Pumpkin Chucking!

When you live miles and miles from civilization, you tend to get creative with your down time.  Here in Machias where summers are short and winters are long, we try to cram as much community activity into the few months of warmth as we can.  Today, for instance, people from miles around came out to watch local schools compete in the pumpkin chucking contest.

Here was the winning team with their homemade contraption (catapult? trebuchet?).  They placed a huge barrel weighted down with concrete in the middle of the weapon.  When they cranked the barrell up toward the top of their contraption, the arm of the sling was pushed down to the ground.

They loaded the pumpkin and dropped the weight, which unleashed the sling.

The pumpkin goes flying through the air...

...and makes a huge splash as it plummets into the river.

Voila!  Instant red neck fun.

Bucks Harbor

Jordan spent last Tuesday working as a stern man on a lobster boat.  He learned two very important lessons:  1.  Dramamine isn't necessarily 100% effective in 10-ft seas.  2.  If you can get through spending the first 3 hours with your head over the side of the boat, lobster fishing is actually a lot of fun.

It's hard to resist hours on the bold coast of Maine.  So Jordan, who has always wanted a boat and was unable to lug our old skiff cross country, is looking at lobster boats.  One of his favorites is currently anchored in Bucks Harbor (don't ask me which one).

While we were looking at boats, we came across this hidden beach at low tide.  It reminds me that the ocean is so powerful - and that rocks and trees that hold on against the relentless tide are pretty strong too!

Plight of the Pig

There is a saying that those who forget history are destined to repeat it.  True that.  In a scene eerily reminiscent of the Great Pig Escape of June 2011 (look at our archived posts if you want a refresher), one of the newest members of our menagerie escaped our clutches on its first night at the farm.

Thankfully, Jordan fixed our broken net ages ago, and this little guy just wasn't in the mood for a grueling work out.

So here are our new swine friends.  Thane's Walter is the big guy in the back, and Cinnamon Tinkerbell is in front.  Can you guess who named him?!?

Walter, however, had another scare in store.  Sometime during his second day at our home, his castration site got infected. BADLY.  He was almost gone by the time Jordan got home, but we've managed to nurse him back to health with the wonder twins of modern medicine: penicillin and pedialyte.  

Walter is rapidly gaining back the weight he lost.  Cinnamon, on the other hand, seems to resent having to share food again.  We caught him lounging in the feed bin, where he was able to access feed to his little heart's content.  Pig indeed!