The stretch of sunny days and late-summer temperatures continued through last weekend, and on Saturday Tony and I decided to take advantage of the amazingly warm weather to finish up most of the camp closing tasks. While he crawled around under the camp, disconnecting and draining the plumbing for the winter, I put away the kayaks, paddleboard, and most of the deck furniture.
It’s hard to do those things when it still feels like summer, but, having done it both ways, I can say that it’s definitely more pleasant to do them when the temperature is 75 degrees than when it’s 45 degrees and windy. I don’t really have a choice this year anyway, since my knee replacement means I won’t be traipsing down the 20 uneven steps from the road to the camp or slinging kayaks around anytime soon.
We went back to camp on Sunday so Tony could put antifreeze in the drains, and so I could take one last canoe paddle. I wanted to check on the loon chick, and I found him (her?) down near the islands. He was practicing his diving, and, while I didn’t see him catch anything, he did seem to be getting fairly proficient, staying underwater for quite a while before resurfacing.
I also watched him flapping his wings a couple of times, and hoped that he was figuring out that eventually he’s going to have to use them to get himself airborne and fly to the ocean for the winter.
One of the loon parents was floating around quite a distance away, but keeping an eye on her offspring, not unlike a middle-school dance chaperone, knowing she needs to give her kid some space to gain independence but not quite ready to let him out of her sight.
I was chatting with a young couple from Florida who were out enjoying the warm afternoon on a kayak and a paddleboard, telling them about our late-hatching loon baby, and how I hoped he would be able to migrate before the pond froze. They seemed surprised to learn that it would freeze over completely and that in a few months people would be walking, snowmobiling, and even driving on it.
Here are some upcoming events (including one that, if you’re reading this on Thursday, will take place this evening):
Thursday, October 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall at the First Universalist Church of Norway, 479 Main Street, Norway: Maine Community Power Cooperative presentation. This will offer a chance to lower your electric bills and to support the next step in true community solar power. Staff from MCPC will speak on the latest developments in bringing solar power to our area.
Saturday, October 11, at 1 p.m.: Buck’s Ledge Community Forest will celebrate the completion of the Trail for All. This trail meets the specifications for wheelchair use, and is also available for anyone less able to hike the more strenuous hiking trails. To attend the celebration, please park in the parking lot off Route 26 at the base of the access road and walk up to the scenic overlook, or, if not able to walk the access road, you may drive to the upper parking lot just above the overlook.
Saturday, October 11, from 4-7 p.m. at the Locke Mills Legion Hall: Crock-Tober Fest Dinner. Crock pot meals, dessert buffet, bread, rolls, and soft drinks. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and door prizes. All donations will benefit the Locke Mills American Legion, Post 68.
Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Piper Brook Lane, off the Greenwood Road: A yard sale with a twist: fund-raising event for Far-Winde-Away Nature Preserve, located at the south end of Mud Pond. Gerry and Dawn Nelson, who have created trails on their property and opened it to the public for hiking and nature exploration, are holding this special event to raise funds to support continued development of the preserve. Similar to a yard sale, there will be a wide variety of items available, but here’s the twist—nothing will be priced, and the amount you pay is up to you. If you see an item you like, simply make a donation that you feel is fair, and it’s yours! The Nelsons say, “You’ll leave with a new treasure, plus knowing you’ve helped support this treasure of a preserve.” Use this link to view a flyer for the event: https://bit.ly/4nOd0Hn
Wednesday, October 22, from 4-6 p.m.: The Locke Mills Union Church will celebrate the season with a Harvest Festival, including a free harvest dinner.
Wednesday, October 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the Paris Public Library, 37 Market Square, South Paris: Amy Wight Chapman (hey, that’s me!) will read from and discuss her family memoir. Published by the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, Just Like Glass is the story of an indomitable family and how a strong matriarch, the stillness of a small pond in western Maine, and one unexpected addition set them on a path to healing from tragedy and redefining themselves as a family unit.
Friday, October 24, from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, October 25, 9 a.m. to noon at Gould Academy’s Field House, 74 Church Street in Bethel: The Bethel Outing Club’s 45th annual Ski and Snowboard Sale. New and used gear, clothing and accessories will be on sale, all in one place, making shopping for the winter season easy. The Outing Club takes 20% of each sale, which benefits youth outdoor programing in the Bethel area. To learn how to sell your unneeded (but not obsolete) winter gear or clothing, or how to volunteer to help at the sale (with some nice benefits), go to bethelouting.org and look under Events. There is a link to SignUp for volunteers and instructions on how to tag and inventory gear you’d like to sell. Donations of non-obsolete gear are also welcome. Tags for used gear, as well as instructions and inventory sheets are available at True North Adventureware and the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.
Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Locke Mills Union Church: Rosie MacArthur offers weekly country line dancing lessons. The cost is $5 per lesson, and there’s no need to pre-register; just drop in. The class welcomes all levels, including beginners, and Rosie also offers lessons on Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church at 75 Main Street in Bethel.
As I had been hoping, I filled the last week before my knee surgery with lots of hikes, walks, and even one last long swim and a visit to the Fryeburg Fair after work with Steve, Keith, and Cindi.
We went to the fair on senior citizen day, so Steve and I got in free (there have to be some advantages to aging!) and, since we didn’t get there until after 5 p.m., when most of the seniors had already gone home, it was easy to find parking and there were no crowds in the exhibit halls and short lines at all the food vendors. Everyone has to pass through a metal detector to enter the fair, and I warned the attendant (a senior himself) that I had one metal knee and my brother had two. He laughed and said that metal hips and knees don’t set off the detector, which was a good thing on senior citizen day, or it would have been beeping constantly!
My hikes included a quick sunset visit to the overlook in Buck’s Ledge Community Forest the evening after Will and Rosemary’s wedding, just to make sure everything was left shipshape, which it was. The only reminders that a wedding had taken place there were a few remaining flowers and petals scattered by flower girls Lila and Lilly.
I ran into two couples enjoying a picnic on one of the great new picnic tables installed earlier this summer by the Community Forest folks (with some help from Will), and when I told them about the wedding, one couple said they lived in the Opera House condos in Bethel and had heard all about it from my best friend Donna, who had rented an Airbnb there for the weekend, including that the bride had been stung by a bee during the ceremony and hadn’t even flinched, and that Tony had swallowed a hornet during the reception that stung his throat on the way down (it was apparently a glancing blow, with no lasting ill effects). News travels fast in small towns.
The rest of my hikes—three, on Monday, Friday, and Sunday of the same week—were all to the Sanborn River area, where, having hiked it the week before with Tony and Eli for the first time in many months, I had decided I needed to spend more time. Even with the water lower than usual, the river is always stunning, and the foliage was an extra bonus. I’m sorry I won’t be able to get back there again for at least a couple of months, but it will definitely be one of my first hikes when I’m back out there.
I thought I had had my last swim of the year in North Pond back on September 13, the weekend we moved home from camp, but the weather had been so warm (hot, really) that I decided to go down on Monday, two days before my surgery, and see if the water temperature was still bearable. As it turned out, while it was somewhat bracing, it didn’t really feel any colder than it had three weeks earlier, and I swam for an hour. Afterward, I sat on the dock in the sun to warm up, and found myself thinking about Peggy, communing with her spirit and thinking about how much she would have loved those bonus summer days at camp. She is always there in my heart.
I’m a couple of hours late with this week’s column, which I usually schedule to post and email to subscribers at 5 a.m. on Thursday. I should have done that on Tuesday, since I knew I would be gone all day on Wednesday, getting my new knee, but I guess I thought I’d remember to do it when I got home. I should have remembered that the first hours back home are filled with getting the ice machine set up, resting and elevating the knee, and figuring out how to navigate the house with a walker. But since I’m late in posting, I’m able to tell you all that the surgery went very well and my first night home was uneventful. With my first knee, the extended nerve block, which they told me could last anywhere from 12 hours to five days, lasted for about four days; I’m hoping for the same this time, since it really does help to get recovery started with a few days without major pain. I’ll keep you posted!
If you have news or events you’d like included here, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or call 207-890-4812.
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” – Norman MacLean
So glad the second surgery is behind you. Let the healing begin!