Now that my weekly Locke’s Mills column is part of Western Maine Neighborhood News, found on Substack and at the website wmnn.org, I’ll be posting only every other week’s “free to all” Locke’s Mills columns here on my own site.
On some of the weeks when my current column doesn’t appear here, I’ll be posting a look back at Locke’s Mills columns from 5 and 10 years ago.
FIVE YEARS AGO
In my column of April 1, 2021, I reported that the selectmen and budget committee had finished work on the 2021-22 municipal budget. The proposed budget, not including the town’s share of county taxes and the school budget, was $1.7 million, which reflected an increase of $400,000 over the previous year. This was due in part to higher costs for the transfer station, highway, and fire departments, but also to the fact that in 2020, during the pandemic, no Town Meeting was held, and the town had instead adopted a budget identical to the previous year’s, with no increases in any department.
I also wrote, “Will recently sold his condo, so he and Eli are staying with us for a few weeks…On a chilly morning last week when trails were still snow-covered and frozen, Eli and I did a sunrise hike of Peabody Mountain, near Hutchinson Pond in Albany, which has a beautiful panoramic view. Unfortunately for sunrise-chasers, as I learned when we reached the top, the view extends from the southeast to the northwest, and the sun rises due east at this time of year—oops. However, the alpenglow to the west, above the Presidentials, was pretty spectacular, and it was wonderful to be out and about so early.
In the April 8, 2021 issue of the paper, I wrote that I had gotten my second COVID vaccine, and, once two weeks had passed, I would be able to hug my granddaughter.
Will and I had climbed Rumford Whitecap in bare boots (no Microspikes needed) with Eli the Wonder Pup, and had encountered only small patches of ice near the summit.
I had just gotten an Instant Pot, and, as it turned out, the purchase was in the nick of time, as my two-year-old electric range had suddenly quit working, so I was experimenting with cooking a variety of meals in the IP.
On April 15, 2021, my column reported very dry conditions in the woods, with high fire danger.
Eli and I had done a sunrise hike to Lapham Ledge on April 7, then continued on to Buck’s Ledge, where I was able to look out and confirm that the ice had gone out the day before “about ten days earlier than average. Jim Chandler had chosen April 5 and was the closest in the North Pond Neighbors Facebook group poll.”
And there was this big news: “When Woodstock voters meet for their annual town meeting on April 26, they will be asked to allow Town Manager Vern Maxfield, with the approval of the selectmen, to spend the money in the town’s land conservation fund toward acquiring the parcel of land that includes Buck’s Ledge.”
My stove was still out of order; my Instant Pot adventures were continuing and, having discovered a recipe for pizza made in the IP, I was planning to try it for supper.
The following week, on April 22, 2021, I reported that “Eli and I enjoyed a couple of before-work hikes last week, including another sunrise hike of Lapham Ledge on Tuesday. This time, we continued up the logging road and hiked the whole J’n’J Backcountry Trail to the summit of Moody Mountain and on to Buck’s Ledge before returning to the car, logging five miles before breakfast. (Well, before my breakfast, anyway; Eli had his before we headed out.) Thanks to trail builder Jurgen Marks, the new trail is now clearly blazed with bright orange paint. He has also cut more brush and branches, and those improvements make the trail very easy to follow.”
I was still without a working stove: “One way I know this column is being read regularly is that people keep asking if my stove is fixed yet. I’m happy to report that Tony did call on his engineer friend Scott for assistance. They checked to ascertain that the breakers were working and the appropriate current was coming through the outlet, then removed the metal panel on the back of the stove and immediately found the problem. One of the wires had burned through completely, melting part of the plastic terminal block and leaving a scorch mark on the inside of the panel. Scott surmised that the screw holding the wire had never been sufficiently tightened when the stove was new, and moving the stove around had dislodged the connection. I’m just glad it didn’t start a fire! Scott found a replacement part to order online, and by the time you read this, it should have arrived and, hopefully, been installed. After being without a stove for nearly a month, I think the first thing I’ll make is chocolate chip cookies. I guess I’d better share them with Scott.”
I reported on more new hiking trails in my column of April 29, 2021: “Saturday was beautiful, and Will, Eli, and I spent the afternoon exploring the Parks-Bennett Trail on Ellingwood Mountain, about 3.5 miles out the North Road. This brand-new trail is on a 532-acre parcel that Inland Woods and Trails hopes to add to the Bethel Community Forest. Eli’s favorite parts of the hike were the beautiful brook that runs alongside the first part of the trail, and the dead porcupine he found to roll in at the area marked on the map as Porcupine Panorama. Fortunately, it hadn’t been there long enough to be stinky, and the quills he picked up were mostly tangled in his fur rather than stuck in his skin. Oh, Eli.”
And I still didn’t have a working stove! “The part we ordered was delayed, but finally arrived on Saturday, so (as long as it turns out to be the right part) maybe by the time you read this I’ll be able to boil, broil, and bake again.”
TEN YEARS AGO
In my column on April 7, 2016, I reported having seen female red-winged blackbirds for the first time that spring, about two weeks after the males had arrived back. I had also seen “at least 15 pairs of common mergansers in an open area of Round Pond on my morning walk down the Greenwood Road on Saturday morning. I always enjoy seeing the different varieties of water birds that usually only visit our area for a few days or weeks during their spring migration. I also spotted a pair of wood ducks and, of course, plenty of Canada geese.”
I had been to Unity with Steve and Peggy and our sister, Leslie, to help Deborah Eldredge celebrate her 90th birthday. (Current readers of my column will know that I recently went there again, this time to celebrate her 100th!)
I had had “a few cooking adventures this week. I experimented with sugar-free, whole-wheat banana bread (the verdict: not too bad, but it might have benefitted from just a bit of sugar) and I made chicken enchiladas from scratch, including making my own flour tortillas and enchilada sauce (those came out great). As I write this, it’s nearly 11 p.m. and I have two loaves of sourdough bread in the oven (because the dough took all day to rise). Next time I need to remember to let it have its first rise overnight.”
The next week, on April 14, 2016, I reported that the Local Hub was staying open late on Friday and Saturday evenings, with Taco Night on Fridays and Burger Night on Saturdays, and reflected that “It’s been a long time since the building that now houses The Local Hub has been open late at night, but way back when I started working at Bob’s Corner Store in the late 1970s, we stayed open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, an hour later than on the other weeknights. I occasionally worked from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.—that was by my own choice, since I loved working there and probably would have done it for free back then.”
Joyce Hathaway had let me know that Louise Seames had moved to “the same nursing home that Raymond is at, close to their daughter’s home. Joyce says that Louise made the decision herself, and both are happy to be together again.”
The town was looking for volunteers to run the swap shop at the Greenwood-Woodstock Transfer Station, to allow it to reopen after being closed for the winter. “Transfer station employees have said that keeping the swap shop running and orderly takes a lot of their time and they would prefer to see it closed. Despite signage, they have had problems with people leaving unusable or inappropriate items, or leaving vehicles blocking the bulk trash and metal recycling bins while they visit the swap shop.
“Some residents, as well as some members of the board, however, have expressed that the swap shop provides a valuable service as a way to pass items that are no longer needed by one person on to someone else who can use them. Besides the neighbors-helping-neighbors value, this reduces the amount of bulk trash the towns must pay to have hauled away.”
I had done some online research and learned that most transfer station swap shops are run by volunteers, and “Most town websites I looked at stress that items left at the swap shop should be clean, working, and usable, and many place restrictions on the types of items that can be donated…Incidentally, while most towns simply call it the swap shop, my favorite name comes from the Midcoast Solid Waste facility, which serves Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville, and Hope. Their volunteer-run swap shop is called ‘The Pick of the Litter.’”
On April 21, 2016, I wrote about having been joined on my walk on the Mann Road by a flock of nine domestic turkeys who were out for a stroll, having escaped from a farm on the Mills Road. (They were later spotted on Howe Hill, and I never did hear if they ever made it home.)
Betsey Foster was scheduled to speak to the selectmen at their meeting that week about her proposal to hold the very first Greenwood Clean-Up Day that Saturday, April 23. “This would be similar to the clean-up days sponsored by the Woodstock Conservation Commission and the Bethel Conservation Commission.”
The Greenwood Historical Society was to resume its monthly meetings on May 4, with a presentation by Dean Bennett about his new book, Ghost Buck, about hunting at the Bennett Camp on Rowe Hill.
My column in the April 28, 2016 issue of the paper reported that “four of us met at the Town Office on Saturday morning to head out with gloves and trash bags…In addition, several others joined in the effort along the roads near their own homes.”
And I editorialized about litterbugs: “Now I’m going to hop up on my soapbox to say that I can’t imagine what possesses anyone to think it’s okay to toss trash out their car window. The most common item we picked up seemed to be Dunkin Donuts coffee cups and lids, along with an assortment of snack food wrappers. How difficult can it be to keep your trash in the car with you until you get home? It’s especially irritating when litter is tossed out in places where the road runs close to the water. Much of what we picked up on the Gore Road had to be fished out of the edge of the pond.”