Category: Home and Garden

Just look at our new garden beds taking shape

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Warning! Don’t get your soil tested. Ignorance can be bliss, until you discover you’re being poisoned.

Well, others in town told us we really should submit the samples. And then, when we opened the envelope with the results from the dirt we sent to Orono, we had to face the reality that the lead levels here are way off the charts.

It’s not just old paint, either, but decades of pesticides used on the apple trees all over the island, even before we get to the long-gone canneries. Maybe even the pearlescence factory, too.

Flowers are one thing, but what we plan on eating is another. And my wife is not only a devoted gardener but also a fabulous cook. Meaning fresh food from the garden is essential.

Contrary to the website blurb, these cannot be put together in five minutes. An hour and a half per bed is more accurate. The front yard, do note, has the best sunlight.

So here’s what’s happening. New raised beds, using kits ordered online. We went with metal, which prices out roughly about the same as wood these days and will definitely last longer. My experiences maintaining wooden frames in Dover had me leaning toward change here.

Set atop a layer of landscape fabric and cardboard to suppress grass and weeds, we then filled these with (ugh) purchased bags of soil and compost. As we were counseled, there was no guarantee local loam had been tested. We want to be safe.

Well, as she says, it’s cheaper than therapy.

Besides, we’re finding it’s generating a lot of talk around town and the conversations from the sidewalk are lively.

Now, if we can only keep the deer at bay. As they used to say on TV, please stay tuned.

Almost like having two homes

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

With the Red Barn’s focus lately on two communities a state apart – Dover and Eastport – I’m also getting a sense of people who have two or more homes and locales.

Eastport, after all, has a large number of Summer People, some of them quite active in community affairs when they’re here. Maybe some of them can explain to me how they manage.

You know, all the extra costs and responsibilities. How many possessions do you have to duplicate, and how many others need to be packed and repacked for each shift?

And then there are all of the people’s names and faces to remember.

For me, one home can be overwhelming.

Call it Victorian, if you must

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 11 Comments

By the time of the Civil War, Bangor as in Maine was the world’s leading lumber port. Some of that wealth is reflected in the proud Second Empire, Greek Revival, and Federal style homes that punctuate the Broadway Historic District and elsewhere through the city.

My elder daughter would find these to be models for her annual gingerbread houses.

Meanwhile, do any of them capture your imagination?

And you wonder where Stephen King got his inspiration?

Not that I see anyone using theirs

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I always wondered about the practicality of outdoor window shutters, which were a staple on old houses, even back in the Midwest.

Now that I’m living along a coast that for months has had small-craft or gale warnings in our forecasts seemingly daily, the appendages make a lot more sense. They’re not just decorative. Objects blow about like projectiles, for sure, but more than that, a layer that breaks the icy wind before it slams up against the glass panes and worms through the sash into the house definitely adds some relief.

Of course, our Cape has only one remaining shutter, and it’s too small for the window beside it. Purely decorative, it’s nailed securely to the siding. Hopefully, it provides some extra insulation there.