Jay Gaulard

Tops of My Pine Trees are Dying

About half way through last summer, I noticed the beginnings of some browning on one of my prized Norway Spruce trees. I’ll admit that I was somewhat appalled because, after all, I planted these trees when they were just little babies and I’ve grown rather attached to each one of them. The thing is, the […]

Mid-Summer Maine Garden

Boy, it’s been a warm one this year. We’ve had off and on mini-heat waves since June. It gets hot and sticky and then nice and cool. I’m not one for the heat, but I make do. Last week, in between the humidity, the temperature dropped to 53 degrees overnight. Laura and I had the […]

Memories of Brewster

I was lying in bed this morning thinking of my hometown of Brewster, New York. It seems that every time I do this, my recollection of waking up to sunshine some time in July, only to walk out the front door onto the sidewalk, comes to mind. I can recall doing this over and over […]

The Jiu-Jitsu Quarantine Has Been Lifted

Yes, that’s right. Here in the state of Maine, we may now hold our beloved Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes once again. There is one caveat though. We can’t touch one another. Which has thrown a monkey wrench into the entire thing, I’d say. Not that anyone in particular wants to touch anyone else, but still. What’s […]

Planting Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Kale, & Lettuce

I got a good jump on my gardening this year, but was forced to stop because we experienced a brief heat wave earlier this week. The temperature rose up to 90 degrees and there was no way I was going to work outside in that. Early this morning, the heat moved out and the cool […]

What Makes a Popular Personal Blog?

I’ve been blogging for a long time. Longer than most people on the planet have, as a matter of fact. I first began writing things down on the internet back in 2005 when Laura and I bought our first house. Those were fun days and I was doing tons of improvements, many of which I […]

Vegetable Garden Ground Cover to Prevent Weeds

Every spring, as I plant my garden, I surprise myself with how wonderful everything looks. I do the weeding from the previous year early on and when I’m finished with that, I plant the seeds. I usually grow tomatoes, kale, chard, beets, and various types of lettuce. After I plant, I sit back and wait. […]

Ugly Old Shed Demolition

If you drive around this area and take careful note of your surroundings, you’ll find many an ugly thing. One of the most ugly was the shed we had situated in our very own back yard. On more than one occasion when driving home from the grocery store or from some other outing and after […]

Beautiful Quotes

The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land; Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky; A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers; But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking. If I could somehow sit in my chair and read for the rest of […]

Adding Support Posts to an Old Garage

I’ve been moving right along with my bulging garage wall repair. In my previous post on the topic, I explained my dilemma. Due to my persistence though, I seemed to have figured something out to help the situation. What I came up with is a fairly good solution, if I don’t say so myself. Before […]

The Walk at Lemon Stream

We’ve got a lot of streams around our state. It seems like you can’t walk more than a mile or so without bumping into one very cool stream or another. Our very own property borders two different streams and there’s another up the road. They’re actually all over the place. I like them because so […]

Fail: Fixing a Bulging Garage Wall

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand…there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.” Frodo – The Lord of the Rings: The Return […]

Squirreling That Firewood Away

“It really seems to me that in the midst of great tragedy, there is always the horrible possibility that something terribly funny will happen.” Philip K. Dick – an American writer known for his work in science fiction. I can’t remember the exact moment I became a squirreller, but I can tell you that the […]

This Winter Doesn’t Want to Say Goodbye

“I have heard what poets write about women. They rhyme and rhapsodize and lie. I have watched sailors on the shore stare mutely at the slow-rolling swell of the sea. I have watched old soldiers with hearts like leather grow teary-eyed at their king’s colors stretched against the wind. Listen to me: these men know […]

Hiking Houston Brook Falls in Bingham, Maine

Last week, a friend sent me a video of his autumn camping trip on the shores of Wyman Lake in Bingham, Maine. I watched the video and thought the area in which he and another friend camped was interesting. As I watched the video, I simultaneously began hunting around on Google Earth in an effort […]

Walking Bonney Woods in Farmington, Maine

I’ve been having an extraordinary time with my short story book. So many of the stories are excellent. Actually, all of them are. I’ve made it half way through the Character section and have so far read The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter and The Five-Forty Eight by John Cheever. What I […]

My Live-In Servant and His Little Peculiarities

I recently finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and found the book just as good, if not better, than the previous four in the series. I’m enjoying the pace at which the story is darkening. If you’ve ever found yourself in an argument with me about Star Wars, you’ll know that […]

The Preppers Have Their Day

I keep thinking about all the preppers out there in this wide world of ours. I haven’t read too much about or heard much from them recently because they’re probably hunkered down in the shadows right about now. They’ve grabbed their bug-out bags, jumped in their 4x4s, and they’ve headed for the hills. This has […]

I’ve Beaten the Phone Company

My poor younger sister is laughing at me right now. I can’t seem to shut up about the fact that I’ve beaten the phone company at its own game. She knows the deal because she’s the one who led me towards the light. It’s just that she doesn’t have a blog to tell the world […]

Entering Full Hermit Mode

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen things change so quickly in my life. At the beginning of this past week, I was walking around, fairly aware and concerned with what’s going on in the world around us and then by Wednesday or Thursday, I became acutely aware and concerned with them. I’m sure you know […]

We’re Fostering a Stray Cat

We don’t want another cat. We really don’t. It’s just that when I opened the front door a few mornings ago and saw a lonely, dirty, and shaking white cat sitting on our front step, my heart sank. I hate seeing stray cats suffer, so after this one looked up at me and scurried under […]

I’ve Been Promoted to Black Belt

I thought I’d take a moment to mark the occasion. I seem to have an issue with doing this, so I figured I’d hop on it to get it done. Okay, here it is – on March 10, 2020, I was promoted to black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I know. For those of you who […]

Hiking Ship Harbor Trail in Acadia National Park

For the final part of our Acadia adventure, Laura and I hiked the Ship Harbor Trail down near Bass Harbor in Acadia. I hadn’t planned on doing any hiking until the morning of. Before we left, I browsed Google Maps for some addresses to put into the GPS when I noticed a short hike of […]

Visiting Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse in Acadia National Park

Have you ever seen a photo of a lighthouse in Maine? I’m sure you have. They’re used for calendars and postcards and can be found pretty much everywhere you look. The next time you see one of these photos, take a gander at which particular lighthouse is in the image. It’s most likely the Bass […]

My Road is Finished – Until Next Year

I’ve had a pile of about three yards of stone dust (sand) staring at me ever since the last time I dug into it. That’s got to be a few weeks by this point. I haven’t been too eager to transport it to the area of the woods it was intended for because I’m not […]

The Day Before Halloween in Farmington

Yesterday was almost as perfect a day as they come. While it was cloudy in the morning, the clouds cleared and the skies were blue for the remainder. The night before, Laura and I decided to head down to the used book store to see if they were selling anything on our lists. I can’t […]

Hiking French’s Mountain Trail in Rome, Maine

I’ve had this hike on my list for some time now. Every time Laura and I drive through the Belgrade Lakes region, we get excited and want to spend more time there. It’s such a cute little area and it appears to offer a lot in the way of outdoor activities. The last time we […]

Bolting Square Tubing to an Existing Trailer Axle

I have a decent amount of very good tools and I’m grateful to own them. They have helped me out on so many different occasions during so many different projects. There have been, however, times when I wish I owned even more tools. While I love using the tools I do have, they oftentimes aren’t […]

Installing the Last Section of Wood Stove Chimney

I received the final section of our wood stove chimney yesterday. I’ve been purchasing these things a few at a time over the past few months as to keep the expense of installing a new wood stove as least noticeable as possible. Overall, I say I’ve done pretty well because, as I’ve mentioned in one […]

How to Straighten a Bent Polar HD1500 ATV Trailer Axle

As I alluded to in my previous post, I seemed to have bent the axle of my brand new Polar HD1500 ATV trailer. This was extremely disappointing because I paid a lot of money for this trailer. I think it cost me around $425 with tax from Home Depot. I expected more from it, to […]

Making a Stone Dust Road in the Woods

Here’s a fun one for you. This past Friday, I spent the entire day shoveling sand from a pile up near our driveway into my handy ATV trailer and then emptying that trailer all the way back in the woods. My goal was to make a short road through a wet area so we wouldn’t […]

Finishing the Driveway Repair

I did a lot of work outside on the driveway this afternoon. It’s strange – I thought I was actually becoming lazy over the summer. I didn’t want to do anything. The moment the heat and humidity disappeared though, I jumped out of my seat and ran outside to get things done. In the past […]

More Stone Dust to Top the Driveway

The first question I’m sure you have is: what the heck is stone dust? Well, I can tell you that it’s not exactly stone, nor is it dust. It’s a coarser version of regular sand. Stone dust is the byproduct of crushed rocks. Gravel if you will. As the rock crusher crushes larger rocks, chips […]

Pruning Trees for the Firewood

I’ll admit it. I’m slightly addicted to collecting firewood. I know I have enough. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a garage full of it right now, waiting to be burned this winter and next. That doesn’t stop me from collecting even more though. After all, like I said, I’m addicted. Plus, it’s just […]

How Long to Bake the Paint on a Brand New Wood Stove?

We’ve now had three full-length fires in our new wood stove. During the first burn, I got a bit nervous that the stove was too small. I’m so used to jamming huge logs into our other stove that I wasn’t quite prepared for what I’d need to satisfy this one. Our new stove is less […]

Cleaning Up the Basement Plumbing

As you’ll surely read in my next post, I completed a small plumbing project this week. I had to change a bad well pressure tank out for a good one. While this wasn’t a difficult task, it did come with some quirky areas that made me lose some sleep at night. First, there was a […]

Replacing a Shallow Well Pressure Tank

Just so you know, there’s no difference between a shallow (dug) well pressure tank and a deep well pressure tank. I stuck the word “shallow” in the title because I thought people might search for that and land on this page. I’m clever like that. Here’s the situation. A few weeks ago, I began hearing […]

How to Make Homemade Grape Juice

As I mentioned in a previous post about grapes growing in Maine, we happen to have quite a few of them. Initially, we had four vines growing, but somehow, two of them disappeared. We now have two heavy producers. The grapes that are growing are slightly different. One is nice and sweet while the other […]

ATV Riding Around the Bigelow Preserve in Maine

We took the quad out for its true maiden voyage this past Sunday. While we’ve ridden locally and in the back woods a few times, those rides weren’t anything compared to what we just experienced. If memory serves, I bought the ATV with 600 miles. The first few rides added about 15 miles and now […]

Breaking in a New Wood Burning Stove

I have a word of warning for you. Don’t try to get a fire going in your brand new wood stove if it’s warmer outside than it is inside. Actually, don’t even try doing this if it’s only marginally cooler outside than it is inside, unless you’re prepared to smoke out your entire house. Unrelenting […]

Do Grapes Grow in Maine?

I would have to say yes. I’ve been eating handfuls of grapes right off the vine for two days. I began yesterday when I was mowing the lawn in the rain. I’ve had my eye on one of our vines for weeks and every time I’ve tried one of the grapes that seemed like it […]

Cutting ATV Trails in the Woods

I’ve done a lot of trail cutting in the past year. I’ll be taking some video of our entire trail complex to post here as soon as I buy a camera stabilizer, but for now, I’ll have to settle for showing you a couple of pictures and some shaky video. The problem is, they’re not […]

Where to Park When ATV Riding in Carrabassett Valley, Maine

This fall, we’re going to be doing some ATV riding up in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. As you may already know, we’ve done a lot of hiking up in that area and personally, I find it lovely. There aren’t many people in Carrabassett, yet they have one of the best trail systems around. And that’s just […]

Maine ATV Riding to Lemon Stream

Laura and I took our first real trip out with the new ATV this past weekend. We had only ridden it together once before. That was for a lap around the back yard. This time, we’d ride about 12 miles up into the woods. Well, the logging roads, to be exact. When we first moved […]

Visiting the Bangor City Forest

We visited the coolest place yesterday. If I, for some reason, woke up in this forest and had no idea where I was, I would guess that I was in Florida or Costa Rica or some tropical location like that. I had no idea someplace like this existed in Maine. To what am I referring? […]

Photographing the Carrabassett River & Bigelow Preserve

A few weeks ago, Laura and I had the itch to get out there and photograph a few different areas of the beautiful state of Maine. We initially had planned on going to the Rangeley area because it’s got lots of peaks, valleys, lakes and streams. It’s always a good time in Rangeley. For some […]

Visiting Deer Farm Camps in Kingfield, Maine

What a fun day we had yesterday. After spending much of our time indoors this rainy spring, we were ready to jump in the car to hunt down some exciting photography adventures. Before we left, I mapped out a set of destinations up and around the Kingfield, Maine area. Since it’s now the very beginning […]

Installing a Through-the-Wall Wood Stove

When we moved to Maine in November of 2013, one of my very first tasks was to install a pellet stove in the house. Within a few days of arriving, I did that. While the pellet stove performed well, that first winter was rough. The house came with existing oil heat that worked in tandem […]