Whelping time in Muscongus Bay

Mother seal and pup

Spring is in full swing in Maine. A neighbor invited us out to see the seals with their pups in Muscongus Bay, the chunk of the Atlantic that touches Friendship. Quite a number of them were sunning on a warm day, on the rock ledges that only show themselves when the tide goes out. A number of pups were visible in the group. They were reluctant to get into the cold salt water, but their parents urged them on as we approached.

I suspect that there are few predators in the area that might threaten them, so this is probably a good mating ground.
Basking in the sun

We met this neighbor as we took a morning walk down to the ocean. He was working on his sailboat, had his runabout tied up at the dock, and was looking for a break. Lucky us.

Back in Maine

Purple trillium near our house

We arrived back at our Maine house on Tuesday, May 6. The house and barn were found to be in better condition than when we left, since the sheet rock crew had been here and done most of the ceilings. We thought we should stay in the motorhome until we had all the new sheetrock primed, but we couldn't wait that long. We did our bedroom and moved on in.

The reports we heard from our local friends suggested that they had a rough winter. Much more snow than usual, and cold an blustery.

Spring is not here yet

Thumper was overjoyed to be free in a place she loves. She started out by racing around the house and barn 3 or 4 times, then collapsed on some throw rugs we threw out to air. After that, she took a swim in the neighbors pond and wandered the field out back.

We bought a dresser for the guest room from Craigslist, stopping in Portland to check it out and close the deal, but we couldn't put it in the motorhome. So I got the Explorer out of the barn and we went back down there on Friday to pick it up, and to drop about $350 at Lowe's, on primer, paint, and odds and ends.

Resting in the mostly empty living room

One of the Lowe's items was a 25' snake. On Saturday morning, I wriggled into the crawl space under the kitchen to clear the sink drain, which had plugged beyond the trap somewhere. That all went well. Later in the day I tried to clear the cellar drain, with no luck. We're going to have to build a proper sump and buy a pump and dehumidifier to dry out the cellar.

I was happy to get back to the gas grill we have here. I started out with some killer pork chops, followed with a pork roast.

We accomplished a lot in the first few days, but there's so much more to go. We'll just have to chip, chip, chip away at it.