Tag Archives: maine

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Success.

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Praise the God of Tequila! The man cave in the Barn Mahal is toasty and warm once more.

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A brand new ( to replace the almost new 3 month old ) exterior heat pump unit was installed yesterday afternoon. It looks exactly like the other one, but it damn well better last longer.

I asked the installers what the error codes showed was wrong with the first one and received a long detailed explanation. It went something like this…..

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Refrigerant. Blah blah blah. Coil. Blah blah blah. Build up. Blah blah blah.

The section of explanation that did translate clearly? The fact that the manufacturers say what went wrong was a one in a million occurrence.

Yay us. We have all the luck.

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Flashing lights are never good.

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Danger Will Robinson!

There’s trouble in the man cave.

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I walked into the barn this morning and noticed it was a wee bit nippy.

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We keep the new heat pump ( 3 months old ) set at 68 and with all the sun coming through the windows… it’s always been warm and toasty. But today? The temperature was rapidly dropping.

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Lights were flashing and the unit wasn’t running. After spending an extremely annoying half hour troubleshooting with the owners manual, we broke down and called the guy who installed it… who also happens to be the son of my best friend.

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He had me check the error codes and did some research. Then he called back saying he didn’t have the parts he needed to repair it in stock, and couldn’t get them right away… so he was sending his crew over this afternoon to replace the whole exterior unit.

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Now that’s what I call customer service.

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A path has been shoveled and we currently await the new unit.

While it’s true we like our beer and cocktails cold, we usually prefer to be well above freezing ourselves.

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I love my town… part whatever.

18 Comments

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Haven’t done one of these in a while, so I thought it was time to check my small town’s FB page.

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The ultimate in tree repurposing. Goats!

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The old fashion trade and barter system is alive and well in my town. I have a neighbor who had his garage built with nothing but beer.

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Girl Scout cookies are the new crack. Those little bitches give you a free sample and you’re hooked.

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Sorry bud, someone left it in ours as well.

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That is perfectly evil. And I love it!

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Poor piner. Hope he was alright…

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Winter is finally here.

27 Comments

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After an extremely mild December with a greenish brown Christmas and a warm rainy January…

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February is roaring in strong….

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And cold.

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The ice has finally frozen solid enough to hold the fishing shacks on the river, which is big business up here in Maine.

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Do I want to sit in an 8×10 plywood building and stare at a hole in the ice in subzero temperatures waiting for an oily little smelt to swim by?

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I do not.

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No matter how pretty the sunsets are.

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But more power to the rugged souls that do.

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Enough already.

28 Comments

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It rained again, in January, in Maine. That’s not supposed to happen. Most years we’re positively buried in snow.

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And I have to say I’d much rather be doing this…

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Than dealing with this…

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It rained…. and our roof sprung yet another leak.

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In yet another brand new spot. Every time the husband thinks he’s fixed it? It leaks somewhere else. And while the temperature has been mild (for us) it’s still not warm enough to strip and replace a roof. So while we wait for spring and pray for snow, our ceiling is being ruined. I’ve bleached this 3 times …

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And it still bleeds through.

Kill me now.

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Word of the day – adaptation.

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Adapt or die, you’ve all heard the phrase. And never has it been more crucial for small businesses to do just that.

Bars and restaurants have been especially hard hit by the pandemic and though take out food helps them stay afloat, it’s in the bar that establishments realize their largest profit.

Enter The Great Lost Bear.

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A veritable institution of alcohol and beer consumption in Portland, Maine for the past 40 years. With 80 rotating taps…

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And a large creative menu, it’s worth the hassle of trying to finding a parking spot on the always crowded Forest Avenue.

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(If you’re a fan of John Connelly’s books? This is the bar Charlie Parker uses as a makeshift office.)

Sadly, we haven’t visited this paragon of drunkenness for quite some time but I was pleased to see they’re adapting.

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With outdoor drinking during good weather…

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And cocktails to go when Mother Nature says no.

Brilliant!

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Some of them sound quite tasty.

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And now that we have our own bar, I might have to mix a few.

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Pie in a glass?

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Who doesn’t love that?

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Birds in snowy trees.

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Sadly our snow is all gone, but here are a few pretty pics from our last storm.

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We have a few cardinals visit our feeders now and then…

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But it always surprises me that they show up en masses during a blizzard.

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Perfect winter scenes if ever I saw one.

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They spend most of their time huddled in the small apple tree.

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But every once in a while make a dash for the seed.

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With light fluffy snow? It doesn’t always end well.

🤣

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