New Home Many Surprises: Part One

Hello Everyone, hope you all are surviving the winter alright.  Here in Maine we have been getting hit with crazy weather.  Winter 2018 has shown us crazy wind storms, stretches of sub-zero weather, snow storm after snow storm, then warmer temps move in and bring rain, that melts all the snow creating flooding problems. Not the kind of winter I like.
We did however, get a lovely snowfall on Christmas day, but shortly after that Don and I learned about the problem areas of our new home real quick. I'm not here to complain, but luckily we avoided some disasters.

Christmas Day 2017 shoveling out after a long winters nap

This post is all about the past 6 months and getting to know our new home (It's finally starting to feel that way)  :)

Our journey of getting to know the property include

Part One

1.Things discovered

2.Local wildlife

Part Two

3.Things uncovered

4.Home warning signs

Things Discovered

We have a very old house built in the 1800's and many acres of land around it.  It's interesting to think about what our land was used for back when the early settlers came here. In this area lived the families of sea merchants, loggers, farmers, and fishermen to name a few.

In fact we have 2 past residents laid to rest on our lot.  

Yes! Two graves stones on our lot both from the 1800's. 
Alice E. sits to the left side of the house near the garden, and Roy L. is set behind us on the edge of the woods near the field.  I couldn't tell you if these stone belong to people or beloved pets, but my guess is that marble headstones would have been a big expense for most people in those days.  

Alice and Roy's graves stones are not this big, but you get the point.
Photo taken at Evergreen Cemetery in Portland 

In the fall a crazy, an out of nowhere windstorm knocked out power to half of Maine. We were lucky not to have any home damage, but did need to get a limb removed near the house. The limb cracked and hung low near the middle part of the chimney and would now slam into its' side when the wind churned up.  Yikes!

My cousin Rick from Maine Tree Services, informed us that we have a Black Locust trees on our lot.  Black Locust is an extremely hard wood that grows tall and straight, up to 100ft. This gave us an idea, for saving money on our kitchen. 

Any guesses on what are we going to use this for??

The Local Wildlife

I think in a previous post I mentioned that we bought 31 acres of untamed land. We have woods that need clearing(lots of fallen trees), brush that needs cutting, and grape vines that need a trellis. Plus, we have the usual wildlife like deer, fox, chipmunks, red and gray squirrels, skunks, porcupines, and a variety of birds. I grew up on a farm, so sharing the land with these creatures is expected.  

Deer are everywhere around here, I love seeing the deer every morning in our field or across the street in the neighbors front yard.  One morning we had a baby faun running around the yard looking for momma.  She was so cute with lots of spots and so tiny

Here Kitty Kitty, I still can't believe what I saw. Last summer 
while staining cedar shingles with my bestie Denise, I noticed a movement and a familiar shape, as I looked up I was thinking, "I haven't seen any cats around here" well, it wasn't a kitty kitty, it was a much bigger cat, not 20ft away a juvenile bobcat walked past us giving a few sideways glances, kind of saying, "you stay put and I won't hurt you". 

Some of the other creatures we've come across are
- A Long Tail Weasel pocking around (super cute, but a fierce little bugger) I kept calling him our Ricki Ticki, then Don pointed out that Ricki Ticki is a mongoose. Err! 
- A salamander making a home in a tree stump we pulled up.
- Coyotes howling at the moon or whatever prey they have cornered.
- Turkeys crossing the road with their flock of hatching's 
- Chipmunks or aka "Chippy" are so cute and live in little pathways throughout the yard. So cute to see their heads poke up from little holes in the yard.

Part Two is in the making.  We have also been poking away at projects in the kitchen so we can get to the big stuff. 

More fun to come