Cushing--The First Weekend In "Real Maine"

Why is it that when ever some fun occurs in Kennebunkport, we're out of town? About 4,000 protesters marched, which must have rocked the weekenders. MSM coverage is here (I've ignored all copyright law and reproduced the coolest photo at right--thank you Maine Sunday Telegram. Please note the compound that the Bush clan hangs out in) and a local participant blogs about it here.

Anyway, while Cindy Sheehan, Dennis Kucinich and like minded Americans exercised their right to free speech, we were two hours north in Knox County closing on the new house.

We left York at 6 am in a two car caravan loaded with linens, cleaning supplies, a chocolate lab, a couple of lamps, cutlery and dishes and other bare necessities.

We stopped in Freeport at LLBean at 7 am (they never close--heck, they don't even have locks on the doors. Local Maine legend says that the celebs who summah here like to shop in the middle of the night to avoid the gawkers, but we haven't verified that) to buy a new dog bed for Mac the Dog. We stopped at the McDonald's for a cuppa Joe and ran into a dear friend from Belgrade Lakes who was on the way to Camden for the day. Small state....stuff like this happens all the time.

After a pre-closing walk thru, we loaded Mac the Dog in the realtor's car (the real estate broker is, BTW, a Hot Shit--if you want to buy property in the mid-coast area, drop me a note. I'll give you her particulars. We couldn't be more pleased with all she did for us, and we have to be her smallest sale of the year, maybe the smallest of the decade), and headed to the closing. The realtor, Kate, brought closing gifts to us--mums, french soaps, local cheddar cheese, pickles and cherry tomatoes, and homemade blueberry bread accompanied with triple berry preserves, and she was insistent that we all ride together, including Mac the Dog, as taking separate cars wouldn't be any fun.

We closed in a tiny attorney's office in Waldoboro, the three siblings selling their family's summer home, the two realtors, an attorney, a mortgage broker and us....two people from exceptionally humble beginnings, blessed by fortune and luck.

After the closing, we went for a celebratory luncheon at Morse's Kraut House Restaurant. The store features gen-u-wine German food stuffs and the Reuben is to die for.

After lunch, we headed home and got down to cleaning: While Tom headed down to the town offices to tell them where to send the tax bill, I scrubbed the icky linoleum in the kitchen, first with 409 on my hands and knees. Then it was Mr. Clean with a mop. It still looked gross and dirty. I gave up. The good news is that the dirt is all natural: uninhabited house in the woods dirt, not somebody's else's dirt. Mouse droppings, fly hatchings and dead carpenter ants I can handle. Somebody else's gick, I cannot.

Tom came home to report that the Cushing Town Offices aren't always open and they sure aren't open at 3 pm on a summer Friday.

He did get us registered in the unofficial town census down at the general store. A S Fales and Sons Groceries is about all there is in Cushing excepting for the Wyeths and the Olson house. Oh, and now us. He also found out where to get firewood and who to call to get the septic pumped out.

By 7, we were all in and not close to done. The kitchen (excepting the floor) was spotless, the bathrooms were sanitized and we had Kate's magnificent food to eat along with blackberries (and one raspberry) that I picked along our lane for dessert. Right after dinner, as I made the bed up, I realized I'd managed to buy all twin sets and we had not one set of full sheets for our bed....roughing it....heh.


Early on Saturday morning, we went up the road and bought fresh eggs from 'the egg man', got bacon and coffees at Fales and ate bacon, eggs, and blueberry toast on the deck. Then we washed windows. Sadly, it appears that we might have done too good a job.
We buried the little finch off the back deck. The total of Saturday was spent cleaning.....and weed wacking and scything, and weeding the garden... and birdwatching, but that deserves its own post.

On Saturday night, Kate came for nibbles and drinks and an official house warming. We sat on the deck and admired the view and talked and talked. Of important things and nothings. On day where York saw 96 degrees (hottest day of the summer), I wore long sleeves and was slightly chilled, but warmed by the good company and the lovely Pinot Noir.














Sunday, after a spectacular sunrise, we introduced ourselves to the neighbors. Marc and Kathie have just relocated from Chicago, along with their three Irish Wolfhounds and an African Parrot and will make Cushing their full time home. They've summered here for 25 years, but this will be their first winter in Maine.

Then we went exploring. Down the finger to Pleasant Point, over to Friendship, by the Cushing Community Church and the beautiful German Protestant Church in South Waldoboro. We bought mums and a fall planter at Moose Crossing Nursery. Then we made a stop in Thomaston for the papers, and then on to Rockland to TJ Maxx (a lamp shade, a bread knife and two door mats) and Home Depot (a grill, linoleum cleaner and polish, nails, insulation, a new sink faucet, a rotary mower and a dehumidifier).

Back home to strip the linoleum and then apply two coats of polish. FINALLY, a kitchen floor that I can walk across with my bare feet.

We have two toilets that leak, a kitchen faucet that doesn't work and well water that has a touch of coliform bacteria. We have carpenter ants and a window that has dry rot. Some of the light fixtures don't work and at low tide, we're muddy. But it's ours and the light is lovely in the evening and in the morning and at all times in between......