Sorry I've taken the past couple of days off. I'm not trying to neglect the blog; I've just been working to get a lot of balls rolling for this summer:
T-shirts. I have three designs finished (basically men's, women's, and kids'), and I think I've decided to go ahead and get them printed on AnvilSustainable shirts, which are 45% recycled plastic bottles (3 bottles per shirt, apparently) and 55% organic cotton. (Did you know that over 2 billion pounds of synthetic fertilizers and over 55 million pounds of pesticides are applied to cotton crops annually in the US? About half of those pesticides are known carcinogens.)
Denny remodel. We're just about down to the bathroom with the Denny remodel; it's going to be pretty swanky. There's a nice window in the back of the bathroom that was covered up by the shower for decades. This time around, we're going to build the shower right in as an architectural piece and incorporate the window. I've found the tile for the project, which I can get right in Presque Isle. I still need to order the glass for the door, as well as the other bathroom fixtures. (I'll also mention at this point that, if this project turns out well, I'm going to do the same thing on the Island because it has a similar bathroom with an underloved window.) I'm having a serious internal debate between a composting toilet and a conventional system; I may install one in the house first to see how it works before putting one in a cabin.
New kitchen fridge and solar power. As part of our Efficiency Maine grant, we're getting a new refrigerator for the kitchen. Right now, I'm trying to decide between spending the money on the most efficient fridge on the market and purchasing a cheaper fridge (that still has good efficiency) and extra solar panels to run it. It's just about time for us to order everything so we can get the system installed in May, so I'll just have to flip a coin.
Vegetable garden. The seeds for the garden came on Friday. I saved some of them off for the garden that we have at my office down here in Virginia, and the rest will get shipped up to Maine tomorrow so they can get started indoors. (Thanks, Mom!) I'm going to build raised beds from some of the leftover logs that are just taking up space in the back field. Just add dirt, and voila- fresh veggies this summer.
A few new recipes. In addition to two vinaigrette dressings and cranberry baked beans, I'm currently working on a ranch dressing recipe, making yogurt for the first time, and researching hand-crank pasta machines. I'm also looking at purchasing fair-trade coffee for the summer; it's quite a bit more expensive than Folgers or Maxwell House, but over the course of the summer, I think the total additional cost will be worth it.
New furniture. I'm currently looking at bunkbed plans; the current beds are serviceable but could definitely stand to be replaced in the near future. Good wooden bunkbeds run about $1000 each, so I'm going to have the guys make some this summer if they're up to it. (Like I said a few days ago, I give them some tall orders to fill, but they always rise to a challenge!) I also want to buy/build some new porch swings, maybe a picnic table or two, and some bat houses.
LifeFlight. I've been playing phone tag with the folks at LifeFlight of Maine to have Red River added to their list of "outpost" landing fields. It was excellent timing that an e-mail came out from the Maine Sporting Camp Association regarding the program so soon after my WFR certification.
Advertising. Look for our ads in the April issue of Our Maine Street (where we'll also have a feature story!) and the 2011 North Maine Woods brochure. I'm also working on updating our Google Maps listing and getting us on Superpages, Yellowpages, etc. (If you have a few minutes to stop by some of those, we'd love to have some customer reviews!) Look for new content on the Red River webpage soon, as well. (You'll see a few things on the page that are already updated.)
So that's a quick synopsis of few of the projects we're working on for this summer! April will probably be full of pretty short posts as I try to keep everything on track and keep up with my engineering job at the same time. I hope everyone out there is enjoying the last of winter; believe me when I say that fishing season will be here before we can blink. It's going to be great.
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