What is going on with this weather? We have gone from some rather cold temperatures last week to 60s and 70s this week. I am sort of regretting taking the boat out now. We ran out of propane at the cottage, where we are staying while our house is being built, and woke up to 41-degree temps inside last Tuesday. It did not take me long to call the company to find out why we weren’t filled automatically and to get the fireplace and cookstove roaring.

Evening grosbeaks have made their triumphant return to Lincoln County. Traveling in flocks, these finches have arrived in numbers not seen in decades. I had seen pictures of their invasion on Facebook, but a reader also tipped me off recently. John Kierstead, of Jefferson, wrote to let me know that he had not seen this level of grosbeak activity since the late 1970s or early 1980s. A group of 15-20 had descended on his feeders, generously sampling the food provided.

Veterans Day has always been a special day, going back to my childhood as a young boy. My mother’s brother, Perley Russel Bailey, was born on July 7, 1895 in South Jefferson and married Thelma Bosworth and they had seven children. Uncle Perley was a veteran who served in World War I and often talked of the long war. He died on March 24, 1981 at Togus Hospital at the age of 85. I have a shell head he gave me as a young boy that he brought back from France. He once told my mother that it was by the grace of God he came back in one piece.

Recently, I enjoyed a hike through the Ravine Trail at Dodge Point in Newcastle. The trail was empty, and the weather was typical of late fall in Maine. The ravine you pass through is a peaceful place, as is the farm road that takes you back to the parking lot. Unfortunately, as I reached the kiosk at the trailhead, I observed that it was covered with trash.

This past week I started to do one of my annual fall cleaning jobs in the west living room before winter sets in. First I had to remove some of the furniture and small scatter rugs that cover the large oriental rug so I could give it a real good cleaning and vacuum it to remove all the small particles that had been tracked in during the summer. Then I polished and dusted all the furniture before I moved it back into the west living room. Then I took all the scatter rugs outdoors and shook them and then vacuumed them and replaced them in the right location in the west living room.

Dear Community Members,

I hope you are well and enjoying the subtle changes of early autumn. This is the important time of year when we ask you to make a gift to support Skidompha Library’s work. Asking for money is never a comfortable task — and we did not send our spring appeal this year due to the pandemic. But I am hopeful that you will be inspired to give now, because I know that throughout 2020, Skidompha has worked very hard to redefine, diversify, and enhance how we offer library services.

At first glance, pet sitting seems like an easy job. You show up in someone’s beautiful home, you lovingly care for their pet, and then you go away, always leaving the place a little better than you found it (if possible — some houses are spotless to begin with!).

This 2020 season has been a hard one for everyone, including those of us who love local history.

This summer, I started magnet fishing. A fast-growing hobby, magnet fishing involves tossing a magnet into bodies of water in the hope of retrieving metal. Popularized by YouTube videos, magnet fishing has arrived in Lincoln County and seems to be enjoying what can only be termed a moment.