S Trevor

Great meeting everyone today.  I enjoyed the exchange of ideas and knowledge.  

Cheers, happy land hunting to those looking, happy and blackfly-free progress to those with projects under development!

Thanks for setting this up, Matt!

Bangor works for me.  The projected timing also works (at the moment).  

I'm in far eastern Penobscot County, near Springfield.

I'd be interested in a few weeks.  I just finished maple season and am a couple weeks behind getting my seeds started, so that, and repairing winter/mud season damage, is my life for the next little while.

Steve Zoma wrote:Nice S. Trevor,

I am a bit further away as I live over in Waldo County having places in different corners of that county both on ridgetops (my main farm) and down on a river.

I work in renewable energy which is nice, because for the Permies members on here that are on-grid, its nice to be getting them renewable power from a good clean source (hydropower).

Maine definitely sports a variety of terrain over short distances.  My place is almost entirely sloped.  One of my plans is for a pond about 2/3 the way up the ridge, and I have been toying with the idea of micro hydro generators (say 500-600 watts each) on the outlet.  I haven't even gotten to the stage of sketches, so it's a couple years away.  Once it gets closer, I'll likely post plans for sanity check reviews.

Richard Lawrence wrote:
Where abouts in east maine we are around the patten area would love to connect with other maine farmers

I'm about an hour and a half east of Patten, just south of Springfield. I go through Patten several times a year to head up to the North Woods.  While I've worked on farms in the past, I can't honestly call myself a farmer.  Perhap hobby homesteader (dare I say wannabe homesteader) with an ever-growing, never-dwindling  to-do list would be closer to the mark.

Hi Neale, congrats on the find along the Maine Coast!

If you start harvesting the coppiced trees, consider counting the rings, getting an average timespan on the growth to your preferred firewood sizes (no-split, one-split, all-nighters, etc).

Once you determine how much wood you need for a season, and how big an area you need to harvest to reach the number of cords you use, you'll be able to plan it out in sections by number of years it takes to grow your annual needs.

That could help you to plan out a firewood "garden" for several years/decades into the future.  It'll also let you look ahead at road/trail maintenance to access the next couple years' harvest spots.

There are additional considerations as you get started, of course.  Year after year, the successive growth of your existing standing trees will mean you require less area than the previous year to meet your needs.  But, ballpark figures always help.

Cheers, and good luck with your new spot!

The new building (shell at this point) going up beside the old cabin.

Other than a bit of excavator work and the basement walls, all the labor has been by two of my brothers and me.

The cabin as it was when I bought the place in the mid-2000s.  It's about the size of glorified ice shack, but it heats pretty easily due to the small cubic footage.  From late March to early November, I can get away with just lighting two Humphrey gas lights.  The past week or two has definitely needed the woodstove going.

I typically make a very meaty pasta sauce several times a year, so I almost always have a jar at hand.

On my worn-out-but-starving nights, I heat a quart in a saucepan and have it over toast.  Kinda like a manwich, but not gross tasting.

I can't say it's super cheap, but I get pretty good mileage out of little Greek salad bites, and it's stuff I typically have on my grocery list or in the fridge.

Feta cheese block
Small cherry or grape tomatoes
Pitted Kalamata olives (my choice)
Olive oil
Dill
Toothpicks

I cut the feta into 3/8 to 1/2 inch cubes, toss in olive oil and dill, then skewer an olive, a tomato, and then the feta cube.  They (mostly) stand upright on the feta.

Eaten as an entire bite, it's a refreshing little appetizer or buffet addition.

On the toothpick-type foods, a seedless grape over a cheddar cheese cube goes over pretty well, too.