Archives for July 2015

Attending a memorial in Milo, Maine provided me with the opportunity to drive by my first home in Atkinson, Maine. We purchased the Maple School House and an acre of land for $500.  We also built a two story building out of railroad ties on the property.  We poured the foundation by hand with a cement mixer. Junior and High School friends Don Grant, Lennie Gordon,  Pam and Jeff Johnson (and others, I think) helped us. The things we do in our youth!!!

This was at about 45 years ago. I was shocked to discover that the dirt road was still a dirt road!  As I drove down it in Big Red (my Ford Flex), I remembered my pedal to the medal trips as I plowed through the spring  mud up to the VW Bug’s axles.  I finished my teaching degree from Atkinson. I would arrive at my student teaching placement in Orono smelling of wood smoke!

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Maple Schoolhouse DID have electricity but no running water. After my time in the schoolhouse (and my 5 years in St. Croix where we had to catch the water on the roof and store it in the cistern or buy it),  I never step in a shower- even to this day- where I do not think , “What luxury!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So…it was very sentimental to visit the site of my “back-to-the-land” days.  We had the garden, hunted and fished, had chickens, geese, pigs and a horse and after a few years decided this was a very diffident lifestyle. It took all day – every day- just to get ready for winter. This experience, however, has informed how I live in the world.  http://bridgescreate.com/fairy-house-competition

I am sorry to report that the school house was gone. Even more sad for me, they had cut the two signature maple tress (the only trees for miles around) for firewood!  Many stumps were still laying around and I have to admit that I snagged one which is now installed in the Chateau Mer  magic fairy forest.  Everything old is new again.

 

Fort Atkinson being built from railroad ties behind the School House  and cement is still standing tall and proud (it has a postmodern shack chic going)  .  I think it is being used as a hunting camp (as confirmed by a cell phone photo I took through the door).

I was shocked to see a compound of three McMansions in what used to be a corn field. This is 10 miles in on a dirt road!! I really wanted to go and knock on a door and get the back-story but I had just read “Under the Banner of Heaven” and I was too nervous. I asked Dr. Google and he reported that a Bunker was born in Atkinson, Maine, the youngest of Silas and Hannah Berry Bunker’s nine children.

We had a big farm next door to us on the Atkinson Road. He raised corn and dairy cows. I was shocked as I arrived- only the silo remained.  What would I find next door?

 

 

 

A colleague and I who brought digital learning to my university 17 years ago remarked at how I was able to stand in front of a gang of furious professors who were trying to block the adoption of online learning and maintain my composure.  I took my  Swiss Army knife out of my pocket book and said, ” If Armageddon came tomorrow and I had this, I could walk into the woods and survive. That gives a person confidence”.  A bit of an exaggeration, but you get the gist!

I was listening to our Paul Stooky   http://www.biography.com/people/paul-stookey-20874623  all volunteer sponsored radio station WERU https://weru.org/ the other day and they were discussing declining population here in Maine and  the aging old hippies and what was going to happen to their Maine land.

“The NARPs will have to save us”, the announcer said.  NARP stands for New Age Rural Professional.

We can only hope.

If not that, we need to make Maine a State Park and be done with it.

 

 

 

 

Making an authentic Maine Chowda’ is a very time intensive activity. First you start with a Maine Seafood feast.
You buy the lobsters (contrary to mythology- we Mainers do not pick those arachnids up free on the beach) and clams and steam them- saving the broth. A real Maine chowda’ has no WATER added. THEN you mince (not an easy task)  SALT PORK. Yes, one of the yummy ingredients is no, good, bad animal fat. This is a BIG challenge to many eco-purists and a cultural reality which has saved me from being a liberal extremist embarrassment to myself ; /0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convening fabulous people from my past, present and future at the table created from a tree rescued and processed over a 6 year period from my Bangor, Maine  was a particularly soulful experience for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hosting my friend and professional colleague, Lynda Milne, from Minnesota and appreciating the kitchen support from my Sandy Point sister, Gail Gannon, made the event a memory for all.

Thanks to Diane and Mark for Orangetini duty. Recipe follows.