Women find niche in woodsman’s competition | Bangor Daily News

FRYEBURG, Maine — Laurette Russell decided after showing horses for 20 years, she needed something else to fuel her competitive fire. So she started entering woodsman’s competitions.

“Throwing an axe at a bull’s-eye and chopping a piece of wood is very satisfying,” said Russell of New Gloucester. “There’s no cookie-cutter type of person to do it. It’s not like when you’re an ice skater, you’re a tiny little ballerina. Anyone of any size, of any age, can do this sport.”

Russell was one of 39 women in a field of 193 people at this year’s Woodsman’s Field Day held at Fryeburg Fair. The daylong event attracted more than 6,000 spectators.

Click to read the rest of the story and see photos by Robert F. Bukaty  in the Bangor Daily News.

In Greenwood, a turn for the better: Mills offer new opportunities | Lewiston Sun Journal

GREENWOOD (AP) — Many people gave the Saunders Brothers manufacturing plant up for dead when it closed its doors and went to auction last spring, a victim of the sour economy and cheap imports flooding in from overseas.

Less than five months later, machines are humming and the smell of sawdust is in the air again as a skeleton crew puts out rolling pins, brush handles, dowels and other wood products.

Maine's wood products industry has been on the slide for years. Numerous plants that made hundreds of everyday things — toothpicks, tongue depressors, Popsicle sticks, pepper mills, checkers pieces, clothespins, you name it — have gone out of business.

Now, a Portland woman and her partners have bought not only the shuttered Saunders Brothers factory, but three other plants as well in hardscrabble areas of interior Maine. Louise Jonaitis says she intends to bring the plants back to life in regions where times are tough and jobs are scarce.

“I grew up knowing a mill of any size was the life of a community in Maine,” said Jonaitis, 49, whose father worked in a paper mill when she was growing up in Rumford. “What I've been seeing as plants close is the decline of the social fabric in Maine. And I thought, ‘What else do we have?’”

Click for the rest of the story by Associated Press Writer Clarke Cainfield found in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Fryeburg to remember grad who left school $15 million | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Fryeburg to remember grad who left school $15 million The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Farm families find fair experience valuable for children | Lewiston Sun Journal

FRYEBURG — What kid wouldn’t want to spend a week at the Fryeburg Fair?

Jaylee and Brayden Bean did — and they got to skip school for the whole week, too.

They came with their parents, Jenn and Lance Bean, leaving their farm in Woodstock on Oct. 1.

But it wasn’t seven days of Ferris wheel rides and candied apples. It was pretty much all work in the draft horse barn until Friday when Jaylee, 8, and Brayden, 11, got to go play.

“They’re out of school, but they worked harder this week than they would have in school,” their father said. Like many farm families, they stay at the fairgrounds for 10 days in their camper.

Click to read the rest of this story by Paula Gibbs in the Lewiston Sun Journal. Also enjoy the photos and video.

Old-time farm machinery shows what it can do at the Fryeburg Fair | Lewiston Sun Journal

Old-time farm machinery shows what it can do at the Fryeburg Fair | Lewiston Sun Journal

Fryeburg Fair opens | Lewiston Sun Journal

Fryeburg Fair opens | Lewiston Sun Journal

Bridgton wins Firemen's Muster | Lewiston Sun Journal

Woodsmen's Day is underway at the Fryeburg Fair | Lewiston Sun Journal

Fryeburg Fair opens Sunday for eight days | Lewiston Sun Journal

Fryeburg Fair opens Sunday for eight days | Lewiston Sun Journal

Additional information may be found at http://www.fryeburgfair.org/.

Mosquitoes, lobster and smudge fires aplenty in the Pine Tree State

There are several ways to have Maine-style lobster. The postcard version, of course, is to boil up some water over an open fire on a beach and serve with steamed clams, fresh corn, and lots and lots of butter.

Another Maine style is to set up a newly purchased Coleman camp stove on the driveway of your sister’s Fryeburg home, boil some water, and light up a cigar.

That’s right, light up a cigar.

The last time I visited family in Maine, that’s what happened.

My mother and I had traveled from her home in Aroostook County where I was visiting and we stopped along the way at the Bangor Walmart to pick up the stove. I cannot recall exactly the occasion for the purchase. It might have been a wedding anniversary gift for The Sis and Brother-in-Law Mark.

No matter.

Lobsters were purchased and the water was set to boil on the camp stove set up in my sister’s driveway. (My sister did not want the smell of lobster to linger for days and days in her fairly new home.)

My sister’s home is set back in the woods outside of Fryeburg with plenty of nooks and crannies and ponds and leaves and blades of grass for mosquitoes to flourish. I describe Maine mosquitoes and blackflies this way to my friends “from away” – the mosquitoes and blackflies are so large in Maine that the Federal Aviation Administration issues tail numbers. And requires flight plans.

I do not use “swarm” often, but we were attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes shortly after starting the lobster bath.

At one point I flashed to a memory of my father and mother lighting “smudge fires” in metal barrels and buckets to ward off mosquitoes and blackflies in order to continue outdoor activities. Despite thinking that my sister or mother might object, I offered to retrieve an Arturo Fuente cigar from a stash I had with me on the trip and light it up to be a “human smudge fire.”

“Yes, go! Go get a cigar!” I seem to recall my sister saying.

“Yes, Keith, go!” my mother added. (At least, that’s what I recall now them saying then. I could be wrong.”

So, there I was, standing in my sister’s driveway overseeing the cooking of the crustaceans with a stogy sticking out of the corner of my mouth providing a smudge fire protection for my Mom, The Sis, and her family.

What started all this? The DownEast.com trivia question for the day.

How many species of mosquitoes are native to Maine?

Answer

Although sometimes it seems like millions, Maine is home to about twenty species of human-biting mosquitoes.

I am of the belief that scientists have not classified all the species for 20 seems like a very, very low number. Trust me on this.

Maine stuff in my California apartment No. 6

Here's more Maine stuff in my California apartment -- a Fryeburg Academy sweatshirt. It was a gift from my nephew Max and niece Sophie.

Today’s photo is of a Fryeburg Academy sweatshirt I received as a present from my nephew Max and niece Sophie. The long-term plan is for Max and Sophie to attend Fryeburg Academy, a private preparatory school located in Fryeburg, Maine, the White Mountains. I say “long-term” since they are not quite old enough yet to attend.
Fryeburg has a long and rich history. John Hancock – yeah, a signer of the Declaration of Independence – signed the charter in 1792 and Daniel Webster was a headmaster of the school.

Here’s Fryeburg Academy’s mission from from the school’s website:

“Fryeburg Academy is an independent secondary school that serves a widely diverse population of local day students and boarding students from across the nation and around the world. The Academy believes that a strong school community provides the best conditions for learning and growth. Therefore, we strive to create a supportive school environment that promotes respect, tolerance, and cooperation, and prepares students for responsible citizenship. Within this context, the Academy’s challenging and comprehensive academic program, enriched by a varied co-curriculum, provides the knowledge and skills necessary for success in higher education and the workplace.”

And here’s a link for the school’s history.

This is an occasional multipart series of photos of things related to Maine that can be found in Keith Michaud’s California apartment. All photos in this series are shot by and are the property of Keith Michaud.

Fryeburg Academy's offense is a hit | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Fryeburg Academy's offense is a hit The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Canoe season in Maine on hold despite nice weather | Lewiston Sun Journal

FRYEBURG – Maine Registered Guide Fred Westerberg is in no hurry to get his canoes and kayaks on the river.

It may be costing him money in the pocket, but he's been around the Saco River long enough to know you don't rush Mother Nature.

“This is an outdoor business. You rely on the weather. It's the chance you take. You don't cry about it,” Westerberg said as he and his wife Prudy and their daughter Beth began cleaning up their Saco River Canoe & Kayak store on Main Street during a sunny, 80-plus degree day.

If it were a month or two later, he would be fielding calls from hundreds of people wanting to rent one of his canoes and kayaks that go out as many as 160 times during a summer weekend. But Westerberg, an Auburn native who opened up the canoe business in 1972 with his wife, is satisfied to wait it out.

Click on the link to the rest of today’s story by Leslie H. Dixon in the Lewiston Sun Journal.