Smokin' Bacon

Yesterday I spent the day at John and Liz's house smoking the bacon and hams from the pigs last fall. Today we tried a piece of bacon and it seems like it turned out pretty good! Last year it was too salty.

I'm a lumberjack

I had a great time the last two days gathering wood for the wood stove! I felt like a lumberjack. I hiked a few hundred yards with my big old lumberjack saw to a tree that had fallen down a few years ago. I took our cat Buffy with me. She likes to ride on my shoulder. The weather was about perfect--probably 15 degrees. I cut the tree up into 6 foot sections and drag the logs back to the house where I cut them up into 18 inch pieces. Then chop chop chop. Unfortunately, I discovered this was an elm tree. Elm trees are hard to chop.

Still trying to figure it out...

Why is it that some people don't give a hoot about the environment?

I was going to whine about it, but I don't want to whine on this blog. I'll just say one thing for now:

I think it would be great if we could go up to a lake or stream and drink from it. It's not recommended in MN--even in the BWCAW. We have 15,000 lakes in MN. I wish we could make it a goal to be able to drink from lakes and streams without having to purify the water first.

Willa Cather

Just finished reading her book, O Pioneer. It was pretty good. I picked the book up after seeing a PBS special on her. I think she was maybe the first female Pulitzer prize winner. The book was about a turn-of-the-century woman who inherited a farm and made a go of it in tough times. I might want to read one of her other books...

I like that era--late 1800s early 1900s. Probably shouldn't be this way, but I wish I could go back in time and live in that era for a while. Before high tech took over. It probably was no picnic, but I'd still like to visit.

What spurred my interest in that era was several years ago reading a book by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. What I liked most about her story was her recollections of telling stories and playing with friends growing up in her childhood. She was competitive with the boys in probably every way and was dismayed when it came time for higher education and she was not expected and even discouraged from pursuing it. Of course, she wound up later in life on the speaker's circuit...

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign & "Maine nice"

I'm in Maine for 2-1/2 days. Tonight a did a little driving around to go to a lobster restaurant. Thought I'd try some "Maine lobster".

One thing I've noticed here (Brunswick/Topsham area), is that there are not many commercial signs. And not many street signs either for that matter. And not many street lights either... It is aesthetically nice because they don't have billboards or tall signs around. There was no sign for the restaurant except for the small sign on the side of the building. There was a small sign on the ground by the driveway to my hotel and one sign on the hotel. It's was difficult finding the restaurant because it's hard to find street signs.

"Maine nice"

I keep hearing that people in Minnesota are "Minnesota nice". It seems like the people in Maine are "Maine nice". I've run into a lot of nice people here--nicer than necessary. I haven't found any "not nice" people: the people I'm working with, the receptionist at work, the people working at the hotel seem genuinely nicer than usual hotel employees, the person I asked directions from looking for the restaurant was very nice and another person standing nearby volunteered more directions. The waitresses three times at restaurants were nicer than average--and it didn't seem like the "fake nice" that you see sometimes in wait-staff.

Good food

My profile says I like good food.

I think I have a food disorder. I am a binge eater. Nothing I like better than a buffet where I can load up on lots of different foods until I'm stuffed.

But tonight we went out to eat with the Lake Elmo Lindquists to a snobby restaurant that specializes in good food--and several small courses of it. Every time I go--which isn't too often because they're darn expensive--I love it! This was the best eating experience I've had in a long time.