Fort Popham and Reid State Parks

Today starts a series on all the State Parks we visited over the summer. Most days we hit more than one in a day. Most of the park are on the coast and since we live in western Maine it is a full days trip to go anywhere on the coast, hence we squeeze in as much as we can.

Reid State Park

We went there first to swim. There is a nice, sandy, long beach at Reid State. They also have rinse off showers and flush toilet. Out by the parking lot there is picnic tables and charcoal grills. The really neat feature of Reid State is that there is a tidal, shallow, bay/inlet/not sure what the term is pool for the little ones to splash in. Plus, if your little on is terrified of waves it is a good place to take them.

Stomper and Jason were able to do a little exploring on rocks, I think we need to explore tide pools closer to when high tide is leaving so that they can find some creatures.

Fort Popham

Yes, his lips are blue. The ice cream truck came by and we got him a treat

The parking can be terrible, but it is worth it if you like to explore forts. Most of the fort is accessible to walk through and the stairs are open so that you can go up to the second floor. It really amazes me the construction of the forts and how they were built to withstand attack.

The Fort would be a good place to have a picnic. There is a lot of grass on the inside, lots or room for little ones to run!

Sometimes you can seals out the windows of the forts. There are a few picnic tables, benches, and a small beach there too. The toilet is a chemical/out house and was terrible. Bring some hand sanitizer!

We've had a good summer. It's been filled with adventure, long car rides, and tenting! Last year I wrote up a little review of the campgrounds we visited. This year we went to three different campgrounds, so I thought I would sum up our adventures in a little review. All of the following sites were in the $30-40 a night. One of them had water, but the other two did not.

Cascade Campground

If we were to choose a campground we wouldn't have picked this one. It is the campground my aunt stays at all summer. This was our first camping trip as a foursome and there are some things I would have done differently. My uncles told my Mom that there is a better spot to camp than where we did, right at the edge of the playground. If we were to return, we would stay out in the "boondocks" at the edge of the campground. The campground was more for RV's than for tents. The other thing that we thought was odd was that no one walked, they took golf carts everywhere. 

Playground
Affordable Boat Rentals  -no boats
Shallow Beach - it was a slow moving river and icky. We didn't stay long there. There was a nice pool though, but the rinse of shower didn't work.
Grassy Areas at Beach
Picnic Tables and Grills at Beach
Free Shower 
Cooking Fire Pit
Shade
Sun
Dog Friendly
Camping Atmosphere .. not touristy - it didn't feel touristy, but it didn't feel "tenty". There was a lot of RV's.
Spacious Tent Site
Pool
Space Between Sites
Clean bathrooms/Chemical Toilets There really is no good excuse for not up keeping your bathrooms.

Crawford Notch Campground

I didn't do my research very well on this one. I thought I had. There wasn't a playground or grassy area to play on. I also missed that the showers were metered so I wasn't prepared in the morning when it was shower time. My parents went with us (they got their own site) and my sister and cousin. We spent a lot of time playing in the Saco River. It is an excellent place to tent. No RV's can fit down into the camping area, so it is all tents, and they are spaced far apart. I think it is more of a campground for people making use of the white mountains: hiking, kayaking, ect then a young family looking for fun and relaxation.

Playground
Affordable Boat Rentals  -no boats
Shallow Beach 
Grassy Areas at Beach
Picnic Tables and Grills at Beach
Free Shower 
Cooking Fire Pit
Shade
Sun
Dog Friendly
Camping Atmosphere .. not touristy 
Spacious Tent Site
Pool
Space Between Sites
Clean bathrooms/Chemical Toilets Again, there is no excuse for being able to smell the chemical toilet from 20 yards away! Also, bathrooms should be cleaned at least daily. And people need to be more responsible with their trash.

Searsport Shores Ocean Camping

Earlier this spring we went on a little adventure to check out this campground. I am happy to say that it met and exceeded our expectations! We will be going back next year. We decided to not try and get Stomper a nap (after the first afternoon of crying and fussing) at the campground, but in the van. Luckily we have a State Park Pass so we made good use of it and visited 6 State Parks in four days! The bathrooms were pristine, the chemical toilets cleaned and cleaned out daily, and the playground was tons of fun. The dog even had a playground for him and was allowed where ever we went. The ocean is literally ten steps away, ok, maybe a little more, but if you get an ocean site you can watch the sunrise. Next year we hope to get an ocean site.

Playground
Affordable Boat Rentals (kayaks $35-50)
Shallow Beach - tidal Ocean
Grassy Areas at Beach - not at the beach area, but there was some nice grass to play in.
Picnic Tables and Grills at Beach
Free Shower 
Cooking Fire Pit - We could have requested a grill top for our fire, but we didn't.  Jason was a little disappointed in the size of the pit
Shade
Sun
Dog Friendly
Camping Atmosphere .. not touristy 
Spacious Tent Site
Pool
Space Between Sites  - We were off the beaten path so our site was large, but it had close neighbors. At the ocean they are even closer.
Clean bathrooms/Chemical Toilets - there is a note on the shower door to clean up your trash, mop the floor, leave your shoes outside. When people did as the note asked, the shower stall stayed so very clean even during the busy times!

Lego My Cake

Elle turned Eight! 

She requested a Lego cake so I went to my usual source of inspiration: pinterest. You can check out the different Lego cakes I found on my Kids Stuff Board. The following three cakes were my inspiration: Lego Brick Birthday Cake, Easy Lego Brick Cake, Building Blocks Cake, and Walmart's lack of availability of bricks because I really wanted to make a cake that looked like a Cake Construction Site. 

Even though it didn't come out exactly like I wanted I still think it came out just fine. She was thrilled when I revealed it to her, so I guess I did all right.

My Knitting Bag

One of the blogs I follow recently posted about her Knitting Bag, so I thought I might follow in suit. I am quite jealous of her magnetic tin and her small scale. I have been wanting a small scale for sometime, it would be so useful! 

First off my bag is a handmade one that my hubby bought for me at a festival in town. I have seen and owned a lot of purses and bags in my life, but nothing compares to this bag. It isn't very large, but it holds a lot. I think it's storage capacity has something to do with the interior pockets (which is what drew me to it in the first place). All the small items are out of the bottom of the bag and stored neatly against the sides. In case you are wondering; yes, those are pill bottles, more on them in a bit.

Here are my "essentials" clockwise starting on the left with the...

• Measuring Tape :: I have a nice sturdy plastic one. My son loves to carry it around and measure things. It has held up to a lot of abuse. I have no idea how old it is or where I got it, but my advice if you have littles, get an indestructible one! 
• Container with Locking Cover :: My two year old figured out how to open it at around a year old so I don't keep much in it any more. In it right now is a few buttons, a pair of scissors and a ball band (I need to figure out a way to keep track of those better). Sometimes I keep a small ball of yarn in there to use as emergency stitch holders or markers, and the ends after weaving in ends.
• Hand Sanitizer :: You never know when you might need it
• Hand Lotion :: Dry skin and knitting don't mix!
• Needles of Various Sizes :: I have yarn needles and sewing needs, pointy needles and blunt needles.
• Stitch Markers :: I am currently using ones the hubby bought for me from KnitPicks, but I am not in love with them. 
• Crayons :: For those times when Stomper needs to be entertained.
• Note Pad :: Also from KnitPicks they are all sticky notes and have various sizes. However, they don't stick quite long enough. I don't think I'd recommend this brand of sticky notes, but having them around has been very useful
• Not Pictured :: A pen and my Nook where I keep patterns

 

I know you are wondering: "What is with the pill bottles?" My son is very clever. He can open containers with lids. Thankfully he does not know how to open a pill bottle so anything that he could hurt him self on; by ingesting or sticking himself with, I try to keep under wraps.

To remove the label I use very hot water to get the paper off and then olive oil to remove the sticky. 

How about you? How do you keep your bag organized?

On Knitting and Campfires

I am positively terrible at taking my own photo either with a self timer or one handed. But I've done my best. I knit myself a hat. It's a bit too small, but I think it will work running to and from the car this winter and when it's a bit chilly around the campfire this summer. 

On my needles now is a scarf that I will loop together with kitchener stitch to make a cowl. This is the third attempt to make a cowl. The first two ended being rewound into a ball. The problem was me, not the patterns. The cowl is also for the summer for the above mentioned chilly nights. I have a pair of fingerless gloves that I test knitted and those too will come with me to the fire.

Do I plan on sitting around a lot of campfires? Yes. Often during the summer we are "Upta" camp or camping (tenting) and I find that the summer night can be quite chilly sometimes. More than once I have wished for something more to wear while we enjoyed the flames.

I supposed if we did most of our camping during the hottest months it would be a problem for me, but we don't do that. My husband doesn't enjoy crowds or tourists so we try to camp when most people aren't camping as heavily. Like last year when we went camping in September on the coast. This summer we have four trips already planned and hope to camp even more than that! 

We will be making our campfire in New Hampshire twice. Once at Cascade and once at Crawford Notch, then closer to home we will return to Mount Blue State Park and to the coast to Searsport. We also hope to try out a campground run by one of the families of the daycare called Silverlake.

I promise that this year I will stay away from the axe. (if you have a weak tummy, don't look)

Fishing

Papa has taken him fishing a couple of times already this year. But, this is the first time I was able to go and take photos. Stomper's concentration is still a little lacking, but he enjoys the togetherness. Papa will try and take him brook fishing if he can find a brook that isn't too full of thorns and brambles. Papa likes to walk the brook as he fishes. I think Stomper would enjoy fishing like that, he loves to be on the move.

This year Stomper has his own fishing pole. He is slowly learning how to cast, but his favorite part is to reel in the line as fast as he can! 

Puddle

Had to have the "talk" with the boy. No, not the one about the "birds and bees", but the one from Uncle Ben's childhood.

"Stomper, we don't drink out of puddles."

"Why?"

"Well, when your Uncle Ben was a little boy he was very sick, he had a bug inside him."

"Why?"

"He drank out of puddles that the dog had peed and pooped in."

"Why?"

"He wanted to."

"Me want to."

"You may go in the puddle. You may not put your nose and mouth in the puddle. Do you understand?"

"Stand, Mommy."

"Ok, go play."

Yes, one winter my brother had a parasite. My Mom took him to the doctor because he had been pooping, a lot. The doctor ran a test and said, "Your son has a parasite that comes from drinking dirty water. Has he been drinking dirty water?" My Mom, not knowing the whole story said, "No."

Later my Mom learned that my brother had been dunking snowballs in a puddle down the hill from the dogs run and then sucking out the water. He reasoned, logically, that the snowball acted like a filter. So, therefore, he was not drinking out of a puddle.

Around here we don't eat snow or drink out of puddles.

But stomping in them, rolling in them, and dunking your head in them, that's ok!

PayPal Button

Last night I added a PayPal button to the left hand side of the blog post. Here is a rundown of how purchasing a bird from us works.

1. Deposit
We cannot guarantee that we won't run out of birds. Last year we ran out of turkeys, we could have sold a lot more than we raised. With that in mind if you want a bird, your best chance to ensure that you get one is to put a deposit down, today.

2. Shipping
We don't ship. If you live local and are willing to come fetch your bird, then go ahead and put your deposit down.

3. Poultry Types
We sell two types of birds: Turkeys and Broiler Chickens. Broiler Chickens are fat balls of feathers and muscle. We are Free Ranging them for half their life so the leg meat will be a little larger this year than last year. The turkeys we raise are Mammoth Bronze and because we Free Range/Pasture them for the bulk of their life they will have equal amounts of dark and white meat.

4. Ready Dates
The Broiler Chickens will be ready mid to late June. It all depends on when my husband has time to process them. We will be doing a second batch of Broiler Chickens to be ready closer to fall so if you miss out this first time you will have a second chance. The turkeys will be ready before Thanksgiving. We will call you when we know an exact day and when you can pick them up.

5. Pricing

• Broiler Chickens (before deposit) are a flat rate of $15, unless it is larger than 6lbs and then it is $3/per pound
• Turkeys (before deposit) are $3/per pound. Last year the turkeys ranged from 14-22lbs (maybe some were  a little heavier too). When you come pick up your turkey, you also may choose which one you take home.
• The deposit amount is credited to you when you pick up your bird. So for a Broiler Chicken on pick up day your bird will cost you $5 (or more if your bird is huge) if you have put down a $10 deposit.

6. Taste

We did a taste test during our open house in March. I was nervous about it, what if our chicken didn't taste better? I will have a whole blog post dedicated to that experiment by the end of May 2014.

My Eczema Relief

I have allergies. All sorts of environmental allergies. Most of the time I don't notice them, accept when I do and I can't breathe. Thankfully there are medications I can take so that I can breathe every day just like the average person. Unfortunately allergies and asthma are often joined with eczema, which I also have.

My eczema is strange. It is only on two fingers of my right hand: the pointer and the ring finger. That's it. Do you know how much you use your pointer finger for? A lot. My finger will crack, peel, bleed, and itch like a demon. I have a steroid cream I can use, but I don't like using it around my kids. The steroid cream strips my finger of skin and it sometimes takes a long time for my skin to grow back. I tried lotions, but they made my eczema weap. I tried coconut oil, but it would only work for a short time and it was so greasy. I was pretty miserable.

A few months ago my loving MIL bought each of her daughters a little surprise gift package from Julie of Stitch Pray Love. Lotions and lip balms came right to our door. My MIL told me that people have had amazing results with Julies lotions. I was skeptical, but desperate. I tried it, and to my delight my eczema didn't weep. In fact it got better and eventually healed! Imagine my delight!

Recently I ran out and I had to buy some more (of course I was also foolish during this time and put my hands in soapy dishwasher which made my eczema freak out). I was several days with out a lotion stick (my fault not Julies) and I was becoming miserable. Then the mail came with my order. I quickly ripped open the package and put it on. 

In hours my skin was already feeling better. Hours! 

If you were like me and are searching for some miracle, natural cure for your eczema, check out Julie's shop. You won't be disappointed.

6AM

These are the images I wanted to have accompany my last blog post, but the day I wrote the post it was cloudy and yucky. The next day, the day of these images the sun was perfect. When I getup and do chores, it is my favorite part of the morning. The sun is so warm, the air so clean, and all the poultry so happy to greet the morning. 

If you are wondering how our flocks are doing, they are growing. We have twelve new chicks in the kitchen. The library hatched chicks for the second year and I told the librarian that we were interested in taking a few. She called me and asked if I'd take all twelve. They camp from a farm, laid naturally, and kept in an incubator. My Dad read that we have a 50/50 chance of them being roosters. If they are roosters then they will probably end up in the crock pot. I'm hoping that at least half are layers, they are going to be so pretty. 

The ducklings are growing so fast! They are huge! The broilers are nearing the end of their growth. It looks like we won't get a chance to get this batch outside. Hopefully the next batch will go out. We have fences to move and poles to place. And turkeys are coming next month! The chickens in the photo are the "Sixers" they are so fast! We are looking forward to putting all of our chickens together in a month. Our flock will be huge then!

Morning

I am not a morning person. I am far from a morning person. I would much rather sleep until 10 and stay up until 2 in the morning, than get up with the sun. When I was younger if I had to get up early in the morning I would stay up instead of going to sleep so that I wouldn't sleep in past my alarm. When we were first married and had no children my husband worked nights. It was pretty perfect for me. I could get involved with a game, a movie, tv series, or knitting and not be disturbed. Then I'd pass out in bed and he'd join me in a few hours and we would get up and have breakfast together. It was pretty perfect.

Now I have children. Children who get up with the sun and are happy to see it. To this night person it's pretty disgusting. I peek in his room and her crib and they are all smiles. She laughs and giggles and talks to me when I poke my head over the side of her crib. He greets me with "Good Morning Mommy!" and hops out of bed ready to go. 

It would make me grumpy to see them that energetic that early. What I'd like to see is sleepy, groggy, cuddly children first thing in the morning, not joyous, bouncy kangaroos. So then I'd feed them, feed me, snag a quick shower and then by that time I'd be happy. In the meantime we would have a pretty horrible morning. It was not a good pattern to be stuck in.

I knew that something had to give. Then Ira (a pastor at my church) started preaching about love and how we should love people as they need to be loved, not how we want to love. I took it a little further and decided that instead of trying to make my children fit into my morning, I needed to fit into theirs. I needed to love them as they needed to be loved, mother them as they needed to be mothered, not try and make them conform to my mothering ideals.

At the same time a fellow blogger spoke about how on the mornings she got up before her children and read her bible she had a much better day. They all had better days.

And I found Good Morning Girls, which had a free Easter Bible Study.

And then my Mom went away for a week leaving me in charge of daycare, which meant I had to get up.

I could say one thing led to another, but really it was God guiding me to a solution to our grumpy days.

I now get up at 5:30 in the morning.

Yes, this night owl purposely gets up at 5:30 in the morning. I found that if I wait until 6:00 the baby is up and ready for the day. If I leave the room at 5:30 for some reason she will sleep until 6:30 (go figure). I get up, grumping at the distance sliver of a sun, and take my shower. Then I open my bible and remember that first and foremost God loves me. God loves me despite how awful I can be and I'm His child. If He can love me when I don't deserve it, than I can overlook my son's foolish three-year-old antics.

I would like to say that I am always successful; that every day I get up at the right time, take a shower, and read my bible before they get up. But, I'm not. I only managed to get up once this week at 5:30 (today-Thursday) and it has been an awesome day. A day full of strife, stress, and an exhausted three year old. But today I also read about how God ripped the veil top to bottom to signify that we could access Him whenever we need Him, and it is that love that in turn helped me to love him when he was trying to fill the shopping cart with Hamburger Helper.

I would also like to say that I completed the month long study on time and with the group, but I didn't. I haven't even finished the second week. I am not discouraged by this "failure", because change is a process.

My challenge to you is this: take a hard look on your life. Is there someone that you've been trying to love the way you want to love and it hasn't been going so well? Can you instead love them as they need to be loved?

What We've Been Doing

Things are a little hectic on the farm these days. Winter would not let go when we wanted it to and the chicks arrived before the snow was gone. Half of the birds are not where we want them to be. The ducks are in a tote in the kitchen and the new layers are in the broilers "new" coop.

We started the spring the six new layers in a box in the kitchen. We purchased six new ones because we lost a few chickens over the winter; one due to illness and another due to what we think was a birth defect, plus the original Rhode Island Reds are not laying as well. Recently we put the six new chicks where the broilers will be. 

The Broilers also arrived (and spent a brief two weeks in the kitchen) but have since been moved out the brood box in the barn. They will be ready for processing in less than two months.

The Coop Plan for this year: last years turkey coop will become this years layer coop. There are a few modifications that need to be made to the coop. Dad will make a man door and devise a way to add boxes for the chickens to lay eggs in. The fencing will be re-organized to make the turkey yard and most of the current chicken yard into one large yard. Moving the fencing will make the old chicken yard smaller so that the broilers can have a small outdoor space, but not so large that they won't gain the muscle weight required for a meat bird. We are hoping that with an outdoor space to run in the broilers will have larger drumsticks and thighs.

We have ducklings in the kitchen that will hopefully be moved to the blueberry bushes (so they are fenced in) before they are moved to the brood pen in preparation for taking over the pond. And what will happen to the current ducks? We are replacing them. We want friendly ducks, and the two in the pond are not friendly. We've been handling the ducklings a lot and it seems to be working. 

Thankfully we are waiting to get turkeys until summer, because some fencing still needs to repaired, purchased, and put up. 

In addition to all that going on. Dad bred two rabbits and a bunny (for those who don't know around here rabbits are food and bunnies are pets) so in a few short weeks we should have cute fuzzy things!

Not to mention that the garden is finally free of snow!

I have been knitting like a woman possessed. I decided that I would knit Stomper and Our Sweetie matching vests for Easter. The Saturday night before Easter found me weaving in ends. I cannot believe I finished them! In between knitting the two vests I've been working on a test knit. They are this really beautiful pair of fingerless gloves The gloves feature a cable that starts on the forearm and winds around to the top of the wrist. It's really neat. I was able to knit one before I had to set them aside to finish the vests. I will post pictures as soon as I can find a model.

For April vacation we have the teenagers. It was great to have them around for Mimi's annual Easter Egg Hunt. This year she prepared, and Jason and his brother-in-law hid, 300 eggs. The kids had a blast finding them.

Hope your spring is going well too!

Like a Lion

"March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb", that's what the old proverb says. I am hoping that it is true. About a foot fell over the past twenty-four hours. The snow covers most of the blueberry bushes and the five foot fence. We didn't last long outside. The snow is too deep and fluffy to do much with it and the wind turned our cheeks rosy. Stomper got a kick out of touching the roof of the house. The snow falling off the roof has made quite a pile.

Saturday we are hosting an Open House at the Farm. If you live local, stop by!