Rebuilding Denny, Part II (Deconstruction)

(Also see Part I.)

I assume everybody knows by now that, no, we didn't rebuild Denny as a giant log pile like I jokingly suggested in Part I of this post series.  We did, however, have to do some substantial work to it in order to make it habitable again.

First, we removed the old front porch.  It was getting to be a bit of a safety issue.  On the right side of the picture, you can see that the logs that once made up the porch wall are basically crumbling away.

Then, we removed the floor on the inside, all the way down to the log joists.  Denny always seemed fairly high off the ground to me, but that proved not to be the case.  The joists were in surprisingly good condition, though.

Then the real fun began.  We had to remove a few logs that were crumbling out of the walls.  To do that safely, we had to jack the entire cabin a foot or two off the ground:

Once all was said and done, the bathroom hung a few feet out there in space.  We shored that up as well- I just don't have a picture.  It's in pretty good shape overall, so it'll be easier to refurbish what's there rather than build a new one.

That's about it for Denny's deconstruction.  I'll tell you about the reconstruction in a later post.

Moose Permit Lottery

While I have no desire to bypass summer entirely and move right into fall, I wanted to let you know that the 2011 moose hunting permit lottery is open. Interested hunters can go to http://www5.informe.org/online/moose for instructions and to apply.

This year's application deadline is May 13, and the lottery will be held in mid-June. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife expects to award 3,205 permits this year.

Best of luck to those who enter!

Jack and Lily, Part V

(Also see: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.)

Here's a fun fact that you never thought about before- loons actually make great parents. Just the day after my embarrassing paparazzi episode (that nobody knew about until I shared it with the world), Jack and Lily brought Emma out to eat at the rock pile. I think Jack could just sense my presence at that point, because I again couldn't get near them even from shore. (The rock pile isn't that far from the point behind the Little Cabins.)

The fact that Jack hates me notwithstanding, watching the three of them was pretty neat. Jack and Lily would swim as a unit, sometimes close, sometimes fifteen feet apart, and always with Emma between them:

Sorry for the black-dot photos.  Trust me, the little black dot between the two larger black dots is Emma.  =)

More later!

2011 Fishing Licenses

Just a quick reminder that 2011 licenses are now on sale through the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. You'll need a license before your trip next summer, and the easiest way to get one is to log onto https://www.informe.org/moses/, where you can purchase and print your license from the comfort of your own home.

The Department also publishes "Maine Fish and Wildlife" quarterly magazine online; it's worth a read and might even help stave off cabin fever this winter.

Jack and Lily, Part IV

(Also see: Part I, Part II, and Part III.)

Before I start, I'll just note that I decided to call the chick Emma.  There's no particular story behind the name, and I don't know if the chick is a boy or a girl, but Emma is what stuck.

Anyway, three days after Emma hatched, I hoped to get a couple of pictures of  "the new family next door."  I paddled out around the left side of the Island, nice and slow, near the shore where I wouldn't be in the way or be a threat.

Jack was having none of that.  He popped up ten feet from my kayak and gave his now-famous "Get off my porch" call.  He dove and came up just on the other side of me.  Dive, call.  Dive, call.  Repeat as necessary.  Lily and Emma made for the other side of the cove.

I know when I'm not wanted, but I also know that I'm stubborn.  As reassuringly as I could (and, of course, without knowing what might actually be reassuring to a loon), I paddled back around to the front of the Island.  Jack seemed satisfied; proud of himself, really.

I kept going around the Island, thinking I'd try to catch up with Lily and Emma in the larger part of the cove (again, where I wouldn't be in the way).  I didn't make it far; I heard a splash right behind my stern.  When I looked back, Jack was diving and crisscrossing in my wake.  The yelling started soon thereafter.

Defeated, I headed back to the dock.  On the way, I had my most brilliant idea of the day.  Since Lily and Emma were in the cove, I'd simply walk the loop around the pond and play paparazzi from the shore.

The first part of the walk was uneventful.  I stopped at the outlet to take a couple of pictures of dragonflies:

 

And then I made my mistake.  I walked over to the water.

(I'll note right now that this story is 100% true.  I am not exaggerating in any way.)  Jack saw me on the shore, and he came right over.  He started sassing me and stuck within about 20 feet of the shore. 

"Crazy loon," I thought, and I headed into the woods where the trail splits from the road.  The trail swings away from the water for a while and then comes back to the shore.  When I got back to the shore, Jack was looking for me.  As soon as he saw me again, he swam to 20 feet in front of where I stood and called.

"Creepy loon," I thought this time, and I kept walking.  Sure enough, Jack kept pace with me.  He stopped calling, but he kept one eye on me the whole time.  (Lily and Emma were, at this point, well out of danger's way on the other side of the cove.)  He followed me all the way around to the back side of the Island.

This is the embarrassing part of the story.  Somehow, I had to outwit a loon.  (There, I said it.)  So when I had the chance, right after a small stand of trees that shielded me from the water, I stopped.  I not only stopped, I ducked down so I was sure he wouldn't see me.  I actually played a deranged game of hide-and-seek with wildlife a tenth my size on the side of a trail in the middle of the woods.  Thank goodness we don't have neighbors.

In my mind, Jack then went from crazy to creepy to downright psychotic.  When he realized that I should have re-emerged from the trees but didn't, he called.  He then went 30 yards down the shore, turned around, came back, and went 30 yards back the way we'd come.  He then did the entire circuit again, down 30 yards, turn around, back up 30 yards, even more slowly, watching the shore the entire time.  Never let it be said that a loon isn't thorough in its investigations.

Satisfied that I'd either given up on the hunt or I'd been eaten by something bigger myself, he left me alone.  I realized this would be just about my only chance of the day to get any pictures, so I ever-so-slowly made my way closer to shore.  Unfortunately, even after half an hour, Lily and Emma never did come back over to where I sat, and this is the best picture I was able to get:

 

(Note that Emma is swimming in this picture.  This is 3 days after hatching, from what we can tell.  The shadow on the right-hand side is me still trying to hide behind a tree.)

All in all, it was a good day with our new neighbors.  More to come later.

Regulatory Reform in Maine, Part I

I apologize in advance- this is a political post.  I try to stay as far away from politics as I can, especially controversial politics in a public forum.  However, when politics directly affects Red River or the North Maine Woods, I consider it fair game.  On January 26, the LePage administration published its Phase I Regulatory Reform proposal, ostensibly in an effort to make Maine more "business friendly."  As a small-business owner myself, I hoped to see some streamlining on the list, some innovation, and some great new ideas (maybe regarding tax reform or incentives).

The proposal, however, made my blood boil.  I've put off writing about it for a full week because it makes me angry every time I look at it.  Of the 63 bullet points in the proposal, maybe seven are an effort to streamline regulation, zero are innovative, zero are great new ideas, and well over fifty of them are simply rollbacks of environmental protections, many of which were put in place with bipartisan support over the last decade.

As an example that hits close to (my) home, the LePage administration wants to "require that not less than 30% of the LURC jurisdiction be zoned for development."  If that doesn't make every single sportsman reading this post cringe, I don't know what will.  Based on this proposal, it appears that the administration has forgotten that tourism (which, in Maine, depends on clean air, clean water, and natural character) brings to the state somewhere around $10 billion in goods and services yearly, in addition to $400 million in state and local tax revenue.  According to the Maine Office of Tourism, between 140,000 and 176,000 people are employed in the tourism industry, making it Maine's largest industry.

The administration claims that each of the points in the proposal came directly from the "red tape listening sessions" they held with business leaders around the state, but it now appears that, at least in part, that may not be the case.  Truly, there are very few things on the list that I can see helping small business; many of them, however, would greatly help large, multi-state companies.  For example, at least a few of the bullet points suggest rolling back Maine's environmental protection regulations to match the Federal government or EPA regulations.  Since a business only has to know and comply with the most stringent regulation, however, these provisions would only streamline the workload of those businesses that work across state lines.

I'll try to take a closer look at some of the points that would have direct impacts on my neck of the woods in the next few days and explain my concerns about them.  Until then, I'll post the actual bullet points after the jump so you can form your own opinion.

And just so I don't leave you with a bad political taste in your mouth, here's a nice picture of Deboullie from last year.  Ready to go fishing yet?

Voting is Open!

That does it, folks!  Entries for the 2011 photo contest are closed.  We had a great turnout, with 19 photos entering the running.

The fun continues, though, because now you get to take a look at all the entries and send me an e-mail with your favorite.  Please, please only send me one vote per e-mail address.  I'm not a vote-counting machine; I'm just one girl.  I'm going to delete duplicate votes from single addresses before I tally everything up.  That being said, though, please feel free to cajole your friends, Romans, and countrymen into voting for your photo (once) as well.  Voting stays open until March 1; at that point, I'll post the top 5 to be judged by our panel of experts.  (To keep things fair, I'll stay out of the judging altogether.) 

Best of luck to everyone who entered, and a warm thank you for making the first half of our first photo contest a rousing success!