Lake Living vol. 22, no. 1

FREE spring 2019 • vol. 22, no. 1

Cooking with Clay plus

evolving home finding home patch of land shaker inspired

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editor’s note

Editor & Publisher Laurie LaMountain Staff Writers Leigh Macmillen Hayes, Marguerite Wiser Contributing Photographers Ethan McNerney, Leigh Macmillen Hayes, Patch Farm, Ross Timberlake Graphic Designer Dianne Lewis Proofreader/Copy Editor Leigh Macmillen Hayes Lake Living is published quarterly by Almanac Graphics, Inc., 625 Rocky Knoll Rd, Denmark, ME 04022 207-452-8005. www.lakelivingmaine. com e-mail: lakeliving@fairpoint.net ©2019. All rights reserved. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent from the publisher. Annual subscriptions are available by sending check or money order for $20 to the above address.

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spring 2019 • vol. 22, no. 1

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8 the evolving home

by leigh macmillen hayes

11 finding home

by laurie lamountain

14 shaker inspired

by leigh macmillen hayes with laurie lamountain

16 a patch of land, part ii

by marguerite wiser

19 cooking with clay

by laurie lamountain

22 an improved state

of home

by laurie lamountain

25 dear earth

by leigh macmillen hayes

cover photo by ethan mcnerney baby jane bakes a cake

patch farm

The only thing more cliché than a new parent is someone with a new puppy.

Besides assaulting you with photos and videos of the latest cute thing they did, your once intelligent friends are reduced to doting idiots who say things like “go poo” and refer to themselves as Mummy when talking to their newest arrival.

Did I mention I have a new puppy?

He’s really cute! That’s him, right there.

And, no, I didn’t write an article on animal shelters and rescues just so that I could put a picture of him in here (I would have found a way to do that anyway), but when opportunity knocks . . .

Seriously, and it is a serious subject, without the aid of these organizations, there would so many animals who would either become public nuisances or perish.

They not only provide food and shelter for every animal who comes through their doors, but necessary medical care and neutering. It was an eye-opening experience to witness the number of stray dogs in Puerto Rico who freely roam the streets scavenging for food. It makes neutering seem the only humane solution.

Finding Home is just one piece of this At Home issue, but given the important place pets have in our lives, it’s every bit as pertinent as the other great articles. I hope you enjoy them all. And I hope that if you’re an animal lover, you’ll find a way to thank these organizations for the important service they provide—either by making a donation or by volunteering your time.

Laurie LaMountain

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The Evolving Home by leigh macmillen hayes

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wenty-six years ago, when our oldest son Shep was born, we realized we needed more room than the tiny camp we were living in offered and so we began that age-old practice of house hunting. The curious thing—the old house we were interested in wasn’t for sale. But it had stood empty for quite a while and upon contacting the owner several times, we were eventually able to purchase it when Shep was four months old.

What attracted us to a 19th century home? Several things including the summer kitchen, kitchen with fireplace, butler’s pantry with built-in cupboards, radiators, separate rooms, and large windows that filled the house with natural light.

It seems the age of our boys now helps us remember changes we’ve made over the years. We moved into the house when Shep was nine months old, after we’d stripped all the wallpaper, resurfaced the horsehair

Still, did it make sense to add on at a time when our family unit was mainly the two of us? Would this be the right place for us in the future?

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plaster, painted every room, and pulled up carpets throughout that revealed beautiful pine floors. The floors needed sanding and polyurethane, and so we took on that final task before taking up residence.

Three years later when our youngest, Patrick, was one and Shep three, we renovated the kitchen by drawing up a plan that appealed to us. The contractor we hired followed it to a T. By the time Pat was three and Shep five, we realized that the upstairs bathroom needed tender loving care as it felt like we were looking uphill each time we sat on the toilet.

Turns out we were. At some point a joist had been cut to accommodate the bathroom addition. As we contemplated updating it, we decided we might as well add a third bedroom over the kitchen and summer kitchen.

Fast forward to 2017. Both boys (young men by now, but they’ll always be “the boys” to us) had graduated from college and moved on to their careers when we decided to tear up the carpet in what had originally served as a dining room where we rarely ate a meal and had instead become our den. The floor was fir rather than pine and we hadn’t refinished it all those years ago because we didn’t have the right equipment.

The result of the dark stained wood added a much warmer ambiance to the room.

And suddenly the kitchen around the corner

seemed old and dim and in need of rejuvenation. I thought changing out the appliances and a new floor and countertops would be enough. My husband, Allen, suggested that maybe it needed to be a bit larger.

Still, did it make sense to add on at a time when our family unit was mainly the two of us? Would this be the right place for us in the future?

Despite our slight reservations, we contacted residential designer Jennifer Gosselin of JMG Designs, Inc. in March 2018.

We met with her and discussed what we thought we wanted, but for the most part we weren’t sure; possibly an extension of the kitchen and summer kitchen out toward the backyard and the addition of a three-piece bathroom downstairs.

I wanted to keep the kitchen fireplace.

And we needed to still have an indoor entrance to the barn. And yada, yada, yada.

At Jenn’s suggestion, we did invite two contractors who could jack the house up to take a look. They came by and gave us a price, but still we hesitated. And kept Jenn dangling.

Summer came and went, and it was in the fall of 2018 that we finally agreed on the concept of the renovation. Maybe it was because we’d each silently imagined what the space could have been by summer’s end and yet it was still the same old space.

On a rainy November day we sat down

at the kitchen counter with a piece of graph paper before us and discussed some possibilities for the rooms. The addition of a bathroom perplexed us because I didn’t want it to extend across the entire summer kitchen in order to get natural light. And then it dawned on us that not all bathrooms have windows. With that, we came up with a skeleton plan that we thought might work and a few days later I contacted Jenn again.

As it turned out, she was booked through the middle of January, but said that would still work with our timeline of hoping to have the project completed by late summer/early fall.

In the meantime, we pulled out a spiral notebook and began to jot down ideas of what we wanted/didn’t want.

Want: sliding barn door between kitchen and summer kitchen; natural materials; pull-out shelves; dishwasher, perhaps a covered back porch to grill; mudroom; transom-style windows in the bathroom.

Don’t want: granite countertops; subway tiles. Both lists continue to grow.

In late January we met with Jenn again and shared our new ideas. Right away she got that we wanted to modernize the two rooms while maintaining the historical integrity of the house. Though we began with no specific design in mind, she stepped in with incredible patience as we rambled on.

She also understood that we have become so accustomed to the space that we couldn’t necessarily see its potential. And that we are not only adjusting to what could eventually be a changing family dynamic if the boys bring home spouses and perhaps children, but also to our futures as we age and may no longer be able to climb the stairs to go to the bathroom or bedroom. For the foreseeable future, the summer kitchen will continue to serve as my office, but we’d like it to have the potential to transform easily into a downstairs bedroom should we need it.

As we delved deeper into this project, I began to understand that it’s a bit like writing an article. The idea forms, research and interviews are conducted, drafts written or blueprints drawn, the editing process begins and suddenly it’s a done deal.

Before we got too far, I asked to sit down with Jenn and her colleague, interior designer Melissa Ellen Downes, to find out what we or any homeowner should consider when embarking on such a project.

How long have you been doing this sort of work?

JMG: I have owned my business since 1998. Before that I worked for a company that designs banks and hospitals. It felt so impersonal because I didn’t get to meet with the clients so I went off on my own and decided to focus on residential design.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the smiles on my clients faces when I make their ideas a reality.

MED: I was in the construction field since 2006. Before that I was a seamstress for a high-end interior designer. I’ve been able to match all my skills into one. I think it all through and have seen both sides.

How does the process work?

JMG: The initial contact with clients is usually by phone where I ask them to email me any information they have gathered whether it be photos, sketches, or a list of things that are important to them. I then set up a time to meet with them. It is amazing by just listening and watching how I can understand what the client is looking for even if they are not sure. With a remodel, I will measure existing conditions, which look like a bunch of scribbles that only I can interpret, so I can reconstruct the existing structure on paper. The important thing is to always make the addition look like it has been there all along. Once the preliminary concept is created, it starts a conversation to move forward with revisions. We will keep

changing the plans until we get it right. Then I produce the construction plans.

MED: My part is Scope of Work, which covers everything from clearing trees to painting the last piece of trim and all the steps between. During renovation what will be saved? What will get trashed? I can help with the order of events—when to have fixtures on site to keep the project moving.

I take Jenn’s plan and make it priceable for a contractor.

It is extremely beneficial to hire a specialist who knows the products in the market.

As designers, we provide the spec and let the contractors focus on their craft. People who haven’t worked with a designer always wish later that they’d had help. So much work goes into designing space, drafting it, but then more details need to be considered—blending old floors with new floors, figuring out what works, what doesn’t work.

It’s all so layered.

Will we see drawings of the proposed end result?

JMG: Melissa takes my drawings and creates a digital version that can more easily accommodate client changes to keep the price from adding up.

MED: The number one thing I hear is, ‘I can’t picture it.’ [She pulls out her computer and shows me 3-D drawings of local projects.] Do you see how similar the actual

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photographs are to the drawings? It helps to have a visual layout. You can look at a swatch and see if it will work.

What happens if a couple come to the project with two different ideas in mind?

JMG: I gather enough information to take the burden off the homeowner and come up with a plan. Over the course of conversations we manipulate the plan and try to get the couple to agree on the concept. We’re very good at listening to both sides and incorporating their ideas in such a way that they don’t realize they’ve been compromised.

MED: For some couples, one person cares more about a particular section of the house than the other. It’s like we take black and white and blend them together. I think that comes with being good at what we do.

What might be important issues, considerations, and challenges of our project?

JMG: With a remodel, a lot is structural. I look at the plumbing and mechanical, trying to make sure we don’t run into any issues during the construction process. Remodels can be difficult because there are unseen issues that arise all the time, like rotted wood for example. I try to get as much information on the front end to make it an easier process for the client and the contractor.

MED: I’ll get pricing, but also allow for potential unforeseen items. We want this to be fun. We don’t want you to be stressed.

How will you address our desire to age in place?

MED: We’re doing the layout for now while thinking about the future. You might not want hand bars in the shower now, but we can place the fixtures in there for future aging in place.

JMG: We want to make sure the conversion works nicely. You’re planning for the

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end result, in this case a bedroom that will serve as a nice office for a while.

As the clients, what do we need to do?

JMG: Communication is key and we want to work the design around what you are looking for. We listen to what your needs are.

MED: A client hits a point where they’ve already committed to the job. It’s a huge deal.

It changes your life at that time as you go through the construction process. Like Jenn said, we need to listen to make it manageable.

Their passion was obvious as the two young women practically finished each other’s sentences. Our next step was to wait a

week for Jenn to develop a couple of design options. As much as I wanted to pester her and ask how it was going, I waited patiently.

And on the day she said we’d have them, they arrived via email.

My initial reaction: Yikes! But then I realized that here we are wanting change, only it’s so difficult to imagine our house any other way.

Allen has his own take on things and actually drew a revised blueprint. Our next step is to meet with Jenn and begin the editing process. The Hayes house: about to evolve again. R

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hen Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans in 2005, Monique Kramer, DVM, of Stow, Maine, and the late, great Dick McGoldrick, who was regional animal control officer at the time, headed down to assist with the many pets whose owners had been forced to abandon them. Nearly fifteen years later, that mission is ongoing for Monique, who in addition to her veterinary practice has established Long Journey to a New Beginning Animal Rescue, a rescue and rehabilitation haven for domestic animals who have been abandoned, abused or neglected.

Many people don’t realize there’s a difference between rescue organizations and animal shelters.

We’re fortunate to have several organizations of both stripes in our region—all of which contribute a valuable service for domestic animals and the community.

Rescue organizations are generally smaller than shelters and are often run by individuals or small groups who rescue and place abandoned and stray animals in their community or, in the case of Journey Animal Rescue, from larger organizations that are strained beyond their means. Those that do not have an actual brick-and-mortar facility often rely on foster families until a worthy home can be found.

The majority use their own money to pay veterinary bills, food and other expenses until that happens. Because of this, rescue agency adoption fees are sometimes higher than shelters.

Monique first began animal rescue in 1984 when she was volunteering at the Manhattan ASPCA and was regularly bringing animals home and caring for them.

During undergrad at Cornell and grad and veterinary school in Georgia, she continued taking in animals and rehabilitating them until she was able to place them in “forever homes.” She acknowledges that her screening process has evolved over the years.

“It’s a learning experience. I would tell adopters you have to spay or neuter, but then you find out they don’t. Then I’d have them pre-pay [for neutering] and still sometimes they’d go and get their money back from the vet.”

When Katrina happened, she partnered with the Humane Society of Louisiana and

Finding Home by laurie lamountain

“Home is where my dog is.” rescued 136 animals over the course of several trips. That partnership has continued and Monique still imports animals from the south for adoption, but the Internet has made it a lot easier to move them.

Journey’s website and Facebook page link to Petfinder, which is where we found our eight-month-old pup, Mica. He arrived by volunteer transport in mid-November to fill the void that our two Catahoula brothers left in our lives when they passed away within six months of each other. They ended up in Maine when Monique made that first Katrina rescue mission in 2005.

Mica is pretty much perfect, but many of the animals Monique has rescued are sanctuary animals, meaning they will never be adopted because they have behavioral needs or severe medical issues that are untreatable.

Heartworm is a big issue with dogs who come up from the south. Even though they are tested for it before transport, it’s not uncommon for a dog to subsequently test positive. Though often treatable, for some it’s too late. Then there’s Raj, a Pit Bull from Kennebunk who was supposed to be “bomb proof,” but turned out to have trust issues that made adoption risky. Monique wasn’t about to place him, only to see him hurt someone (as well as the name of the breed) and then be euthanized, so Raj is now a

“Journey” dog. Finally, there are the animals for whom she provides hospice care. Neither she nor her partner Stan is certain how many dogs they currently have in their care because it’s constantly changing, but it’s somewhere around twenty.

What is certain is that Monique has a huge heart when it comes to animals. After the New England Wolf Advocacy and Rescue Center (NEWARC) relocated most of the wolf population at the former LOCI wolf refuge in Chatham, New Hampshire, to California in December 2016, Monique and Stan were snowmobiling up to the property to care for the eleven remaining wolves. Following that winter, they moved eight of them to their property in Stow. Given that it was an aging pack with a high incidence of cancer, the only option for some was hospice care.

Because they have so many sanctuary residents, Monique will take only one or two dogs for adoption at a time. She is quick to point out that it’s not a first-come, first-served process, but rather the best fit for the animal. More applicants are turned down than not—and the primary reason is they haven’t provided proper veterinary care for their animals in the past. If their application is accepted, a home visit is conducted and eventually the whole family, including other canines, comes to Stow to meet their newest member.

In her seventeen years as executive director of Harvest Hills Animal Shelter in Fryeburg, Joan McBurnie has seen shelters not work together and she has seen them come together. She has also seen a lot of change in the shelter sector, much of which has occurred post-Katrina.

“Importing of animals wasn’t heard of seventeen years ago. Katrina opened peoples’ eyes to how much of a population problem there was to the south,” says Joan.

HHAS took two shipments of dogs from Katrina and learned very quickly how prevalent heartworm was among that canine population. Because they felt a moral obligation to treat, the economic risk (one-third of the imports tested positive) proved too great for their non-profit coffers, and they have since made it a policy not to import.

They will occasionally get dogs who wind up in Maine by virtue of having been adopted from a distant state by people

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who surrender them to HHAS when they feel they have no recourse for what has turned out to be a bad experience. For the most part, though, the animals who come through their door are brought in by animal control officers from the nineteen towns they contract with in western Maine. They also accept owner-surrendered animals from surrounding communities in Maine and New Hampshire and will assist other shelters by taking animals that do not fit their admission policies or would otherwise be euthanized. They’ve also taken dogs from area rescues who, due to their size or energy level, needed more space than the rescue could afford them.

“I think there’s a misconception that [shelters and rescues] don’t work together, and we do,” says Joan. “Right now I have this wonderful older couple who are very specific of what they want and I’ve told them, ‘Go to Responsible Pet Care, call Conway Humane, because they import young dogs,’ and that’s what they’re looking for. If you’ve got anyone walking through your door, they want something. I think it’s important to have choices.”

HHAS can comfortably hold 32 dogs but has had as many as 90 at one time. Several years ago, the state seized 72 dogs in an animal cruelty case and allowed the shelter to bunk up animals. Joan recalls it as an exceptional circumstance that wasn’t ideal but allowed them to keep all of the dogs together.

Size has its pluses and minuses. Because they’re smaller and have far fewer animals than shelters, rescues have more leverage to impose meticulous background checks and stricter guidelines for adoption, such as requiring a fence and allowing in-home visits. HHAS takes a longer view of things and, while they require references, screen applicants and are ever-mindful of their animals’ welfare, they have a different perspective that is in many ways driven by their high volume. They give adopters the tools they need to make educated and responsible decisions with regard to their animals.

“Whether we like it or not, animals become property, and when they leave here they’re not our property anymore. And you have to let a little of that go because not everything is going to go perfectly,” says Joan.

She also points out that they have less control over breed diversity than a rescue might. They aim for a population of no more than five of one breed, but that’s not always possible. They have been labeled a Pit Bull shelter by some, but she is optimistic

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about the changing attitudes toward that breed. Ironically, the most aggressive dogs she recalls in her seventeen years were a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and a Bloodhound, but she puts most “bad” shelter behavior down to stress.

Older dogs are “easy peasy” to place.

“If they have one eye, three legs and a limp, they will go home super fast,” says Joan.

“There are too many good people who don’t want to see an old dog sitting in a shelter.”

HHAS has a lot of sponsored animals, for whom a generous donor has pre-paid the adoption fee, but they don’t tell potential adopters who those animals are for good reason. Adoption fees serve a dual purpose.

If someone can’t afford them or doesn’t feel they should have to pay, they probably shouldn’t be adopting an animal—because quality pet food and veterinary care are expensive.

“I don’t want one person adopting an animal because it’s free. They’re the ones who are probably going to hitch the dog out on a chain—because they have nothing invested in it.

I have this guy in Florida who calls me every once in a while to ask, ‘Whose the next person I can pay their adoption fee for?’

And I’ll say, ‘I know the perfect lady. She just lost her husband and she wants a cat.’

That still exists. That’s why I’m still here.

This is a really tough job, but there’s still a lot of good people in the world.”

Responsible Pet Care in Paris was established in 1997 by a small group of caring people who saw the need for an animal shelter in the Oxford Hills community. Their first responsibility is to the fifteen towns they serve, but they also rescue dogs from away. They primarily partner with Butts Mutts Animal Rescue in Jackson, Georgia, but recently added Defensa Animal de Rincon in Puerto Rico and Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans to the over-populated agencies from which they take dogs when they have space available. With the capacity to shelter 32 dogs, they are able to straddle the line between shelter and rescue.

Until recently, a Bull Terrier named Ginger held the record for longest RPC resident.

Ginger arrived as a stray in 2014. In October of 2018, Kelly Ouellette, a veterinary technician at RPC, posted a photo of Ginger on their Facebook page. A sign around her neck read “I have been in the shelter for 1,456 days. Please adopt me.” It went viral. People from California wanted to fly in to adopt her, but the staff at RPC were

“I have been in the shelter for 1,456 days.

Please adopt me.” determined to find a fail-proof companion for this dog they’d come to love. Ginger was officially adopted by a Brunswick woman in January. The two have been in for visits and Kelly and Ginger’s owner talk almost daily.

RPC has more recently been in the news for the heartwarming story of a five-yearold German Shepherd/Malamute mix who became separated from his owner in Ashby, Massachusetts this past June, and showed up in Bethel, Maine, this February. Kaiser’s nine month, 200-mile journey began when he slipped his collar at a kennel in Massachusetts and wandered north. A Bethel resident spotted him in January and reported him to Animal Control Officer Sue Milligan, who spent weeks trying to catch him. He was taken to RPC, where Kelly Ouellette got pretty attached and was planning to adopt him if his owners weren’t located.

Ultimately, they were able to identify his owner and reunite the two. It’s a wonderful testament to the importance of rescues and shelters, as well as the Maine Lost Dog Recovery project. In 2018 alone, MLDR safely reunited 1,073 dogs with their humans.

The Conway Area Humane Society is a private, non-profit animal shelter that relies on donations from individuals; they do not receive state or federal funding.

They have contracts with thirteen New Hampshire towns and accept dog transports from over-crowded shelters they partner with in the midwest and southern states.

The majority of their animals, however, are owner-surrendered from across New Hampshire and Maine.

CAHS also has a Safe Haven Program that is designed to help people keep their animals when they have fallen on hard times. The program affords short-term lodging to animals whose humans are coping with medical issues, domestic abuse or have lost their home to fire. They also have a dog and cat food pantry to help out in times of economic need.

The Lifelong Friends Program matches senior citizens with older, adoptable animals. CAHS waives the adoption fee for seniors (over 65 years of age) who are members in their program. R

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Shaker Inspired

by leigh macmillen hayes with laurie lamountain

Ross points out that every Shaker community had their own distinctive style, but wherever and whenever it was created, it’s timeless. It could fit in an Early American home as well as in a SoHo apartment. The combination of function and form makes it suitable in almost any setting.

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couple of hundred years after the Shakers began designing and crafting their signature furniture, father and son team, Samuel and Ross Timberlake of Bethel, Maine, made the decision to start a business creating their own custom style of Shaker furniture. The year was 1974.

They developed a marketing strategy that aligned with the sort of people most likely to purchase their furniture and knew it wasn’t necessarily their neighbors and probably few Mainers at all. Theirs was more of a mail-order business venture.

Around 1979, however, Sam asked Ross about the two of them opening their own storefront in Portland’s historic Old Port.

Ross agreed to try it and they started out on the corner of Pearl and Middle Streets, then moved to Exchange Street. Ross ran the store front and returned frequently to Bethel to join his father in building the chairs. Their mission was to create well-made, affordable furniture that would last a lifetime.

In late ’94, Ross stumbled on this thing called the Internet. A year later, S.Timberlake became the first furniture maker in Maine to have a presence on the World Wide Web at www.stimberlake.com.

Fast forward to 2001, that’s when Ross and his wife Carole, who had been an Assistant Product Manager at Stonewall Kitchen

in York, decided to move back to their hometown of Bethel. They wanted to set up shop in an 1870 rambling farmhouse with a barn. The house they purchased would need to sit on a well-traveled road and serve as a showroom. Every room needed to be well appointed with the furniture that Carole had joined in creating. The house lends itself to the furniture. The front parlors and foyer are filled with possibilities for customers.

While their mail order side still sees the highest volume of business, Ross and Carole are happy to meet with customers and help them make informed decisions. “We’ll tell you stuff about furniture that you probably haven’t thought of,” says Ross.

Ross points out that every Shaker community had their own distinctive style, but wherever and whenever it was created, it’s timeless. It could fit in an Early American home as well as in a SoHo apartment. The combination of function and form makes it suitable in almost any setting.

“What has our stamp on it is that the pieces just fit so well. I’m taking an old design, a Shaker chair, which I really respect and appreciate, and I do reproductions of it that are taken from the communities where they were originally built. I try to stay true to form and scale with those pieces, though, like the Shakers, I modify them so that they

fit the use of the person who is going to use them, “ says Ross. “We all think the Shakers were perfect, well, they were perfect in their belief of hands to work, but that doesn’t mean they were the best craftsmen in the world. They did the best they could because that’s what their belief was. I think there’s a misinterpretation when people think of Shaker—that it’s all this elaborate dovetail stuff—it’s not. A table made in Mount Lebanon is going to be very different than a table made in South Union Kentucky, and it has a lot to do with the craftsmen available in the community.”

Maple and cherry are the predominant species used to make S. Timberlake furniture. Some of it is sourced in Westbrook, Maine, and a lot of it in Pennsylvania. Ross is very particular about where the lumber is going to be kiln-dried. The equipment he uses is standard—joiners, planers, table saws, drill presses, lathes—no multi-thousand dollar spindle sanders so that things are so perfect they look plastic.

“I want the piece to look older than it is and I asked myself, ‘How do I do that?’ and I realized I don’t do anything—I just build it and don’t do anything more than what they would do. I don’t have computer-assisted machinery that can spit out parts and put these things together. You can tell my chairs because you can see knife gouges from the lathe and see little sanding imperfections here and there, but the overall feel, the essence of the piece, just feels good. I like a piece of furniture that just looks honest.”

“I would think, or I would hope, that most furniture makers make furniture that they would be proud to have in our own homes. I think that is how you go about making furniture as the Shakers did for the outside world. You’re making something that the customer is going to appreciate as much as you—the maker—appreciate the making of it. I don’t think there’s anything truly that makes our furniture more unique than our customers,” says Ross. “It just seems like nine out of ten customers, when they get the furniture in their home, appreciate it so much more because they were actively involved with every aspect of it.”

In keeping with a tradition of economy, S. Timberlake uses all the waste they generate to make cutting boards and other every day items that serve as functional art. They give kindling to people who can use it and shavings to friends who raise chickens. The only

thing that goes to the town dump: fine dust.

Forty-six years after they began and minus Samuel, S. Timberlake continues. All of the furniture is made to order. Customers have the option of telling Ross exactly how high their counter stool or chair seats want to be or exactly what size and style table will fit their home and lifestyle. He will also ask his customers how deep a drawer should be; what the configuration of a drawer or a dresser wants to be—if it’s going to be

three across the top and eight down, etc. If they want an oil finish, that’s what they’ll get. Everything from start to finish. In his estimation, “There’s no way to make good furniture without that collaboration with our customers. Which may be why we have the best customers in the world.” R S. Timberlake is located at 158 Mayville Road (Route 2) in Bethel and online at stimberlake.com. 207.824-1149 or 207.357.4847

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A Patch of Land part ii

text by marguerite wiser photos by patch farm

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hile eating a fresh, locally grown salad during a Maine winter was unheard of a hundred years ago, Patch Farm in Denmark is now providing its customers with just that, and more. Farmers BrennaMae Thomas-Googins and Brandon McKenney have been working hard to make local food available year-round to their community in western Maine.

Brandon and BrennaMae have been growing the farm in many ways since I last interviewed them in 2015. In addition to their greenhouses, also known as high tunBetween the first week of November and the first week in February, plants are in a dormant stage. Elliot Coleman, perhaps Maine’s most famous four-season grower, has dubbed this time of year the Persephone Period. The name harkens to Greek mythology’s explanation for the barren months of winter.

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nels, Patch Farm grows annual vegetables on two and a half acres and perennials, such as raspberries, rhubarb, asparagus, and fruit trees on another half acre. Last season, they raised 500 meat birds, 25 pigs, 20 milk goats, and 248 laying hens.

Their off-season offerings have also grown significantly. Besides meat and eggs, fall storage crops include carrots, rutabaga, turnips, parsnips, kohlrabi, cabbage, garlic, onions, and potatoes. They offer spinach, lettuce mix, arugula, kale, and tat soi through the winter months.

The couple worked at lots of other farms before starting Patch, but none that offered four-season growing, so they are learning as they go. BrennaMae notes, “Tunnel growing is a really steep learning curve, and you need to hit it all right.”

Aside from the cold temperatures, light limits winter plant growth. Plants need ten or more hours of sunlight to grow. Between the first week of November and the first week in February, plants are in a dormant

stage. Elliot Coleman, perhaps Maine’s most famous four-season grower, has dubbed this time of year the Persephone Period.

The name harkens to Greek mythology’s explanation for the barren months of winter.

Farmers who want to harvest greens through the Persephone Period must get the timing right. BrennaMae notes, “You’ve got to plan out your game to get everything basically to maturity by Nov. 10th. You need to have the biggest, broadest leaves you’re going to have on that day and know how much you can pick off of that. Your tunnel has to be set up for three months.”

Tunnel growers also have to be prepared for the lengthening days on the other side of the Persephone Period. “Around this time of year plants know that they just went through winter, and it’s time for them to go to seed. So not only do you need to plan through your coldest months to have food, but you also need things to start growing rapidly.” BrennaMae explains. “You also need a second succession that’s now going

to come to maturity at the same time that all your winter harvested plants are saying, ‘Sayonara.’ It’s this really delicate balance of getting your greens to do what you want them to do.”

This spring succession is planted in October, giving time for the seedlings to germinate and grow a few leaves. The tiny sprouts then hibernate through the dark winter, waiting for the sun to shine again.

BrennaMae says, “Everything lives in this tiny cotyledon, or true leaf stage. The seed has just germinated, just broken through the soil and then sits there in hibernation for three months until the Persephone Period is over. Then it explodes. It grows so much faster than any seedling you would start right now because it already has the root structure there.”

Farming is full of hard choices. Patch Farm has also expanded their livestock production. They sold a lot of meat birds this past summer, enough that they needed to raise more in the fall, as it’s also important to them to provide meat year-round. They looked at the history of the weather and set a date with the slaughterhouse. Then the snow fell early.

They couldn’t leave their chickens out in the snow. “That’s not pasture raised,” notes BrennaMae. “It’s not in our ethos,” adds Brandon. They felt that the birds needed to be on soil, on something other than snow.

They had the high tunnel for spring greens, so they put the birds in there, knowing that they could do things to make up for the lost greens, but couldn’t make up for those last weeks in the animals’ lives. The commitment to doing things the right way is woven deep into the fabric of Patch Farm.

The jump start on spring greens was lost this year, but the farmers will start seeds and transplant. It will take a little longer, and there will be a larger gap in their greens production than they would have hoped, but BrennaMae notes, “That’s kind of what happens, number one when you’re farming in the winter—it’s definitely riskier, and number two, when you’re managing both animals and vegetables.”

In addition to their roadside stand on Route 117, Patch Farm sells year-round at the Bridgton Farmers’ Market. BrennaMae loves seeing people at the market. “We’ve created this really amazing community in the last few years. A lot of it does come out of doing it year-round—we know them and they know us.”

The community they’ve cultivated supported them this past fall. In October, the couple welcomed their second child, Finnian, earlier than expected. “When we had Finnian this fall it was really difficult.

He was born early. I was in the hospital two weeks before that, then he stayed in the hospital for two months,” she said.

The community they’d built through the farmers’ market responded with a level of love and support they hadn’t anticipated and for which they were grateful. “We knew that people valued us, and enjoyed us as a farm,” BrennaMae notes, “But we also learned a lot about compassion, and what a really amazing community this area has. It’s incredible.”

Customers visited her in the hospital. Little things were left for Finnian in the farm stand, among other kindnesses she recalls.

While the family was supporting its newest member, fellow farmers helped harvest the crops. After offers of help, BrennaMae

Not only do you need to plan through your coldest months to have food, but you also need things to start growing rapidly.” BrennaMae explains. “You also need a second succession that’s now going to come to maturity at the same time that all your winter harvested plants are saying, ‘Sayonara.’

It’s this really delicate balance of getting your greens to do what you want them to do.”

sent an email from the hospital, organizing a work day. Other farmers came to help harvest potatoes and dry beans. Some were longtime friends, while others they had only met a few times.

During their busy fall, BrennaMae and Brandon also closed on their property.

Though they own the farm now and have learned a lot from the land since they began farming here, they admit, “We aren’t going to understand this land for the next thirty years. I don’t even know if our children will understand this land completely. So much is changing, and it has so much to offer.”

They acknowledge that they’ll also have to put a lot into the land if they are going to continue to ask so much of it.

They don’t know the woods nearly as much as they would like, though they have begun keeping their pigs in a partiallyforested area near the house. “That’s where they would naturally be.” Brandon explains, “Pigs don’t sweat so they need wallows to stay cool. They aren’t dirty animals, they just need mud to stay cool.” BrennaMae notes that the area had a lot of poison ivy and underbrush before the pigs were kept there. “The pigs have really cleared it out,” she says. “You can walk in there, and you can breathe in there. I think it’s been very beneficial.”

Farming with intention is a ‘farmlosophy,’ as BrennaMae calls it, that runs to the core of Patch Farm. “We are very intentional, maybe to a fault sometimes,” she notes. “There becomes quite a loss of efficiencies because we’re going to take a lot longer to do something because we feel that it’s the right thing to do.”

They are a production farm, making their livelihood from what they raise, yet

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There’s a Chinese proverb that has stuck with her, something she thinks about a lot when it comes to farming, sometimes on a daily basis: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today.” Brandon likes the proverb too, the reminder that you should have already done it, but you can still do it.

they take their time, spending it on things that matter more to them than the bottom line. The farmers spend a lot of the summer putting up food for their own household, feeding their freezers and pantry. Instead of using a tiller, they have a three-implement procedure for preparing beds that takes a little longer but avoids inverting the soil layers. They are also slowly transitioning more of their fields into no-till agriculture.

Patch is, at its heart, a family farm. BrennaMae and Brandon farm full time with their children. With their new little one, they are also farming on little sleep. BrennaMae says that it is both good and challenging.

Parenting occupies a lot of their time.

Their hope to have three generations on the farm has come to fruition with the addition of BrennaMae’s mother, Nancy. “We are also very fortunate that we farm and live with my mother. It was always kind of the mentality to have three generations on the farm because we wanted to farm with our children the way that we do. She helps out with the kids a lot but still a lot of our time is spent with our children.” They love teaching five-year-old Ainsley all sorts of amazing things. Her newest endeavor is learning to milk the goats by hand.

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As they expand and fine tune their farming practices, they are also learning which battles to fight. BrennaMae notes, “Sometimes the weeds get the best of us, sometimes the weather totally devastates stuff, and sometimes the bugs get in the way. You learn to say no and that it’s ok to let it go and to prioritize.” The slow and steady growth of the farm is no accident. Patch Farm is in this for the long haul, and BrennaMae and

Brandon don’t want to overwhelm themselves by growing too quickly.

The farm is steadily increasing perennial crops and fruit trees. Each year they try to plant a new perennial crop, as it generally takes three years to start harvesting from them. They find it exciting to be able to provide new things to people at the market. When they harvested their first asparagus crop they sold out of 87 bunches in three hours.

BrennaMae notes that they are not just farming for now, and that they hope to plant trees that their children will see mature.

There’s a Chinese proverb that has stuck with her, something she thinks about a lot when it comes to farming, sometimes on a daily basis: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today.” Brandon likes the proverb too, the reminder that you should have already done it, but you can still do it.

Looking forward, Patch Farm would like to provide more local winter foods. BrennaMae’s ten-year goal is to work 60-hour weeks consistently year-round, as opposed to the current 120-hour work weeks in the summer and 40-hour weeks in the winters.

Brandon notes, “We went into farming wanting to be predominantly selling storage crops and providing people with food in the winter.

There are plenty of farms doing summer stuff—growing tomatoes and greens, and not only that, but Maine has a long history of people having gardens of their own. People can provide for themselves and can find local food easily in the summer, but it would be nice to provide even more to people in the winter.” BrennaMae adds, “And we are.

It’s exciting that each winter we are providing a little more and getting better at it.”

Patch Farm has become more than just a farm. BrennaMae says, “This isn’t just about us; clearly it’s about our community.” The time BrennaMae and Brandon have taken and the intentional way that they farm their land and cultivate the community around them shows. From their efforts to feed the people in this corner of the state, rather than marketing to Portland, to their dedication to teaching those who work on the farm, and their work in creating a strong farmers’ market year-round, the roots Patch Farm has put down in Denmark are strong. BrennaMae concludes, “We thought that we were doing all of this just for us. That was how it started—how we wanted to raise our family, how we wanted to eat, what we wanted to eat—but it’s gotten so much bigger.” R

Cooking with Clay by laurie lamountain

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first discovered the joy of cooking in clay when I moved to San Francisco in the ‘80s to help launch a sister store to The Alsatian Kitchen, a wonderful but bygone import shop in Portland’s Old Port that featured Soufflenheim and Betschdorf pottery from Alsace, France. The first thing I discovered about clay cookware was that most Americans—even Californians—didn’t have a clue how to use it and were drawn more to its decorative than utilitarian merits. The second thing I discovered, in stocking my own kitchen with the few pieces that had not survived the transcontinental journey unscathed, is what the rest of the

world has known for centuries—cooking in clay yields spectacular results.

Rusty Wiltjer, who has been making things from clay since he attended Ohio State University in 1970 and recently added cookware to the long list of his clay creations, wouldn’t cook in anything else.

“When I know I’m right is when I don’t want to sell it and I want to keep it. Of course, financially-slash-economically, that’s not feasible for me. For instance, this new batch of cookware, I’d keep it all. I just love it. I want to use it. But that’s a good sign. That tells me everything is running true, to myself and to whoever this is being passed on to.”

Rusty, who came to Maine to visit a friend in 1972 and never left, is probably best known for his Chain of Life wind chimes, but his repertoire also includes custom sinks, ceramic drums and outdoor fountains. He only recently began making cookware. As useful as it is beautiful, it can be used on a gas range top or in the oven.

“My tendency from Day One was that the designs I come up with are always a little different than the traditional potter—like the drums and sinks. The sinks were challenging. And I thrive on challenge. Everything I do seems to be more difficult than not. I’ve never designed something that was

very simple and it sells a million. I guess I’m not a traditional potter in that sense. The cookware sort of falls in line with that. The design aspect is probably the most exciting time; coming up with these ideas and then working through three or four generations of that design to get it to perfection—to function properly.

When I’m done with something, functionally (and this is the key word) it’s complete. When you pick up one of my mugs, it will be balanced in your hand, it won’t spill out of the side of your mouth and you won’t want to put it down. It’s the same thing with the cookware, the drums, the sinks; I get them to that perfected state, and then I’m ready to move on to the next thing.”

Rusty attributes some of his attitude and approach to his genetic roots.

“The Dutch in me finds a way to maximize functionality.”

He also credits his Japanese instructor who, with limited English, gave him the discipline he lacked by virtue of his uncompromising standards. It’s from him that Rusty learned how to make a perfectly dripless spout.

“I’m all for art-for-art and visual expression. If you want to take clay and throw it against the wall and watch it drip down,

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that’s valid. But if you’re drinking from a mug that looks like a cow and it spills out of your mouth, it’s a piece of junk. When it’s supposed to function, the beauty is in how well it does its job.”

That careful consideration of function is what drives the design of his cookware.

He compares the radiant capacity of clay to the way that a cast iron wood stove heats evenly throughout. His clay pots work the same way, which is why they perform so well in the oven. How they differ from metal cookware is that you wouldn’t want to take one from the refrigerator and immediately place it over a high flame or in a preheated oven. He recommends starting with a low flame, “just to be kind.”

“The pot will tolerate the other, but as with all things, the physics involved is that if you constantly push things to their extreme, you’re gonna fatigue them. This is really just the sensibility of saying, ‘OK, this will take it, but let’s make this thing last longer. Why fatigue the pot?’”

To further illustrate this concept, he relates going up on his roof the week before to remove three feet of snow before the incoming rain.

“When I was done shoveling it, I could feel the house exhale. I know it sounds crazy, but everything to me has a life to it that you impact in one way or another. The same sensibility applies to [clay] cookware.”

Having said that, he’s quick to clarify between being kind and doing what’s necessary.

“You hear a lot about slow cooking in clay as a process and you certainly can do that, but when I’m making egg drop soup and it requires that I bring the water to boil to cook the noodles, I bring it to a boil!

That’s not really slow cooking. It’s really whatever the food requires it to do, but in a gentle way.”

When it comes to baking bread, his pots become an oven within the oven. The ones he designs specifically for bread are as tall as they are wide in order to accommodate a traditional boule. He lines the bottom of the bread baker with parchment paper before placing the dough inside and mists the dough before covering it. By removing the cover and raising the temperature during the last ten minutes of baking, the result is a crusty boule that is very easy to make.

The chicken cooker he designed is a twopiece pot with an insert for the liquid that will essentially steam/roast the chicken from the inside out. Think Beer-Can Chicken on the grill.

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He points out that while rice cooked in a stainless pot may require the addition of more liquid before it’s done, he has never had to add liquid to his clay rice pot. When things are fired properly and up to temperature (2400˚F), the clay body itself starts to fuse to the point where it becomes vitreous—meaning it is non-porous and won’t absorb water. Vitreosity is also what makes it possible to use his cookware over an open flame or in a hot oven. To further illustrate the vitreous quality of his pottery, he taps the lid of a tagine and it rings like a bell.

Rusty explains that because of their vitreosity, glazing the entire surface is not necessary. Instead, he has crafted a custom tool to create the unique pattern that embellishes the exterior of his cookware. The inside surface is glazed to appeal to western sensibilities and allow for easy cleanup. He also selectively glazes areas that are prone to wear or handling, such as rims and handles, and spouts for ease of pouring.

As further testament to its functionality, Wiltjer Pottery cookware is dishwasher safe and, because there’s no lead in the clay or the glaze, microwave safe as well. On top of that, it’s beautiful—the perfect marriage of form and function.

“My biggest fear is that I’ll never have another creative thought again. That’s what keeps me going. That’s the fuel for me to keep moving. If I settle into something, I get bored.”

Let’s hope Rusty never reaches that point with his cookware, but my advice would be to get your Wiltjer Pottery cookware sooner, rather than later. R Wiltjer Pottery is located at 118 North Bridgton Road in Waterford, Maine 207-583-2911

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n perfecting the design and function of his cookware, Rusty has been spending a lot more time in the kitchen. After all, the best way to see if something is well designed is to use it. We asked him if he would share some recipes with Lake Living and he graciously complied with a few of his favorites.

roasted chicken

extra virgin olive oil 2 lemons 1/2 c water* small handful fresh tarragon leaves, chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed salt and pepper 3-4 pound chicken 1 lb carrots, cup in 1-inch chunks 1 lb baby potatoes, whole 2 stalks celery, cut in 1-inch chunks 1 medium onion, quartered Preheat oven to 350˚ Lightly oil the bottom of the roasting cooker. Juice lemons (setting aside one of the juiced halves) and add to chicken roaster insert. Add water, chopped tarragon, garlic cloves and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk to emulsify, reserving two tablespoons to drizzle over the vegetables.

Place the insert in the center of roasting pot and surround with vegetables. Plug the neck cavity of the chicken with the reserved half lemon and place the entire bird over the insert with the neck cavity on top. Drizzle the reserved lemon stock evenly over the vegetables and chicken. Roast for 1.5 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 160˚. Turn the oven to 400˚ and roast for another ten minutes or until the skin is nicely browned. Remove from oven and let sit for ten minutes before carving. *Chicken stock or dry white wine can be substituted for water.

using a tagine, you don’t need to use foil.)

Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat butter and 1 cinnamon stick over medium heat.

Add almonds and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cook until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes.

Discard cinnamon stick.

To serve, transfer lamb and juices to a serving platter. Top with toasted almonds and any butter left in the small skillet, scallions, parsley and remaining cilantro.

Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice to taste.

Serve with flatbread or couscous, if desired.

moroccan mint tea

artisan bread

3 c flour 1/4 tsp yeast 1 1/2 c water 1 tsp salt In a large bowl, mix the above ingredients together to form a sticky dough that you’ll cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place overnight. In the morning, gently scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl and onto a lightly floured surface with a rubber spatula. Fold the dough in thirds a few times until it becomes fairly smooth and elastic and no longer sticks to the surface. Line the bread baker with a sheet of parchment paper and place the dough on top. Turn the oven to 350˚ and let the dough rest in a warm place while the oven preheats. When the oven reaches temperature, slit the top of the dough with a sharp knife and mist with water before covering and placing in the oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, depending on your oven. Increase heat to 400˚ and remove the lid to brown for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Note: Poppy or sesame seeds can be added on top after you’ve misted it.

lamb tagine

Adapted from Melissa Clark cooking.nytimes.com 3 pounds bone-in lamb stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt, more as needed 1 3/4 c lamb or chicken stock 1 c dried apricots 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed 2 large onions, thinly sliced 1 tsp tomato paste 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 small cinnamon sticks Large pinch saffron 1/2 tsp ground ginger 3/4 tsp ground turmeric 3/4 tsp ground black pepper 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon Pinch freshly grated nutmeg 1/3 c fresh cilantro, chopped 1 tbsp unsalted butter 1/2 c slivered almonds 2 scallions, finely chopped 2 Tbs chopped parsley Fresh lemon juice, to taste

In a large bowl, combine lamb and 2 teaspoons salt. Let sit at room temperature at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

In a small pot, bring stock to a boil.

Remove from heat, add apricots, and let sit at least 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 325˚. In a tagine or Dutch oven, warm 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches, add lamb to pot, leaving room around each piece (this will help them brown). Cook until well browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer pieces to a plate as they brown.

Drain fat, if necessary, leaving just enough to coat the bottom of the pot. Add onions and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until soft, about 8 minutes. Add tomato paste, ginger, 1 cinnamon stick and the spices, and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add lamb and any juices on the plate, the apricots and stock, and half the cilantro.

Cover pot with foil and then its lid, and cook in oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until lamb is tender, turning it occasionally. (If

Adapted from epicurious.com 1 tbsp loose Chinese gunpowder green tea 5 c boiling water 3 to 4 tbsp sugar, or to taste 1 large bunch fresh spearmint (1 ounce), washed 1- to 1 1/2-quart teapot

Put tea in teapot and pour in 1 cup boiling water, then swirl gently to warm pot and rinse tea. Strain and discard water, reserving tea leaves in pot. Add remaining 4 cups boiling water to tea and let steep 2 minutes.

Stir in sugar (to taste) and mint and steep 3 to 4 minutes more. Serve in small heatproof glasses with sprigs of mint for garnish.

Note: An authentic Moroccan mint tea would call for stovetop preparation and bringing the tea to a boil. This is a simplified preparation.

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An Improved State of Home by laurie lamountain

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hink of your home as a reflection of your state of mind. Is it disorganized and cluttered? Organizing your physical surroundings can go a long way toward improving your outlook on life. Ironically, a lot of us put off organizing our homes for greater efficiency with the excuse that we don’t have time for it.

The demands of modern life do make it challenging and, let’s face it, not all that appealing to organize that kitchen drawer in which you can never find what you need. But think about how much time is wasted rummaging through that drawer.

Before we became the consumer culture we are, people used to take stock of their homes seasonally. Maybe it’s because we’ve become such consumers that this ritual has gone out of fashion in most modern households. We simply have too much “stuff,” which makes the prospect of a seasonal overhaul daunting. Here are a few tips to make it less so.

Have a Vision Helen Weston Archer of Take Two Design in Bridgton points out that it’s important to have a vision of what it is you want to achieve before you embark on an organization effort.

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“It could be aspirational: ‘I want my home to feel restful when I walk in;’ or concrete: ‘I want to turn my son’s old bedroom into the craft room I’ve always wanted,’ but you need a specific goal to work toward.

Otherwise, those projects tend to fall apart.”

She also emphasizes the importance of having realistic goals.

“Good organization should reflect real life. If you have a husband who is a pack rat, either get rid of the husband or find a way to deal with it.”

“To most of us, a disorganized or messy home environment is stressful; time spent looking for things is time we don’t have for the better and more important things in life,” observes Helen. “But research shows that about 90% of us can’t visualize our space looking substantially different – or better organized. And it’s well-established that after about one year, we no longer ‘see’ our home environment because our brain has formed habits that enable us to move around it without thinking about each action.”

Stay on Task By breaking it down into manageable tasks and tackling one project per week, the prospect of a more efficient and organized home is more likely. That one corner of the

“To most of us, a disorganized or messy home environment is stressful; time spent looking for things is time we don’t have for the better and more important things in life.”

garage that has become a dumping ground could be a Saturday afternoon project. If it isn’t completed in one afternoon, it’s at least a start. All habits begin with a first time.

It’s important to stay on task. If your goal is to tackle that one corner, keep to it.

It’s easy to get distracted as you’re moving things around and, while your multi-tasking may add up by the end of the day, you still won’t have the satisfaction of having accomplished your original goal.

Deal with Your Stuff

Find the Right Place

In tackling a specific area, such as that corner of the garage, it’s also important to have a system. Whether you’re using bags or boxes, have three of them available: one for stuff that stays, one for stuff to be donated, and one for stuff that gets thrown.

There shouldn’t be a lot in the “stuff that stays” box. The fact that you’re finally going through it should determine that. Donated items should be things you no longer or never needed but are still in perfect condition. Everything else should get thrown.

If the reason you’ve been avoiding that corner of stuff is because you have a hard time parting with things, you might want to hire a professional to help you prioritize (what goes, what stays). It will definitely go a lot faster and give you ways to keep the space organized going forward.

One thing that helps me let go of things is the knowledge that once it’s gone, it’s forgotten. There are very few things I’ve let go of that I have later regretted.

Getting organized is not just about getting rid of things. Finding the right place for things based on how you live can really improve how efficiently your home (and you) function. Something as simple

as two-compartment hampers for keeping light and dark clothes separate makes doing laundry easier.

Interior Space Planning is just one of many services offered by Melissa Ellen Designs of West Paris. Melissa acknowledges that space planning can be more challenging in an existing space (versus new construction) or smaller dwelling. Her rule of thumb is that everything needs a designated place.

“The unfortunate thing about clutter is, it multiplies. Everyone has those catch-all corners or ‘dumping grounds’ that tend to get a little out of control. The first step is to identify those places and work on them one at a time. The main entrance is always a major candidate for clutter.”

She suggests using benches, baskets, hooks and shelves to get things up off the floor and under control, as well as removing items that don’t serve a purpose. Creating a designated spot for outgoing items, such as mail, library books and packages, will keep them together and remind you

She suggests using benches, baskets, hooks and shelves to get things up off the floor and under control, as well as removing items that don’t serve a purpose.

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to grab them on your way out the door.

In the kitchen, Melissa recommends incorporating shallow pantry cabinets and spice racks to keep items visible and neat— with no room for anything but the item that belongs there.

Maximize Your Space Making the best use of the built-in storage space you have is another way to become more organized and improve efficiency. It’s easy to throw things in a closet and shove the door closed, but it’s not so

The best way to make more room in your closets is by trimming your wardrobe

easy to find things in a disorganized closet.

According to Helen, closets can invariably afford 50% more space if properly fitted with shelving and good use of the vertical area. Shoe ladders and racks are two ways to organize shoes and get them off the floor, while making it easier to clean a closet that will now seem much larger. An overarching rule to follow is that the things you use most often should be the most accessible.

Let Go The best way to make more room in your closets is by trimming your wardrobe.

Figure out which clothes you never wear by arranging clothes hangers so the hooks face forward. When you wear something, turn the hanger the other way. If you try something on but decide not to wear it, make sure you return it to the closet with the hook facing forward. At the end of the season, get rid of anything that hasn’t been turned.

Whenever you run across anything stained, ripped, or that no longer fits, get rid of it.

File It Away The only thing easier than throwing something into a closet is placing it in a pile. The problem with piling things is that they just keep growing taller. Paperwork is a perfect example. Junk mail should go directly to the recycle bin. For everything else, create a consistent filing system.

“The goal of a good filing system is to reduce document volume and improve accessibility. It should be purged at least annually,” says Helen. “And never, ever have a miscellaneous file. It’s a black hole that means your filing system is wrong.”

Keep papers and documents that should be kept indefinitely (passports, birth/death certificates, wills, etc.) in a fire-proof box with a handle. Should disaster strike, you can grab it and go.

Everyone Needs a Junk Drawer Helen readily admits to having one, although I’m not overly surprised when she adds that it doesn’t have a lot in it and she knows exactly where everything is. Still, it’s reassuring.

My final piece of advise: keep a reversible screwdriver in there to avoid those otherwise inevitable (and annoying) treks to the toolbox. R Take Two Design, LLC. taketwodesignmaine.com 207.699.9992 Melissa Ellen Design melissaellendesigns.com 207-344-7818

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Dear Earth, In your honor, I decided that on this Earth Day I would travel by foot, rather than vehicle.

My journey led me down the old cow path and on to the vernal pool, a good portion of which was still coated with ice. You know, Earth, as much as I want this to be a significant vernal pool, I believe it was excavated to serve as a farm watering hole. In fact, it dries up much too quickly to have been part of your creation.

And yet, each year I’m surprised to find wood frog and spotted salamander egg masses, given that the water evaporates before the tadpoles morph into their adult forms. These species reportedly return to their natal pool to mate, but how can that be since no one actually hopped or walked out of this one as a mature adult in recent years? Or were these amphibians on their way to another pool when they happened upon an opportunity and decided to take up residence for a couple of weeks? You know me–lots of questions as I try to understand you better.

Whatever the answer is, each year you work your magic and on a visit yesterday, I spied a male frog atop a female in what’s known as amplexus, aka, mating. I looked this morning, but didn’t find any sign of eggs. Don’t worry, Earth, I’ll keep looking because perhaps they were there but hadn’t absorbed water yet, thus making their gelatinous forms swell.

For the longest time I stood upon a rock–you know the one I mean since you’ve invited me to stand there before. It’s sunny in that spot and the frogs know it well; they’ll eventually deposit their eggs on broken twigs in the warm water below.

As I waited, I looked down at the leaves on the pool’s bottom and noticed how they offered a reflection of the trees above, beech and oak and maple. All still displayed their winter colors, but when the pool does dry up, they’ll turn dark brown and form a mat that will provide nutrients for the plants that colonize the area. You’ve got a system, don’t you?

I knew if I stood as still as I could, I would be rewarded. While a few dried leaves somersaulted across the ground behind me, squirrels chatted and squawked, and chickadees sold cheeseburgers in their songs, I constantly scanned the pool. In a flash, I spied what I sought, frog eyes peering above the water surface.

For a while he floated, sunning himself as the breeze pushed him to and fro. Then he climbed atop a downed branch. Perhaps he was trying out a calling sight to use once I left.

And then, there was another. After that another. One thing you have taught me via the frogs, dear Earth, is patience. If I stand still long enough at least one will swim to the surface. And they, too, are patient as they wait: for me to leave; for the gals to come. Well, maybe when the gals do come they aren’t all that patient.

I actually returned to the pool a second time today and more of the ice had melted. While in the late morning I couldn’t see any insects on the move, in the early afternoon I watched thousands of mosquito larvae cartwheeling through the water column. Everyone moans about mosquitoes, Earth, but . . . in their larval form they provide food for aquatic critters and as adults they feed insects and birds. I’m just trying to look on the bright side.

This afternoon, I waited and waited for the frogs to make themselves known, but either my eyes didn’t key in on them or they decided to wait until I left. So . . . I finally did just that, and and tramped on in a different

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direction. As you well know, Earth, it was a bit tricky between the snow, soft mud, ruts and rocks exploding from your defrosting earth.

My right foot managed to plunge into an ice-obscured rut filled with water that covered my boot. And then my left foot found some mud that squelched with glee. Or was that you squealing with delight? Despite one wet sock, I ventured on.

At a junction, I turned west, followed a skidder road and remembered the days of yore when a few of us used to work up a sweat for it was our duty to you, Earth, to release the snow from your arched gray birch trees that lined the narrow road. And then, a few years ago, the road became the main route to the timber landing/staging area again, and all of those trees we’d worked so hard to protect year after year were bulldozed to make way for machinery. As much as my heart broke, I realized it would give me time to watch forest succession in action, and I gave thanks that you have such a restoration plan in mind.

Suddenly a million “wrucks” filled my ears with joy—that quacking song of so many wood frogs chorusing in another vernal pool.

Again, I stood as still as possible, and again I was rewarded. For a bit I thought that the frog I spied had no front legs, but then, with relief I realized that they were momentarily plastered beside his body.

A squirrel sounding bigger than itself caught my attention briefly and I turned unexpectedly. When I refocused, the frog was no longer visible. Peering about, I finally found him floating below a fallen branch. For a while the two of us remained still. I hoped another frog or two or three or three thousand would pop up, but that wasn’t your plan, was it? It’s okay. One was enough.

Rather than go much further, for major ruts had become Oympic-sized swimming pools, I turned and recalled a time when the log landing was a much smaller clearing with a few young pines growing in its center. Over the years, I’ve watched the changes you’ve orchestrated, Earth. More recently, it was converted back to a landing.

It all seemed like so much destruction to log the acreage, but I had to remind myself that I am part of the equation, with my own need for power and wood and food and everything that you provide. And forest openings do bring about possibilities for the trees, mammals, birds, plants, decomposers, consumers, and all who call this place home. Am I convincing you, Earth? Am I convincing myself? Regardless, I can’t wait for it to fill in again, but I do need to practice that patience you keep preaching about.

Passing by the vernal pool as I journeyed toward home, I decided to pause again for a few moments. Slowly, my eyes scanned the water. No frogs. On second glance, there was one right beside the rock on which I stood. It looked like the same one I’d seen previously. Why didn’t I scare it? Was that you, Earth, taking a peek at me?

You offered one more surprise on this day–the first butterfly of the season, a mourning cloak. With its wings closed, it wasn’t all that attractive.

But upon opening them, I saw its beauty hidden within–another lesson, eh Earth? Oh, and your sense of humor. For yes, that was coyote scat on which the butterfly sucked as it sought amino acids and other nutrients.

What a day, Earth. Your day. May I remember to honor you every day.

Sincerely,

Leigh

wondermyway.com Curious about vernal pools and amphibians: April 24, Wed., 2-4 pm, Vernal Pool walk at the Highland Research Forest, please register with alanna@leamaine.org April 27, Sat., 9:30-12:30, Vernal Pool walk with Greater Lovell Land Trust at Heald and Bradley Ponds Reserve. FMI: https://www.gllt.org/calendar-events/2019/4/27

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