I made bread and butter pickles, pickled beets, more english muffins, granola and I've got carrot and zucchini muffins in the oven as I type. I end my current job on friday, and I have myself a good 2 weeks before anything else starts up and I am seriously looking forward to my home time.




I always have my Granola with this Yogurt- so amazing! check out Kennebec Cheesery for more information.

this is the second year in a row that I did NOT plant Tomatoes, yet they continue to grow.

I guess I will have corn afterall, despite a very slow start.



destined to become pickles