Second day all by myself.....

Jeesh. I dont think I really like this at all....

Yes, it is nice to have the place to myself...I get to o what I want, when I want....

but it is way too quiet here and I miss Callum and Maira asking me 43,761 questions per hour, and I miss Amanda wanting to have serious conversations about our life at 1130 at night when I am trying to go to bed...haha

The other day, before Amanda and the kids left, Callum wanted to have some lobster. So CS and I went over to B&F to get some (3.99 per pound...not bad). They were, as the original papa GOldsmith would say, FAIR. They werent all that great...they werent quite soft shell OR hard shell...they were somewhere in between...and the meat wasnt as sweet as other lobsters I have had #firstworldproblems...

VERY excited to buy the lobsters, cook them, hold them, put them into the water, put them on a plate, take their elastics off, and sit down to eat....

....and ended up eating ZERO percent of any lobster, saying "um....I think I only eat lobster with Papa." Fair enough. More for us. Maira, on the other hand, put on a CLINIC with her corn, and wouldnt bring herself within six feet of any lobster. Too scary, she said....

I have been keeping busy...stacking firewood, ordering another cord of firewood, and puttering in our weeden (some call them their 'garden'). Today I had the fall coaches meeting with our new athletic director, and I met our new principal. I have been reading, catching up on X-Files (one of the best shows EVER), making pickles with all our cucumbers, and playing cribbage with Karl. Yesterday, former students Conner, Sydney and I paddled a great little section of the Kennebec, right here in Fairfield, putting in under the Shawmut dam, and paddling down to the downtown Fairfield boat launch

Here is a view of the Shawmut Dam on teh Kennebec....it is hard to see, but if you blow it up you can see, across the river, the Flood dairy farm...a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Maine milk dairy farm. The trout fishing at the base of the dam (mostly on the other side where there are huge rock ledges to stand on) is legendary. The water is fast and fun when you first put in....

I thought this was cool--one of the regular freight trains that passes through Fairfield each day, as seen from the water on our way approaching 'downtown.' Notice all the little rocky 'islands' in the river....these were used by river drivers during the log drives when they used to float logs down the river from up in Moosehead lake, etc...

What a great paddle, literally only 1.5 miles away from our house....

And, finally, here are Emma and Maira eating dinner yesterday.....what a ham is that Maira!