Another week spent in Maine… well, ALMOST a week. It was supposed to be a full week, but Mother Nature has a nasty way of reminding you that you are often NOT the master of your own fate in New England, not even close sometimes.
We spent Christmas in Woburn, with a pleasant and relaxing morning spent with our little 5-member family. Megan and Dan drove down from Lowell to join Audrey, Lynn and me for stockings, breakfast (Eggs Benedict), and presents on Christmas morning, in that order. After that the no-longer-newlyweds headed to Dan’s parents’ house for dinner with his family, and the three of us headed to my sister’s house up the street for dinner and visits with five of her six children with spouses and nine of her eleven grand-kids. To borrow a poker term, it was a full house (and some were flushed!).
Drifted Snow on Lynn's Car
Our plan was to celebrate Christmas in Woburn and then head up to the Ballot Box on the day after (Sunday) for the week, BUT… our first official blizzard of the season (and the first snowstorm of the season requiring the awakening of the snow-blowing beast that sleeps in the garage) struck. Mother Nature let us know that she had other plans, so we hung around until Tuesday morning. The storm dumped sixteen inches of blowing drifting snow on Woburn that I cleared away with the snow-blower on Monday. Audrey had to be at work in Beverly by 10 AM so I got up at 6:30 and had her car cleared and useable by 8 AM when she hit the road, expecting a commute from hell in the middle of the blizzard. It was bad, but not as bad as anticipated (most people stayed off the road), so she got to work an hour early. I finished clearing out the other two cars and clearing the walkways, sidewalks, and hydrants, but it was still snowing and we were getting reports that the highways were a mess, so we waited until the next day to head up, and by then it was blue sky and dry roads all the way up. Before we left we saw our Maine snow-plow-man via the webcam clearing the 450-foot Ballot Box driveway, so we knew we could get into the house.
Ron Plowing Us Out
We arrived Tuesday afternoon, after a lunch stop at the Kennebunk rest-stop on the Maine turnpike and a visit to J. L. Coombs shoe outlet in Freeport for slip-on boots for Lynn. We unpacked the car, powered up the well pump and the hot water heater and turned up the propane furnaces (which get powered off or lowered when the house is unoccupied for a stretch), and made some coffee to relax with after our drive. Dinner at the Newcastle Publick House was plentiful and tasty (Shepherd’s Pie made with pulled LAMB [not hamburger] for Lynn, Beef Pie in a cheddar cheese crust for me, we both took half home for lunch the next day), and the selection of craft draught beers was extensive.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent mostly relaxing, with minor chores and errands such as visits to the post office and grocery store, filling the seven bird feeders (mostly empty after a three-week respite), finishing the attachment of the cellar stairs railing (two screws were waiting for a stubby Phillips-head screwdriver), hanging a glove/mitten box on the coat closet door, shoveling out the turn-around for the car by the house so we didn’t have to back out the serpentine driveway, hunting for the cover to the composting bin that apparently was blown off during the Maine edition of the 2010 blizzard that delayed our arrival, setting up the new Bose wave radio with Aluratek internet radio attachment in the quilt room, and building and hanging new curtains for the triple-wide arched windows in the master bedroom.
Thursday I spent 4-5 hours at the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds in Wiscasset. I am doing the “genealogy” (so-to-speak) of the Ballot Box house structure by first researching the deeds and other official paperwork associated with the land in Damariscotta where the structure that is now the Ballot Box resided before it was moved to its new location in Newcastle in 2007. The structure was rumored to have originally been built in the 1860′s as a true carriage (as in “horse and carriage”) house beside the main house, on the corner of Elm Street and Lewis Point Road, but I have traced deeds and other documents back to the early 1880s so far, and the common deed phrase “… tract of land with buildings…” does not appear until 1891 so I am speculating that the house and carriage house were built on the land by John E. Barker sometime between April 1883 and June 1891 (full details so far are on the House History page on the Ballot Box web site). Further research will have to wait until I can get another free weekday up there to revisit the registry of deeds office. After this research project I’ll begin tracing the ownership of the land on which the Ballot Box now sits, the two and a half acres of land carved out of the 15+ acres deeded to Jane R. Ludwig in January 2000.
Thursday's Dinner
Thursday evening Lynn prepared a wonderful gourmet New Year’s Eve Eve (the day BEFORE New Year’s Eve) meal for the two of us – pan-seared citrus pork chops with peaches, green peppers and shallots, with zucchini and tomato au gratin as a vegetable, and brown rice as a starch. Awesome with a good red wine!
Friday, New Year’s Eve, was another relaxing day spent on relaxing activities – reading, listening to music, napping, watching the birds at the feeders, etc. Lynn and I made 7 PM reservations at our favorite restaurant in the area (the Damariscotta River Grill) for their annual New Year’s Eve Three-Course Price Fix offering, where you get an appetizer, a main meal, and a dessert for a fixed price. For appetizers, Lynn had the Tempura Oysters (her all-time favorite restaurant-prepared food from any restaurant anywhere) and I had the gnocchi in garlic-parmesan olive oil with asparagus and roasted tomatoes. Lynn’s main meal was the Two-Textured Duck (grilled duck breast and confit duck leg) with wild cherry sauce and wild rice (coincidentally the meal that Audrey had last New Year’s Eve) and she loved it. I had the Herb-Crusted Lamb Chops with a green peppercorn mustard demi-glaze (rare, of course), which was delicious. Lynn is not fond of lamb so I only get it out at restaurants. For desserts, Lynn had the pear tart which was yummy, and I ordered the Crème Brûlée with “extra torch” (the crispy top is created by aiming a blow-torch at the sugared milk brûlée to singe it and create a layer of caramelized crème). It was divine.
At home after dinner, we played a few games of Dominoes (something different), watched any New Year’s Eve show that didn’t have Dick Clark on it (the man is worse than Bret Favre as far as knowing when to retire!), and broke open a bottle of champagne to toast the new year as the ball descended in Allied Chemical Square.
Saturday, New Year’s Day, we headed off to Foster’s Auction House around the corner and down the street on Route 1 to observe an estate auction. Neither of us had ever been to an auction but both of us have always wanted to see what they were like, so we headed off to the New Year’s Day auction. It was mobbed! We purposefully did NOT register to bid, but we did get a lot list so we could see what was coming up. It was fascinating and very enjoyable. We could have a lot of fun bidding on items and maybe even winning! What we really should do is haul up some of our “clutter” stored in the garage in Woburn and LIGHTEN our load of stuff, rather than buying more stuff!
Homemade Prime Rib!
After we tired of the auction (it was going on all day) we pointed the car towards Boothbay Harbor and Southport and Newagen, and explored around the end of the peninsula. Back home it was Gene’s turn to prepare dinner, so I cooked a little three-rib Angus rib roast with baked potatoes and mixed vegetables, and we had a prime-rib-style feast with a good Black Rooster Chianti red wine. Heaven!
Sunday, it was off to Portland so I could catch the 12:20 Amtrak Downeaster train back to Woburn to return to work Monday morning. Lynn visited with her niece Kristine in Portland after dropping me off at the station. Lynn gets to stay and play in Maine for the month, with a return to Woburn for some parties scheduled for the middle weekend.
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