The Coffee House

[smoke665]

Having a tractor sure made quick work of it though.

Really nice color and detail.

Based on some of the stuff you were picking up though you have to be maxing out the capacity of the loader. I have the same one, Lift capacity at the pins is just over 1k, but one foot away they rate it at 850. Your hydraulic pump must be a little stronger on the HST, cause mine would be dumping the relief valve it I tried to pickup a log that size.

 

[snowbear]

@snowbear The disadvantage to retirement is you don't get a break from work on weekends and holidays.

No different than before, but I don't have to go to the office at all. Weekends? I don't have a calendar, now. I do stuff when I feel like it.

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I moved the Ring camera to the deck from the pantry window. I want to mount it in the corner, looking across the deck and the yard, but this works for now. I mowed yesterday, but still need to trim. I also want to go clean up the sore line, what is normally under water.

The patch of yellow is the brush pile that will become the fire pit, and the plastic, to the right, is in a planter box. The flag is Italy.

 

[Rickbb]

We were camping in the Mountains this week, no internet, no cell service, perfect. Weather was great, grandkids had a blast.

Came home yesterday to the news that the tropical storm dumped 10 inches of rain on the area in about 6 hours. Roads washed out, bridges gone, Amtrack tracks washed out with no service for the state, interstate 40 closed for a day. Homes gone, lots of water rescues and 7 people dead. City of Mebane had their water treatment plant flooded and contaminated the filter beds. Mandatory all nonessential business required to close, no timeline for reopening.

Insult to injury, we are predicted to have heavy afternoon thunder storms every day for the next week. Which is normal for this time of year, but really!

Luckly my neighborhood was spared any damage; we are in a high point.

Was a good time to not be home it seems.

 

[SquarePeg]

And I'm here until September. Yay!
Looking at native plants to use as a groundcover on the steep, horrendis-to-mow hill.

What about a sedum (stonecrop) - October Daphne is beautiful variety. Not sure which sedums are native to Maine…. There’s also a dogwood groundcover I remember seeing in the area near West Quoddy lighthouse.

 

[SquarePeg]

No different than before, but I don't have to go to the office at all. Weekends? I don't have a calendar, now. I do stuff when I feel like it.

I told a friend recently “I don’t have days of the week anymore “.

 

[smoke665]

I told a friend recently “I don’t have days of the week anymore “.

I don't either, but I've found after 15+ years of "retirement" that the demands on my time have been steadily creeping upward. Between family and business interests, I've become the caretaker for everyone else. I hear it frequently, you're retired, can you not help us out on this project?

@snowbear I'm curious, now that you've had some time in Maine, how's the cost of living??? Gas, groceries, utilities, taxes, etc.???

 

[snowbear]

What about a sedum (stonecrop) - October Daphne is beautiful variety. Not sure which sedums are native to Maine…. There’s also a dogwood groundcover I remember seeing in the area near West Quoddy lighthouse.

There is one that is native and on the list. I want to test the pH in the areas, first. Also dig down below the sand in a couple spots. I’m also looking at wild raspberry, phlox, a couple coneflowers; a real mixture.

@snowbear I'm curious, now that you've had some time in Maine, how's the cost of living??? Gas, groceries, utilities, taxes, etc.???

Not much different but car registrations and insurance seem to be cheaper. For us, the climate is a big thing. I haven’t compared but I suspect a comparable house and lot would be more in MD, especially in the DC ‘burbs.

MLW said were fireworks all around the neighborhood on the 4th. In MD we had 9mm pops.

 

[SquarePeg]

There is one that is native and on the list. I want to test the pH in the areas, first. Also dig down below the sand in a couple spots. I’m also looking at wild raspberry, phlox, a couple coneflowers; a real mixture.

Don’t buy any cone flowers. I have hundreds of seedlings that popped up this year. The ones I grew from winter sowing 2 years ago have reseeded like crazy. I’ll pot some up for you for fall planting. They’ll flower next year.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Yes, It's The Moon Again . . .
Another Night Picture but this time it _is_ the moon, but not taken with any of my "usual" cameras. The cameras I use at night are my Nikon 1 S2 or my Sony A6400, because they work well. This time I used my old Lumix GF3 (w/Yongnuo 42.5mmF1.7 lens), which does not. I had to argue with it for a long time to get this image. Then I edited and re-sized it to upload. I don't know if I'll try this again. It feels like more work than it's worth. We'll see. . . . Oh, and the color was the camera's choice. I left it as-is. I just thought it was nice that it was different from what I normally see.

 

[SunriseAvenue]

Yes, It's The Moon Again . . .
Another Night Picture but this time it _is_ the moon, but not taken with any of my "usual" cameras. The cameras I use at night are my Nikon 1 S2 or my Sony A6400, because they work well. This time I used my old Lumix GF3 (w/Yongnuo 42.5mmF1.7 lens), which does not. I had to argue with it for a long time to get this image. Then I edited and re-sized it to upload. I don't know if I'll try this again. It feels like more work than it's worth. We'll see. . . . Oh, and the color was the camera's choice. I left it as-is. I just thought it was nice that it was different from what I normally see.

If you didn't specify it was the moon, I'd definitely thought it qas a sunset pic! Interesting choice of color on your camera's part, haha! Looks good though

 

[smoke665]

@snowbear here we complain, but it's actually not that bad. Property taxes are low, groceries average, housing cost going up, the real killer are the sales taxes on everything. You can't hardly sneeze without the state, county, city dinging you.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

If you didn't specify it was the moon, I'd definitely thought it qas a sunset pic! Interesting choice of color on your camera's part, haha! Looks good though

I was thinking that the color was sort of like coffee with cream. The camera has "interesting taste". I would never have thought of it.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Temporary(?) Warning About My Patreon Account:

I just created a "Patreon" account. If you happen to run across a link to it, IGNORE it, at least for now. I plan to announce it when I have something to post that I like. If I understand how this works, you might get charged a fee if you "view" something on Patreon. So that's why I'm posting this warning. I don't want anyone getting charged for accessing something that I created by accident while trying to learn it.

 

[snowbear]

The towns do more here, than in MD. I pay an excise tax on vehicles newer than six-years old (graduated scale based on initial MSRP and age), boats (based on engine HP), administer annual vehicle inspections and get my car tags from the municipal office. Permits for building, eletrical and the like are issued by the town. The town fills the poholes and plows the municipal roads (and Sabattus does a fine job with plowing). Libraries are administerd by the town, at least in this county. I went with lazy_lobster to the library in Auburn and was going to get the library card, but they would have charged me since I don't likve there. Sabattus does not have one but Lisbon or Wales (I think) has an agreement to give Sabattus residents a card for free.

Garbage collection is done by private company, or I take it to the transfer station myself. We went with the company that the across-the-street neighbor uses and have bags picked up once a week. I don't have to seperate the recycling unless I want to and takt that to the transfer station, which I have done.

Bottles are returned to collection places throughout the state for the deposit.

The state issues drivers licenses and car tags for non-incorporated areas and the towns that don't (or won't?) issue them, and handles maintenance of state and federal roadways. Fishing and hunting permits are issued by the town or "an official agent (like sporting goods stores) which is normal, but the town wasn't able to issue mine (lifetime age 66) so I just went to Augusta (a little closer than Cabela's in S. Portland).

Income taxes, as far as I know, are only collected by the state. As far as I can tell, the state determines sales taxes.

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We had a thunder storm blow through this morning. I could hear it when it was still pretty far off. The temperature is currently 67F and supposed to get to 74F, but still better than MD's upper 80s. We picked strawberries and blueberries yesterday. I don't know what I'll do today: maybe go up to Acadia NP and Bar Harbor or maybe go to Bangor (the "g" is not silent) and see if Stephen King is out and about. We want to do our own lighthouse tour at some point so we couls start that. The ME Lobster Festival is in a couple weeks and the Moxie festival starts in Lisbon (15-20 minutes) this afternoon.

 

[snowbear]

Don’t buy any cone flowers. I have hundreds of seedlings that popped up this year. The ones I grew from winter sowing 2 years ago have reseeded like crazy. I’ll pot some up for you for fall planting. They’ll flower next year.

That sounds great!

It looks like Woodland Stonecrop is native and as far as native dogwoods, Red Twig and Silky are but both are in the three to six feet size range. It's very possible the lighthouse has non-native. There is quite a bit of sea rose along the coast and it comes from Asia, I think. The broadleaf lupines are all from the west coast. I'm not a stickler for natives but prefer tham if possible. My goals are to cover the ground so I don't have to kill myself trying to mow the hill, and provide something for birds and butterflies. Additionally along the shore I want to prevent erosion from boat wakes. Now that the pond has been drained some, I cleaned up a bit and started collecting rocks. Those will also line the shore to help prevent erosion. I'll take the camera down this weekend to recod my progress.