Spring In Maine

Now Playing -  This Could All Be Yours Someday by Guster

 

Life -  

 

Spring in Maine... Doesn't exist. They have the Thaw. And Mud Season. And Blackfly Season. And at some point, in between or after or all at the same time, Summer arrives. It is here now in the Bangor area, and it's pretty great. Temperatures in the mid seventies, a light breeze, rain every eight days or so, just enough to keep everything green, green, Green. 

Everything is beautiful right now. The grass is green and lush, the forests teem with ferns and all manner of life, from slugs to adorable baby deer. We've seen five deer in our backyard in the last few weeks, to say nothing of the hundreds of birds. Red Winged Blackbirds, Starlings, Jays, an Owl or two, Robins, Sparrows, all manner of seabird that I would embarrass myself by trying to identify, woodpeckers... Anyway, there's a lot of birds. And it gets light at around 5 am and they waste no time in getting to singing. Our entire property is filled with birdsong until dusk, around 9pm, when the frogs take over. 

We have told ourselves this year that despite countless other projects we're working on, Etsy, Writing, Weight Loss, Home Improvement, Moon Base Construction (Not a real project) We'd find some time to explore and enjoy the area we live in. That could be rough, neither of us have a lot of free time and with the schedules we work, our days off together are far and few between and there's usually so much to do during them that finding time for something leisure related is tough. 

A few weeks ago we managed it though and took off for a road trip in Stormalong with the boys. Our goal was to find a place to go camping later this summer, probably July. We checked out a small local camp that was privately owned and  while it was decently secluded and near a small lake and only about 20 minutes from the house, it was also clearly geared towards trailer campers and had a large amount of sites for seasonal rental - some with full fledged cabins installed for the season. "Upta Camp" as the locals call it.

So we went further afield, up North about an hour to Sebec Lake, where we found a great little state run campsite. The rates are reasonable, the campsites are cute and mostly secluded, very shady and tent friendly. They remind us a lot of our camps out West. They have a little path down to the lake and full facilities, including bathrooms with showers and dish-washing sinks. And they're dog friendly. Excellent!

After our drive, we made a small detour to Monson, where we loaded up on Bar-B-Q, including a sublime cheesesteak with smoked beef and made another plan for the summer - to attend our second Swap Meat this July 21st. A heavenly event where barbecuers around the East converge on a tiny town and do their best to out smoke each other. We went last year with my mom when she was visiting and had a blast. There was a burning pig. What could be better than that, I ask?

The ROUS FAMILY -