In the Right Place: A Question

The unexceptional maple trees seen here usually are a blazing yellow tunnel by mid-October. Not this warm and wet year. The Beth Eden Chapel was finished in 1900 and the driveway beside it went to a residence built in 1902 by Morrill Goddard, a Hearst Publications editor.

The maples that line that driveway and shadow the Chapel are old, but they don’t look old enough to be the original Goddard driveway trees. Does anyone know when these trees were planted?

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 25, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Scarifier Sighting

Old pull-graders such as this one still are in use here to scrape and smooth dirt and crushed rock lanes and driveways that are damaged by rains and frost heaves. They’re now pulled by tractors or trucks instead of horses or oxen. But, they’re still manipulated by a skilled operator who sits or stands on the grader and uses three wheels to steer and adjust the height and angle of the scraper.

The first road grader of this type reportedly was invented in 1885 by Joseph D. Adams of Indianapolis, Indiana. It had two “leaning wheels” that could be angled to the side. In 1896, his company produced a huge four-wheel pull-grader with an eight-foot adjustable blade. The contraption was designed to be drawn by horses or a steam tractor. It was called “The Road King.”

That invention was still popular in 1911 and was advertised then with a claim that might resonate today with frugal Mainers: “Don’t throw away money by putting more new material on your old macadam or gravel roads, but let the Road King Scarifier simply reshape them. *** The Road King is suitable for either eight horses or engine power.” (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 25, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

We’ve been having some beautiful mornings recently, including the one in the image below, taken Tuesday – cool (but not cold), clear (but not glaring), calm (but not dead). Unfortunately, many afternoons have been overcast due to cloud buildup.

As to the above image, of course, you’re looking at the iconic red boathouse at Conary Cove. No matter what the weather, it practically begs to be photographed as you round the curves that snake along the Cove.

Note that there’s not much dramatic color in the deciduous trees on that peninsular and that some of the trees have dropped their leaves without any fanfare. It’s been that kind of fall. (Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 24, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Almost Jarring

The WoodenBoat School’s 2023 campus programs are done, but the school’s distinctive post-and-panel boat shed has yet to be fully closed and sealed, as you see here. The shed contains a number of WBS’s small boat fleet that will be stored there over the winter.

Inside the shed, the lines and textures of highly-crafted vessels present an almost a jarring contrast to the stolid terrestrial architecture and gravel floor that now holds the boats immobile:

These vessels that are designed for a seemingly limitless and fluid environment will soon be closed entirely into this confined space that is illuminated through skylights. It seems a bit like keeping butterflies in a terrarium, but Maine winters are not good for beautiful butterflies or beautiful boats. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine on October 23, 2023.)

In the Right Place: MeisterSinger

Here’s one of our birds that is rarely seen, yet considered by many to be the best that can be heard. It soon will migrate south. It’s an aptly-named Hermit Thrush whose flute-like summer arpeggios at twilight are among the most beautiful gifts ever given humans. These extraordinary vocalists (Catharus guttatus) have been called the American Nightingales.

I was lucky enough to catch sight of this one fly up to a branch for a few seconds yesterday before it fluttered back down to its patch of shaded leaf litter below and blended back into obscurity.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 23, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Finding the Fun in Fungi

The cool (but not freezing) weather with plenty of rain that we’ve been having is when many mushrooms come out to work and play, including the fungi shown here having a wood-rotting party.

Mushroom Maven David Porter tells me that they’re likely part of the Pholiota genus of wood disposers. Species in that genus usually need microscopic inspection for identification, I’ve read.

Among the more interesting terrestrial fungi that also are showing up here lately are what appear to be Chocolate Milky mushrooms (Lactarius lignyotus), which frequently grow under conifers and in mosses:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine. on October 8 and 21, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Autumn Assessment Time

We’re having a wet, warm, and muted fall in which the funereal flaring of the leaves seems to lack the color-saturated vibrancy of prior years.

Moreover, the durations of those displays often are cut short by rains that strip the trees bare before they can be appreciated in totality as masterpieces – sturdy trunks, complex branches, colorful leaves.

On the other hand, the sodden fallen leaves provide a colorful mosaic stage for the still-green mosses and ferns that remain vibrant from the rains and cool (but above-freezing) temperatures.

In the darker parts of the woods, mushrooms run rampant or collect in seemingly gleeful clusters; it’s their favorite kind of weather.

(Images taken in North Sedgwick and Brooklin, Maine, on October 8, 14 and 21, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Eat Lobster

Unfortunately, when inflation is added to the other difficulties facing our beleaguered lobster industry, the cost of lobster meat to its loving consumers has reached the wincing point. It’s become a luxury food for many who used to eat it regularly.

However, this luxury can still make a special occasion more special. I feel compelled to share an extraordinary lobster culinary experience that our daughter treated us to for a special family occasion this week.

She bought live lobsters locally, including the one shown above. After dispatching them in a kindly way, she opened the tails and cracked the claws and pan-roasted the tasty meat in its shells. Then, she presented them on al dente linguine under a delicious beurre blanc sauce. A good wine accompanied the dinner.  A memorable time was had by all!

Of course, boiled lobster with melted butter also is fabulous, so is lobster salad, so is a traditional lobster roll, so is lobster fra diavolo, so is lobster mac and cheese, so is lobster thermidor, so is lobster stew …. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 16, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Hog Calling

Here you see Dennis Black beginning the annual mowing of our restored fields yesterday. The job often takes more than a day due to some significant slopes and other terrain irregularities. It also can be challenging when the soil is wet, which it has been most of this year.

We postpone the mowing of our fallow fields here until the fall to assure that their summer residents – multitudes of birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals – are no longer raising their families there.

The cutting is necessary to prevent quick-growing raspberry bushes, conifer trees, and other larger plants from reappearing and changing the density of the land cover. Many of us have created and maintained fields of wild grasses, sedges, and wildflowers because such environments are disappearing in the United States, stressing the species that breed and live in them.

For equipment buffs: Dennis is riding a Massey Ferguson 2850E tractor and pulling a Woods single-spindle rotary cutter. That type of cutter (or “mower”) commonly is called a “bush hog,” which is not quite correct.

A “Bush Hog®” is a brand name that applies to only one company’s type of field and brush-cutting machines: Bush Hog LLC, headquartered in Selma, Alabama. That company advertises that, when it first demonstrated its invention in 1951, an amazed farmer said: “That thing eats bushes like a hog.”

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 19, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Sheer Delight

Down East Maine lobster boats have evolved over many years into remarkably efficient working vehicles that (to some of us, not everyone) have become examples of beautiful functionalism. They come in various sizes and colors, but also have many common features.

The fishing vessels shown here are part of the local fleet of “inshore” boats that fish on day trips for lobsters well within the 200-mile limit of U.S. waters. Much larger lobster boats fish farther out in the “offshore” fishery, often taking multi-day trips.

As far as I can tell from observation and the design literature, some inshore lobster boats are relatively small (14-22 feet long), but apparently a majority are of good size, up to about 45 feet. Nowadays, most are made of fiberglass or some non-wood compound and are run on a single, inboard marine diesel engine.

They usually have a low trunk cabin in the bow area; a standing shelter/wheelhouse with an open back amidships, and, behind that, an open cockpit with low rails (freeboard) to facilitate trap hauling. That hauling is usually done with a hydraulic lift that swings over the side of the boat. Inside the wheelhouses, they usually are equipped with a citizens’ band (CB) radio and/or a very high frequency (VHF) marine radio telephone, a depth sounder, and radar.

Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristics of a lobster boat are its deep and sharp “forefoot” (front portion of the hull) and corresponding high bow with spray rails near the water surface. These features help maneuverability, especially in rough waters. The “sheer” of most lobster boats is what attracts me – that graceful, downward sweep from their high, water-busting bows, through their low, spacious cockpits, to their sterns.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 17, 2023.)

In the Right Place: A Different Way

Great Cove was in a good mood last night. She attracted a waxing crescent moon and stayed very still and alone as the departing light gave her a good-night kiss.

Here on the ridge, we’re still in that phase when we have to get adjusted to not seeing sailboats starting to sleep at dusk. The wild ducks and geese are replacing them in the Cove now. It’s not the same, but just as good in a different way. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 18, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Hot Issues Department

Many Mainers are now splitting and stacking wood to burn in their fireplaces and woodburning stoves this winter. In some residences, wood is the primary source of heat. The costs of heating oil and heating gas are a big part of that story. Split wood and wood pellets are relatively inexpensive, especially if you do your own splitting.

However, 10 states are reported to be suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for permitting consumers to purchase and use woodburning stoves. They claim that the stove use is damaging their environment. The states are Alaska, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. 

The latest Census data that I could find, as analyzed by the Alliance for Green Heat, show that, as of 2009, Vermont was the state that had the largest percentage of homes heated primarily from wood. Maine was second, followed, in order, by, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and New Hampshire. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 13, 2023.)

In the Right Place: At a Crossroads

Here’s an iconic Maine “connected farmhouse” that I monitor photographically, although the experience is more like a death vigil for a once-important structure that dies a bit each day – in public, an embarrassment to us all. This was a home and part of a small farm at one time. It even housed the one-room North Brooklin Post Office, which E.B. White mentioned in one or two of his essays.

Dying and dead small farms are a symbol of the times: Maine land values are increasing, especially in coastal communities; insurers are refusing to insure old houses without extraordinarily expensive safety renovations; mortgage institutions are refusing to lend money for houses that don’t have adequate insurance, and many older homeowners do not have the heart or money to tear down their former homes. They move away and don’t look back.

There is a movement here in Maine to use land trusts to try to conserve some of these farmhouses by subsidizing organic and other small farmers to inhabit them, but it may be too little too late.  There seems to be more effort and money being put into bringing high-speed Internet to rural communities than in bringing affordable housing to them. More computer capability means more business people moving onto what was farmland. Let’s hope that they respect the land. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 14, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Pastel Copy

Judging from a quick trip around the area yesterday, the fall foliage this year continues to be a muted pastel copy of the riotous colors of past years.

Especially disappointing are the blueberry fields near the Sedgwick-Blue Hill border, shown here. They’re not vibrant red -- yet.

There still is time for an enchanting touch from the October weather witch’s wand. (Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 14, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Killers on the Loose

More bad news: It looks like we’re going to have an abundant crop of Asian Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) berries this year. The red fruits are just now emerging from their yellow husks in beautiful galaxies of future harm. They soon will be converted to widely-distributed bird poop that propagates the loathsome plant all too well.

This non-native plant is a tree and bush killer, and its lethal propagation has proved impossible to control in Maine and other parts of the United States. Its sale is prohibited here, but the State admits that it has lost the control war. The plant uses its sinuous vines like trained pythons that squeeze to death the trees and bushes that are their hosts. It’s all about competing for sun and nutrients.

Asian Bittersweet is a reminder of the dangers of basing an environmental choice on the impulsive pursuit of beauty and/or the mistaken notion that diversity for diversity’s sake is always a good idea. The plant was introduced here in the 19th Century to bring variety and spectacular fall colors to gray winter landscapes. As a result, many trees and bushes will never be green again.

There is a native version of bittersweet, aptly named American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens). It’s environmentally innocuous, and perhaps that’s why it’s not as successful in propagating itself as its prolific Asian cousin. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 12, 2023.)

In the Right Place: It’s Hooting Season

This image of a great horned owl appears in my monthly column in the current Ellsworth American with an explanation of the unusual circumstances in which the photograph was taken. 

To read the column about these owls and the strange things that they do in October, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

In the Right Place: Mixed Blessings

This summer and fall have been abnormally warm and wet, conditions that have prolonged the life of our bogs, swollen our streams, and filled our ponds:

It’s a blessing compared to last year. At about this time of year then, 11.14 percent of Maine was experiencing abnormal dryness, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data. There is none reported now. This year’s wet warmth has its positive aspects, but I’m worried about what might happen if we get a sudden freezing spell. Many trees are still holding onto leaves and apparently are still circulating fluids. 

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 8, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Snakes in the Grass

I’ve seen at least one Common Garter Snake on the prowl during each of the past four days. They sometimes are hard to see among fallen leaves – until they move and make the fallen leaves rustle softly, as this one did:

These reptiles (Thamnophis sirtalis) are Maine’s most commonly encountered snakes, according to the State’s “Species Spotlight” on them. The ones that I’m seeing may be headed upland to find the right size real estate for overwintering, maybe a choice rodent burrow, ant mound, or root tunnel.

On the other hand, our ground remains reasonably damp and the weather has been relatively warm, which leads me to believe that earthworms are still active. Maybe the snakes are just being opportunistic. Earthworms account for 60-95 percent of this snake’s diet, according to that report.

After one or two overnight frosts, however, the snakes should settle down for a sleep, but they’ll come back out occasionally, on warm winter days. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 9, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Good Times

Yesterday was both clear and cloudy at the same time, which is a paradox that happens when the fat members of the stratocumulus family breeze into town for a reunion.

A good time was had by all, including us spectators. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 9, 2023.)

In the Right Place: An Omen?

Another apparent Climate Warming and Wetting surprise is happening now: Our Viburnum cultivar bushes are producing spring flowers again, but in the fall, as you see here. Is this an omen of bad things to come or just a nice result of a strange spring and summer?

These double file bushes (Viburnum plicatum f. tomenosum) are turning their beautiful fall burgundy color in a timely manner, but the flowering is unprecedented for them. For decades, these bushes only produced flowers in the spring through June, followed by the summer red fruit and fall purple foliage.  Not now. Oh well, if the world is going to hell, a flowered path might help.

There reportedly are over 150 species of viburnum, several of which are native to North America and were used by Native Americans and European settlers for food and tea. This double file species, however, is a native of Asia that has been cultivated widely in the United States. When abandoned, it sometimes naturalizes itself. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 8, 2023.) See also the image in the first Comment space.