Tag Archives: weather

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Things you should never say to a Mainer.

42 Comments

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As you know, I live in Maine. Land of lobster, rugged rocky shores and sturdy, no nonsense, salt of the earth people. We’re generally laid back and slow to anger so when I saw this article the other day about things you should never say because they piss us off? I had to share a few…

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They’re not.

Trust me on this.

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This goes for all of you except rawgod. His snow storms and cold temps are epic.

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Sumner in Maine is tourist season and believe me, the locals don’t enjoy much about that. We may need your money, but we can do without your attitude and desire to have a Starbucks on every corner thank you very much.

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Warm winters? You can have them… I need snow.

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I really had to laugh at this one. Though that doesn’t look like my husband physically, they’re definitely brothers in spirit. But I have to disagree with the last sentence … there’s not much room left in our cellar.

🤣

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Brrr baby, brrr.

35 Comments

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After an unusually warm winter in Maine, cold weather has finally arrived.

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The arctic blast that’s been moving across country finally found us and with the strong winds? Even my menopausal hot flashing self has to put on a coat to go outside.

There are places in Maine that are seeing 60 below zero wind chills today but Mount Washington, New Hampshire? They just dropped to the coldest wind chill temperature ever recorded in the U.S….. 108 below! Now that’s winter.

But a little brisk, even for me.

While I woke up to no cold water in the kitchen, which is normal when you’re an idiot who forgot to let the faucet drip last night, this was a new phenomenon at Casa River –

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The house was cracking and banging last night with the frigid temps and we thought we heard one giant contraction when we were watching tv in the living room.

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So this was our bedroom picture window when we woke up.

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Seal clearly broken and a circle of solid ice.

It also happened on a side window.

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Looks like we’ll be doing some replacing this year.

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Finally!

28 Comments

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This winter season started off with a whimper. No snow, warm temps and entirely too much rain. But the other day?

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The sky started looking angry… and before I blinked?

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We had our first few inches that stuck.

And yesterday?

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An all day storm that really racked up the white stuff. I loved it, but our backyard birds probably disagreed.

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Poor little things. Their feet have to be cold.

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It came down for a solid 13 hours and now it finally feels like winter!

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Guess we won’t be grilling out for a while.

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How much did we get? About a foot, which was enough for our farming neighbor to come plow us out with his tractor last night.

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I love our community.

I love our state.

I love winter!

❄️ ❤️ ❄️

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The journey.

40 Comments

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We set off early Tuesday morning and it was a perfectly beautiful day. Sunny, with a delightful bite of crisp fall air.

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We hit the western Maine mountains before 10….

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And the New Hampshire White Mountains shortly after. Leaves were just beginning to turn and it was wonderful.

At 1:00?

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Hello Vermont! We’ve missed you.

And you’re welcome, though I’m not sure what we did to deserve your thanks.

If you’ve never been to Vermont? I have one word for you… go!

Verdant green fields and barn red barns. Gentle rolling hills and well tended farms. Picturesque mountain villages and of course, cows.

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It’s gloriously scenic, delightfully quirky, and utterly addicting.

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We were sad to see The Farmer’s Daughter gift shop had lost its daughter. There used to be a large sign out front of a farm girl with her skirt blown up… but all that’s left now are the hands, hanging disembodied and more than a little creepy.

We did see a giant hammer wind mill down the road…

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But it doesn’t bring the same smile to your face as that saucy wind blown wench.

When we headed north and west towards our resort, the weather took a turn.

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Eerie, ominous skies dominated the rest of the way and by the time we arrived in the little town of Jeffersonville?

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Rain. And so much high fog you couldn’t see the mountains.

To be continued….

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And finally, the other side.

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Because my husband never likes to rush things he moved around to the back side of the baby barn yesterday to complete the gutter installation…. 12 days after he did the front. Better late than never is his middle name.

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Did things go more smoothly on the flip side?

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They did not.

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Miscalculation on length left him with two short pieces instead of the one long piece he needed which meant yet another trip to Lowes for additional connectors. Sigh.

Was the finished gutter line straight and true?

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Not quite, but it doesn’t leak. That’s probably as much as I can hope for.

And if you’re wondering just how dry it’s been here?

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Dry enough for the husband to a pan under the downspout to catch the small amount of rain we got last night.

Please note the green you see is all weeds. Most of the grass is still brown.

😕

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A possible solution

29 Comments

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Most years I wouldn’t have given this article a second thought.

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But with a lawn comprised mostly of brown grass and numerous half dead flower beds? It caught my eye.

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Interesting….

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Who knew gin could solve my garden woes?

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Drunks fare better than abstainers? Anyone who’s seen me navigate icy winter sidewalks after a few cocktails could have told you that.

😉

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This and that.

16 Comments

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Isn’t it wonderful when you find the perfect combinations? Oreos and milk, Netflix and chill, bacon and, well anything. … but now? I’ve found a new winning combo.

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Exercising while intoxicated? Finally… a workout routine designed with me in mind.

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Photographic proof that even though it’s over 90 degrees and two window unit air conditioners are running full blast, his Lordship must commune with nature through an open window. And no, he’s not at all spoiled. Why do you ask?

🤣

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This is a photo of our local pub’s parking lot after a recent storm moved through. Mind you, we’re a lousy five miles away and didn’t receive a single drop of rain.

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It must have been a micro burst because it was a total mess.

Meanwhile back at the Barn Mahal…

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We have brown grass.

😫

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Dry as the proverbial bone.

27 Comments

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Our carefully tended lush green lawn is gone. Baked to a crisp by record breaking heat and dry weather.

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How dry? Severe drought dry…

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How hot?

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Feels like 108 degrees before 10 in the morning hot. I live in Maine FFS! This is not supposed to happen.

That bright green patch of sod we laid?

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Dead.

My full and healthy for the past 20 years boxwood shrubs?

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Dying.

The brand new flowering crabapple tree we planted on June 7th over my mother’s ashes?

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Might soon be joining her in the hereafter.

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It’s beyond depressing at this point and moving toward the panic stage. We live in the country and rely on a well for water. As much as I’d like to water the garden, I can’t. Hell, I’m down to doing laundry twice a week and not flushing for number one.

(TMI? Sorry.)

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As I type this, yet another flash thunderstorm is moving past us without a drop of rain falling.

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Now that’s just cruel.

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Does anyone know how to do a rain dance?

36 Comments

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Because we are in desperate need at Casa River.

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Our once beautiful lush green lawn is now brown and crunchy.

Time after time we see thunderstorms roll on by with only a few drops falling on our property.

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So few the baby woodchucks were trying to lap them up off the deck boards last night.

Half our state is experiencing drought conditions and I’m filling our bird bath three times a day. If things don’t change I might have to start providing the ground dwellers with a pool as well.

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How dry and crunchy is our lawn? Even the septic system access is brown and dry.

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If it weren’t for the weeds there would be no green at all.

😫

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Random nonsense

25 Comments

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Have you seen the new yellow watermelons at the grocery store?

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I had to try one… and to be honest I wasn’t that impressed. The texture was a little strange and I don’t think it was nearly as sweet as the red.

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No wonder it always looks like dolphins are having fun. They’re high.

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I’ve had this houseplant on a window shelf for years. I can’t remember the name, but it’s always been a small steady presence…until this month when it decided to grow long tentacles and turn into an alien. If I disappear from WordPress suddenly? You’ll know why.

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Don’t think raccoons are accomplished acrobats? I beg to differ.

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We’re dry in Maine. Unusually dry for this time of year. As in parts of our lawn are crunching and half the state is in drought conditions. Me? I’m still dragging 300 feet of hose out to the back 40 to keep our new trees alive. It seems we just can’t win when it comes to picking a time to plant.

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Whaaat! Not my ice cream.

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Whew. Only Floridian ice cream.

Sorry Florida..

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