Jay Gaulard - My Personal Blog

Installing Two Lithonia Lighting LED Recessed Ceiling Lights

February 7, 2019

I happen to be in the middle of a bathroom remodel project. I guess I shouldn’t really call it a “remodel.” While the bathroom certainly is getting remodeled, this project isn’t something I actually wanted to get into and to be honest, it’s taken me just about five years to get around to finishing it. But now that I’m an at it, I’m rocking and rolling.

Please allow me to start at the beginning. Approximately five years ago, we experienced a particularly cold winter. Many pipes in our house froze and burst open. Since then, everything has been repaired and made so that will never happen again. One of the primary culprits for all the freezing was the lack of adequate insulation in the downstairs bathroom. Because of this, I went into that bathroom with a hammer one day and tore it apart. And when I mean “tear it apart,” I mean tear it apart. I tore all the walls down and tore the bathtub out. I was on a tear. If you’d like to read about this experience in full, please take a look at this post. Now, since I’ve already told this story about 50 times on this blog, I’ll move onto more exciting adventures.

While in high school, I took two years of Construction Electricity at a local trade school as a way of getting out of Social Studies and English classes. Now that I think about it, I can’t decide weather or not the route I took was the better one. Anyway, during those two yeas, I learned a lot. I learned all about how to wire houses and how to install and replace light switches and outlets (called receptacles). I also learned about much of the parts and equipment that was used in the construction of a home. One of those parts was called a “high hat light.” These are the types of lights many of you have in your kitchens, living rooms, basements and hallways. They’re all over Center Hall Colonials and new houses. I should know, I used to live in a Center Hall Colonial and we had dozens of these types of lights.

If you aren’t familiar with this type of lighting setup, it basically looks like a canister that’s pushed into a ceiling. There’s a light bulb at the center of the canister. The problem with high hats is that they take up a lot of room and the bulbs that go inside of them usually are of the higher wattage type, so there’s some serious electricity use going on when they’re in use.

I’m at the point of my bathroom remodel where I’ve just finished hanging the drywall and now I’m applying joint compound to all the seams. I love this part. I love the application more than the sanding though. I think you all can agree with that sentiment if you’ve ever gotten yourself into this sort of project. Anyway, I’m also at the point of installing the light fixtures I want to see in this bathroom, which brings me to the point of this post. I just had to stop working, take some picture and show off the coolest recessed lighting fixtures I’ve ever seen. These babies are pretty bad. Take a look.

This is what you call a low profile recessed LED light. I couldn’t believe it when I found it and I’m so glad I did. They’re even dimmable, although, I’m not going to install a dimmer switch.

The brand name is Lithonia Lighting and each of these lights costs about $15. I found them on Amazon. I was just looking around at different recessed lighting options when I bumped into these things. I love the idea of these because you need virtually no room to install them. If you have drywall with a wire behind it, you can install these lights in about two minutes. No more high hats that you have to see naked beams to install. These lights don’t require any joists for installation at all. Do you see those two spring clips at the sides of the light in the photo above? Those two clips simply hold onto the backside of the drywall. And that’s it!

Let me show you two more views of this light. This is the back and the front, or the top and the bottom. Whatever.

The company, Lithonia Lighting, offers these lights in four or five different color temperatures and best of all, each light only consumes 13 watts of electricity. This is when I want to sing the “Technology” song from Napoleon Dynamite.

Please allow me to show you how I installed these two lights in the downstairs bathroom.

First, I used my handy dandy six-inch hole saw that I purchased when I ordered the lighting fixtures. I couldn’t have made this install as cleanly and as easily as I did without this saw. I think this was around $15 as well. Check it out.

After making sure there was nothing behind the area where I wanted the lights to go and after measuring and marking the ceiling, I drilled two holes in the drywall. Here’s one of them.

By the way, drilling this hole took all of ten seconds. Also, the hole saw attachment fit right into my Dewalt cordless drill.

I pulled the wire that I had previously run from behind that drywall and connected it to the electrical box that came with the light. The light uses easy push connections.

When I was finished with making the connections, I plugged the light in to the box I just showed you. It’s sort of like hooking up a stereo. Sort of strange. Then, I slid the LED light into the ceiling hole. I didn’t seat it completely, because I still have to paint. Actually, I did with one of them to make sure the fit was good, but I reversed that after I was sure things were okay.

Check out how low profile this light is. It doesn’t even matter if I did have a joist behind the drywall. It wouldn’t affect the fit at all.

This is just about the worst picture ever, but at least it shows you the light as it’s illuminated. These are nice and bright and having two of them, plus a four bulb light strip is pretty much everyone’s dream as far as bathrooms go.

To finish the install, I simply have to push the light in the hole and the clips will hold it in place. I love these things.

Well, there you have it. My lighting installation experience. Have you ever seen these things before? Do you have any experience with them? Please share if you have or do! Thanks for reading!

Installing a Symmons One Handle Shower Faucet

January 12, 2019

This was a very exciting project for me. I’ve had a bathroom that I gutted about five years ago, sitting here doing a whole lot of nothing. It’s been waiting for me to get up off my bum to put things back together. If you don’t remember, years ago, we had an extremely cold winter that forced freezing air through the many gaps in the walls outside the room I speak of. I think the lows that night hit -18 degrees. It was crazy. The copper pipes in our house experienced a lot of damage via bursting and the next few days consisted of me running around town trying to pick up supplies to make repairs. As stressful as it was, it was a lot of fun. I know, weird. By the way, if you’re interested in seeing some photos of this ordeal, you can do so here. Things have changed slightly since then in that I decided to abandon the idea of using any fiberglass insulation at all in the exterior walls. Instead, I used four inches of rigid foam for a watertight seal. Our house has pine board and batten as it’s siding and to say air infiltration is an issue would be an understatement. So a word of advice for all you out there considering this type of siding, be sure to have air sealed the entire home before even thinking about adding something like this to the exterior. As for us, there’s the inside wall, some insulation and then the boards and batten. No air sealing or anything like that. I solved the bathroom issue by using rigid foam and expanding foam spray, but that doesn’t say much about the rest of the house. Perhaps one day I’ll fix that too.

Anyway, over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on finishing up the insulation. As I just mentioned, I switched tracks a bit. I still have a few areas to complete, but that part of things is looking good. And since the wall that the bathtub was up against was finished, I decided that installing the tub again would be wonderful. The bathroom is small and that tub is right in the way of everything (being pulled away from the wall and all). Also, because the shower/tub valve was old and leaky in this bathroom, I decided to replace it, which brings me to the point of this fabulous post.

Okay, since I have experience with Symmons shower valves, I decided to go with that brand. In the past, I have rebuilt valves like this, so I was interested in taking things to the next level. I wanted to do a complete installation. So that’s what I did.

This is the bad boy I purchased. I got the entire kit from Amazon for $99, which included the valve and all the chrome accessories that one would need to perform an install from nothing. It even came with the tub spout and the shower head. All I needed was a tub, which I already had. Here’s the exact title of the kit I purchased, in case you’re interested: Symmons S-9602P-RP Origins 1-Handle Shower Faucet, Chrome.

When it comes to projects like this, one of the most intimidating tasks is the soldering. Many folks shy away from it, when they really shouldn’t. Soldering copper pipes is a no-brainer, once you get used to it. It’s sort of like learning how to drive with a clutch. Once you get that one piece of information that you need, it makes all the difference. I’ll tell you the golden piece of information that has to do with this type of soldering below.

Let’s get going with the installation.

Before soldering any type of valve that has plastic or rubber parts in it, it’s a good idea to take the entire valve apart. Since I already purchased and still had on hand the special tool I would need to gut this thing, I used it and had no issues. Here’s a photo of the disassembled valve.

In the above photo, I included the tool that’s necessary to disassemble this type of valve. You can purchase this tool on Amazon as well.

Now, since I wanted to use Pex piping for this project as opposed to copper, I needed to solder some fittings onto this valve. The tube that leads to the tub uses a threaded fitting, so that would require some soldering and the hot and cold inputs and the shower output needed fitting soldered directly to the valve housing.

Since the valve housing for the hot, cold and shower lines were all female and my adapters were females as well, I needed to cut short pieces of copper pipe to act as males. I did that for the hot and cold lines.

I then cleaned, fluxed and assembled the Pex adapters to the copper pipes to the Symmons shower valve housing. Check this out. I love how clean everything is.

Once everything was assembled, I went ahead and did my soldering.

Okay, the trick to soldering in any direction is to heat the “joint” on the opposite side of where you’ll be touching the solder to the pipe. So let’s say you have a copper pipe with an adapter attached to it and that pipe is running horizontally. To heat the joint (the spot where the very end of the pipe touches the inside of the adapter), you’d point the torch flame directly at that point of the outside of the adapter. In this case, let’s say at the bottom. Then, you’d touch the tip of your solder to the opposite position on the top of the pipe. Take a look at this example soldering job. I had to attach the threaded fitting to the copper pipe.

Since the end of the pipe is touching deep inside of the fitting, that’s considered the joint. That’s where you point the flame. Then, you’d touch the solder to the opposite side of the pipe. When the flame heats the joint enough and that heat makes its way to the area you’re touching the solder, the solder will quickly get sucked right into the joint.

One common mistake many folks make is to use too much solder, causing drips and a very ugly work product. All you need is a bit of solder. When you touch it to the pipe and it melts, trust me, it’ll get pulled right into everyplace it’s needed. Maybe a quarter inch of solder is all you need. Just make sure you clean your pipes and adapters thoroughly with fine grit sandpaper and a brush. And use flux. Oh yeah, and use MAPP gas in the yellow bottle as opposed to the regular propane in the blue bottle. MAPP gas is hotter and it will heat up the housing a lot faster when tackling a project like this.

Here’s a photo to show you that the solder does, in fact, get pulled into the joint. Can you see the solder in the inside of this threaded adapter? Notice how it’s not pooling up because I added too much. It’s good to be cheap when it comes to plumbing. You won’t over use your supplies.

By the way, all of these adapters and piping were half inch.

This is the bottom of the soldering job.

And this is a close-up of the copper threaded adapter screwed into the valve housing, with white tape and all. Be sure to use white plumbing tape with all screwed in attachments.

Let’s now move into the bathroom, where the tub is waiting.

In this next photo, I attached the shower valve to the back of the tub. As you can see, I’ve got some room to work, since the tub is out in the open. This Symmons Temptrol shower valve gets placed right up against the back of the tub with that white plate, which is included. Then, the chrome plate gets placed up against the valve on the inside of the tub and screwed in place. The front plate and the back plate squeeze the valve in place, which is very handy because it allows for this install to be completed when the tub isn’t fitted against the wall, such as in my case.

When it comes to installing the bathtub spout plumbing, there’s a trick you can use. Go ahead and solder an elbow and a longer pipe than necessary to stick through the tub spout hole that sits beneath the valve itself. Then, dry fit a threaded adapter on the end of the pipe. After that, lightly screw the tub spout onto the adapter.

Since the pipe is too long (on purpose), you’ll need to measure the distance of the extra pipe. Record that distance and then remove the spout and the threaded adapter. Then, measure the same distance from the end of the pipe.

Mark the distance and cut the pipe at the mark. Finally, clean the pipe and threaded adapter, flux them up and solder your joint.

You should be left with the exact length you need for the tub spout. If you screw the spout back on, the back of it should perfectly touch the wall of the tub. This little trick certainly makes life a lot easier.

Okay, now let’s move onto the existing plumbing that’s contained inside the wall. As you can see in the photo below, there is some Pex tubing that’s attached to copper tubing that runs through the walls. Luckily, there are valves attached to that Pex tubing. Those valves made things much easier when it came to turning off the water. I didn’t need to shut the entire house down. All I did was turn those two valves to their off positions. Here’s another word of advice; use tons of valves in your plumbing. You’ll thank yourself one day.

Here’s an up-close look at the old valve. I don’t even know where the rest of the parts are for this thing.

And here I am using my handy dandy (and very sharp) Pex tube cutting tool to cut the Pex tube away from the valve.

Here’s the valve that’s been cut away from the rest of the plumbing.

And finally, here we are with the wall plumbing that’s ready for installation.

Since Pex adapters and attachments are so expensive, many manufacturers sell what they call “Pex tube removal tools.” These are tools that cut away the old crimps and tubing from existing plumbing. Since I purchased an IWISS Pex crimping tool as well as an IWISS Pex tubing crimp removal tool, I was able to make short work of the remainder of this project. I easily cut away the old crimps and tubes and attached my own.

I also purchased a 100 foot role of half inch tubing, of which I obviously have lots left over. I only used about four inches of it.

After I had all my plumbing the way I wanted it, I moved the tub back into place against the wall. Then, I removed the wall on the other side (in the adjacent room) and hooked everything up. I made the necessary crimps and nothing leaked at all. Check this out.

Using Pex tubing added a lot of flexibility. I was able to shift the tub around until it sat correctly in its final position. Here’s another view.

And look, the next day, I even hooked up the drain pipes, which was an adventure unto itself. I’ll tell you about that another time.

What’s best of all is that we now have a fully functional tub and shower, not that we can use it or anything. The rest of the bathroom still needs to be built out, but this is a step in the right direction.

Projects like this are quite simple to complete as long as they’re thought out, you have the necessary tools and you have access to the inside of your walls. When your ducks are in a row, everything else falls into place.

Do you have a similar bathroom project you’d like to complete? Do you have any questions? I love this kind of thing, so if so, please ask in the comment section below. I’ll do my best to answer. Thanks for reading!

Hiking Around Carrabassett with my Wide Angle Lens

January 7, 2019

I really had only one goal in mind. That was to get out there to see what my wide angle lens could do. I’ve had this lens for quite a while, but haven’t used it in some time. I’ve been so busy with the Canon 18-135mm that I recently purchased that I sort of put the Sigma wide angle in the back seat. Well, last night, I got a great idea. We’d head up to Kingfield and Carrabassett to hike around in the snow for a while to see if there was anything worth taking photos of. We’ve been to the area so many times that it’s getting worn out somewhat when I want to discuss it on this blog. Today I though that I’d focus on the type of lens I was using as opposed to the hike itself. But I’ll talk about the hike too. Albeit briefly. I’ll mostly just complain about how cold I was.

Have you ever hiked in 17 degree weather? I know that doesn’t sound bad, but how about 17 degree weather when it was windy? I have no idea what possessed me when I came up with the idea to go into the woods in this weather, but we made the best of it. After getting out of the car, my ears nearly froze off and by the time we made it about a quarter of a mile down the road, towards the bridge that leads into the trail, my forehead was numb and my left nostril felt like it would crack right off. After we got onto the trail though, things warmed up a bit. The trees shielded us from the wind and I decided to put on my hat and gloves. Before that, I thought I could brave the cold for a while and take photos with no gloves on. Doing that made my fingertips very chilly. They actually hurt. As I was trying to warm them up by breathing on them, I thought about running them under hot water like I used to do when I was a kid. Boy, what I did back then was stupid. Have you ever run your fingers under hot water when they’re freezing cold? Not a good move. The pain!

I did manage to snap a few photos though. The first one is of the famous Carriage Road that closes each spring because the town tries to keep the road in as good condition as they can. It’s dirt and if driven on at the wrong time of year, it will turn into mud pronto. So, for a few months, they close things down so no one can drive through from one end to the other. As a matter of fact, this is the very same road we drove on to the waterfall last winter.

I mention that we drove on this road for good reason. Since we did, I’ve been warned about doing that because throughout the day, huge logging trucks use this route to transport their logs from where they cut them to where they drop them off, wherever that may be. If you’ve never seen a logging truck, let me tell you that they’re pretty huge. The last time we were on this road, I didn’t give oncoming traffic much consideration. This time, since being warned, I did. As we walked on it, I noticed how thin it truly is. There’s no way we’d be able to pull over if confronted by a logging truck. If that happened, I’d probably have to punch it to go right through. Know what I’m saying here? Nobody plays chicken with this guy.

Check out the road. Pretty, but narrow.

Oh yeah, it’s also fairly close to being a sheet of ice. I love that fact about it.

Along the route to the bridge is a small cabin type house that we’ve never actually seen anyone inside of. It’s in a great area, right on the river, and I would think that at least someone would want to enjoy that. I’m sure we’ll see some activity someday.

Are you noticing my wide angle lens at work? No? you will towards the end. I’ve got some groovy photos down there. You just wait.

This is the bridge I’m referring to. I would never have been able to capture all this scenery with my regular lens. That one maxes out at 18mm and this one maxes out at 10mm. Needless to say, this one is a lot wider.

Right past the bridge, along the trail to the Poplar hut, is Poplar Stream. I fell in snow that was (unexpectedly) up to my knee to get this shot. That’s the bridge in the distance.

It was so cold that I wanted to walk for just a few minutes and then return to the car to warm up, but I was persuaded to continue on and hike through the trail we were supposed to hike through. I didn’t put up much of a fight because I’m a very easygoing kind of chap.

To make a long story short, we hiked and then went back to the car. We drove into Kingfield and visited with some friends in the Herbert Grand Hotel. That’s always fun. Then, after that, we went across the street into Annie’s and got ourselves some good ol’ Carrabassett Coffee. That’s the good stuff.

On the way back home, we passed by a field that looked rather stunning. The sun was hanging in the sky just the right way to make it filter through one of the apples trees we’ve been admiring since we arrived in the area. This field is only a few miles from where we live, so we see these trees often. Anyway, because I know a photo op when I see one, I pulled over and parked the car. We got out, jumped the snow bank and walked our way towards one of the trees.

When we got close enough, we started snapping away. I must have taken 30 shots. I tried a few different variations of settings, but I found that a small aperture setting of f/22 worked wonders for giving me the starburst I was after. This is a shot as I was approaching the tree. I tried to have the sun sit directly behind it.

And here’s another shot as I got closer to the tree. Trust me, I’d love to post all 30 photos, but I’m sure you’d get bored of looking at them after a while.

I might just have to print one of these shots out to hang on the wall. I like them a lot.

On the way back to the car, I asked if I could kindly have my photo taken. I received a new coat for Christmas and I’ve been bragging about it ever since. I’ve received a lot of “lumberjack” comments about it, so I guess that’s what people are making of it. By the way, this one comes from our friends at Cabela’s. It’s nice and toasty warm, yet I still can’t figure out how to look natural in a photograph. By the way, I hope you like how buff I look in the jacket. I had it stuffed with not only my body, but a few shirts and a thick wool sweater.

And finally, because I just couldn’t leave well enough alone, I took a few more shots. This time though, I wanted to focus on our path in the snow to the tree.

I really do love this lens. I think I’ll keep it on my camera for a while. It’s more artistic than my primary lens.

Well, there you have it. Another trip up north for some walking around in the woods, plus other things. I hope you enjoyed!

Maine Winter Hiking Over the Bridge & Through the Pines

December 11, 2018

In my opinion, winter truly is the best season. Hands down. Fall is a close second, but winter really has so much to offer. During my years growing up, I never saw it that way, but I sure do now. The reason I wasn’t very fond of winter while I was young is because it got in my way. I needed to do things and I had places to go. Shoveling snow wasn’t much fun and freezing for most of my life was much less fun. Today though, things are different. Well, shoveling snow is still pretty awful, but at least I have a snowblower. Although, my driveway today is a lot longer than the one I grew up with, so I may have to call a draw on this one. And although I still freeze, at least I do it on my terms. As a matter of fact, just a few minutes ago, I was outside in the garage cutting a piece of wood with my handy dandy bow saw. My fingers were frozen to the bone because it’s only about 5 degrees out there, but it’s something I chose to do. If my father asked me to do that when I was younger, my poor parents would never have heard the end of my complaining. Isn’t it strange how these things work out?

Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that perspectives change as one ages. What once used to be terrible isn’t so bad anymore. And when one begins to appreciate certain things, one’s life can improve dramatically. I’ll use a recent hike as an example. When I was a kid, I most likely wouldn’t have wanted to walk a few miles into the woods on a freezing cold day. Today however, I look forward to it. Again, it’s strange how these things work out. Although, I will tell you that I didn’t grow up in Maine either. Perhaps if I lived where I do now when I was a kid, I would have appreciated nature more. Who knows.

Since it’s been pretty sunny lately, Laura and I decided to visit a trail we’ve gone to once or two before. The very first time we stepped foot in this area was during the summer. We only walked about a half mile before saying, “Okay, this is pretty good. We’ll come back.” The next time we went, there was a bit of snow on the ground, but there were some huge puddles that were fairly challenging to walk around. It was also hunting season, which freaked me out a little. Even though we were wearing orange, I still don’t trust some of these hunters. I don’t even trust them when it’s not hunting season, so that’s saying something right there. Yesterday, we went back for the third time and it was magical. I have fallen in love with the area because it’s just so “Maine.” It’s absolutely silent and stunningly beautiful. And it was all ours. There’s never anyone around to bother us. We can walk and explore and do whatever we want, not having to worry about other hikers to contend with.

We walked about two miles yesterday. It was an easy walk, so I took a few photos along the way. I like to stick my camera in my backpack just in case I might need it. During yesterday’s hike, I took some pictures and some video. The pictures are really nice, but the video is extraordinarily boring. I only took it to give you a glimpse of what the area was like. One of these days I’ll actually talk during a video, which I’m sure will add an entirely new dimension to things. Here are the photos I took.

This first one is of the main feature of the trail. The entire trail is about two and a half miles long and this small bridge is about a half mile from where we parked the truck. This bridge is primarily used as a snowmobile and ATV crossing. The stream it crosses was enlarged substantially by a beaver dam just a short distance away.

I took this photo as I was standing on the bridge, pointing my camera in the direction of the beaver dam, which you can’t see.

This is the other side of the stream. In the previous shot, I was facing west and now I’m facing east. Just look at the tops of those pine trees. I love those things. By the way, loggers just cut some of the forest beyond those trees, so it would be the perfect time to scoop some of this land up to build a dirtbike track. That’s all I think of these days. Buying 100 acres to build a dirtbike track. There sure is enough land around here to do that. And no one would even care either. People ride ATVs all day long in this area.

I thought I’d get creative and take a photo of a pine branch that was hanging over the ice. I enjoy shots like this. Just wait until you see the next one.

Okay, here we have a random picture of some dried Beech leaves. These leaves stick around until spring when the new growth pushes them off the tree.

I’m thinking this sign was posted at the edge of one person’s land. Signs are all over the place, telling people what’s allowed and what’s not. It’s best to respect the landowner’s wishes because they can just as easily post the property as no trespassing.

And finally, I have a picture of the sun through the trees. The real reason I took this photo was because I wanted to see if I could get a starburst effect with my lens. To get this, I used aperture priority mode and I cranked the aperture to f/22. Anything over f/11 (I think) will give this effect. Pretty neat, isn’t it?

If you ever decide to go hiking on a cold day in the snow, remember this: there are no bugs, there’s no sweat and the weather is fine. So much better than the summer. Also, the key for a comfortable walk is in the boots you wear. You need to get some winter hiking boots. These look just like regular hiking boots, but they have extra thick soles and are insulated. I have a pair and my feet were toasty warm.

Here’s some extra special video for you. Lots of crunchy snow walking.

Winter Snow Hiking in Maine

Visiting Freeport & Brunswick, Maine

December 4, 2018

Before we head out to the coast, I have to prep my mind. I’m not one for driving, so the hour and a half or two hour trips are big deal. All it takes is some looking around online at all the fun places we’ll visit and see and I’m pretty much ready to go. And this time, it was to Freeport and Brunswick, Maine.

If you aren’t aware, Freeport, Maine is the home of L.L. Bean. There’s a huge Bean store right in the center of town as well as an outlet store that’s located in a shopping area about a block away. During this trip, we didn’t go into the outlet store, but we sure did visit the main one. I was surprised at how large it was and how much merchandise this company sells. I had no idea. I always though L.L. Bean sold primarily parkas and jeans. Nope. They also sell all sorts of hiking and hunting gear and snowshoes and just about everything else you would think of if you lived in the northeast. There wasn’t much I actually wanted because I already have everything I need, but believe me, I would have a field day in this place. There’s some really good stuff. Albeit expensive stuff, but good stuff nonetheless.

The trip took an hour and a half from our house, which wasn’t bad. It takes approximately an hour to get to 95 and then things went quickly from there. When we rolled into Freeport from 295, I was so pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a town full of just L.L. Bean, but what we saw was a town that contained many traditional white clapboard homes and inns. I loved the look of these buildings and I especially loved the size of the white pine trees surrounding them. They were huge and they were all over place. Both the buildings and the trees made the town quite traditional looking and inviting. I think we’ll head back soon for a more extended stay.

I took many photos during our time in Freeport, but I’ll try to trim them down for you. I would like to give you a glimpse inside L.L. Bean as well as some of what we saw around town. I will warn you that the pictures I took inside the store aren’t that great because I was attempting to be stealth. It didn’t seem like shoppers appreciated having their photos taken, so I sort of whipped my camera out, took a shot and then hid it again. I think you’ll get the idea though. Okay, let’s go.

This is a corner of the store. The main entrance is just to the right of this area. Straight ahead is a window display for Christmas.

Directly across the street from the Bean store was Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen & Topside Tavern. This is a restaurant that all the tourists were eating in.

If you aren’t one for dead animals all over the place, you might not want to visit this store. The first thing we noticed were stuffed moose heads and bears pretty much all over the place. While it makes for an interesting landscape, it can be surprising if unexpected. I enjoyed taking photos of them because, apparently, I don’t get to see much wildlife in the actual outdoors. Everything has been avoiding me.

Here’s a moose head for you. There are more perished animals to come later on.

And here are a few random shots of the inside of the store. It was diverse and fun to explore.

Oh wait. What’s this? That’s right, it’s stuffed bison, deer and bear!

There were two very cool parts of the store. One of them was the huge aquarium they had set up. Inside of it were a few different types of river fish. Here are some photos of that. I’ll get to the second cool thing in a bit.

After we walked past the aquarium, I saw a Christmas tree in the distance. I said to myself, “Oh look, a regular old Christmas tree.” It wasn’t until we got closer did I notice there were pocket knives hanging all over it. If there’s one way to make an ordinary Christmas tree extraordinary, it’s to hang knives on it. If you don’t know, I love pocket knives.

The second very cool thing in the store was the musical mechanical clock that was contained in a glass case. I didn’t know what this was at first, but I looked around online a bit and found out. It’s indeed a very large musical clock. Take a look at the internal gears and such.

An area that definitely caught our eyes was the snowshoe section. I have never actually touched a real (modern) snowshoe, so that was fun. I have dreams of snowshoeing, but towards the end of those dreams, I’m very tired, so I fill the remainder of the dream with walking on packed snow. It’s so much easier.

As we were browsing the snowshoes, we noticed that a group of people broke out in song right next to us. I decided to snap a sneaky picture of them.

Okay, moving on. There are only a few more things I’d like to show you that were inside the store. The first one is the coy pond. This is a pond that’s located underneath one of the staircases that leads to the second level. There were a few large white fish in this pond.

Next up is another Christmas tree. This one is better than the last.

And finally, I have some more stuffed animals for you. Here’s a group from above as I was walking down the stairs.

And here are the moose and deer up close.

After we left the store, we walked around town a bit. It’s a good walking town with lots to do. There are many neat shops, such as a Mexicali Blues, among others. We’ve been to two sister shops of this store in other towns.

It’s basically a shop for females and there’s not a lot for a dude like me to do, but it’s so fun to take pictures of the weird hippy stuff.

We also went in a few other shops. The goods are a bit pricey, so sometimes it’s best to just look.

Here’s Wilber’s of Maine Chocolates.

And here’s Maine Wreath & Flower Factory.

We did a lot of walking around, but before we left, I snapped a few additional shots of the rear of Linda Bean’s restaurant. It had a cool urban thing going on.

Okay, off to Brunswick we went. We followed Route 1 north and in just a few miles, landed in town. Brunswick is an interesting place to visit. There are tons of restaurants on Maine Street (yes, “Maine” Street) and there’s a very nice college there as well. Bowdoin College to be exact. The campus is beautiful, so we drove around it a bit. I love colleges, especially private rich ones like this. They’re the best. Not that I went to a private rich one, but that doesn’t stop me from loving them.

Brusnwick had more of a city feel to it than Freeport did. It’s not actually a city, but it’s rather old and it does have Victorian homes and the such. Here are a few shots of different things that caught my eye as we were walking around. Mostly Christmas wreaths.

Here are some more Christmas wreaths and a house.

The primary reason I wanted to stop in Brunswick is to use a gift certificate I had for Bull Moose. Bull Moose is an incredible music, video game and movie store. I love it and they’re all over Maine. So much stuff and such good deals.

With the gift certificate, we bought four Christmas movies that are fun to watch every year. You know, Chevy Chase kind of stuff. I think we threw another movie in there too, but I can’t remember what that was.

The other reason we went to Brunswick was to eat some lobster at Cameron’s Lobster House. I had yet to eat a lobster roll since arriving in Maine and I thought it was about time.

This particular lobster house is a drive-in. You can pull right into a spot with your car and push a button and someone will come out to take your order. We didn’t do that. We stayed inside and ate there.

And as a finale for this post, I’ll let you know that Cameron’s Lobster House also sells Christmas trees. I thought it would be nice for me to pose in front of one. Tell me if you love it.

After we had finished eating, we hopped in the car and drove back home. The way back seemed shorter than the way there, but it was still pretty far. Until next time! Thanks for reading!

Visiting the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine

November 2, 2018

One of my favorite pastimes is to travel around and visit different hotels and inns. Most of the inns I’ve seen and learned about have been located somewhere in New England. My favorites to date are the Blantyre in Lenox, MA, the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge and the Spring House Hotel on Block Island, RI. Click on those links I just shared. I think you’ll be pleased with what you’ll find. Those inns are huge and wonderful and beautiful all in one. If I had to pick one to run away and retire to, it would have to be Blantyre. It just suits me well.

I may have to add another great inn to my list, but I’m not sure about it yet. On the way home from our recent visit to North Conway, NH, we stopped off in Bethel, Maine. I’ve been eyeing this town since we moved to Maine from Florida. It’s out there in the middle of nowhere and it’s got lots of money. I simply don’t know what’s not attractive about that.

Anyway, the town of Bethel is somewhat built around the Bethel Inn Resort. There’s the inn and then a town green with a gazebo in it right next door. There are tree lined streets with old houses that are in nearly perfect condition. Main Street has restaurants situated on it and there’s pretty much everything else a small town offers nearby. Bethel is an out of the way, exciting place. I just wish it wasn’t two hours away from where we live.

While we were there, we decided to take some photos. This isn’t unusual for us. We did visit the inside of the inn, but it was so quiet that I felt strange about taking pictures. I will tell you that it was very nice. The word “elegant” comes to mind. It’s upscale and much more than what I was expecting. I didn’t know if it was going to be a country inn where everyone goes to kick back and relax or an exclusive one where only those who are “in” go to spend their days. I’m still not sure about which one it is, but when I find out, I’ll tell you.

Here’s the front of the building. Don’t worry, this isn’t all. It’s actaully quite expansive.

As I said, there’s a green and a gazebo near the inn. I took a photo of the gazebo for you. Everyone loves gazebos.

Toward the center of the green was a fountain. I admit that I had a bit too much fun taking photos of the water. I’ll summarize all that fun with just a photo or two.

And finally, this is the fountain farther away. This image shows the corner of the green.

That’s about it. It was a quick stop. We almost ate dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the hotel, but decided not to. We instead ate at Sunday River Brewery. That was a good dinner.

If we make it back to Bethel, you can count on many more photos. As I said, it’s a pleasant town and I wouldn’t mind exploring it some more.

Visiting the Christmas Loft in North Conway & the Jackson, NH Covered Bridge

November 1, 2018

Now that I’ve shown you all those wonderful photos of the inside of Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, NH, I think I need to turn my attention to the Christmas Loft. I’ve seen photos and video of this store online and I thought it was worthy of a visit. After all, what’s wrong with Christmas 365 days of the year? I’m just glad we visited the area during the cooler months. I couldn’t imagine browsing through Christmas items in July.

The Christmas Loft is about a mile south of the rest of the stores. The entire drag of North Conway is a few miles long, but most of the touristy stuff is up north, where I showed you yesterday. Up in that area, cars are packed, bumper to bumper, slowly moving on their merry ways. Down near the Christmas Loft, there’s a bit more breathing room.

Even though I saw photos and some video of the inside of this store, I wasn’t quite sure of the layout. I thought it consisted of a small village on the inside and then just a few little trinkets to buy. I was right about the village, but there is a lot more to purchase than just a few trinkets. It’s Christmas all over the place.

This is the entryway, leading into the store. I threw a few lollipops in here as well because I like them.

After entering the store, we were led to its center. That’s where the village is. It’s basically a miniaturized version of a real Christmas village, if there’s such a thing. It’s actually really neat. I enjoyed myself as I took dozens and dozens of photos. I’ll show you the highlights here.

Even after entering the store, I didn’t quite understand the layout. I was too busy looking around the village to figure things out. After a while though, I did realize that the village was at the center of the building and if I walked through any of the doors of the village shops, I’d enter the rooms where the Christmas items are held. It was like the village was at the center and a “U” of stores surrounded it. Here are some of the more interesting items I found in the various rooms.

One of my favorite areas was where there were small village buildings all set up. There were quite a number of scenes. Some of them were of the Dickens Village variety and there were others too. These are some of the buildings I liked best.

There was even an entire room dedicated to Christmas lights. Of course, I took some photos of them.

Here’s a model Santa Claus for you. He was about three feet tall and enclosed in a large case.

If you’re into those small villages, you can really have a lot of fun in this store. They not only sold the ceramic village houses, but the small figures that go with them as well. I don’t think these are to scale, but I’m sure people do something with them.

I saved the best for last. I love nutcrackers and there were a whole bunch of them at the Christmas Loft. I was in my glory. Take a look at these.

There was so much more, but I couldn’t take photos of it all. It’s definitely worth a visit and I wouldn’t mind going back if I’m ever in that area again.

After a few hours of walking around and visiting the highlights, we decided to leave. After all, we had another two and a half hours of driving. We also wanted to take some photos of the many wonderful things we saw on the way in. During the trip back north, we stopped off at the Jackson, NH covered bridge. This is a big attraction and we definitely had to stop to take some pictures of it.

I should have known there would be a tourist trap on the other side of the bridge. Yes, another general store. This one was called Flossie’s and it was very cute. Unfortunately, they didn’t want us to take photos of the inside, so I only have two from the outside to show you.

The entire area is so beautiful. I haven’t ever spent any time in New Hampshire, so I was pleased. It’s a great state and I look very much forward to exploring it more in the future.

My next post will be very brief. On the way back home from this trip, we stopped off at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine. It’s a wealthy area and it’s worth the stop. I took some photos of the outside of the hotel and a few other random things. Until then – thanks for reading!

Visiting North Conway, New Hampshire & the White Mountains

October 31, 2018

I’ve had this trip on my mind for some time now. Like many other folks out there, I tend to do much of my traveling via Google Earth. When I’m not actually in the car driving somewhere nice, I like to use “Street View” to see what an area looks like. I have fun doing this. It gets me out of the house, so to speak.

I’ve been visiting North Conway, NH through my computer for a while and just the other day, I suggested that we actually head out to the real place. North Conway is approximately two and a half hours from where we live, so it took a lot to get me up and motivated to do something like this. If you aren’t aware, one of my least favorite activities is sitting in the car driving. Can’t stand it. But, for the greater good, I made the trip and was excited about it.

There were two things I wanted to see in this town. First was Zeb’s General Store and the second was The Christmas Loft. Both are situated right there on the main drag, so getting to them wouldn’t be too challenging, once we landed in town.

I’m always surprised at how places actually are when compared to how they appear on the computer. Usually, an area is very recognizable when compared to a photograph, but because of the wide angle lens Google uses for the mapping program and because of the lack of ability to discern topography, I’m usually pleasantly surprised when we make it somewhere in person. It always looks better.

For the first part of our trip, driving through the White Mountains was utterly beautiful. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We left our house and drove west on Route 2 and then when we arrived in Gorham, NH, we made a left and headed south. We entered the White Mountain National Forest and that’s when the adventure began. Maine was nice and so was New Hampshire, but nothing compared to the size of the White Mountains. Here is Mount Washington, right at the base of the road that leads to the top. I had to pull over to get some shots of this.

Mount Washington is actually the small peak behind the big one in the front. Here’s a better shot of it. It’s the one with the snow and antenna on it.

And because I’m such a whiz when it comes to photography, I put together a really hard to see panorama of the entire view. I still haven’t figured out a better way at displaying these things.

Once we entered the park, we quickly realized that there was no shortage of beautiful views. I kept wanting to pull over to take them in, but I realized that if we did that, we’d never get anywhere. Time was passing quickly and I wanted to get into town to see what it was all about. Although, I did snap a shot of a tunnel that went under the road, so bikes could pass by without getting hit by a car. I thought that was pretty cool. I kept seeing people ride into this lowered area in the grass and disappear and had to see what it was about.

About a half hour later, we got sucked into another beautiful view, so we were forced to pull over for some more photo opportunities. This is Mount Washington from the south, looking north. nice, isn’t it? The location is called the Intervale Scenic Vista.

And here’s another panoramic shot from that location.

It’s just so nice.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s get into North Conway now.

When we finally made it North Conway, we parked and I immediately jumped out of the car to take a photo of the Main Street while it wasn’t that busy. Check it out.

We parked near the town green, which is right near the North Conway Train Station. I saw this online too and I really wanted to see what it looked like, as well as what the trains were all about. So that’s where we headed first. We walked straight across the green and went into the station.

Inside the station, tickets are sold for three different rides. One is about an hour, one is about two hours and one is about five hours. The last one travels all throughout the mountains and must be so much fun to experience. As far as the rest of the station goes, it was more of a gift shop. It contained everything you’d expect it to. Stuffed animals, shirts, small rocks and all the rest. It even showed off different model trains and the such.

Here’s the ticket booth.

And here are some of the colored stones.

I’m really trying to keep these photos to a minimum because I have about a million of them.

After we were finished looking around inside, we went out back to take a look around. There were all sorts of trains out there, along with some autumn decorations and of course, the train tracks. Here are some festive pumpkins on a wagon.

And here are the train tracks themselves.

In this next photo, you’ll notice a sign that says, “Stay Off the Tracks.” I saw that right after I was on the tracks. But this is the coolest train of the lot.

When we were finished up with the trains, we walked into town. The first thing we saw was an old time 5&10 cent store. I thought that was so neat. We used to have one of these in the town I grew up. I miss that place. It seemed to have everything. We used to go there after church on Sunday mornings. This one has been operating for almost 80 years.

After walking around a bit, looking at things, we made it to one of the reasons we visited in the first place. Ah, Zeb’s good old fashioned general store.

We went in and discovered that the store sold pretty much everything under the sun. From jellies and jams to candy and soaps, there was a very wide selection. We actually got sucked into buying some candy. We purchase a pound of licorice for $8. Can you believe that? The tourists we were.

I’m going to post some photos of the store here without description. I’m sure you’ll get the idea of what things were about just by looking at them. This is part of downstairs.

Here’s some of what was upstairs.

And finally, here are two photos of the candy that was downstairs. There was so much more, but you get the idea.

I’ve decided that I’m actually going to leave this post here. I have so many more photos that I’d like to break things up a bit. For my next post, I’ll focus on visiting The Christmas Loft and the covered bridge and general store in Jackson, NH. And then after that, I’ll write one about Bethel, Maine. It’s just too much for this one post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Riding the Chairlift at Sugarloaf For Homecoming Weekend

October 29, 2018

This post is a few weeks late. My apologies. I have had a huge folder full of photos sitting in front of me all this time and I’ve been procrastinating so much every time I look at it. Last night, I decided that today is the day. Fellow Mainers and interested parties around the world must see what Sugarloaf looks like in the fall. I feel as if it’s my duty to show it off.

Each year, Sugarloaf Mountain hosts what’s called “Homecoming Weekend.” This weekend is full of events and small shows. The skyride is open and inside the lodge, all sorts of stuff is going on. There’s a book sale that we went to and purchased a few books from and there’s also a pretty good sized art and craft show. The book sale was organized by one of the local town libraries and the art show was organized by UpCountryArtists. Overall, the weekend is a lot of fun for many people and each year, we look forward to going to one event or another up there. It’s fun to drive to that area and it’s always a good time walking around the mountain.

This year, I took a whole lot of pictures. In this post, I’m going to post what I think is interesting. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. It really was an entertianing day up in that crisp mountain air. There’s nothing like Maine air in the autumn.

The book sale was on the bottom floor of the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel. As I said, we purchased a few books from that and then climbed up to the top floor to leave the hotel through a secret exit I found. Before leaving though, I thought I’d remember the moment by taking a photo of one of the hallways. I wanted to show you what the inside of the place looked like.

For a hotel that’s overrun by skiers in the winter, it’s pretty nice.

After we exited the hotel, we noticed a pretty sweet looking hot tub. Check this out.

How nice would it be to relax in this while it’s snowing on you? I mean, c’mon.

The art show was held in the main lodge. In one of the big rooms they hold events like this in. It was a very nice show. We really only spend a few minutes at things like this because it’s not in my nature to randomly purchase things. There was some quality workmanship though.

Here are two fairly lousy shots of inside of the show.

I think what’s more interesting to me is the huge beams holding the ceiling up, but that’s just me.

After the show, we went outside to check out the scene. Of course, there were tons of people out there, milling about.

The main event for the day was really the sky ride. That’s the whole reason we went up there. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I do enjoy climbing mountains during the fall. To get to the lift, however, we had to walk past all the restaurants and the shops. Here’s a sign for The Bag & Kettle Brew Pub. I thought that looked interesting.

And here are a few of the shops. As we passed by, we saw a bunch of people gearing up for some zip-line fun. They were all getting into their harnesses. That’s something I may try in the future. I may not too. I’ll have to see what type of mood my old age brings me.

Luckily the chairlift that was in operation was the big quad. I’m glad it wasn’t one of those smaller two-person ones. I was so excited to get on the lift to start climbing the mountain because it’s been so long since I had done that. He we are riding up the lift.

Well, that first one isn’t of us. It’s of a few random people who were in front of us.

I have about 100 photos of our time on the lift. I’m going to show you only the more attractive ones. I’ll pare things down to just a few photos. They can get tiresome after a while. While we were on the lift, everything was beautiful, but after we got home and I went through my photos, I realized that I took the same shot like 50 times. Hey, it happens.

Here’s a nice one of the western Maine mountains.

Here’s one of a dead tree that I found intriguing. The mountains are in the background as well and I think they make this somewhat of an attractive shot.

When we made it to the top, we saw that there were a good amount of people up there. I was surprised at that because it wasn’t like there were tons of people down at the base. The views were pretty though and I don’t use what word often. If I only had a beer in my hand. That would have made everything better.

Here’s a shot of some of the people who were wandering around, along with the sweet view of the western Maine mountains. Isn’t it interesting how they turn blue, the farther away they are?

And here’s the base lodge and all the other building that we came from.

The biggest issue we faced during the entire day was the long line of people who were waiting to descend the mountain on the lift. On our way up, folks who were walking down the mountain warned us of the wait, but since we were already on the lift, there was nothing we could do about that. Apparently, ski lifts were meant to bring people to the top of the mountain, not to the bottom. So there are some weight considerations to take. While we were able to fill every seat on the way up, we were only able to fill every fourth seat on the way down. That created a line with a wait time of about an hour. It wasn’t that bad though because we met a fellow amateur photographer who we spoke with the entire time. That was fun.

Here’s a photo I took while we were descending Sugarloaf.

After we made it to the bottom and walked back to the parking lot where our car was, we noticed a few things that caught our attention. First was a huge plowing machine that had monster truck tires on it. Check this out.

And just to prove how large the tires were, I stood next to one. I know, I look especially dorky in this picture. Please be kind.

The other really neat thing we saw was a spool of cable that is used for the chairlifts. How often do you see something like this?

And that’s about it. After we left the mountain, we stopped in Kingfield for some lunch at Longfellow’s, like we always do and then we went home. Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good day. The weather was beautiful and sunny in the morning and then turned overcast later on in the day. We’re used to that though because that happens all the time up here. Until next time!

Hiking Pico Ridge – the Cliff Above Clearwater Lake

October 15, 2018

So far, this autumn has been very nice. It’s been dry and just the right temperature. There were a few hot and humid days thrown in there about a week ago, but they passed quickly and we returned to our regular temperatures. Around 40 degrees at night and 55 during the day, although last night was pretty chilly. Colder than 40 degrees. People around here have already begun burning their firewood. I can understand their eagerness because I’ve begun to burn mine as well. I mean, it’s just sitting there, after all. And I have tons of it. There really is nothing better than relaxing in front of a wood stove with the fire going.

Since autumn days are hit or miss, you have to take the sunny ones when you can get them. Yesterday was perfectly sunny. Today, it’s raining, but yesterday was one to write home about. Because of all the sun, we decided to head up to the “trail near the cemetery,” which is otherwise known as Pico Ridge trail. It’s a relatively short trail that traverses up a hill past a small local cemetery, continues to climb a small mountain and ends up at a cliff that overlooks Clearwater Lake. This is one of my favorite hikes because it’s so short. I get the feeling of being outdoors and having done something, but I don’t have to put that much work into it. If you know me, you know this is the way I roll. I really don’t like long hikes. I do them, but I don’t particularly like them. I’ll never admit that to anyone though.

Have you ever hiked to a cliff with your camera, all excited to take pictures, and found that you kept taking the same photos over and over again? That’s what I felt like yesterday. There’s only one view to be had and that view can be captured with one photo. Yesterday’s view was spectacular and as I stood there snapping away, I wondered how I could mix things up. I did manage to get some diversity, so I decided to write a post to show you some of the photos. There aren’t many, but they’re pretty nice.

Here’s the view from the top of the cliff overlooking Clearwater Lake in Industry, Maine.

And here’s a nice shot I got with the sun in it. I was all the way zoomed out and my aperture setting was F11, so I managed to get the starburst effect I was after. You can generally capture the starburst effect with an aperture setting smaller than F11.

Here are some oak leaves I thought were pretty. There were just hanging out next to me so I took a picture of them.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is Mount Blue or Tumbledown Mountain. I’m probably wrong with both of those guesses. It sure is pretty though.

Off in the distance, we saw two wind farms. One of them was the Spruce Mountain wind farm and the other is called Record Hill Wind in Roxbury, Maine. Here’s a photo of the one in Roxbury.

It’s neat to watch those turbines spin off in the distance.

I just took a look through the rest of the photos and I think if I post any more, things will get repetitive. So I guess I’ll leave things here. I do have lots of pictures from our recent visit to Sugarloaf Mountain though. We even rode the ski ride up to the top of the mountain, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading!

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