Tag Archives: winter

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Brrr baby, brrr.

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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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Some winter snaps.

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I’m so glad winter finally showed up. Cold temps and snow! It warms my little menopausal heart, as well as cools off the rest of me.

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There’s the husband shoveling a path to the bird feeders so our feathered friends don’t go hungry. He’s such a good egg.

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We use this table as snow gauge. It piles up so perfectly, how could we not?

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Once the snow caps these boxwood shrubs, the birds take cover underneath. It drives Lord Dudley Mountcatten insane.

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Sunrise over the backyard reveals the deer superhighway.

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We don’t have virgin fresh fallen snow for long.

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❤️ 🦌 ❤️

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Snow much for that.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten’s idea of playing in the snow usually looks like this:

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But after the first small dump of the season last week the husband took his highness out for a winter stroll.

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But as much as Dudley loves the fresh air and being outside, cold feet is not his thing.

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So he found the one bare patch of stone wall…

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Loved on his favorite rock….

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And carefully avoiding as much snow as he could, made his way back inside.

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Lord Mountcatten is a fair weather feline and was pleased when all the snow melted the next day.

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There’s no such thing as free money.

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The husband and I each received a check in the mail the other day.

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No, it’s not another round of Covid stimulus money. It’s a distribution from what is apparently a huge stash of surplus tax revenue.

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Every Maine resident received them and while extra money is always nice, it does make me wonder why there was such a huge surplus to begin with. Clearly our taxes are too high and to be honest… I’d much rather they reduce that burden then send everyone a check. Or they could fix the roads and bridges. Or build affordable housing. Or expand the heating oil assistance program. With the current price of fuel, winter will break a lot of people.

And if you’re wondering how that money will be used at Casa River?

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It will try to slake the never ending thirst of our twin oil tank beasts. And at just over $5 a gallon? Both checks combined won’t come anywhere near to filling them.

😫

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Of icicles and emus.

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A melting and refreezing winter means ice. And ice means icicles.

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I don’t know why, but this one downspout on the edge of our garage always puts on a show.

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A few years back we measured it at four and a half feet. Of course come spring, all that melting and freezing will yield this:

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And that’s not nearly as much fun.

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I still haven’t discovered where the local emus are hiding, but from the price of those eggs I’m thinking maybe we should start raising them. $15 a pop? Yikes!

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He doesn’t quite grasp the concept.

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I think we’ve established Lord Dudley Mountcatten is not your average rough and tumble feline. For a cat we rescued from a shelter… who had been found as a stray wandering the streets, he’s quickly adapted to the finer comforts life at Casa River provides. And while he loves to go outside in fair weather? The winter walkies are proving troublesome.

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There are shoveled paths all around the house, garage and barn but this furry numbskull plows through the snow instead. And when he does? He shakes and shivers and mewls pitifully.

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Which means my husband (the man with an infinite amount of patience for the cat but not his wife) has to pick up his Lordship and deliver him upon a path.

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Spoiled? No. What makes you say that?

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I love my town

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My neighbors are the helpful sort and with the whiplash weather we’ve been having lately, everyone’s been posting ice charts.

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Mainers love to test the ice, but knowing your limits is important.

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Very lucky indeed. He’s a gorgeous fellow.

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A tarp wrapped plywood circle in the woods. But look, it has a porch! What a deal.

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The owner lives two doors down and says Junior here goes wherever the belly rubs lead him.

❤️

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Nothing to see here, just a sunbathing seal floating by.

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We had lunch at the Muddy Rudder last week..

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Why the name?

Legend has it that many years ago the tugboat Portland slowly wound its way up the nearby Cousins River. Its destination was Yarmouth, and its purpose was to provide a place for good food, drink, and hospitality. A harsh nor’easter besieged the boat at its mooring and strong winds grounded and overturned her. The restaurant is built on that site.

But wait…. as we were sipping our adult beverages something was spotted outside.

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Do you see it?

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My iPhone camera doesn’t do him justice, but that’s one very chill seal slowly floating by on a chunk of rapidly melting ice.

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Wedge salad and clam chowder later…

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He was still floating. Though he’d flipped over on his stomach and turned to face foward.

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Fried scallops and a stuffed haddock with sherry lobster cream sauce later? He was gone, and we were full. Just another average day on the Maine coast….

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