Fire On The Mountain. Or, Frenchboro.

Give yourself two points if you picked up the Grateful Dead reference.

Photo used with permission. And nausea.

We had a fire on the island last night.

An empty house caught sometime after dinner (cause yet to be determined) and burned to the ground.

Nobody was hurt, and it wasn't a year round residence, so (we think/hope/pray) nothing was lost but memories. The owners haven't been out here much in the last 10 years due to health concerns, and hopefully didn't leave anything valuable or important behind.

Last night was pretty tumultuous, as you can imagine.
The fear we live with every day out here is that if fire breaks out, it will burn until it reaches water.
We have no means to control it.
The best we can do is contain it.

We all felt that fear last night.

Today, I spend the day with the Whatifs. Do you know them?
They are the cousins of the Oulda sisters...you know, Woulda, Shoulda, and Coulda.

The Whatifs are nasty.
They say things like:

Whatif the wind had been blowing, as it does 90% of the time out here?
Whatif, instead of losing one structure...we lost that whole side of the island?
Whatif we couldn't contain it, and the entire village burned?
Whatif it had been one of our year round residences?
Whatif one of our volunteers was injured while helping with the fire?
Whatif there were people in there?
Whatif there were freakin KIDS in there?

Every one of those freaks me out, but that last one makes my guts shake, and I pee just a little bit.



They're saying a lot more, the Whatifs. I'm drowning them out with very loud music.

I just know that I am very grateful nobody was injured.

Though I'm saddened by the loss of this house (it was one of the prettiest here), I'm thankful that it's just a house, which can be replaced.

I'm thankful it was just ONE structure we lost.

We are all very aware of just how bad it could have been.


I (as well as everyone on Frenchboro) am very grateful for the support of Swan's Island and Tremont Volunteer Fire Departments who assisted, and those who provided transportation to get them here so quickly. That would be Chris and Travis and the Captain/crew of the Henry Lee, who all get gold stars. With glitter.

And I'm grateful to the people who live here, who responded without a thought for themselves.
Who forgot they even had differences and squabbles, never mind 'put them aside'.
Who jumped into their boots at the word 'fire', and were out the door without even asking 'where'. (It's very small here. Easy to find fires.)

Arthur. Ann. Tim. Donald. Mikey. Becky. Ski. JayF. Doug. Michelle. Jessica. Paul. Zach. Jackie. Nate. Jay1. Debbie. Joseph. Davie. The Kid Staying In Coler's House Whose Name I Don't Know. (Sorry, Kid)

That's every person on the island, save the 5 Mothers home with their children and three older folks. I counted, while fielding phone calls and texts for over three hours, right up until my cell battery died. I'm still fielding calls today. I've had to charge my battery twice.
(You know why I counted, right? Same reason they count heads on the ferry, even on the very calm days. Again, I want to throw up at the thought.)

Those 20 people listed above are who responded to this fire within minutes of the first, 'Is it me, or is there smoke coming from Forsgren's house?' call.

EVERY AVAILABLE PERSON ON THE ISLAND.

And shortly thereafter, Chris and Josh were here. Travis, with guys from Tremont. The ferry crew, with Swan's Island's fire truck, ambulance, and crew.
I'm sorry I can't name who they all were- it was dark and very confusing, and not all are known to me.
Know that we are deeply grateful for every one of you, and the effort you put forth.

There are a lot of things we could have done better. But, there are a lot of things we could have done worse.

The fact that everybody who could, showed up...that's island life.
How 'bout you? Does your entire town show up to an empty house fire?

We may not be trained, or even effective. But, dammit, we're there!
I say, let's celebrate the fact that we're all here for another day!

Tonight, the drinks are on the house.

p.s. The calls came out around 9pm-ish. The streets roll up early in this part of the world, so we were all pretty well tucked in for the night.
I ask you...How many people were at that fire last night with boots on,
and no underwear???

School Music Program

These are a few pictures from the Frenchboro School's Music Program with Bo Newsome and Graham DeZarn. 

My kids love any excuse to get dressed up.

Some of these boys would vehemently deny it, but I know they secretly enjoy it too.

And I'm not referring to Bradley; we all know Bradley looks for any excuse to wear a tie. Or a batman costume. And his flying shoes. He's one cool dude.

That's our whole school up there, minus one.

They did a great job. How cute are they??

And look at this!!

Amy Boogie's book is out!

I knew she had written a book, and that it was due soon- and there it is.

I would just like to point out that I found Amy long before she was famous, and hand-picked her to be The One Who Would Teach Me To Spin Someday. 'Course with her new-found fame she won't have time for the likes of me anymore...

But that won't stop me from buying her book, and you should do the same.

Could I BE any prouder of Boogie girl?!??

"Ain't that awful!"

That's a line I've heard John Lunt say almost every day that I've known him.

John Lunt is a Frenchboro icon. He's a dry old Mainer, the last native islander, and one colorful character!

I wish I could imitate his accent and inflection through written word, but, no. I cannot.

That line above is his standard reply to just about everything The Big Guy says.

Like, when The Big Guy says "The reason the lobster market was so poor last fall is John caught up everything there was on the bottom and flooded the market."

And John will laugh and say, "Ain't that awful."

Or when The Big Guy says,"Ol' John's sitting here rubbing his knees. He's tryin' to get a blow on so all the Big Dogs can't get out to haul and scoop up his lobsters." (John doesn't fish in bad weather anymore.)

And John laughs, and says, "Ain't that awful!"

Or when The Big Guy says, "Ol' John, he don't go to church every week by choice, he goes to beg forgiveness for catching all the lobsters 'fore any of the other guys get a chance at 'em."

John was a highliner, back in the day.

He just laughs and says, "Ain't that awful!"

We have a whole lotta fun with John.

We go to a local fair every year, have every single year since I moved to Maine. 

Sixteen years in a row, I've gone to the Blue Hill Fair with The Big Guy. 

Now we take our kids.

In recent years, they've added a new attraction at the fair: pig racing. It's hilarious!

It's a huge hit, and draws quite a crowd. Last year they sold things to the crowd: little pig noses, flags, stuffed pig animals. 

The Big Guy bought a stuffed pig puppet.

He had me sew it onto a baseball cap. It was a baseball cap with a big pink pig head on the bill.

He gave it to John.

All that fall, the fishermen oinked at John on the VHF. 

I know this, because I have to listen to the VHF to hear the mailman's boat come in the harbor when I work the post office..

Which means, I must endure the fishermen on the VHF.

John laughs a lot. That's why we love him.

These are a few pictures from the school's Music Performance last Saturday night.

I will show you pictures of the kids tomorrow. 

This isn't about the kids.

This is about the heathens, Tammy and The Big Guy.

Tammy, mere seconds before she flipped me The Bird.

The Big Guy in the process of flipping me The Bird.(Great minds think alike??)

And all I could think was, Ain't that awful!

Bear in mind that I did absolutely nothing to warrant being flipped. (You don't have to, with these two.)

I am, of course, a perfect angel. 

Ask my Mother.

(I heard that, Tammy.)

One day, on an island in Maine

I knew I was in trouble before I even opened my eyes this morning.

You know the drill: the nausea, stiff neck...and the ax stuck through your skull, piercing the frontal lobe of your brain...

Migraine.

And we are in the middle of what can only be described as a monsoon. Torrential horizontal rain.

Great knitting weather. If only...

The kids had to be at school by 8, and the rain showed no sign of slowing, so we slodged out to the truck. It isn't very far to school, but I hate to have them sit there all morning, wet and chilled.

File into the truck, put it in reverse, look in rear view window...and there's something white and LARGE looming in the mirror.

I scream. (migraine + no coffee on board + 4 hours of sleep = odd reactions)

Both Things scream, because I do not normally scream, so it must require screaming in unison.

Now head feels reeeeally good. Throb, throb, throb.

I jump out of the truck, and see this:

Oh, man. This could be a problem.

We pushed, we pulled, we tugged, I cried, they whined. 

And all the while...throb, throb, throb.

There we were, out in the middle of the street; I, in my nightie, with no raincoat, and no brassiere....

and the Things going to be late for school...

I stopped to think.

Options. What are my options here?

1. Have kids walk to school, and leave the blessed mess AS IS. (the fact that the road was completely blocked didn't taint this option at all. In the back of my mind, I thought this would work to my favor as I'd have help from passers-by getting this faux paus covered up before The Big Guy saw it...)

2. Send a kid next door to grab Mikey, who would surely help me hide the incriminating evidence of my stellar driving skills. (I may have been here before...)

Oops. pj's/no bra.

Cancel this one.

3. Send a kid across the street, where I see a red car, which means Jeremy might be home. However, it is nearly 8am. If Jeremy IS home, he is very likely still in bed, where all normal people should be at this hour.

Hmmm, but Katie very recently commented on Jeremy's 'morning person' disposition...so maybe he is up and about...

Crap. pj's/bra thing.

Next.

4. Gravity, my constant companion, may actually help me out here. In the same manner it causes me to continuously fall on my face, le boat could also fall out of the truck...the rest of the way.

Yes! We have a winner!

Stand Back!, I yelled. Mama's got an idea!

The Things, by this time, are in hysterics, laughing. Thing Two could barely breathe.

I needed both Things' help pushing that boat back up into the bed of the truck. That sucker was full of rainwater and weighed a ton.

(Meanwhile I'm having palpitations at the thought of crushing one or both of these kids with a boat. How'm I gonna explain that one?)

We got it back up, with herculean effort.

Throb, throb, throb.

I considered just leaving it be and driving them to school, but then I remembered Heartbreak Hill, which I would have to climb to get home again. No way was that boat going to remain in position if I dumped it backing out of my almost- level driveway!

With slack in the line, I was able to untie the boat. Now how am I going to get it out?

I looked at the two kids. Not much help there.

I ordered them back in the truck, out of the rain.

I got in the truck, too.

Weeeell, I s'pose...

I'm just gonna dump 'er, I said. I see no other choice.

Ever hear of a 'Neutral Drop'?

(Mechanics everywhere are wincing right now.)

DO NOT pass this info on the The Big Guy. Remember our motto, "What happens on the island STAYS on the island"!

I carefully backed down to the steepest (ha) part of my driveway, put the truck in neutral, goosed the gas a tich, and dropped the shifter into drive.

WHAM!

The truck shot forward, and that boat slid gracefully right to the ground.

 (Yeah. That's what it did.) 

Worked like a charm.

Woo- hoo! And the crowd goes wild, as ace driver Marissa Andretti saves the day....

That is one rugged 8 year old, let me tell ya.

We hauled the boat over to the side of the road and went on our merry way. Thing Two was still belly-laughing when we got to school, and I knew right then I had not a hope in Hell of keeping this incident on the Down Low.

Ah, well.

Driving myself back home, I began to get an uneasy feeling.

He's gonna have a fit when he sees this.

Maybe it's off the road enough that he won't notice it. Maybe I can get Jay or Chris to help me move it before he gets home. 

Look, you can't even see it. We must've gotten it way over into the brush...

Oh. Or not.

Mmmm. Definitely going to notice that.

Oh, yeah. There's no covering this one up. 

It is what it is.

I went inside, drenched to the skin, for much needed coffee and Excedrine Migraine. 

Nine of 'em. 3600mg of caff-pow. Plus coffee.

cue theme from Rocky...Flyin' high now.......

A bit later I heard the unmistakable sound of The Big Guy driving up the hill.

VVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRR,

coming around the corner, VVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRR, 

aaaand coming upon the boat, v  v  v  v  r  r  r  r...

uh-oh.

Well, there's something ya don't see every day.

Does he look mad?

What's wrong with this picture?

Caption: A Fish Out Of Water

Know what? He hasn't said a word about it.

Narcs.

*****************************************************************************

Now, I've got all sorts of stuff backlogged to tell you about, and I'm going to take full advantage of this caffeine high and do it all in one day.

Know that my original plan was to do this one at a time, in order to give greater impact to each of these great things.

But caffeine highs like this one don't come around every day. I'm just going with it.

I have been blessed with many things lately.

First up, a drop spindle kit, won in a contest on Darcy's blog on (yikes) April 16th. The kit is from Extreme Spinning, and it ROCKS!

Oh, I loves me some sheep fur!

Check this out- wrapped separately in tissue paper...

Oh, my.

Clearly a hold-over from my too-close-to-Revere-big-haired- glitzy-rhinestone- studded -Boston days, I am always drawn to the shiny, sparkly, bling-y stuff. I kept this out on display for a week, so I could pet it. Then the cat discovered it and I had to put it up.

Love it.

Another prize from long ago...March 30th! (I shudder to think of what these people are thinking of me. I found this list of posts that never got done when I cleared off that desk. Egads.)

From KnittinDiva, (also here, on etsy- but Dudes, stay  away from that coffee bean, 'cause I've got my eye on it...) at www.bbknits.com  (Beyond Basic Knits. Very cool. Check out the Toe-tally Tonals, my current obsession.) 

She had a contest. I won.

This has been whispering what it wants to be lately.

I'm ignoring it because I have that b-day pressie to finish. The one I haven't touched.

It keeps whispering beads...

And on April 28th, I won 1000 business cards from www.uprinting.com, 

through Kelly at Almost Frugal!

Perfect timing, too, as I was getting the Bakery off the ground.

This was a perfectly painless procedure, really easy to do, and they proofed my cards before shipping. 

Tell me, does this remind you of coffee, or caramel? 

They'll print front and back.

Seriously, could there BE any more information on there? 

Everything but my weight and bra size. (Never. Ever.)

Oops, already changed my Twitter name: MaineMoxie. It will probably change again.

Don't tell Nicole. I'm going to give that girl a drinking problem.

Why are you just hearing about these now??

Because the Oprah Show aired our Frenchboro segment on the 29th of April.

This all took place around that time.

Seriously, I am just now realizing how much time that took up. Wow.

I'm sorry Oprah, but it will never work out between us. 

Island life has spoiled me, and I can never again match the pace you city-mice set.

I think you'll get by without me. Pretty sure.

Missing from this list is a gift from Amy Boogie. I ordered some indescribably beautiful lace- weight, and when I got it in the mail, she'd stuck a gift skein in there!

I remember sneaking it into the house, away from The Big Guy's ever-watchful eye, and for the life of me, I can't remember where I hid it. I've got to do a full-out search.

I will post pictures when I find it (I've added it to my List); I know I didn't take pictures that day.

Marie Grace honored me with the title of One Of The Blogs She Really Likes.

*blush*

Now, I need to share the love, and name off some of my favorites.

Whoo boy. I am almost embarrassed to say I follow skim read over 300 blogs. 

And I can only pick 7 ? No Way.

My first thought was to just publish my list from Google Reader. But it's sort of cheating, isn't it?

This was really, really hard. There should be sooo many more. I picked them out of a hat.

A Friend To Knit With- Very down to earth, and great knits. And cookies!

The Rainey Sisters- Artists. unbelievable. Check out the Henry VIII! And the Kauni!

Earthchick- What a riot! She created my very favorite, most lusted after lace creation. I want to know what she uses on her hair. And you should see her boys!

Smoking Hot Needles- Monika. A master. Check out her spinning, but her knitting will blow you away, too.

Maple Corners- Annie. Unbelievable photography, and a beautiful person. She raises alpacas, and her Mom. She's into a peg loom right now that is pretty cool.

Tiennie- The master of the multiple. In another life she may have been the Octomom.

Loving Comfort Knits- Grace. Master of lace. A very prolific knitter. I am in awe.

The Shetland Trader- I just recently found Gudrun. And I'm secretly thrilled that she's moving to Massachusetts, where I may have the potential of meeting her. Awesome designs, with her  Scottish heritage shining through.

Turtle- Great knits...but really, it's all about the cats. So much fun!

Miss T- Brassy and outspoken in the best way, she has great knits, great yarn, and great recipes!

Not so Fancy Nancy- Her knits, and her quilts will Blow Your Mind. Outstanding!

Passing Down Crazy-Maria, another lace master. And truly crazy...5 kids, some of whom she home schools, yet has time to quilt like a madwoman, knit, and sew. And her lace? Oh! Her lace! I love her because she is up all hours like I am. If I email her at 3am, she answers right back. Crazy!

Go check 'em all out, and report back to me. Go. Go!

And, finally, The Frenchboro Bakery website is about to get a new 'do.

I had something like 3 days to get that website up and functional. Nightmare.

Now that I've had some time (What??), I've been able to work on it.

I still can't say it's fun, this web-design stuff, but it's better than a root canal.

Go forth, my friends,  be fruitful, and multiply.

Be careful when you stand up...I've had you sitting on your butts reading for so long, you may get light-headed. I don't want anybody getting hurt.

Thank You

...for all of your wonderful suggestions for dinner.

Because I am limited to what is actually in the fridge/freezer/cupboards, I ended up with sausage, peppers, mushroom, fresh basil/ marinara pizza on a sun-dried tomato and olive crust. (I can't remember if that one had pepperoni on it, too.) 

Pizza won out because Thing Two requested it 'specially. Too freakin' cute to turn down.

And seafood chowder. and biscuits. Because it was that kind o' day.

This afternoon, I had the bright idea of moving a 50lb bag of flour into a large bin. 

Guess what!!!

The bin, which says, very clearly, that it will hold 50 lbs of flour, DOESN"T!

Who wants to guess how I found that out?

Answer: my once-wood floors now look whitewashed.

Whitewashed is a good term to describe the convo I had with the company who made the bin.

And I'll just bet that whitewashed is what their faces looked like when I was done with them.

They will send the appropriate container. Free shipping.

But they won't send a person over to clean my floor. (That's ok, I would have done it over when they left anyway..)

You all had me drooling over your suggestions. And Linda, of steak and cheese fame? The Big Guy thanks you from the bottom of his heart. Our version will be made with deer steaks, because that's all the meat we have, and it's one of his favorite things. It's on the menu for Friday night. With fresh baked rolls.

Tomorrow the school is  throwing an island wide dinner for our art teacher, Anne Claude Cotty. Anne Claude travels out to the island once a month and stays overnight to teach art classes. We love her!

I am making a special raspberry chocolate cake in her honor. I made the ganache today, and will be re-making it tomorrow. Let's just say...it was really good.

What? Oh, don't look at me like that! If you had a bowl of ganache, you would have sat on the couch and watched reruns of the Andy Griffith Show and ate it with a spoon, too.

You know you've done it. And how awesome is the Andy Griffith Show?

It's 1:21am. I'm going to make the ganache right now, because I just realized how little time I will have tomorrow to cook. That is why God made The Big Guy and the Things deep sleepers. I could vacuum and they wouldn't get up. 

And I could go for something chocolatey...