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When I found and bought my most fabulous beer tap a while back, I ran across another one I knew I had to buy as well.
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I mean really, how could I not?
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It’s a woodchuck. Holding an apple. They could have modeled him after our yearly brood.
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Perfect for a man cave/barn whose crawl space serves as a seasonal chucker hotel.
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He now has pride of place on an overturned shot glass in between the giant bullet and my freaky cocktail stirrers.
Life is good.
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The husband and I reluctantly stopped at a tourist-centric restaurant last week which is something we try hard to avoid. Why do we dislike the tourist places? The seafood is usually sub par, ( it was ) the decor is usually tacky ( plastic lobsters, fake fishing nets) and the menu usually contains pictures they think tourists want to see.
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This is the world’s largest lobster roll, it sells for $100 and if you finish the whole thing by yourself? You’re made a member of the clean plate club. But that picture? Just… no.
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Required photo of Lord Dudley Mountcatten watching a flock of starlings.
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Finally…. An advent calendar I can get behind. Or under as the case may be.
👍
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It poured the other night and as you can see…. the husband’s latest roof repair did not hold up. And if that wasn’t bad enough, my latest patch job turned out to be perfect for funneling water down the wall and creating liquid filled bubbles. This has been going on so long I’m tempted to just wrap the house in plastic and call it good.
🥴
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I’ve been known to have an epiphany or two while drinking, but wine that tastes God? That’s a whole other ball of wax.
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Color me surprised. I had absolutely no idea.
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His Lordship was on high alert after hearing something in the backyard stone wall.
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Not finding anything, he tried the front lawn stone wall.
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After narrowly missing a chipmunk there….
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He returned to the back lawn stone wall… and waited.
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Patience paid off. He snatched a mouse out of a rock crevice and ran with it to the back door, which was thankfully closed. Rodent death was fairly quick this time around …
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So Dudley got bored with his prize and headed back to the wall. Leaving another fresh carcass for yours truly.
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After a beer and hard cider filled morning and early afternoon…. and a less than stellar mid afternoon chowder house lunch with margaritas, I thought we were going home. But my husband realized we were driving up on a friend’s town and gave him a call.
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Enter the Bait Shed restaurant and bar in the Pine Point area of Scarborough…
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Where our friend was sitting and thoughtfully holding seats for us… complete with waiting cocktails.
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I’d never been nor even heard of this place, but a better spot to end the day would be hard to find.
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The ocean breeze was cool, the summer tourists were gone. We had good company, potent drinks, hearty laughs and fresh seafood.
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They don’t take themselves too seriously at the Bait Shed….
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Probably because their establishment really was a bait shed in a previous life.
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It’s the type of place Maine locals avoid like the plague during the season and visit frequently once the outta staters have left the state.
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It’s the type of place where you’ll get a dirty look if you order an espresso martini, but I saw a bowl of chowder go by and damned if it wasn’t the real thing.
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After a morning and early afternoon of drinking beer and hard cider, yours truly needed some food. We were traveling up Route 1 near Wells when I remembered there was a restaurant on the estuary…. so I hollered “Let’s go!”
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Billy’s Chowder House made a decent margarita and had a wonderful view, so things were looking up.
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And when you’re in a chowder house restaurant? You have to order chowder… which is when it started to go bad.
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We ordered clam chowder. What we got were thin, milky bowls of potatoes. Clams? I think the chef might have grated one over the top. A more tasteless bowl of gruel would be hard to find.
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The husband had mussels, which were tiny, overcooked and swimming in enough garlic to repel a platoon of Vampires.
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I ordered a shrimp roll which, while edible… was nothing to write home about about.
The bill was almost $100 and I made a mental note never to cross that threshold again.
A Maine chowder house with horrible chowder? There’s no excuse for that. This place needs to sink back into the sea and be done with it.
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We live on a river, hence my blog name.
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Apparently Maggie lives on the river as well.
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There was an outdoor wedding last weekend. If only I’d known they were taking requests.
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We have once weekly trash pick up at our house, $2.50 a bag…. But everything else has to go to the recycle barn. Decades ago when it was realized people were throwing out perfectly useable items, an idea was born.
While I don’t shop at the “Gift Store”, my husband has been known to come home with more than he went with.
😬
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This is our neighbor across the road. His fields are looking pretty spiffy…. And oh! That fresh ginger.
❤️
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Flowers.
That’s what you get for the outrageously high property tax bills the town of Kennebunk sends out twice a year.
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But what lovely flowers they are.
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Every free space in the village is filled with them.
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It’s impressive and quite beautiful.
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Is it any wonder President Bush’s family has their summer home in Kennebunkport?
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It started out innocently enough. We needed to replace my husband’s keg in the man cave and the store where we bought the first one was out.
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So we went straight to the source, Allagash brewery in Portland… where we discovered they wouldn’t accept their keg and return our deposit because we hadn’t purchased it there. They also wanted $100 deposit on a new keg and since the brewery is an hour away, we said to hell with it and just settled down to drink.
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At 11:00 in the morning. Don’t judge.
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Since Covid, they’ve built a large outdoor pavilion…. and we happily sampled some drafts.
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A good time was had…
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As were beer cheese dip and pretzels.
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This Belgian dubbel called Foliage Report was especially tasty.
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As we drank, a giant black limo pulled up and discharged a group of similarly dressed young men. I’m guessing it was a brewery hopping bachelor party (Maine has the largest number of craft breweries in the country. Is it any wonder I live here?) and thought that was a great idea.
👍
On our way out we had to hit the brew store…
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And purchased 2 four packs of that fabulous seasonal dubbel. 2 four packs? $24.
Yikes!
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And since the day was young…..
To be continued.
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We haven’t seen a woodchuck for weeks now.
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And while my flower gardens are sighing in relief…
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I have to admit I miss the fat little buggers.
( note – spellcheck always changes buggers to nuggets… and is that really better? )
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It’s ironic that now the ground is littered with apples from our trees, the apple munchers have left the building.
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This is the fourth year in a row we’ve had a woodchuck family move in.
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So I guess we’ll say so long chuckers.
( which spellcheck changes to chiclets every damn time )
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See you next year.
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While I’ve been known to enjoy some oddly flavored beer …
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That’s a hearty no from me. Pretzels belong in a bowl on the bar… to make you thirsty for more beer… not in the bottle you’re drinking. Blech!
For the first time in over a year, I lost a game of Scrabble to my husband. But in my defense?
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Even Noah Webster would have a hard time with those letters.
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We had a nice rain storm pass through recently so the husband and I took to the barn porch with adult beverages. He was interested to see if his leaky gutter repair worked ( it did ) and if his strategically placed rock ( which I told him was too small ) would protect the lawn from a rain induced pothole. ( it partially did )
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And in case you’re wanting a piece of jewelry to commemorate the shit show of the last year?
I have just the thing.
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You’re welcome.
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River's world..... 