BLUE HILL—If you’re looking for a fun little road trip this summer no farther than an hour from the Midcoast, Fairwinds Florist, a shop in Blue Hill, is an artistic destination with a whimsical attraction.  On the left side of the shop stands a vintage cigar machine. Instead of cigarettes, however, the glass partition for each knob reveals a tiny piece of art made by a local artist. For $15 you get a token to feed to the machine; the choice of artist is yours.

There’s a childlike feeling to tapping a coin in the slot, pulling the knob and watching a little white box slip out into the metal tray. You don’t know what you’ll get exactly, but the surprise is worth it.

On Monday, July 22, Fairwinds held an “Art Box Party” to celebrate the sixth anniversary of The Art Box and to invite people to try out the vending machine.

The Art Box is the idea of Michele Levesque and Michael Rossney, owners of EL EL FRIJOLES Mexican food a taqueria in Sargentville and Makers’ Market Shop & Studio in Brooksville.

“The cigarette machine dispensing art is not my idea,” said Levesque. “It’s an idea we came across in Chicago from a machine in a place called The Artomat and I was really intrigued, so I bought a piece. It stayed in the back of my head for awhile and we decided to find our own vintage cigarette machine and offer art that was more local. We wanted to do something for the artists of the peninsula and advertise their work a little, as well as provide an affordable way for people to collect art. We’ve got kids who come in here and are already art collectors because of the Art Box.”

Levesque and Rossney are artists whose work The Art Box dispenses.

“We currently have 11 artists that are involved with the project and sometimes we have artists who rotate through, but 11 is about all I can handle,” said Levesque. “ Every artist except for one lives here right here on the peninsula.”

Art ranges from hand-painted wood blocks, mixed media, altered books, found object sculpture, textiles, photography, handmade tiny books and other personalized items that can fit into the regulated sized box. For more backstory on the individual artists visit: The Art Box

One of the artists on hand that evening was Amelia Poole, who makes encaustic collages by layering vintage book pages and drawings with wax and resin. One particular piece that Carol Gregor of Brooksville bought through the vending machine was constructed from old handwritten letters.

Poole was happy to discover that someone had chosen her artwork, so she explained what it was: “This is a son in Korea writing back home to his father, in Bangor, named Sterling Diamond in 1951.”

“Sterling Diamond! What a name,” said Gregor.

The Art Box is a permanent feature of Fairwinds Florist shop. You don’t have to wait for one of their artist receptions; you  can come in at any time and purchase a token to get some art from the cigarette machine. $10 of the purchase goes to the artist.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

First, it’s important to get it straight.

She’s not called a ‘lobsterwoman’ if the person lobster fishing is female; the correct term, no matter what the gender is lobsterman.

Susan Tobey White’s latest series, “Lobstering Women of Maine” is all about the women who haul traps, bait bags, stern and lobster fish off their own boats. The exhibit is currently hanging at Penobscot Marine Museum until October 2019.

At least 300 people showed for her artist’s reception on July 14 and among those in the crowd were several of the women she did the portraits of.

“I think most of the people who showed up at the reception were in awe. They had no idea that women even did this line of work,” said White.

White said she had to gather statistics from a number of sources to actually pinpoint how many female lobstermen are at work. By her calculations, there are 200 female lobstermen out of 4,500 license holders in the state of Maine with an uncounted number of girls and women who work as sternman or apprentices.

“When I grew up, the options for women and careers were a nurse, a teacher, a secretary or a housewife,” she said. “There are a few women who strayed from that notion, but even in the 1970s, if you were on a lobster boat, you were supporting the male in the family in some way, whether it was sterning or assisting your father or husband, or helping if he was ill. I myself am in awe of these women today, who are out there doing the work.”

As White knows herself, the work is arduous, sometimes up to 14 hours a day. It’s physically demanding, dirty; there are harbor politics and lobstering is still a male-dominated field with its own set of codes and rules.

“My husband has had his license for 30 years in Belfast and along the years I’ve played a small role — and I do mean small — assisting him on his boat,” she said. “I’ve baited bags, I’ve measured and banded the lobsters, but it’s not my thing, which is why I have such respect for these women, who do this day in and day out for a living.”

Through photographs she took herself and from other professional and amateur photographs she procured, she set to paint the women in various stages of work.  Here are a few of the women, including a 10-year-old,  she has painted and a little of their backstory.

NORAH

“She’s 11 now, but this painting was when she was 10,” she said. “At that time, she had a five-trap license, but this year she’s fishing 50 traps. Her grandfather was a commerical fisherman and she goes out with her dad, also a commercial fisherman on his boat in Wells. ”

Though White wasn’t entirely sure, it is very likely that Norah is fishing with a student trap license, which allows 50 traps in her age category.

MEREDITH

“Meredith fishes out of Stonington and this painting depicts her hauling a trap, while her sister opens another trap on the same string of traps and a third sternman assists,” said White. “They’re working on Meredith’s boat and she has memories of apprenticing with her own father, standing on milk crates just to reach the traps on the rail.”

SADIE

“What you see here is Sadie, who is beginning at the season and she’s putting her new traps and gear on the boat,” she said. “This is her boat. Her dad is also a lobsterman and she went on lobstering with him since she was a child. With each painting I tried to depict an aspect of lobstering.”

RUTHIE

“She’s skewering fish on a baiting iron and is the wife of a lobster fisherman,” said White. “I love that image. Someone  at the show asked me if she was barbecuing on board.”

White plans on continuing this series, painting more female lobstermen and sternmen as they work and is considering making a coffee table book out of her paintings and their stories.

“My hope is not just to put the spotlight on women in the industry but to put more attention on all of the issues the industry is currently facing now.”

To see White’s work visit: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/2019-exhibits/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Matthew Norwood, owner of Baby Burrito in City Park, decided with his partner, Maggie Goscinski, to sell tacos for a cause on Tuesday, July 23.

On a Facebook post the day before, Norwood announced: “It’s hard to serve Mexican cuisine without thinking about the current adversity facing immigrants and refugees at our border. Families belong together, and seeking asylum isn’t illegal. Instead of doing our usual Taco Tuesday giveaway, we’ll be donating 20% of our profits to RAICES Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.”

The idea was Goscinski’s.

“Obviously it’s in the news and on everyone’s mind,” she said. “Right now our son is in South Carolina visiting his mom and he’s very safe, but it got us thinking. It’s been really difficult for us to be apart from him and it really puts into perspective for us what’s happening with children being separated from their parents at the border and held without any time frame of when they’ll be reunited with their parents again.”

“We’ve had a lot of people come out to show their support,” said Norwood.

“You have to tread lightly in a business when it comes to being political, but I think everyone agrees that children belong with their parents,” said Goscinski.

Norwood, formerly a cook at Chase’s Daily, said he learned how to cook Mexican food from Chase’s Daily first, then researched cookbooks and recipes online, finally testing out his own recipes with his son, Ian, 8, to come up with the menu for Baby Burrito. A former self-described ”army brat,” Norwood’s parents are originally from Boothbay and he grew up in parts of England and Germany.

He started Baby Burrito on June 8 in the City Park and the business has taken off.

The menu is very simple, but ever changing, featuring tacos, burritos, quesadillas, homemade salsas, a kid’s menu and Agua Fresca (watermelon puree over ice) at very affordable prices.

“That was my number one goal is to make this food accessible to everyone,” said Norwood. “And the core principle of serving street food is that it’s for the community.”

Usually Tuesdays are Norwood’s day off. But on this day, he was back in the small kitchen making tacos with a variety of flavors: a fish taco, carne asada, a Mexican shredded beef, chorizo potato and Korean barbeque. He said his Korean barbeque, which is a fusion of flavors, have been the most popular for Mainers, perhaps because many parts of Maine don’t have access to authentic Mexican street food flavors and Korean barbeque is more of a familiar taste.

“One of the things about an ever-evolving menu is that if you fall in love with one kind of taco it might not be on the menu the next time, so it is a way for people to branch out and try something else,” said Goscinski.

Baby Burrito is open from Thursday-Sunday 11-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m.

For more information on Baby Burrito visit them on Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

NORTHPORT—It’s been 10 years in the making for Carl Kosmo to fully realize his dream of being a fully stocked hunting, fishing, archery and camping outfitter, and on Saturday, July 20, Outdoor Sportsman hosted a grand re-opening to show off its new retail space.

With complimentary hot dogs, jambalaya and soda offered outside, customers walked into the 30,000 square foot space feeling like it was an entirely new store, and that’s because it was.

The building next door that previously housed the original store has been closed off for offices. This new expansion took three years to build complete with outdoor equipment and clothing, a gun room, a basement archery range, an outdoor archery course, a gun range and a third floor whose possibilities are still in the works.

“This has been my dad’s lifelong dream,” said manager Michelle Kosmo, who estimated 750 people came to the opening. “We’re excited to offer much more equipment, more Carharrt clothing for women, men and children, more fishing and camping supplies.”

In addition to rentals of canoes and kayaks, the store also offers classes and courses in archery, hunting, crossbow, ATV and trapping safety. “State law requires anyone who wants a license in these areas take a certified course and our courses fulfill the requirement of those licenses,” said Carl Kosmo.

Carl Kosmo, who has been an avid outdoorsman all of his life, offers a range of the equipment he has always used himself. “I’ve been in this business for 45 years and this location has been in operation for 28 years,” he said. “Pretty much everything in this store is something I’ve been interested in as an activity.”

Archery has been one of Carl’s primary interests and the store reflects that. The store has the only indoor archery range in the Midcoast with 10, 20 and 30 yard lines along with 30 acres behind their facility with 30 Rinehart and McKenzie targets, along with an impressive section inside the store containing every kind of bow (new and used and even left handed models) and arrows.

Michelle Kosmo provided a glimpse of the store’s third floor, a fully finished attic space which could potentially be used for speakers, authors, yoga, classes and more. “We’re still in the process of figuring out how to use that space,” she said and welcomed ideas from the public. She can be reached at sports@maineoutdoorsportsman.com

For more information on Outdoor Sportsman visit: www.maineoutdoorsportsman.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—To the untrained eye, an electric bike —or ebike— looks just like any other mountain bike, except with a bulkier frame.

A compact electric motor and battery mounted in the center of the bike (within the down tube) allows the rider to pedal as normal, but with pedal-assist technology, power is stored within the motor as the rider pedals, which in turn, boosts the bike’s ability to maintain certain speeds.

Sidecountry Sports is at the Camden Snow Bowl on Saturday, July 20, giving the public free demos and rides on Specialized ebikes from 12 to 5 p.m. to show people what they feel like. “The sensation you get is a boost of power when you ride,” said Sidecountry Sports’ owner, Andrew Dailey.

In conjunction with the Maine Lobster Ride on Saturday and Sunday, an annual bike ride through Camden, Sidecountry Sports is working with their sponsor, Specialized, to introduce a curious public to the advanced technology of ebikes.

“There are different classes to ebikes,” said Dailey. “A class I ebike would cut out at 20 m.p.h whereas as a class III ebike would cut out at 28 m.p.h. And it’s all pedal-assist; there’s no throttle on these ebikes, so you still have to pedal; you still have to shift. That motor inside controls the power and it matches your pedaling cadence, so if the bike ‘feels’ that you’re struggling, the bike will boost you. The bike will match to the power of where you were previously pedaling. ”

Daily said ebikes allow people to pedal a lot further and effortlessly up hills. “Ebikes have been around for a few years, but the technology keeps getting better,” he said. “The weight of the bikes is coming down; they’re going further. These bikes we are using for the demos this weekend go 70 miles to a charge. So you can make this bike your daily commuter.”

“Fifty percent of all bicycles sold in Europe right now are ebikes,” he added.

Dailey said the biggest question Sidecountry Sports gets is the price difference that people are seeing on Amazon versus the two biggest ebike brands: Specialized and Trek.

“The ones you see on Amazon that are half the price aren’t really ebikes because they have a throttle,” he said. “That doesn’t fit the definition of an ebike; that is more of a motorized scooter, because you don’t have to pedal. Additionally, the Amazon product’s wiring may have issues. We had one customer buy a bike off Amazon and take it to us to put it together for them. Two months after purchasing it, the bike needed re-wiring and we had to wait eight months for Amazon to ship us new wiring.”

When you buy from one of the big brands, he said, the bikes are better built and have the same battery technology as Tesla. In addition, the customer has the backing of these companies that are investing hundred of millions of dollars into this platform. “If something breaks, they produce their own parts,” he explained.

Another issue with ebikes made with a throttle is that they may not be allowed on regular bike trails. “They may not be appropriate to ride on a trail because you can’t really control the motor,” he said.

Given that the technology is still so new to Maine, there is no language in the Maine Revised Statutes to define what ebikes are and where they can be used. Bicycle Coalition of Maine is currently working with People for Bikes and Maine legislators to develop a class of ebikes and determine where they can be ridden.

One enthusiastic rider who identified himself as The Ebike Apostle said, “It feels like magic. I truly call myself a Wizard and everyone else is a Muggle when you’re on one of these. You just become a super human.”

For more information on Sidecountry Sport demos, visit: Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—Meet, Dallas a Belgian Malanois, a breed known for their intelligence and loyalty. He is one of six new law enforcement teams of police and their canine partners that graduated from the State Police Canine School in late June.

After 14 weeks of training with his handler, Trooper Hunter Belanger, Dallas was ready to go home, and start his new job as a police K9.

Responsible for the Midcoast area of Maine (Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Waldo, Knox counties, the southern half of Kennebec County and part of northern Cumberland County) Trooper Belanger and Dallas may be seen from time to time in a cruiser— Belanger in the front, Dallas in the back seat.

“They have a very high drive, they love to work and they are very loyal and reliable,” said Belanger, of his new partner.

Historically German Shepherds have been the choice for police K9 training, but in this group, only one German Shepherd was trained along with two Dutch Shepherds and four Belgian Malanois. 

“We’ve found that the Malamois breed has just as much drive as German Shepherds,” he added.

Each dog was selected for training through a breeder used by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and special care was taken to match each dog with the personality and temperament of each trooper as well as the dynamics of the trooper’s family.

“Some dogs are naturally calm, and some bounce off the walls,” said Belanger.  “We had a special K9 Trainer who worked with each team, assessing each dog’s personality, not only with each trooper, but with the trooper’s family. Some law enforcement have young children in the family and you don’t want to match them with a dog that is super hyper active.”

Belanger lives with his fiancée, and with no children in the house, Dallas was the perfect fit for them.

“Dallas and I had almost an immediate bond, Once he saw me it was like he knew ‘this is my person,’ ” he said.

Belanger describes Dallas as a calm dog who is able to switch effortless between “work mode” and down time.

“He knows when it’s time to relax,” said Belanger.

Most their interaction is nonverbal and Dallas has been trained to differentiate when to be alert and when to be relaxed.

“They can read us better than we can read them,” Belanger said.

Not every person in law enforcement can handle or even wants a police-trained K9.

“It’s a huge commitment, because the training doesn’t stop outside the normal duties of patrol,” said Belanger. “Every day I go home after my shift, I work with my dog, keeping him proficient at his training. A regular dog owner on a day off can take his dog to the beach and relax. I have to go to the park and keep his skills up.”

In K9 Patrol School, the very first skill a dog learns is obedience to the commands of its master. A police dog must also make it through endurance and agility training. Next, comes specialty training with built-in scenarios.

In Dallas’s case he was specially trained in tracking and apprehension skills. For example if a suspect is trying to escape through the woods, Dallas will be able to track where that person went, find the trail and use force if necessary.

Dallas will always be at Trooper Belanger’s side during an arrest of a perpetrator.

“In one of the training scenarios we did, Dallas was by my side and we were going through the motion of patting down a hypothetical suspect, when the trainer made a sudden move and turned around to attack me,” said Belnager. “Dallas immediately sprang into action. Since dogs can’t use their paws to detain a suspect, they will use their jaws to apprehend him.”

The feeling of safety an officer gets from his police dog is immeasurable. When they work together, Dallas curls up in the back seat and only sits up and takes notice if Belanger stops the car.

Belanger said: “Maine’s a very rural place. When you think of police in Boston or D.C. there’s always two partners to a squad car. But here in Maine, you are largely alone and might be in a place where it takes 30 minutes to get back up. Dallas is my immediate back up.”

For the rest of his life until he is too old to perform his duties and retires, Dallas will be with Trooper Belanger.

“After he retires, and as long as everything goes right, Dallas is going to find a home with me and my family," he said.

So if you see Trooper Belanger and Dallas around in the Midcoast, remember, while Dallas is a beautiful and majestic dog, take care to approach and always ask permission prior to contact; after all Dallas is always on the job.

For more information on police K9 training visit: Maine Criminal Justice Academy

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

People always want to know where authors get their ideas. Ask Margaret Broucek, author of the 2018 novel, The Futility Experts — and recent winner of the of the 2019 Maine Literary Awards in fiction — how she came up with her characters and plot and she'll tell you it all derived from a one interesting news article.

"I read this article about this middle-aged guy who was just living this boring life,” said Broucek. “He had a wife and a kid and never really did anything with his life, but he also liked playing online games. He started impersonating a much young younger soldier that was his avatar and got into all kinds of trouble. Then he got into an online romance with a young woman, and then his co-worker got into an online romance with the same woman."

If the old phrase, truth is stranger than fiction is starting to come into play here, you're not off base.

"In the real-life situation, the colleague was a much younger man and the middle-aged man ended up murdering his colleague over this woman,” she said. “But in my book, which is a comedy, when my character got to the part where he could murder the coworker, he declined."

The Futility Experts features character Tim Turner, a guy in a stagnant marriage and dead-end job who takes on the persona of a 21-year-old marine online. At the same time, Davis Beardsley, a professor of zoology with an unhealthy obsession for imaginary creatures, helplessly watches his chances for tenure circle the drain when a new department head takes a less-than-favorable view of his teaching methods.

"This book has all the elements of middle age and how people try to deal with it,” said Broucek. “What I love to do is populate this real story with characters from my imagination; that's been a lot of fun for me."

"The Futility Experts is my pick this year for fans of A Confederacy of Dunces,” —reads the review from The Book Maven, Lit Hub. “I loved this book and hope others will, too."

"Like Confederacy of Dunces this book is what some people would call an absurdist comedy,” said Broucek. “I love those kind of stories and I actually think they are truest to life."

Broucek also wrote the novel in primarily the male point of view, something she said was fairly easy for her.

"The way the story is structured it has to be told that way, told with alternating points of view but when you get to the end, you realize it's not just a male middle-aged story," she said.

A Baby Boomer herself, Broucek grew up in the age before the internet and has insights on the way it has affected people's communication skills particularly online.

"This novel has a lot of texts interspersed into the narrative, and descriptions of Snapchat videos, which was a lot of fun," she said. When asked about the enigmatic title of the book, she explained that "most people long to be great at something. Many of us try in one area or another. But I think for the most part when we get to middle age, the only thing we really become an expert in is the futility of trying.

Broucek is currently working on a new novel called Baby Queen set in her childhood hometown of Topeka. Having been raised in Kansas, she moved to Portland 14 years ago and was able to submit her first novel as a Maine Literary Awards contender. The novel, which had already won the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature, to her great surprise snagged the top category of fiction for the 2019 awards.

The book published by Schaffner Press, can be found here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—On Saturday, July 6, the Points North Institute will host the annual CIFF Summer Preview Party at the Bicknell Building in Rockland, featuring a band worth coming out for.

Sinkane is the featured band for the After Dark party that evening, up from Brooklyn, and along with some fiery, danceable music, their music taps deeply into today’s social and political climate. Sinkane is a Sudanese-American, five-piece band who blend krautrock, prog rock, electronica, free jazz and funk with Sudanese pop.

Ahmed Gallab is the main force behind the band. Born in London to Sudanese parents, raised in Ohio, and now calling New York City home, the former skate punk turned afro funk whiz Ahmed Gallab penned an essay on the release of their new album. “I’m not a newbie to hate: I’m black, Muslim and even though I'm an American, I'm often made to feel like a foreigner in my own country,” he wrote. “And sometimes I do feel like a foreigner...I’ve made a lot of music out of my life story but I’ve always kept things vague enough that anyone listening to my music could relate to it on their own terms.”

Other members of the band include guitarist Jonny Lam who is Chinese, keyboardist Elenna Canlas, who is is Filipina, drummer Chris St. Hilaire , who is Trinidadian, and bassist Michael “Ish” Montgomery, who is Black American.

The band’s latest album, titled Dépaysé — comes from a French word that basically means “to be removed from one’s habitual surroundings.”

“It’s easy to be angry in moments like now,” he said. “And that’s OK. But it takes courage to turn that anger into productive energy. The previous Sinkane album, 2017's Life and Livin' It, was released at a very crazy time: things like the Muslim ban, police shooting unarmed people of color, massive corruption in my native Sudan, fake news, Donald Trump, Brexit and so many other calamities all really forced me to think about my place in the world as a musician. I beganto think about how I could use my music in a constructive way —not only to help myself but to help others who feel frustrated and powerless.”

Annie Brown, Points North Institute’s Operations & Communications Manager said they are excited to showcase Sinkane. “We discovered Sinkane through our friends at Space Gallery in Portland,” she said. “First off, we love the spirited, enthusiastic music. And, secondly, we love the band's message and ongoing discussion about what is happening here. Truth is an important commodity these days."

Check out their first single "Everybody,” (embedded video) filmed at Brazil’s world renowned samba school in Rio de Janeiro, a song that takes that feeling of being a foreigner and turns it on his head. Instead of feeling along, this song embodies what Sinkane is about, a celebration of inclusivity, of well, everybody.

Tickets to the Summer Preview Party are tiered to provide the most accessibility, and are available at pointsnorthinstitute.org/rsvp. Tickets to the entire evening, including the After Dark Sinkane performance start at $95. Tickets to the After Dark portion only are $30.

For tickets and more information: pointsnorthinstitute.org/rsvp/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Now that it is feeling like the start of real summer, June is almost over! And we all know well the festivals and big events that come to the Midcoast, but with 24 agricultural fairs, art and music festivals, and no shortage of food and craft beer happenings all over the state, here are four festivals and events to make sure you hit this July to squeeze the most out of summer.

Bar Harbor’s 4th of July Festival

July 4 —Bar Harbor

If you want July 4th to go out with a bang this year, get  up to Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor’s Fourth of July has been voted the #1 Fourth of July celebration in America by the Today Show, and recognized by National Geographic as one of the top ten in the U.S. Get ready to fast the night before because starting at 6 a.m. there’s a Blueberry Pancake Breakfast, followed by an artisan craft fair, a parade through downtown at 10 a.m., and at 11 a.m., a seafood lover’s paradise with a Seafood Festival until 2 p.m. From 3:30 p.m. there is live music throughout the day followed by spectacular fireworks around 9 p.m. FMI: Schedule of Events

Yarmouth Clam Festival

July 19 to 21 —Yarmouth

This annual Ode to the Clam festival is not only a family-friendly event that takes over the entire town of Yarmouth, but, thanks to the thousands of volunteer hours nearly 30 non-profit groups put in to make it happen —it’s also one of the rare festivals in Maine that is free. If you want to get that old-timey feel of a Friday night parade (with folks in lawn chairs scoping out the best seat on the sidewalk, people in red, white-and blue garb and little kids sitting on their parents shoulders) this is the kind of festival that will take you back to your childhood. There’s fireworks on Saturday night, live music from three stages, arts and crafts shows, races..oh and of course, the almighty clam. Each year, the festival serves more than 6,000 pounds of clams, 6,000 lobster rolls, 2,500 pancake breakfasts, 2,000 shore dinners, 400 homemade pies, and 6,000 strawberry shortcakes and more than 13,500 Lime Rickeys (a festival favorite). And random this year? Barry Williams from the show The Brady Bunch will also be there! FMI: Yarmouth Clam Festival

Old Halloway Day

July 20 — Hallowell

Hallowell is one of those little under-the-radar towns that have become arty and adorable, and since 1968, they’ve been celebrating their town with a small-town celebration.  Because so many of its citizens volunteer to underwrite this annual tradition, residents and visitors celebrate all day, starting from the 7:30 a.m. 5K road race to a bake-off contest, an Arts & Crafts Festival to live music on the street, and finally the fireworks finale on the banks of the Kennebec. Here’s a look at the schedule for last year, so you can plan your day accordingly.

Maine Brewers Guild Summer Session Beer Festival

July 27— Portland

Maine Brewers Guild, the official mouthpiece for the more than 140 craft breweries that dot this state whoops it up big time twice a year, hosting the state’s largest beer festival, once in the summer and once in the winter. This July, more than 70 brewers will be chatting, smiling and pouring away with beer geeks and newbies who want to try the eclectic tastes that all of the regions have to offer. Featuring a new venue, located directly on the oceanfront in South Portland, surrounded by beaches, islands, and within the walls of an old military installation – this is going to be a scenic, sun-soaked festival better than they have ever done. Here’s a list of brewers, food truck s and live music. But buy your tickets early, this is one event that always sells out. Tickets are on sale now: summersession2019.eventbrite.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

HOPE — First, listen to the sweet and haunting ukulele rendition of “Where The Rainbow Ends” in the embedded video. Next, you’ll be asking yourself: “Who is that?”

Remco Houtman-Janssen, who goes by the stage name Ukulelezaza, is one of the premier ukulele instrumentalists in the world. Hailing from his home in Ghent, Belgium, Houtman-Janssen made a special stop in Hope on Tuesday, June 25 on his American tour this summer. A sought-after workshop teacher at international ukulele festivals, Houtman-Janssen was invited by local uke player, Howard Greenberg, to teach one of his workshops at Sweet Tree Arts.

There, about a dozen beginner and experienced ukulele players spent several hours with him, learning new skills and tricks.

Jeff Weinberger, a ukulele teacher himself at Waterfall Arts and Bay Chamber’s Music School, was thrilled to learn from Houtman-Janssen in person.

“Remco is world-famous, incredible,” said Weinberger. “He is very well known in Europe. There’s casual ukulele where you just smile and strum and have a great time and then there is serious ukulele, technically proficient ukulele.”

Serious ukulele. Who knew?

A workshop teacher and performer in Europe, Scandinavia, the U.K., Japan, Australia and beyond, Houtman-Janssen is quite easy going in person. He doesn’t have a website (but he does have a Facebook page and YouTube Channel). Having just arrived from teaching a workshop at The Midwest Ukulele and Harmonica Camp in Michigan, Houtman-Janssen made a very out-of-the-way stop in Maine, before planning to go back to the Midwest to finish his tour.

It’s a profession he was born to do. He first picked up the ukulele when he was 10 years old.

“My mom and a good friend of hers taught me and my sister how to play and I got the basic chords down,” he said. “And then, when I was a teenager, it became ‘uncool’ to play ukulele, so I put it down for about 10 years until in my early 20s I picked it up again. It took another 20 years before it became popular again. Since 2006, ukulele has gotten a real revival. In Europe you have a big scene there and in America, it caught on, as well.”

People love to play ukulele “because it is such a sweet an easy instrument to play,” he said. Unlike other larger instruments that take time to pack up and lug around, many folks just tuck their ukuleles in a bag and go, making it a much more spontaneous instrument to play with. “With only four strings, it doesn’t require many chords to play,” he said. “It’s very low profile.”

His workshop started with strumming techniques, gradually layering in other chords and rhythms, including a sleight of hand signature move, where sound comes out of the ukulele even though it looks as though his hand isn’t even touching the strings.

“I think everyone came out of this workshop with a few more tricks up their sleeve,” he said.

For anyone interested in picking up ukulele in the Midcoast visit: Ukes Midcoast

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—A new brewery has quietly opened in Belfast, but unlike most hyper-local rural breweries, Frosty Bottom Brewing is choosing to operate not as a public tasting room, but as a “brew share,” similar to the Community Supported Agriculture model of farm shares and fish shares that currently enjoy a popular following in the Midcoast.

Roy Curtis is the owner of Frosty Bottom Brewing, with friends and shareholders Zafra Whitcomb and Jon Thurston helping him brew. All three were individual home brewers who enjoyed getting together as sort of an informal club and experimenting with a variety of styles before Curtis started the company this year.

Frosty Bottom Brewing’s rough-sawn pine brewery and tasting room sits at 18 Hunt Road in Belfast adjacent to Curtis’ house, which he built with friends using a stand of pine that was specially reserved for the brewery located on Frost Hill Road. 

For that reason, “Frost” was incorporated into the name as well as the logo.

In addition, Curtis built an apartment over the tasting room that he intends to rent out in July as a unique Airbnb listing calling it “room with a brew.” Downstairs, half of the structure is the “brewing side” with a one-barrel brewing system that produces 30 gallons when they brew every two weeks.

“Ultimately, our goal is to have 60 gallons each month,” said Curtis.

The company’s model was born out of a hobby and aims to remain a hobby; that is, the purpose of the brewery is to generate enough product to sell to shareholders, who pay an annual fee and get in return, a growler (one gallon) of two different brew style each month—or 24 styles annually.

In addition, every shareholder has the privilege of stopping by the semi-private tasting room for an exclusive free tasting of whatever the brewers are currently making. Right now, the brewery has sold all of its 2019 shares, primarily to friends and family, many of whom, helped to construct the brewery.

“We’re excited to try brewing new styles we’ve never done before and the ideal shareholder will be someone who is open to trying absolutely everything,” said Thurston.

While the CSA model for brewing isn’t new in other parts of the country, it is unique in Maine. Only one other Maine brewery has adopted this model. Side by Each Brewing in Lewiston, also offers a Community Supported Brewing program.

As both Curtis and Whitcomb are both currently employed full time and Thurston is retired, they aren’t looking to expand much more beyond this original goal, until the time is right.

Given their limited license with the city of Belfast, the brewery cannot sell beer at its tasting room location, but may only offer free samples to those in their shareholder program. For interested parties in a brew share, Curtis said he’s always willing to give a mini tour of the facilities when it works with his schedule and that those looking to sign up for a brew share may email him for consideration on the 2020 list.

“When we open up shares for 2020, we’re hoping to take on 40 shareholders,” said Curtis. “Forty of the gallons will be for them and the other 20 gallons per month will be for tastings.” 

“Waldo county is pretty rich with the CSA-movement and brewing for us is very connected to local agriculture,” said Curtis.

Along with using hops from Thurston’s farm, the brewery buys Maine grains from Blue Ox Malthouse and once the grain is spent, it is fed to local pigs.

“And the brewery is really an outgrowth of the community-supported model,” he said. “As home brewers we all shared in the cost and labor to make a product, so this is really an outgrowth of that.”

For more information visit Frosty Bottom Brewery on Facebook.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

A lot can be learned from digging up people’s trash, said local archeologist Harbour Mitchell, who did a six-month dig at Merryspring Nature Center in 2018. Merryspring, in Camden at the end of Conway Road, was once the site of the Asa Hosmer farm, with a large, two-story, Federal-style farmhouse built circa 1800 by an unknown person or people, before Hosmer bought it. But in less than 20 years, all of the farmhouse occupants would be gone, the home abandoned.

Based on all of his findings and research, this is likely what happened.

“The year of no summer, we’re in a post-Revolutionary War period,” recalled Mitchell, setting the scene. “There are militias, but little law enforcement, and little to no governmental rules or regulations. People are living in an unrestricted place.”

Having worked for the University of Maine, Maine Historic Preservation Commission in Augusta, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and as a professional research archaeologist throughout the region, Mitchell put together a piece of the puzzle at the Merryspring site to explain what happened after the war. According to Mitchell’s archeological summary:

While the War of 1812 no doubt took a toll on the new farm’s occupants, and made economic sustainability tenuous, the coup de grâce was likely the so called “year without a summer” — 1816. Global cooling, resulting from the eruption of Mount Tambora, in Indonesia in 1815, caused massive die-offs of vegetative and flowering fruits, grains and other necessary crops. Throughout Maine and the broader region, in 1816, every month saw frost, and snow fell in July.

“It is the single largest volcanic eruption in historic memory,” he said. “Of course, the people living there can’t see what’s coming. They could not have known what caused the global cooling, but that climactic response cooled the globe a half a degree and changed the seasons. If I were to animate this for you: The normal cycle, the birds, the bees, the pollination, the trees, and crops, are no longer normal. Every month had frost in 1816. No trees produced fruit or maple sugar. Hay was stunted. The farmers living at the Hosmer Farm site might have gotten one hay cutting in an entire summer into fall, whereas in a good season you’d get two or three cuttings. They made it through the summer and winter of 1816 with enough food from butchering their animals. But, by 1817, people were in desperate straits. A clam shell dump at the Hosmer Farm site suggests the occupants walked miles to and from the local clam flats and subsisted to a significant degree on clams to get by.”

Based on his excavations at the Hosmer Farm site at Merryspring, and the Philip Ulmer site, near Tanglewood, in Lincolnville, clams were likely a significant percentage of the locally available food supply for several years.

Imagine little more than a diet of clams on which to survive. Back in the days when prisoners protested for being fed lobsters three times a week, here you have people virtually imprisoned by Nature refusing to dole out its seasonal bounty.

There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that anyone ever came back after 1820, or lived on the Hosmer farm, ever again. What was once a vision of the future now sat abandoned, a testimony only to what might have been.

Visit Merryspring Nature Center this summer to go look at the site where the old Asa Hosmer farmhouse once stood and let yourself glide back to the past.

ROCKPORT— It’s June and it’s “Grow Time.” Heidi Baker and her two young daughters, Isabelle, 9 and Zoe, 7, have a 3’ x 5’ raised bed at Erickson Fields on Route 90 for 12 weeks they get to call their own.

Beginning in early May, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, in collaboration with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, started its six-month session of Kids Can Grow, a program to introduce children and parents to growing vegetables and healthy eating.

Twelve families with children between the ages of seven and 12 signed up. Baker, who also happens to be the manager of Aldemere Farms and Erickson Fields, has always gardened herself, but said, “This is the first time my daughters have been able to experience it.”

Not only did the children learn in the first couple of sessions how to put together the raised beds with hammer and nails, but they took the skills back home with them part of the program’s overall aim. Each participating family receives materials – lumber, soil, nails, seeds and seedlings – to build their own raised beds at home.

“I love the idea of how they learn something here and then they take that knowledge home and apply it,” said Baker.

“Some of the plants need more sun and some need more shade,” said Isabelle, who added she’s looking forward to seeing the peas develop, so she can pluck them and eat them.

“We eat a lot from our garden at home, too.”

In one month, the children are beginning to already see the results of their labor. In their square-raised bed at Erickson Fields, cordoned off in square foot sections by twine, seedlings have sprouted into red and green lettuce, peas, scallions, carrots, and kale.

Group sessions are run by Aaron Englander, Erickson Fields Preserve program manager.

“He really knows how to get down to their level and show them how this works,” said Baker.

“Every month, we all get together to build on their skills a bit and then at home they utilize some of those skills in our own gardens,” she said. “Everybody gets a mentor who actually comes to the home and checks out how the garden is doing and offers suggestions and tips. If we have any issues with the garden with pests,  invasive species or interference with wildlife, they are there to help us.”

The girls got to name their garden “Belted Galloway Garden” by painting handmade sign at one of the sessions.

“I think it would be cool to try and make a whole meal with what we have at some point,” said Baker.

The program goes until October. Currently the Kids Can Grow program is full, but anyone who is interested in joining any of their gardening programs next season is welcome to contact Joelle Albury at jalbury@mcht.org or call 207-236-2739 to be added to their contact list.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SEARSPORT — It’s taken the staff of Penobscot Marine Museum nearly five years to painstakingly comb through thousands of photographs from the magazine National Fisherman, but now that project has come to an end and The National Fisherman Collection— an online database of some 24,000 images — is available to view on their website.

“It was a huge collection,” said Photo Archivist Matthew Wheeler. “When we took possession of it, it filled four tall filing cabinets–mostly print photographs but many accompanied by 35mm negatives. We knew this would take dedicated funding to go through, so we managed to secure two federal grants for the project. ”

Photo Finding Pro-Tips

National Fisherman Collection

To find specific photos in the PMM National Fisherman database, type in a person’s name or subject you are interested in in the “Description” field (where “lobster” is below) and town in the “Place” field (where “Belfast is below). Don’t try to find the photo by the “State” field below: that is more for internal reference.

Most of the photographs were submitted by freelance photographers over the life of the magazine between the time they first published in 1946 to when they switched all of their photography submissions to digital in the mid-1990s.

According to the magazine’s history: “The roots of what has become the only U.S. national commercial fishing publication can be traced back to a fish report in a local Maine newspaper, the Belfast Republican Journal, which started in 1921.”

A small number of the photos come from the archives of the magazines Atlantic Fishermen and Maine Coast Fisherman, both of which predated National Fisherman and which the latter magazine eventually absorbed.

PMM has created a “microsite,” a page on their main website, which highlights the National Fisherman Collection and serves as a portal for browsing the images topically. The purpose of the site is to help visitors get a clearer perspective on a photo collection whose huge volume could make navigating it a challenge. While this tool makes it easier to explore the photos, it also helps give some sense of the scope they encompass. As the museum states on the National Fisherman page, "[The collection] illustrates the panorama of American commercial fishing, from the processing floor to the computerized bridge to the fabrication shop to the engine room to the greasy deck.”

Given the magazine’s earliest focus on Maine fisheries, it’s no surprise that many of the photos depict Maine people and professions. True to its name, however, the magazine has excelled at keeping an eye on the national scene, as evidenced by the collection's thorough coverage of the east coast fisheries, Chesapeake Bay and Louisiana, Texas, the many fisheries on the west coast from San Diego to Seattle, and on up to Alaska.

“Many of our fishing photos in other collections were taken before the 1970s,” added Wheeler, "so it's pretty interesting to see depictions of later practices, modern vessels, fishermen who are still alive today." 

The 12 topics of each sub-collection are varied. Among the Maine images, lobstering, groundfishing, boatbuilding, the sardine industry, and other professions are widely covered.

There are so many to look through that we’ve broken out several photos from just the “People” collection alone, which tells a story of the way people made their living in Maine. See more detail of each photos in the captions:

Note: All of the photos in this story have been given “fair use” permission to use.

Although the Penobscot Marine Museum has Fair Use rights to the images, if you wish to publish, transmit, use electronic copies, or receive a paper copy of any of these photographs, you will need to

1. obtain written permission from the copyright holder and determine what, if any, fees apply to usage, and
2. provide PMM with a copy of the document granting permission.

For more information visit: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/national-fisherman/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Rockland has always had the North Atlantic Blues Festival and Belfast has its All Roads Music Festival; it’s about time Camden got into the action. This weekend, a number of local organizers are putting on Camden’s first-ever Jazz in June Festival at multiple venues all weekend (June 14-16).

“There was a strong desire from various Midcoast folks to have an exciting event in June, as a way to kick off the season,” said Dave Morrison, Manager of the Camden Opera House, which is hosting some of the events. “While there is a Blues Festival, and a Folk Festival, there wasn’t a concert series that really shone a light on jazz, not just national and international acts, but some of the very fine local players. Matt Brown stepped up, and started creating what we hope will be an annual festival that celebrates jazz in all its forms, and the beautiful Midcoast."

Matt Brown is the leader of this community volunteer-produced event.

“It started about four years ago when members of the Camden Area Business Group wanted some kind of event to bring people here in June, earlier in the summer season,” said Brown.

The idea originated there and the lodging group knew that I had put on jazz shows at the Camden Opera House previously, so last summer, we began looking for the right line up for a Jazz in June Festival.”

Brown said the Saturday night headliner concert featuring the Kenny Barron Trio is a, “top-notch international act who has played with the greatest jazz artists for 60 years and he’s got a great reputation.”

“We’ve really been cognizant about doing something low cost and for free,” said Brown. “We’ve got five bands at the Camden Snow Bowl Saturday afternoon for $15 or $25 for the entire family. We’re featuring a good combination of national acts with great local acts, trying to balance it out for locals, for people coming in from out of town.”

Here’s the Line Up:

Friday, June 14

Camden Opera House
The Opera House doors will open at 7 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. performance by the Bill Barnes Duo, featuring the veteran New York session guitarist, up on the third floor. Admission is free, and 40 Paper provides a cash bar.

Camden Snow Bowl
A Jazz in June Dance Party featuring The Right Track begins at 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The high-energy 11-piece multi-genre outfit boasts a full horn section and outstanding vocalists. Tickets are $15, in advance at camdenoperahouse.com and at the gate (cash/check, only). Note, in case of rain, the event will be re-located to the Rockport Opera House. 

Saturday, June 15

Camden Snow Bowl
From noon to 5 p.m., it’s music on the mountainside, thanks to a full lineup of regional performers at the Snow Bowl. Included are the Wayne Delano Quartet, led by the award-winning reed master; emerging roots singer/songwriter Katie Matzell; local progressive jazzmeisters the Whitehead/Dean Group and jazz/funk fusion Hyperphonix; and The Extension Chords, a youthful jazz combo that just won the MAMM Slam. Tickets are $15, free younger than 6, $25 per family. Jazz on the hillside will feature music, a food tent and fun for the whole family. Note, in case of rain, the event will be re-located to the Rockport Opera House.

Camden Opera House
At 7:30 p.m. is the Jazz in June Feature Concert. Headliner is the acclaimed Kenny Barron Trio, led by jazz pianist, composer and music professor Barron. The NEA Jazz Master and American Jazz Hall of Famer has been called the most lyrical piano player of our time by Jazz Weekly. The Feature Concert also showcases the Greg Abate Quartet. And pianist and educator Peter Dembski will bring his piano jazz group to the opera house stage. Tickets are $48 in advance, $53 at the door. All Access Pass holders ($99) get priority seating around 6:45 p.m.; general admission doors will open at 7 p.m.

Sunday, June 16

16 Bay View
A sumptuous live Jazz Brunch in the Curtis-Bok Banquet Room of downtown boutique hotel 16 Bay View. takes place 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Brunch is included in the All Access Pass, is $35.

Camden Amphitheatre
There will be a free outdoor performance by the beloved local Mondaynite Jazz Orchestra, 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Camden Amphitheatre adjacent to the library.

Tickets and passes are available at camdenoperahouse.com

For complete festival information, visit jazzinjunecamdenme.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

NORTH HAVEN — What we used to call ‘shop class’ in my day (and yes, I took shop, not Home Ec) is now called Diversified Trades, and Kaylee Ames, 17, a junior at North Haven Community School, took to it like a clam to water this trimester when she recreated a clam rocker out of pine with power tools.

Kaylee is one of five students in NHCS’s Diversified Trades class, which is a program of Mid Coast School of Technology, in Owls Head. According to Kaylee’s Diversified Trades instructor, Joel Rowland, MCST offers instructors in this field of study at three island schools: North Haven, Vinalhaven and Islesboro.

“We had the students practice using a variety of hand tools and power tools, and one of the projects was to design and build a toolbox,” he said. “Kaylee first built a toolbox for her grandfather. The clam rocker was Kaylee’s second effort after that.”

To go clamming in Maine, one needs a couple of pieces of equipment: a clam fork (also known as rake), a roller, and a clam hod (or its more old-fashioned term: a rocker).

The school had an additional project for Kaylee. They wanted some kind of basket to go with a raffle of items that NHCS was putting together for the Penobscot Bay Chamber of Commerce Expo in April.

At the Expo, Kaylee and one of the magnet students, accompanied their instructor, Amanda Labelle, at a booth where the clam rocker stood out as the display for the raffle tickets. The lucky winner of that raffle will now get the chance to spend a couple of nights on North Haven this summer at Nebo Lodge, where, waiting in the person’s room will be the clam rocker to be taken home.

Kaylee has gone clamming with her dad all of her life, hitting certain beaches at North Haven three seasons a year.

“My dad makes his own clam rockers out of scrap wood and we have about three of them at home,” she said. “Everybody in my family has a certain one they like to use and that’s where I got the idea not just to make a wooden basket, but to make the basket out of a clam rocker. I knew how to design one because I know how it works.”

In Rowland’s class, she said she used a band saw, a table saw and a thickness planer on pieces of pine to construct the clam rocker.

Sure beats the spice rack that we had to make in our day.

To find out more interesting stuff students are doing at visit: NHCS on Facebook

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting teens in the Midcoast with special talent. 

Photos courtesy Kaylee Ames

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT— The Camden-Rockport Elementary School ChangeMakers, a group of 12 third and fourth graders led by parent Katie Urey, have been on a mission to move the CRES cutlery from single-use plastic utensils to reusable silverware. ChangeMakers estimated that 600 pieces of plastic utensils are used at their school for lunch each day, costing the school about $1,000 per year.

As reported in the Related Story below, the ChangeMakers were on track to reach their $1,500 goal when, in the month of May, the group reached out to GoodWill NNE for additional donated silverware.

On Tuesday, June 4 Goodwill NNE dropped off approximately 500 sets of forks, knives and spoons for the school to use to help its sustainability effort. They came from the company’s warehouse, which received the donated cutlery from all over Maine.

“The ChangeMakers were initially able to collect about 600 pieces of silverware for the cafeteria, but in order to be successful, we were going to need more than 1,300 pieces,” said educator and leader of ChangeMakers, Katie Urey. “So with GoodWill’s donation, it has put us over the top. We have reached our financial goal and this project is now happening.”

She said that through the support of Food Services Director Susan Boivan and CRES principal Chris Walker-Spencer, the ChangeMakers project will start to be implemented in the next school year.

“We will now purchase eight trays that fit in the school dishwasher that will clean the silverware as well as some special industrial magnets that can be retrofitted to the cafeteria’s garbage containers so that silverware that is accidentally thrown away can be retrieved,” said Urey. So, with this equipment, along with the silverware donation, we hope to keep the silverware in use for many more years to come.”  

In addition, the students created a video for the rest of the school to show them how to maintain the silverware.

GoodWill NNE regional sales director, Shawn Nichols said, “If all the people who donated their silverware to GoodWill knew that some of it ended up in this program, they would have been very happy about that.”

GoodWill NNE external communication manager Heather Reeves told the students that the utensils went unsold in GoodWill stores and before they were recycled, they were reserved for the ChangeMakers’ project, adding: “We all know that reusing something is better than recycling, so you guys actually helped us re-use the silverware and we can’t thank you enough.”

To that, one student, Isabelle Baker said in astonishment, “We’re helping you?”

Steeves answered, “You’re helping the whole planet.”

Walker-Spencer added, “It sounds like a ‘win-win.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST— The 17th annual Senior College Festival of Art at Hutchinson Center is currently exhibiting 120 artists in a variety of mediums: photography, oils, mixed media, watercolor, sculpture, inkjet print, metal and more.

Artists have to be 50 years old or older to participate. On Saturday, June 1, documentary filmmaker Richard Kane will be screening his film about Maine artists, J. Fred Woell: An American Vision (2017, 51 min) which according to the Kane, is  “about a political artist who believed deeply in the power of the creative spirit.”

Check out the virtual gallery of some of the artists below. If it is something you like, go see the exhibit Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 to 3 p.m. At the entrance there is a greeter’s table for those interested in purchasing artwork. 

On Sunday, the Festival of Art committee have decided once again to hold a social/networking time for the artists, many of whom will be driving from hours away to collect their artwork. “The only time the artists get to interact is the drop off night, so we wanted to give them a chance to talk, meet each other, discuss their process and ideas and inspiration,” said Catherine Bradbury, a committee member. This built-in event will begin at 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. which will overlap with the public viewing, so that the public will have an additional chance to meet with the artists. Nearly 70 of the artists are signed up to participate.

For artists interested in participating next year, contact the Senior College and they will put you on a mailing list. Generally the Committee starts searching for artists by January every year.

Check out our gallery (a sample of some of the art available) along with the artist’s name and title of the work in the caption.

FMI: https://hutchinsoncenter.umaine.edu/

Memorial Day in the town of Lincolnville honors the legacy of those who died serving in the military. The parade started at 1 p.m. and ended at the Lincolnville War Memorial Honor Roll for a ceremony with wreath laying and rifle salute until 2 p.m.

Photos by Kay Stephens

Gary Oliver, the former co-owner of Mt. Battie Take Out at the base of the Camden Hills State Park, has a message for the shack’s loyal patrons who were disappointed to learn it was closing this season: “Don’t fret. We’re back and better than ever.”

The Beloin family, which owned the property the roadside restaurant was situation on, retired last October and sold their iconic lodging, Beloin’s to a young couple, as written about in a PenBay Pilot story, “After 80 years, Beloin’s gets new owners, new name.”

“So, it was time to do something different,” said Oliver. His business partner, Kevin Defoe, decided to opt out of the new venture and get back into lobstering instead. Oliver and his crew spent some time repainting the interior, laying down new floors and replacing the old decor with black and white vintage photos of Camden. The 65-seat restaurant, has a cozy, unfussy ambiance, very similar to the original Cedar Crest location and the price points for Camden are ideal for locals and families.

Now open at the former Cedar Crest Motel restaurant at 115 Elm Street, Oliver is back in the kitchen, serving up some of the best Maine seafood around. Having won the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence for the last four years for his simple, fresh and affordable menu, he’s bringing back the local favorites of fish and chips, lobster, crab rolls, burgers, homemade soups, chowders, sandwiches, subs and quesadillas and has expanded with a new breakfast menu of crab cakes and eggs, omelets, waffles, pancakes, and Eggs Benedict.

“Some of my old customers who’ve been coming to the take out shack for years and have swarming in here like mad since we opened,” he said.

Oliver himself has been a fixture in the Midcoast culinary scene for decades, having opened his own restaurant in Massachusetts, prior to coming here to work as a chef in a number of local restaurants. He co-owned Mt. Battie Take Out for nearly 10 years after that.

Oliver’s Bistro is currently open for breakfast to lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with plans to open additionally for dinner service by mid-June. Around the same time, Oliver has plans to open outdoor seating with a screened-in deck and bar featuring craft Maine brews on tap as well as wine.

For more updates visit their Facebook page: Oliver’s Bistro

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Welcome back Snowbirds. If you've been away all winter and are eager to see what has changed and what’s new in the towns of Camden, Rockport and a bit beyond, read on!

What Will Open This Spring/Summer

Spice Herbal Pizzaria

For several years, Aphiwat Raklittikul, aka Mr. Wat, rolled sushi at Mr. Wat’s Sushi and Noodles in Rockport and Rockland. In 2017, he stepped aside from the food entrepreneurship due to health reasons. Now a tenant of 148 West Street, a small, one-story commercial structure east of Erickson Preserve. “Spice Herbal Pizzeria” is the business name printed on the application. It is described as a take-out pizza restaurant.

Oliver’s

The former Elm St. Grille, in the Cedar Crest Motel was last Horsefeather Grille before they closed. Gary Oliver and his business partner Kevin DeFoe are moving their popular takeout business Mt. Battie Takeout (across from the Camden Hills State Park) and moving into this spot and plan to serve fresh seafood, salads, burgers and more with plans to open in May.

Blue Barren Distillery

Blue Barren Distillery, a small-batch craft distillery and tasting room has been slated to open in May to the public. Located in a renovated machine room that sits right next to Rhumb Line on the Lyman Morse marina side of the Camden Harbor, the distillery had its first public tasting of their debut blueberry brandy, Eau de Vie in March. By May they expect to have some tables out and the distillery open. Read that story here and here

Page Gallery

Colin Page has been a painter in the Midcoast since he moved here in 2003, but this year he is taking on an additional role as a gallery owner on Bay View Street in Camden, launching May 9. See that story here.

Business News

FatFace

FatFace, an international clothing store for men, women and children, opened at 10 Bayview Street in March. Great story: the store was founded by two ski bums. See our recent story here.

Barefoot In Denim

Barefoot in Denim, a new clothing and accessories boutique for women opened at 24 Bay View Street in March in the former Theo B. Camisole space. See our recent story here.

Funky Farmhouse

Funky Farmhouse an eclectic store offering urban farmhouse decor, moved to 53 Bayview Street and plans to open late May. See our recent story here.

Mid-coast Recovery Coalition

Mid-coast Recovery Coalition bought the house on 63 Washington Street and has recently transformed it into a recovery house for women See more details here.

If we've missed any new businesses that would be interesting to folks coming back to Maine, shoot us an email with the subject line "Add to Camden story" and we'll add it into the list! Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — Over the winter, Belfast opened a number of new businesses.

Why do Camden and Rockland get Snowbirds and Belfast, Snowbats? It’s because in 2013, when Pen Bay Pilot did their first spring round up of what changed over the winter, our former writer, Ethan Andrews, took the Belfast slang term for its citizens ‘Moon Bats’ and turned that into Snowbats. So, if you've been away this winter, Penobscot Bay Pilot has an update on everything that opened, closed and changed while you were gone.

What Has Opened

Restaurants

The Stone Brick Oven Kitchen, opened on Route 1 in Northport, just past Wentworth’s Grocery, on March 1 in the space that was formerly the wood-fired pizza restaurant, Pizza Permare. Two friends, Nicole Pearse and Stacy Schlensker, are running the new business which aims to provide fresh, affordable food to an under-served community. Read more of that story here.

Crumbs Provisions, a new restaurant at 2 Spring Street, plans to open Mother’s Day. Crumbs (as they will call it) will serve breakfast, lunch, baked goods and prepared meals to-go. They will have a “mid-day bites and sips menu,” and are getting their wine and beer license. They will be a small eatery, and also will offer pre-packed picnic lunches as well.

Perennial Cider Bar, a cider bar and farm kitchen has opened in April on 84 Main Street. See our most recent story here. 

Jamaican Vybz, a Jamaican food stand in the United Farmer’s Market, opened in mid-April and will now be open for lunch each week Tuesday through Friday 10:30 a.m.  to 4 p.m. at 19 Miller Street. They are planning a grand opening sometime this spring. Meanwhile, the United Farmer’s Market will still be open Saturdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and has quite a few new vendors for the summer season.

Vinolio announced they are starting to do Test Kitchen Tuesday using their oils and vinegars such as Balsamic Mustards to marinate party wings. Stay tuned for more of their Test Kitchen recipes on their Facebook page.

Businesses

Tusk, a lifestyle store (housewares, art, skin care, music etc) is moving into the old Alder & Vine triangular shop on 9 Beaver Street. Owned by Nora Wormwood, they will be opening Saturday, May 4. For more information: Facebook

What Has Moved/Changed

The Belfast Bay Inn on Main Street underwent a change this winter after many visitors inquired about a long-term rental or a seasonal residency there, so they are now no longer a hotel, but instead, The Suites at Belfast Bay Inn, advertised as “elegant, furnished, year-round vacation rentals.” They do state however, that during their transition to vacation rentals, they will honor all exisiting reservations. (See more here) As such, they no longer needed their dining room space and that has opened space for more retail businesses. (See below).

In March, two Belfast businesses moved spaces.  Katwalk (70 Main Street), a women’s boutique, moved to the lower part of Main Street. EPOCH, (72 Main Street) a lifestyle vintage market, which had briefly closed, is now back on Main Street, as well, right next to Katwalk.

Town News

Our Town Belfast announced that they will no longer be part of the annual Belfast Summer Street Party. “After many thoughtful conversations and careful consideration, Our Town Belfast has decided that we will be stepping away from the summer street party in 2019. This doesn’t mean that the street party won’t take place. There are parties who have expressed interest in continuing the street party. Be on the lookout for further details.”  (will it?) The Annual Street Party will take place in August. Over the next few months, Our Town Belfast will finalize the details of a new event set to launch in the fall of 2019. The goal of this event is to introduce a low cost, family friendly event to our community when our Main Street is a little quieter and our downtown businesses and our community can truly participate. Read more of that story here.

If you are seeing a lot of yellow daffys all over the place, you can thank the idea of Elisabeth Wolfe and her husband, Michael Cunningham, after they conceived of a city project to plant 50,000 daffodil bulbs. After local fundraising got the bulbs delivered to Belfast in early October, the couple and a slew of volunteers planted them all over the town, where they will pop up this spring. See more of that story here.

If we've missed any new businesses that would be interesting to folks coming back to Maine, shoot us an email with the subject line"Add to Belfast story" and we'll add it into the list! Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

There’s been the usual reshuffling of spaces in downtown Rockland over the winter. Here's what happened over the fall and winter— what's open, what's closed, what's new.

What is New

Maine Mead Works

In October, the Portland-based meadery “Maine Mead Works” opened their third Maine tasting room in Rockland at 483 Main Street. Find out more here.

Rock City Café

In March 2018, Rock City Employee Cooperative, a cafe and coffee roastery, officially became a worker-owned cooperative, with 17 employees buying the business from its previous owner and founder, Susanne Ward. Business continues to thrive and they are still providing coffee, food, live music, and recently, threw a dance to raise funds for Trekkers.   They can be found on Facebook and at www.rockcitycoffee.com.

Eat Soup Food Truck

Eat Soup, a food truck business owned by Kate Grinnell Miller and Mike Miller (formerly of Grapes and Bricks restaurants) took over renting a truck from another operator who only uses it for the summer. As such Eat Soup, (located at 1 Commercial Street) provides affordable sandwiches such as grilled cheese and a rotation of four daily soups. However Snowbirds, eat Soup  is only open between November and March of each year in order to give the food truck back to the original owner for his summer business. See that story here.

The Slipway

Locals and fans of the Thomaston waterfront restaurant, The Slipway, were bummed last summer when owner Scott had to put his focus on his other Camden restaurant/bar The Rhumb Line, but will be mighty pleased to know that The Slipway plans to re-open for the 2019 season. FMI: Facebook page

Threshers Brewing Co.

Threshers Brewing Co., which opened in Searsmont in 2016 by two carpenters and brewers Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendtson, just wanted a chill place for families to gather and to enjoy some good beer. They’ve now expanded and are currently working on 1 Starr Street in Thomaston (the blue building that formerly housed Billy’s Tavern). Now open, Thresher’s Brewing Co.’s second location will be a tasting room and restaurant. See that story here.

Ollie’s Food Truck

Down near Moody’s Diner, a new food truck is emerging from a former restaurant/grocery store in Jefferson, Ollie’s Place. Owners Vickey and Ralph Tolman Jones plan to open their red mobile food truck in May with mobile  subs, wraps, burgers, Reuben sandwiches with Morse’s sauerkraut, lobster and crabmeat rolls, pan-fried haddock sandwiches and quesadillas. They will also carry Gifford’s ice cream. Read that story here

What Has Closed

Rhonda Hilchey Nordstrom, owner of RHEAL day spa, announced in March that after 20 years in the business, she was retiring. “Dear friends, Twenty years ago I had a dream to return to my home town and open a business. Not just any business but a special place for women to retreat to for ten minutes or three hours.” While RHEAL Day Spa is physically closed, they continue to sell their products online. www.rhealskincare.com

The Flower Goddess quietly closed without notice. The space is now open to renters.

The Pearl, the restaurant, at the end of the pier at Rockland Harbor Park, will not be open for the 2019 season, according to a Faceook post by owner Larry Reed citing the need to get work done on the place that will take all summer. He said that the intention is to re-open May, 2020.

What Has Changed

DAUGHTERS, a clothing and accessories shop, has expanded and is currently moving to 442 Main St. (formerly Periscope Shop) opposite from Ada’s Kitchen. DAUGHTERS will no longer solely a vintage shop and will also be an online store. FMI: Facebook page.

Curator, had a grand re-opening, after discovering an empty space below their store. Now with two floors, they are offering vintage menswear and a whole new floor of womenswear in the basement space. Read that story here.

Business News

Bull On The Run, a new all-inclusive minivan tour to Midcoast breweries, distilleries and wineries, plans on opening by Mother’s Day, with tours starting at Rock Harbor Brewing Co. Find out more of that story here.

In April, Leggings Republic, a new clothing brand, located at 8 Lindsey Street, across from the Waterworks opened to the public.

In March, Midcoast Habitat for Humanity announced the on Philbrook Ave. they purchased from Madeline Philbrick’s estate, Jan. 1, 2017 would be the site of a subdivision of affordable housing through small houses (A Tiny House is anything less than 400-square-feet in size). See more of that story here.

Also in March, Lincoln Street Arts Center received an ordinance change allowing renovations to four classrooms to be turned into living spaces for tenants as a way to support local artists by providing a studio for one to six months, along with a $1,000/month stipend and second, to bring in artists from away “to add diversity.” See more of that story here.

City News

On March 3, the city of Rockland opened its new seasonal public ice rink at Harbor Park. Sorry Snowbirds, you won’t be able to enjoy this when you come back, but it provided a great way to enjoy the outdoors this winter with hot chocolate.

If we've missed any new businesses that would be interesting to folks coming back to Maine, shoot us an email with the subject line "Add to Rockland story" and we'll add it into the list! Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Nine students in Margo Murphy’s Gardening & Horticulture Class at CHRHS get to spend their time outdoors on a fine day in May, cranking the tunes while they work in around the greenhouse to prep for their annual plant sale May 18 & 19.

Since January, the students have been learning how to grow seedlings in the greenhouse and with 500 plants consisting of perennials, annuals, herbs and flowers, they are ready to let them all go to the public.

“We have a small but mighty crew this semester,” said Murphy. “Each year that number fluctuates between nine and 20 students.”

The annual sale isn’t just the final celebration of their hard work; it’s the beginning phase of their next project, and some of the proceeds to begin work on the spring garden in the terraces next to the greenhouse. “The money is used for a couple of sustainability projects,” said Murphy. “We’re putting in a aquaponic system, an orchard, and our new composting system as well.”

The terraces will produce fruits, vegetables and herbs that the cafeteria uses for its school meals.

The Horticulture & Garden Club goes full circle with regard to sustainability. Four Compost Managers oversee the class’s newest project to make their own compost from the trash, and food scraps collected from the cafeteria.  Ad Weisbruch, a freshman, is one of four Compost Managers, who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

“We’re learning how to deal with organic waste,” he said. “We have to sift out the trash and run it through a shredder.”

“We’ve got two things we’re working on systems-wise in the cafeteria,” said Murphy. “We’re trying to make it so that whatever kids have on their plate is compostable, but we’re not there yet. So, the Compost Managers take everything that comes out of the cafeteria and go though all the garbage and when they have all of this organic, shredded up food and paper, we combine it with horse manure to make our own compost. We’ll use it in our spring plating project and on our grounds. It’s saving us money; it’s saving the landfills from a good portion of waste and it’s teaching the students how to bring these skills home.”

“I was interested in learning about composting and how to manage waste,” said Weisbruch, who said he’s already doing this at home with his family. He’s pretty sure he sees himself in some kind of outdoor job when he gets older.

The annual sale takes place Saturday, May 18 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Sunday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to noon. All containers are $3 each. Buy three and get the fourth for free. On Sunday, everything is buy one, get one free from 9 to 11 a.m. and the last hour everything is $1. They will also have their first batch of CHRHS compost for sale. Bring your 5-gallon bucket or there will be pre-packaged bags.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ST. GEORGE — Heading toward Port Clyde on Route 131, just about a mile past the Route 73 turn off, a big yellow house, circa 1811, sits on the left. Not visible from the road, however is the brand new Siemens VersiCharge Gen 2 30Amp Electric Vehicle Charger that Robert Skoglund, a.k.a. the humble Farmer, installed in his barn two weeks ago. The charging cord can go out the nearby window and charge any electric vehicle that happens to be down this far.

The house runs entirely on solar power from 30 PV panels that Skoglund purchased, 24 of which he and some young neighbors installed on a rack he built himself.

“I’d made smaller PV panels myself, but they could only be used with a battery system and were not compatible with the grid,” he said. “When I asked my friends at ReVision Energy for help, they installed six 230 Watt panels on my rack. I’ve added 24 more, eight at a time, as I got enough money from rhubarb sales to pay for them. Right now I pay about $135 to be hooked to the grid for a year and I’m very pleased with my system.”

Long known for his dry, self-deprecating wit as the radio personality and columnist ‘humble Farmer” (the ‘h” is lowercase...because it’s more humble that way) Skoglund runs a bed and breakfast at his home with his wife, Marsha. He purchased the electric vehicle charger to give people with electric vehicles one more reason to visit St. George. They get a free charge when they stay overnight at his B&B.

In the 10-plus years that Skoglund has been running his appliances with solar power, he has managed to use exactly as much as he has generated. But last month, for the first time, he didn’t run his electric heaters long enough and was startled to see that 87 KWH was erased from his account. Although they had enough electric heat to keep the house warm, Skoglund said he’ll be glad to see his surplus power put to good use by his friends who own electric cars.

“I might break even on the charger after four people with an electric car book a room,” he said. “Because we are on the cusp of a new technology, I’ll be pleased if it takes two years. But in 10 years when the electric car technology has improved I doubt if you’ll see anything else.”

Cars are a big interest for Skoglund and he’ll give you a tour of the property where a number of his old Model Ts are stored. One such Model T, a 1926 rusted relic sitting in the barn, has a good back story.

“In December of 1952, I was 16 and coming home from school, when I rolled that one over,” he said. “I didn’t have a tire; I was riding on the rim—you could do that in those days—and the pounding on the road shattered the wooden spokes and the car went over in the ditch and flipped. But, I landed on my feet and shut it off. Back then you didn’t have to report an accident if the damage was under $50 and the car was only worth $42. I played for a dance that night at Rockland high school and didn’t dare tell my mother I’d rolled over in my car until after the gig.”

There are a number of websites such as Charge Hub that list all of the places in the U.S. that hosts electric car charging stations

“People with electric cars want to know where they can get a charge when they come to Maine,” he said. “It’s still a new thing but it’s becoming more commonplace. It’s just a matter of time. I’m in the vanguard.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Every spring, Camden brightens up with color, but the town just got a turbo boost with painter Colin Page’s new gallery set to open on 23 Bay View Street tonight, May 9, at 5 p.m.

Painting professionally for the last 20 years, Page was always content to just focus on his own body of work until he’d reached a certain level. “For a long time, owning a gallery wasn’t something I wanted to get involved in, but I was at a place in my career where I had enough of a following and wanted to share the work of other artists I know in a way that would fit with my vibe.”

Page Gallery is a contemporary art gallery exhibiting American paintings, drawings and sculpture. Beyond a few of Page’s works, the gallery also represents painters Gideon Bok (Camden), Jessica Ives (Camden), Tim Lawson (Rockport), and Peggi Kroll Roberts (daughter in Appleton), and three dimensional work by Simon van der Ven (Lincolnville).

Kay Stephens ca be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND— Book spine poetry started off as a lark, a meme in the 1990s, after artist Nina Katchadourian took photographs of stacked book titles that, when read top to bottom, created short sentences and stories.

In April, the Rockland Public Library put out a contest for book spine poetry.

“Book spine poetry has been around for a long time, but we wanted to offer a contest for the month of April, which is Poetry Month with something that was alternative to the traditional poetry contest,” said Librarian Jessica Blanchard. 

Approximately 30 people submitted photographs of poems they created from stacking the titles of books in a certain order.

“We had people use their own books, books from the library, even books from the inter-loan library, because certain people had titles in mind that they needed to complete their poem and didn’t have a certain word to go with it, said Blanchard. “From the children who submitted, we had a few kids who submitted spine poetry from our after-school program as well as a few students from RSU 13 and homeschooled students.”

Clare Zall won Rockland Public Library’s “Best Overall” category of book spine poetry with her politically-themed entry which reads:

My American Heritage

Stars & Stripes Forever

A Nation of Immigrants

The Audacity of Hope

Dog Days at The White House

Vanishing Americana

“I have a lot of books on American History,” said Zoll. “Scanning my bookshelves, the poem came together quickly. On the poem’s subject matter, she explained, “I grew up 20 miles from D.C. and patriotism was as natural as breathing, even during the Nixon scandal. When I moved to Maine as a young bride, I was happy to find Mainers had great civic pride. Small towns, granges, celebrations keyed to local history. I met young leaders like Chellie Pingree and Jeff Evangelos who had a strong desire to serve the people. Patriotism unites people. Together, we can do more than we can do individually.”

Delving more deeply into the political context, she said: “The last elections I worked to register young voters. Their jaded views surprised me: most had to be convinced that the power of one vote was essential to a healthy America. Some did not know they were eligible to vote, some did not know they could vote with no party affiliation, some even seemed wary of voting. It's deeply disturbing to hear someone say they only see negativity and division in America today. President Obama said America is a work in progress. I agree with that statement. We're a very young country when you think about it, and there's a lot of work to be done. In 2019, I see Nationalism, not patriotism. A patriot is proud of his country for what it does and what it stands for, while a nationalist is proud of his or her country no matter what it does.”

Others who won categories include Best Love Poem: Kalen Darney; Best Nature Poem: Betsy Headley; Best Haiku: Eileen Fitzgerald; Most Humorous: Phyllis Merriam; Best Nature: Rosabelle Humiston and Abby Goode; Most Humorous: Jessa Blackman; Best Kid Haiku & Best Overall: Jared Blackman.

For more examples, check out #bookspinepoetry on Twitter or read this Scholastic article on how “Found Poetry” spurs creativity.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — The jazz-inspired trio The Extension Chords, representing Camden Hills Regional High School, is the only Midcoast band competing in the Maine Academy of Modern Music’s annual rock off dubbed the MAMM Slam to be held at the Empire in Portland on Saturday, May 11.

Myles Kelley (keyboard), Katherine Bowen (electric bass) and Owen Markowitz (drums) make up the ensemble.

The band name came out of a musician’s worst fear: Right before their first public gig, they forgot the extension cords in order to plug in their instruments.

“It was eventually resolved,” said Myles, “but that provided the band name.”

Here’s a video of that exact moment after they got their electrical issues fixed.

All three met and began playing together at the Midcoast Music Academy. Owen, 15, is a sophomore and Myles and Katherine, are both 16 and juniors at CHRHS.They were only a handful of students through MMA playing jazz and naturally, the school put them all together. For the last two years, they’ve been working on original songs and standards. And, they just like to hang out together.

To get a sense of their style, listen to their Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/theextensionchords 

If you want to hear some complicated and sophisticated arrangements, listen to Freedom Jazz Dance. For a little sweet nostalgia, check out their cover of My Funny Valentine. And for a fantastic keyboard cover of Stevie Wonder’s classic hit, listen to You Are The Sunshine of My Life.

It’s no surprise that all three students began their musical careers early, in elementary school. Given such talent at such a young age, their choice of musical style begs the question: why jazz? Why not rock or hip hop?

“I think jazz is coming up more, like more of a popular form,” said Owen.

“In jazz, you have to learn a lot of the basics, that you’d find in other genres, like rock,” said Myles. “It’s not easy, but it makes for a better transition when playing other styles.”

The kids point to Anderson Paak as one of their musical inspirations for jazz being played in a modern way. In the NPR Tiny Desk video embedded in this story (warning: some explicit language), it’s evident what they find exciting about his music. Paak plays drums in some funky, hip hop jazzy dragged beat while effortlessly rapping and singing.

“You can tell this is exactly where our inspiration comes from,” said Myles.

“And a lot of hip hop is also our influence,” said Owen.

As the only Camden band to register for the MAMM Slam, The Extension Chords guaranteed a spot to compete among nearly a dozen bands. In fact, they may be Camden Hills Regional High School only teen band that participates in professional gigs.

All three know this is one of the biggest tests of their music careers this coming weekend that on top of the fact that it’s a heavy testing week at school for them. They only have a few minutes to play their set have to bring their A game. As an instrumental band, they are fairly that they won’t be nervous once they get on stage. (Although Katherine admitted she and Myles do have a little work to do when it comes to stage presence.)

The winners of the MAMM Slam will not only take home a $1,000 cash prize, but will receive a slew of opportunities to boost their career.

No matter what happens, The Extension Chords already have gigs lined up afterward, and plan to play in an upcoming performance at the new "Jazz In June" Festival slated to be held in Camden this summer.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

HOPE — It might come as a bit of a shock to people accustomed to expecting the Hope Library will always stay open, but soon, unless the Board of Directors finds more volunteers to fill the chronic shortage of staff and Board of Directors, it’s a very real possibility that the doors might be permanently closed.

Sydney Hall, a Board member and coordinator of staff, said many people naturally presume that the library is a town entity, just like Camden or Rockport libraries.

“Even though we are a nonprofit and the grant money we do get is for new books and updating equipment, there are no funds to hire staff,” said Hall. “Volunteers are doing everything they can, but even when scheduled to work, things come up and they can’t always be there. Some of us have been volunteering at the library for the past 15 years and truthfully, some of us are burned out,” she said.

Though retired, Hall easily clocks in eight hours each week between organization and staffing the library.

Books have been available in that town office space for about 25 years when the library was more of the model of a Little Free Library on the honor system.

In 2012, the town office expanded the space; and with a grant, the library added new furniture and computer equipment. Today, the library is open whenever the town office is open and even if a librarian isn’t there, patrons can still  check out books on the honor system, something Hall said, “by and large works like a dream.”

The population of the town of Hope is approximately 1,500 and of those citizens, approximately 500 people hold a Hope Library card.

Books are not its only valuable resource.

Without more people power, Hall said, "Our community will lose access to the books we now have, the download library for eBooks and audio books, high speed internet (WiFi) available in the library, access to the Digital Maine Library, including thousands of magazines, newspapers, and reference books including Ancestry.com, and the Learning Express, an online resource for students of all ages, all of which comes through our affiliation with the Maine State Library.”

In addition, the library space, equipped with audio-visual equipment, is used for monthly speakers on educational topics.

“The purpose of the library is to be a community center and that refers to our ability to offer free WiFi as well as access to books and other materials,” said Hall. “We like to think we can provide a place that is physically closer to our citizens in Hope. If we can’t, Hope will become just a suburb of the coastal cities.”

On April 30, the library held a social in the hopes of attracting more interested people.

Hall said about nine people showed up, mostly residents of Hope and mostly retirees.

Two people signed up as volunteers, and three people expressed interest, but the hours that the library could be technically open didn’t mesh up with their available volunteer hours. The library is still reaching out to the community for more, both as staff as members of the board of directors. The current library’s hours are tied to the town office’s hours, but if more volunteers express a willingness to work when the town office is closed, the board of directors will consider that option in their next meeting.

To see the library’s current hours, background information and resources, visit: Hope Library

For interested volunteers: email hope@hope.lib.me.us or call 207-763-3553.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—With the human population pretty much on target to destroy the natural world and wipe out a million species by the next century with its waste, over-consumption and alteration of 75% of the globe’s land and 66% of its marine environments, it’s time to listen to what the kids have to say.

Toren Lee, nine, a student Camden Rockport Elementary School, wrote a persuasive essay for school titled “The Environment Has Feelings, Too.”

Proposing an incremental change in the way the school uses plastic cutlery, Lee and his fellow students, are mini activists in the school’s after-school program, ChangeMakers, which is taking donations of silverware to replace the cafeteria’s plastic cutlery.

Toren said it bothered him to see all of the plastic straws, and single-use plastic dumped into the trash each day.

“I just feel like it’s bad for the environment, and it’s going hurt a lot of sea animals,” Toren said, admitting he was bothered by a recent news article earlier this spring about a whale found dead in the Philippines with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach.

He’s right to be alarmed.

A report written by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN committee with 145 experts from 50 countries, illustrates that more than a third of all marine mammals are at risk of extinction due in part, to the massive amount of plastics that end up in the ocean.

“Of all of the plastic in the world, only nine percent is recycled,12 percent is incinerated, and the rest of it is either thrown away in landfills, or the ocean,” said Toren, firing off an impressive amount of retained statistics.

ChangeMakers estimated that 600 pieces of plastic utensils are used at their school for lunch each day, costing the school about $1,000 per year.

Meanwhile, Toren, who comes from a sewing family, created a canvas pack that can carry cutlery from to and from home.

“I tried to figure out a way to stop using plastic utensils, so we made these utensil bags,” he said.

While he came up with the concept, his father sewed them, adding a logo to the pack to personalize it. He has made several for sale, as well.

While Toren and his classmates have no control over adult consumption, such as shopping with plastic bags, they do have control over a simple thing: that with which they choose to eat their lunch.

Toren said he did the math at ChangeMakers and it will take about $1,500 to upgrade the school’s kitchen to clean all the silverware as well as procure enough, adding that the donation page, started by educator Katie Urey, was getting closer to their goal.

“We’re going to do posters and then make an iMovie about it,” he said.

The money will also be used to put a large magnet in the cafeteria’s trash bin, so that accidentally thrown out utensils can be saved.

Meanwhile, Toren isn’t just jumping on some environmental bandwagon; he’s truly disciplined to make these incremental changes himself and every day, remembers to bring his silverware home and often washes it himself before returning it to the pack for the next day.

To make this daily change is easy enough for anybody—and it doesn’t have to be the “good” silverware from home. Places like GoodWill sell used silverware and Job Lots in Belfast and Rockland have bins of new cutlery one can buy by the piece.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Directly across from Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe, at the corner of Bayview and Frye streets, in Camden, a longtime vacant space is currently being renovated to open as a home decor, furniture and artisan shop, to open in late May.

Funky Farmhouse is the collaboration between long-time friends, Andy Young, the owner of the building, and Sue Gerard, a shop owner from Waterville.

Gerard, who used to own a similar refurbished furniture shop in Waterville, had dreams of coming back to the Midcoast to open a new store here.

“This space has been sitting empty for the last seven or eight years,” said Young, who bought the building a year and a half ago. “The people who previously owned it originally envisioned the space to be a live music venue with a drop-floor ‘dance pit’ in the middle of the room with a small stage, but they eventually realized they didn’t want to go in that direction.”

The friends have formed a new business partnership, calling the shop Funky Farmhouse.

“It’s an eclectic store with a number of upcycled furniture that sometimes is described as “farmhouse chic,” said Young.

“But it’s more than that,” said Gerard. “I want people to know that there is going to be a variety of things to shop here. Country, farm-house, modern and original works.”

“We will be working with a number of local artisan and crafts vendors, who will be showcasing their artwork, such as photography, artwork, coastal scenes with dried flowers, and we’re currently looking for vendors who do stained glass, blown glass and ceramics,” added Young.

Young, a carpenter, and who owns Bald Rock Property Management, did all of the renovations to the interior, and even has repurposed a number of shop fixtures, such as the beadboard front counter and a pair of floor-to-ceiling shelving units from items that have long sat in his barn.

And Young and Gerard aren’t only running the store, they are also contributing some of their own handmade items to the inventory.

“I’m taking some of my carpentry skills and repurposing furniture, such as doors, cabinets, windows and shutters and creating new pieces from them,” said Young. “I’ve been called a pack-rat for many years.”

“I’m pretty much doing the same thing as Andy, as well,” said Gerard. “I’ll give an old piece of furniture new life. We really want this place not just be a shop for tourists, but for locals looking for something in their price range as well. I have a soft spot for local single moms who want to find nice things for their homes at an affordable price.”

They plan to open the shop year-round, starting in late May.

Funky Farmhouse is open to new vendors. They can be found at Funky Farmhouse Decor

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WARREN—With the monster success of Maine Brew Bus tours in Portland and Boston, it was only a matter of time that all-inclusive minivan tours to Midcoast breweries, distilleries and wineries would materialize.

Larry and Rose Bull, of Warren, have envisioned a new service for locals and tourists to capitalize on the Maine Wine, Beer and Spirit Trails by doing all of the driving.

Bull On The Run Tours, a play on their last name, is set to start operating in May 12, Mother’s Day, with a 12-passenger mini van Wednesday to Sunday hitting popular spots in Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties.

Planning to rendezvous at the Rock Harbor Tasting Room at 5 Payne Avenue in Rockland, the white van with the logo an will leave from Rockland as its starting point for each tour.

“Two of the days we’ll do winery tours; two of the days will be brewery tours and then we’ll have a wild card day, that might encompass both, plus distilleries,” said Bull. “If enough people want to do a special trip, we can customize to what they want as well.”

Bull, a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer, has been in law enforcement and the military for the last 30 years. His wife, Rose, born and raised in Waldoboro, has worked for 36 years for Hannaford Supermarkets.  Combining their skill sets with business and customer service, the couple began thinking of what they wanted to do when they retired.

“Rose and I knew each other 20 years ago when I first lived in Maine,” said Bull. “When I left in 1988, there was one winery and one brewery here.  I left the military and came back and she and I reconnected again. We both have an interest in the area’s wineries and breweries here and having seen a lot of wineries and breweries on the west coast where I spent time in California, we thought the time was right to start an all-inclusive tours.”

Currently in the process of finishing up getting their insurance and licenses, the Bulls are looking forward to the new venture.

“We’ll go south part of the week and north the next part,” he said. “People who haven’t visited this area before might find it a little intimidating to try and locate some of these out of the way rural places on their own, so we’ll provide an easy way to see everything without having to worry about driving. And, if a group of people wanting to take a tour are all located at one place, such as a hotel, or Airbnb, we’ll even drive to you and pick you up.”

Bull estimates that each trip will take about four to five hours with bathroom breaks along the way and will be around $60 per person.

For more info: Bull On The Run Tours

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

THOMASTON—Dozens of service industry professionals got their first look at the new Thomaston location for Threshers Brewing Co’s second Midcoast tasting room on Monday, April 29 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Carpenters and brewers Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendtson were greeting many of the bartenders and restaurant servers partaking in the sneak preview for an “Industry Professional Night.” With their children by their side, they debuted a roomy, spacious tasting room with a bar and plenty of tables; enough space for future bands to play and enough space to dance. The former Billy’s Tavern got an updated look with newly painted red walls to match the decor at their Searsmont tasting room. Along with Threshers’ usual brew offerings, they are also selling ciders, wines and spiked selzer water here, along with a couple of non-alcoholic options.

Initially when carpenters and brewers Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendtson envisioned opening in May, they’d also be able to offer cans and growlers of their beer, but due to some licensing issues, that option is not yet on the table. Plans for a small deli-style kitchen are also still on hold until they can get this tasting room off the ground.

Their official Soft Opening at the new location kicks off Saturday, May 4 from 3 to 11 p.m. In the future they will also offer guest taps of other Maine craft beers. Mug club sign ups will start at a first-come first-serve basis.

For more information and to stay up to date on their progress visit their Facebook page or website.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WALDOBORO—A new mobile food truck is set to open in Waldoboro this spring. Opposite Moody’s Diner at the corner of Rt. 1 and Washington Road, Ollie’s, a bright red mobile kitchen, is set to open April 22.

Owners Vickey and Ralph Jones, who formerly owned Ollie’s Place, a small grocery store and restaurant in Jefferson, had to put the business on hold in 2015 to care for Ralph’s ailing mother. After taking a couple of years after that to travel, the couple decided to move to Waldoboro and open the mobile food truck in the parking lot of where they live.

“A lot of our former customers kept asking us, when are you going to open again?” said Vickey. ‘We looked for another place in Jefferson, but couldn’t find a physical location. The house where we rent is already commercial, so we asked our landlady if we could put a food truck in the parking lot and she said it was okay. It’s just 20 feet to work; it’s perfect.”

The mobile food truck was previously a strawberry shortcake trailer that used to operate at the Windsor Fair. The couple renovated the outside and revamped their old menu at Ollie’s Place. Once again, Ollie’s—named after their border collie—will be back in business.

The menu, prepared from scratch inside the mobile kitchen, will include subs, wraps, burgers, Reuben sandwiches with Morse’s sauerkraut, lobster and crabmeat rolls, pan-fried haddock sandwiches and quesadillas. They will also carry Gifford’s ice cream.

“On the property is a greenhouse, which is all cleared out,” said Vickey. “We put six picnic tables inside, so people can sit down and get out of the weather if it’s a rainy day. It will be filled with beautiful hanging plants and the sides will be rolled up so people can enjoy the outdoors. we’ll also have some outside seating also.”

Their hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST— The addition of Perennial Cider Bar & Farm Kitchen is exactly what Belfast needs right now.

The grand opening at 84 Main Street (formerly the yarn shop) took place in a cozy basement space dominated by a copper-topped bar. Chef-owner Khristopher Hogg took turns serving the dozens of curious apple lovers who came to see what a cider bar is all about.

With plenty of seating at the bar, several surrounding two tops and a nook that can seat up to six people, this small place can pack them in and still feel lively and comfortable.

On the liquid side of the menu, Perennial offers traditional and heritage hard ciders from Maine, New England and beyond. Each cider they’ve chosen is distinct and they offer upwards to 25 different ciders, from the bottle, can and on tap. See who they source from here.

Cider by the glass (8 oz pour) ranges from $6 to $9 and cider on tap (8 oz and 12 oz pours) range from $4.5 to $7.

Along with several ways to enjoy a flight of cider tastings, there are also ice ciders (served neat on ice) for $5 and cider apertifs, along with a non-alcoholic kombucha and a cider vinegar shot.

Most people are not cider connoisseurs and that problem is solved with The Pommelier’s Choice on the menu (a riff on Sommelier), allowing the taster to be interviewed on one’s beer, wine and spirit preferences, before the knowledgeable bartender determines the customer’s palate and picks the best flavor combinations in the form of a three-glass flight (three ounces each) for $9.

A flight of Rocky Ground Dahlia, Cornish Common Fruit and Whaleback Traditional Dry from Lincolnville, for example, ranged wildly in flavor. Whereas the Rocky Ground was more of an earthy, honeyed flavor reminiscent of adult apple juice, the Cornish, Common Fruit, with its ripe strawberry and oak, was effervescent, bright and sweet. Then, the Whaleback knocked it out of the park with hazy tartness and an overall harmony that made the third sip feel like the last act in a third-act play.

Though Perennial does not make its own cider (yet) Hogg is a cider enthusiast himself and wanted to create a space for others to appreciate this burgeoning scene. Over the past decade he’s managed farm-to-table kitchens in Boston, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington state where he started Perennial as a traveling supper club. The food side of the menu, as website describes, was inspired “in the tradition of the tavernas, tapas bars, farmhouses, and street corners” with the best available local ingredients. Small plates such as coppa (cured pork shoulder, fir-infused honey and chamomile mayo) run you $4.5 to $6, along with snacks such as deviled eggs, charcuterie boards, small comfort foods and a cold-frame salad.

This cider bar fits in perfectly with Belfast’s character and is sure to be a local’s favorite, along with a hot spot for visitors this summer.

Open Wednesday to Saturday, happy hour is 4 to 6 p.m. Dinner and full cider program goes from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Check their calendar regularly for upcoming tastings, talks, and other events.

Photos by Kay Stephens, who can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Bar Harbor artist Alexandrea Farquhar has put together an exhibit at Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Rockland from the bodies of roadkill.

Her exhibit, Post-Morphean Dreamwork, is composed of the images that she wrote down in a dream journal over several years, then constructed, using ethically-sourced taxidermy, discarded materials, plaster casting, and clay sculpture. 

Farquhar, a senior at College of the Atlantic, and where she studies natural history and museum exhibit prep, said: “I first encountered non-traditional taxidermy when I was a kid. I really liked the way it looked, yet at the same time, it kind of unsettled me. I think with this medium, there’s a lot to explore in the terms of the way we look at art.”

In one of her pieces, a fox seems to rival John Mayer’s “guitar face,” lying on its side with the neck and head of an old guitar extruding from its body.

“I usually have the animals donated to me or I find them myself,” she said.

At school, she works on her pieces at the Prep Lab, which has all of the tools she needs to work on her taxidermy. In the case of the fox, which had been donated to the College, she said, “the fox was already here in the freezer at the College of The Atlantic, and I got permission to use it.”

The old-school method of taxidermy requires her to strip the skin off the animal, tan it, and then remold it around a handmade form.

“All of the pieces in the exhibition come from dream images that I’d had that I’d written down,” she said. “With this fox, I had a dream that I was walking through an art gallery, actually. II saw this fox and this old six-string guitar neck coming out of it in a glass case and it really stuck in my mind.”

Many people have different reactions to taxidermy as art. Some people she’s said almost seem afraid of the exhibit and tentatively approach each art piece. Some wholly embrace the exhibit with curiosity. And some people, Farquhar completely understands, are unsettled by it, as well.

“I’ve always really loved animals and have always had pets,” she said. “And seeing a dead animal being presented in an artificial way can be unsettling. So, it took some courage for me to try and present the animals in such a way that I could make them into a reflection of myself. I still struggle with that quite a bit.”

One piece hanging on the far wall, features a plaster cast of two arms cradling a tiny fawn in mid-air. This piece is very personal to Farquhar.

“I made those casts of my own hands,” she said. “The fawn came to me when my professor hit her with his truck one fall by accident. He brought her to me. She was quite small and there was a good chance she might not have made it through the winter.”

Where the fox is comical, the fawn is tender, and surprisingly emotional.

“Given the terrible circumstances around her death, and that she was so small, I made this piece to convey a sense of protectiveness,” she said.

Mainly the public reaction to Farquhar’s artwork has been positive, but she admitted that isn’t for everyone.

“Some people are more open to taxidermy as art than others,” she said. “In some ways children are better equipped to handle this exhibit than certain adults. It all depends on your background.”

Post-Morphean Dreamwork is open to the public until April 30. To see more pieces on display visit: https://mainecoastislands.org/programs-art/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST— One portrait that recently hung in the Waterfall Arts’ Young Artists Gallery Takeover last month is a scream. No, not as in funny, but as a literal scream, a portrayal of a man’s mouth in silhouette, and from that mouth dozens of words fly out. They all give a window into the level of pressure teens still feel when it comes to fitting in.

Ayla Fitzjurls, named after the the prehistoric heroine of Clan of the Cave Bear, is the artist behind three collages that underscore this pressure.

The collage, entitled “Falling: A Note To Anyone,” incorporates a collage of cut-out-of-magazine words to lay the foundation of impossible expectations, often self-imposed at this age.

The collage is part of her 12th grade art project this semester at Belfast Area High School.

“We had the choice to do whatever we wanted, as long as it was a series,” said Ayla. “The collage at Waterfall Arts was actually second in the series. My theme was ‘falling.’ My first piece was about falling from society, being bullied, and being an outcast. The Waterfall Arts piece was about mentally falling, depression and loneliness. And the third sculpture, a 3-D mobile, shows physical feeling of falling.”

As a child, Ayla was encouraged by art teacher Linda Stec, at Starrett Childrens’ Center across from Waterfall Arts. 

“As Linda also worked at Waterfall Arts at the time, she allowed me to take some of her classes for free,” said Ayla. “She really started my interest in the arts and showed how to do ceramics and sculpture— things that really opened up my world.”

One of her first projects through Waterfall Arts was to make a cardboard dress, part of C.B.A.R.F. (Cardboard Boxes Are Really Fun): a community art party.

As Ayla grew up, she gravitated more toward ceramics and sculpture. More on that in a bit, but back to the first collage, which depicts a man in the maw of what looks like a jagged cave or a mouth, and all around him are faces, mostly Photoshopped to perfection.

“I I chose to cut out more faces of women, because I definitely think there is more drama between them and more bullying with women,” said Ayla. “The lone figure below is reacting by walking into the thick of all of these faces. In our school, I notice guys are more apt to be by themselves, while girls are usually in a group. Originally I didn’t intend for these black jagged lines being a mouth, but then I put it together and it actually fit.”

As for the second collage featured in Waterfall Arts gallery, Ayla said: “I spent a month on this piece finding all of the words to put in it. I wanted it to be a letter to anyone viewing it. Most of the words at the top are sort of negative, but at the bottom of the collage, the meaning turns uncertain, with one phrase ’we know you’re out there’.’”

Ayla, who admitted she’d hasn’t experienced bullying herself, has an empathetic connection for anyone who has, having witnessed it and its after-effects in some of her friends and classmates.

“I feel like these standards of beauty that you see in these faces, all cut out from Vogue, all contribute to depression in the everyday person, the self-hatred,” she said. “You worry about how you look, how people view you. When you’re depressed, you feel like everything is crashing in on you.

“Everyone knows bullying exists in every school, but they just put it on the back burner. In doing an art piece like this will hopefully bring the issue to light to whoever is looking at it.”

With her interest in ceramics, Ayla has been accepted into the Maine College of Art next fall.

“I hope to get my bachelor’s of fine arts and open my own business to hold classes and an after-school program for kids to come in and work in clay,” she said. “I want to do for kids what Linda did for me.”

The Waterfall Arts 2019 Young Artists Gallery show is now over, but you can see what other teens displayed in our most recent story 

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting creative and talented teens in the Midcoast.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Creativity is free, but the technology to produce it is not. Thanks to a grant by William W. Treat Foundation secured by the Belfast Free Library, the third floor conference room is the Library’s newest Makerspace.

What is a Makerspace? According to the definition, it is “a place in which people with shared interests, especially in computing or technology, can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.”

The grant funded a variety of new equipment for the Makerspace, including a computer cart housing 10 PC (Dell) laptops, a Macbook, a high-resolution scanner, and a multi- format color printer; and a 55-inch Bluetooth accessible wall-mounted monitor; electronic sewing machines; a camcorder with tripod and external microphones; and studio lights and green screen background. Adobe Cloud software is available, and all computers are equipped with Microsoft Office Suite.

The conference room doubles as the Makerspace with all of the equipment locked up behind utility closets.

“All of the Dell laptops have been loaded with software to interact with the high-quality printer and scanner and the Macbook comes with Adobe Creative Cloud so people can use Photoshop or Illustrator, or InDesign, any of the Adobe Suite products,” said Erica Rubin Irish, Youth Services Librarian. “Anyone can use the equipment, regardless if he or she holds a library card; there just needs to be an orientation.”

For creative people, this Makerspace opens up a world of possibility. The library plans to offer this equipment to the public, but also plans on scheduling Makerspace programming. With the laptops connected to the wall-mounted monitor, educators can lead group trainings; artists and writers can now do more multimedia presentations for the public. People can teach themselves online to sew. And with the studio lights, video camera, green screen and editing software, budding filmmakers can make their own in-house films.

The Library’s first event was a button-making for teens. This program combined high-tech and low-tech:  searching designs online and printing with the new color printer, then using an old-fashioned hand-operated button maker to create custom buttons (badges).

The second program featured Maine State Library’s Gizmo Garden hands-on science program for kids. Participants created clay pots and wired circuitry boards that made the pots self-watering. 

“While there is that technology focus, we also want to do more events where people are making things with their hands,” said Sharon Pietryka, the Reference and Special Collections Librarian.

“We also just got a machine that can burn VHS tapes to DVD,” said Rubin Irish. “That is something that is hard to find to be able to transfer home movies to DVD.”

The librarians are excited about the vast opportunities to now use the equipment in a variety of ways.

“In the future, we’re planning on running a vlog-making (video blog) workshop for teens,” said Rubin Irish

Coming up, the Library plans a “Family Memory Book” making class on Tuesday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. with a follow up class (TBD) where participants will be able to use the Makerspace and access an online program to complete their Memory Book. For more information visit: https://belfastlibrary.org/library-programs/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—If you want to take a walk on the wild side, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s large-scale, immersive installation, “Hubris Atë Nemesis” by artists Wade Kavanaugh, of Bethel, and Stephen B. Nguyen, of Portland, is something to behold.

The exhibit fully takes up the space of CMCA’s main gallery and treats the viewer to a sensory experience akin to walking through a fun house. There is an illusion of movement all around as one walks the pathway over the undulating boardwalk.

Kavanaugh said of its inspiration: “Our current idea came from a visit to the [Winslow] Homer studio, partly from the sea, but more from the landforms along the water’s edge.”

Asked how they did it, CMCA’s Executive Director Suzette McAvoy, said, “The artists had a design in mind and in our Art Lab you can see the wooden model they made in their studio in Rumford, where they literally used fettuccine to get an idea of layout.”

It took the artists and a team of volunteers and CMCA staff a little more than three weeks to create using 260 4 x 8 sheets of luan plywood, 250 2 x 4s and 200 2 x 6s. 

“Most of it was cut here,” she said. “We had a table saw set up in the loading dock, and the artists, our staff and volunteers cut the plywood into strips, before realizing they were going to need more. Then we then ordered another 30 or so sheets on top of that,” said McAvoy. “First, they laid down the wooden pathway which they had constructed off site in their studio, then they built the 2 x 4 framework, over which they layered the strips."

The artists only do large-scale installation work and this is the first time they worked exclusively with wood, all their previous installations were made from paper. 

The title of the installation, “Hubris Atë Nemesis,” refers to the narrative arc of Greek tragedies, in which Hubris, characterized as an arrogant confidence, transforms to Atë, a ruinous folly or madness, then ultimately to Nemesis, a force of retribution that resets the natural order.  

Kavanaugh and Nguyen were selected as the first recipients of the highly competitive Ellis-Beauregard Fellowship Award from a pool of more than 200 applicants and received a stipend of $25,000 in recognition of their achievements.

Though our photos and video give a glimpse into the installation, it must be seen in person to experience. “Incredible art exhibit,” said Penobscot Bay Pilot writer Sarah Thompson, who was among dozens of people invited to a special business reception to view the artwork on April 2.

“The moment I stepped on/into it, until five minutes after I stepped off, I felt like I was in a real boat. I never had art affect me so physically.”

For more information on this installation and on concurrent exhibits on display visit: cmcanow.org

ROCKLAND—If you need a mental break in your day, pop into the Good Tern in Rockland for the month of April. Coinciding with National Poetry Month, the Good Tern Café Gallery features its annual mail-in exhibition of poetry and art. Many arrive in the form of handmade postcards.  Past years’ entries were received from as far away as the UK and Australia. Check out a few of the poems in a virtual gallery.

Photos by Kay Stephens

CAMDEN—A casual and comfortable clothing retailer with a fun name marks the second clothing shop opening on Bayview Street in Camden this spring. FatFace, a U.K. company, is set to open their second Maine store on Saturday, March 30. With 14 locations in the U.S., the Camden store is their 15th store to open in New England.

With more than 200 stores in the U.K., it’s a bit of surprise to learn that the founders weren’t initially business types—far from it. In fact, it’s safe to say they were a couple of ski bums. Here’s the story: Two guys, Tim Slade and Jules Leaver graduated college in 1988. Not interested in getting “real” jobs, they took an extended vacation in skiing in the French Alps. Inevitably, they ran out of money, but still not wanting to go into the ‘real world,’ they decided instead to print up a bunch of t-shirts and sweatshirts and sell them out of the back of their beat up camper van.

“This is my favorite story,” said Marketing Manager, Spenser Guay. “They had both just finished college in the U.K. Back in those days, you were expected to get an office job, but instead they went on this extended skiing trip to their favorite ski run, La Face. And after finding this surprise success in selling these graphic tees out of their van, they decided to combine the British slang word ‘Fat’ which means ‘cool’ with their favorite mountain.”

Fast forward 30 years later and the two ski bums have made themselves quite the impressive brand. “I like to describe FatFace as a corporation that has 244 stores that still operates like it’s just the first store they started in 1992,” said Guay.

One of the company’s tagline’s is  “Embrace life outside the 9 to 5” and Guay described the clothing store’s style as “on-trend, outdoor casual and classic.” There is clothing for men, women and children, as well as accessories.

“Back when they [the founders] had no money, they wanted value for every dollar they got, so they insist on each clothing piece being a quality product,” he said.

The company also insists on responsible and sustainable sourcing and gets their products from more than 150 trusted and well integrated sourcing partners from over 10 countries globally.

The store is set to open Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 10 a.m and will have a smattering of light refreshments to welcome people in.

For more information and to see the clothing styles visit: fatface.com/en

Even though we’re technically at the start of Spring, the age-old season of renewal, it hasn’t quite actually felt like it. Many of us are still in grouchy hibernation mode, overly saturated with politics and the news feed, feeling the twin crunch of tax and bathing suit season.

But hang tight, April is ushering in five unique events around the state that will act like a brain stimulant. So rip off that Band-aid of Winter and and give your life the pop of color it needs right now.

Two “Art and Word” Ekphrastic Events

April 2 & April 12 — Belfast & Portland

April kicks off the start of National Poetry Month and at least two ekphrastic exhibits are taking place around the state. Ek-what? Ekphrastic refers to a verbal description of a visual work of art. Belfast artist Marjorie Arnett asked 27 poets to write poems interpreting one of her paintings, “Delicate Balance” above. There will be an opening reception at the Belfast Free Library combining those poems to her painting on April 2 from 5 to 6 p.m. And if that suits your fancy, Portland is also hosting an ekphrastic exhibit called “ArtWord” on April 12 inspired by the art at Portland Museum of Art.  Authors of selected poems will read them at the museum at 5 p.m. in an auditorium program. FMI: ArtWord

Makers And Artists’ Conference

April 4 & 5 — Northport

This event is the perfect springboard for anyone creativity has felt dormant. As I’ve written about before, this is the only conference of its type, with nearly half of this conference’s participants drove more than an hour away to attend. It hits every aspect of an artist or marker’s career: Foundational, Transformational, and Inspirational – for those just starting a business, those looking to take their business to the next level, and those interested in tips for maintaining fulfillment, passion, and inspiration.Switching it up this year, the Conference will span two days with one-day passes as well as a bundle pass and kick off on a Thursday night with artist Robert Shetterly discussing artists who courageously address issues of social, environmental, and economic fairness in their work from 5 to 6 p.m. Having attended this conference, I can personally say the most valuable thing about it is learning about social media tips and tricks, opportunities for Maine artists and the ability to chat and connect with other artists in your genre. For the full schedule and speakers/cost, click here.

Moonlight Forest Enchanted Dance Party

April 6 — Portland

To get out a late winter rut, experts suggest changing your surroundings and this adult fairy tale dance party not only gives you an excuse to stay overnight in Portland, but this epic charity ball (supporting Wayside Food Programs) will be a portal into another dimension. Here’s what they are asking: “Please come dressed in your finest homage to the witchy woods, wild beasts, dainty woodland creatures, fanciful fairies, eclectic elves, old growth evergreens, gnarly oaks, mystical moss, mythic monsters, wise witches, stylish sorcerers, dazzling dragons and the like are highly encouraged.”  1  drink ticket provided with Rising Tide Brewery hosting. After that, enjoy a cash bar of beer and wine. $20/Advance, $25/Day of at the door. FMI: Mayo Street Arts

Air Play

April 11 —-Portland

Get ready to have your mind blown. Husband-and-wife team of Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone merge their circus and street theater performance art with the sculptural artistry of Daniel Wurtzel for Air Play, a surreal performance. The description reads: “Circus and science collide as fabrics dance in the wind, balloons have a mind of their own, confetti turns into the night sky, and an enormous canopy of hovering silk brings to life the very air we breathe” so you know this isn’t going to be our everyday Checkov play. Note: not for little kids. Fog and strobe lighting are used during the show. Latex balloons are used onstage and in the audience. Tickets vary and the show starts at 7 p.m. at the Merrill Auditorium FMI: Air Play

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Once known as “the tea of immortality,” Kombucha, a fermented brew thought to be invented by the Chinese more than 2,000 years ago, is experiencing a revival in Maine, and not just for the wellness crowd.

Last winter, a number of curious customers flocked to Lincolnville General Store to find out what Kombucha tastes like courtesy of a free tasting offered by Aqua ViTea, a Kombucha producer in Middlebury, Vermont. Aqua ViTea supplies Lincolnville General Store Kombucha on tap and in bottles as well as to a number of Maine stores.

Kombucha is made by introducing a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) a globby, unappealing whitish mass, into the black or green tea that serves as the engine to starting the fermentation process. The SCOBY eats the sugars in the brew, producing a fizzy, tangy taste and after it is strained out, the second fermentation can begin with the addition of spices, fruits and herbs for more flavor.

Kombucha, known chiefly for being a rich source of probiotics, (and great for people with poor gut health) has also been found to contain antioxidants that combat free radicals and reactive molecules that damage cells, according to new studies published by Healthline.com. In addition, it has strong anti-bacterial properties that fight against infection-causing bacteria, making it a superhero of health drinks. 

As many home brewers know, once yeast eats sugars, the process produces a small amount of alcohol in kombucha—anywhere from 0.5 to 2 percent. (For reference, a Budweiser has 5 percent alcohol).

Prior to 2010 while kombucha was enjoying a renaissance, the fermented drink wasn’t on anyone’s radar for being over the legal level of alcohol, until, as this 2017 Forbes article attests, a Maine Department of Agriculture Consumer Protection Inspector Randy Trahan was taking a walk around Whole Foods in Portland one day in 2010, when he noticed that some of the kombucha bottles on the shelf were leaking.

Finding that suspicious, Trahan “submitted a few of the store's bottles for testing at the Food Sciences Lab at the University of Maine, where it was discovered that the bottles contained alcohol levels ranging from slightly over 0.5 percent to over 2.5 percent, which was well above the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's regulation that labeled non-alcoholic beverages must contain less than 0.5 percent ABV.”

After that analysis, Whole Foods had to remove all of its kombucha products from the shelves and on tap, prompting the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau  to update its guidelines announcing that it would regulate any kombucha products that contain 0.5 percent or more ABV.  While the entire industry of kombucha producers struggled to figure out a way to comply with the new guidelines by manufacturing the drink differently, others whose formulas crept above 0.5 percent, decided to re-brand it as alcoholic kombucha.

The same problem for Maine manufacturers presented an obstacle for Aqua ViTea’s founder, Jeff Weaber, when the Vermont Department of Liquor Control and the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau raided his fledgling brewery in 2008, determining that the alcohol content was too high in the probiotic elixir.

So, after spending millions in R&D to correct the problem, they chanced upon an ideal solution: distilling the alcohol out of the Kombucha and making their own vodka from it. Pairing up with Appalachian Gap, a distillery in Middlebury, Vermont, Weaber worked with the distillery to make Aqua Vodka, 88-proof and certified organic, from the alcohol by-product of Weaber's Kombucha. 

A win-win for everyone, but for those who prefer their kombucha under the legal limit, there are two places to try Aqua ViTea on tap: at Lincolnville General Store and the Belfast Co-op.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

One man’s trash is an archeologist’s dream, only it’s not called “trash”—it’s called “cultural material.”

Harbour Mitchell, an archeologist for the last 30 years, has worked for the University of Maine, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in Augusta, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and professional archaeological contractors throughout the region.

On a visit to Merryspring Nature Center in early 2018, Mitchell asked to see a cellar hole located near the north meadow. The federal style farm house that once likely stood over the cellar, belonged to Asa Hosmer, who bought Lot 71 in 1803. 

On his way back from the cellar, what Mitchell didn’t expect was to stumble across another historic site. Only someone with a trained eye would have even noticed a strange, cellar sized depression in the meadow. Believing it to be a second, filled-in cellar, he got the blessing of Merryspring’s trustees and began an archaeological dig, which lasted through the summer months and into the fall of 2018.

With help from assistants, Mitchell uncovered over 1,000 pieces of pottery called “sherds,” dozens of nails, brick, shards of glass, table knives, glass and clay beads, and more from this very early “homestead.” What was not found were alcohol bottles or pipes, which Mitchell said was “highly unusual … for an 18th Century site.”

Piecing together the fragments of material culture with the history records of this area, Mitchell hypothesized that there was probably an occupation in Merryspring’s meadow as early as the Revolutionary War, and which may have included both the Continental Militia (independent soldiers) and Penobscot Native Americans.

Recall that until the Revolutionary War, Maine was still a province of Massachusetts, one of the 13 colonies. In August, 1779, in an effort to help free the colonies of English rule, more than 250 militia and 40 Penobscot warriors left Glen Cove (now “Rockport” today) to fight the British in Castine. The Continental forces were badly beaten, and retreated back through the forests, many on their way back to Boston. But, not everyone wanted to leave the beautiful, resource-rich areas of what we now know today was Maine. After the war, a number of, now United States citizens settled on Lot 71, which is what Merryspring Nature Center was called back then.

“There clearly is a long term occupation in [the] 1780s and ‘90s on that Merryspring property,” said Mitchell, who gave a speech of his findings to a packed house at Merryspring last month.

“The depression that we found was a cellar hole, which at one point probably sat underneath a small, one story home,” he said. “It could have been up on posts, which after 30 years, would have rotted away. The house could have been in good shape, but the bottom of it was disintegrating. Somebody bought the lot in the late 1790s and the homestead house was moved off the foundation. From the dig we surmised they used that earthen cellar as a place to dump stuff. It was a combination of all of the construction materials for the new house and has all of the ceramics that could have been available at that time.”

Included in the pottery sherds Mitchell recovered is China Glaze Pearlware, Chinese Exported porcelain, English Fazackerly delft and English Creamware to mention a few.

“This [is] imported pottery brought over by boat [and] used by one family for a year or two, then another family [lived there] for a year for two,” he said. “This was inexpensive, mass-produced pottery, sort of like the Wal-Mart pottery of that time period. It was used, broken and thrown away. Then, the cellar was filled up… and [the field] used for pasture in the early 1800s.”

The other materials he recovered in the field, clay and glass beads, suggested that, after the battle for Castine, a number of Penobscot warriors may have also retreated back to this same area. While it’s not known whether the families (now United States citizens) and Native Americans lived with one another after the war, it’s likely they knew one another and crossed paths occasionally.

As a result of the effort by Mitchell and a few dedicated volunteers, we now have a window into how “life might have been” in the very earliest days of Camden and Rockport.

To learn more about Merryspring Nature Center, and it’s flora, fauna and history, visit their Lending Library, or stroll the grounds at 30 Conway Rd., in Camden.

Article written with assistance from Harbour Mitchell.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—On a dreary, Friday afternoon where a nor’easter was spending the last of its energy across the Midcoast, the interior of the new Blue Barren Distillery, adjacent to the Lyman-Morse marina was cheery and bright with flowers, an array of hors d’oeuvres and tasting glasses. Gone from the industrial room were the large plastic totes of blueberry wine that previously dominated the space.  Co-owners Andrew Stewart of The Drouthy Bear and Jeremy Howard, a seventh generation blueberry farmer with Brodis Blueberries in Hope, were on hand all weekend to give guests a special preview of their 2019 Spring tasting of the distillery’s first product, Eau de Vie, a blueberry brandy crafted from the blueberries they both harvested from Hope.

Stewart and Howard gave an hour-long presentation on their journey of the new distillery, why they chose blueberries for their first product and how the brandy was distilled. “This year we had some factors that delayed the brandy,” said Howard. “We had to harvest the blueberries, but our equipment hadn’t arrived yet, so we turned it into wine. Next year, when we harvest the blueberries, they’ll go right into the fermenters, and the blueberry mash will go directly into the still.”

Each guest got to sample the clear fruit brandy, which surprisingly, had very little blueberry taste. Stewart and Howard could have opted to re-infuse blueberry color back into the Eau de Vie, but chose to keep it stripped down on its own merits. Guests then had the chance to make up cocktails on the sidebar with the brandy as the base as they learned more about the distilling process and their Vendome stainless steel and copper one-hundred-gallon pot still.

The tasting room is still undergoing renovations and Stewart and Howard plan on a May opening with tables outside. Anyone who wants to buy a bottle of Eau de Vie now while they still have it, visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—With Maine coming in second (after Vermont) as the state with the most cat-owning households, it makes sense that the 2019 Cat Video Festival should take place here. The first stop will be at the Strand Theatre, March 24, and after that, the Festival will host several screenings in Portland. Will Braden, curator of the Cat Video Festival, lives in Seattle, but travels all over the U.S. and Canada each year to screen the Festival. Braden has led a very curious career; let’s find out a little bit more about him.

Pilot: Do you have another job?

Braden: No, this is it. I’m technically the president and CEO. We’re a pretty small operation; we don’t have many employees. Before this, I went to film school and did a lot of video work for hire in Seattle. So, I’m in charge of putting together the reels of the Festival. I look at about 10,000 cat videos a year and whittle that down to the final reel and do the music. The final reel is almost 75 minutes long, about 115 videos.

Pilot: How did you get involved with it?

Braden: In 2012, there was another festival called the Internet Cat Video Festival; the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis started that. The first year it took place, I entered my own film called Henri [a web series of short films on the existential musings of the tuxedo cat Henri ] which won The Golden Kitty (People’s Choice) Award. It got all of this press attention and I became attached at the hip with the Festival. And in the third year, I took over curating the reel for them.  I did that for a couple of years and in 2015, they had their last show and moved on to different projects, so I started Cat Video Fest in 2016 to keep the tradition alive. Since 2012, one way or another cat videos have been my full-time profession.

Pilot: Do you own any cats yourself?

Braden: I have one cat, now. Her name is Nin, after Anais and she’s half Bengal and half who knows? She’s great, but mischievous, but loud and annoying.

Pilot: So, 10,000 hours of viewing cat videos?

Braden: No, no, no. 10,000 videos; if they were all an hour long, I don’t know if I could make it though it. But any time, I start to feel sorry for myself, I remember there are people who have to do roofing in July. Putting cat videos together is really more rewarding than challenging.

Pilot: What’s a ringer for a video?

Braden: It has to be edited down very tightly and has to have some kind of pay off at the end either the big laugh or the big ‘ohhhh.’ The thing that makes a video go viral is something that happens right at the end.

Pilot: This is pretty unscientific, but I’ve heard that watching cat videos alleviates stress.

Braden: I can’t imagine it wouldn’t. I’m the least stressed-out person and I watch more cat videos than anybody. Proof positive right there. But it’s true. So, many people come up to me after the Festival, lay a hand on my shoulder and say, ‘I needed that.’ They need 75 minutes of turning their brains off, joyously watching cat videos and laughing.

Pilot: is this a national or international festival?

Braden: It’s mostly national, with maybe six locations in Canada. So far, we’ve screened in about 100 venues with more to come. Although, this is stating to be the breakout year and we’re getting international invitations to come screen the Festival in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It’s funny, people think this Festival would only be in San Francisco, Brooklyn, Portland or some sort of hipster enclave. The fact that we’re selling out shows in Appleton, Wisconsin shows that there are cat lovers everywhere.

Pilot: Is it a surprise to you where your career has ended up?

Braden: I have a business card that says ‘I make cat videos.’ That was my dream to put it on my business card. I have to embrace the surreal, unusual and kind of silly nature of what I do, but at the same time I really love it. And you’d be surprised how many times I get interviewed and they ask, ‘So, was this always the plan?’ How on earth could that have been my plan? No, it’s all been serendipity, procrastination and luck.

The show starts at 3 p.m. FMI: Strand Theatre

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Even Camden girls get the blues... denim blues that is. Barefoot in Denim, a new clothing and accessories boutique for women opened at 24 Bay View Street, in the former Theo B. Camisole space. Owner Jennel Johnson Pendleton, sporting a light blue denim shirt, has put her own stamp on the sunny shop.

“I do like the color blue,” she said.

Johnson Pendleton and her husband permanently moved to Camden five years ago. With a retail merchandising degree and her kids in school, she decided it was time to do something for herself.

She opened the shop on March 8 with little fanfare.

“My daughters put it out on social media, but we’ll likely have a grand opening in April with champagne and cupcakes,” she said.

A balance of comfort and style is the store’s aim.

“We’re trying to provide beautiful clothing at an affordable price, so we have four brands of jeans, all ranging from $68 to under $90,” she said. “We have dresses and tops, a lot of vegan leather as well as jewelry, purses and gifts.”

Johnson Pendleton said she opened the kind of boutique, she herself would like to shop in, rather than have to buy merchandise online. The shop’s clothing style and aesthetic is comparable to an American Eagle aesthetic.

“Soon, we’ll be adding more spring dresses for Easter and Spring Break,” she said. “After that, summer shorts and tops will be rolling in.”

For more information visit www.barefootindenim.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

NORTHPORT— Friends and former coworkers Stacy Schlensker and Nicole Pearse were catching up on each other’s lives over a drink last fall when they realized they both had the same dream: to open a food truck or a small restaurant in the Midcoast that provided fresh, affordable food to an under-served community. Their dream turned into the opening of The Stone Brick Oven Kitchen on Route 1 in Northport, just past Wentworth’s Grocery, on March 1.

“Before I got married at Point Lookout in Northport I spent a lot of time driving back and forth from Belfast to Northport and there really wasn’t anything that delivered around here,” said Schlensker. “So, I got Nicole and we both took a look at the place that used to be Pizza Permare and we knew it was what we wanted—a business with a delivery aspect. We’re both hard workers and put our savings together to invest in this business.”

The wood-fired pizza oven that formerly served Pizza Permare, has been the workhorse of their operation. The oven, built by former owner Bryant Hall, was made from a special firebrick called Le Panyol derived from quart-laden clay from a quarry in France.

The new The Stone Brick Oven Kitchen menu is simple and affordable with fresh-made pizzas and calzones starting at $11, a variety of salads at $10, and savory handheld pies at $6. In addition to their “build your own” menu, they offer all homemade mac and cheese bowls, chilis and soups, as well as from-scratch desserts such as mason jar cheesecakes for $5. The food is plentiful and good and most sit-in orders will requires a take-home box.

The women did some renovations to The Stone before opening, turning the humble interior into a cozy, sun-lit, welcoming space with several sections, including a new sit-down counter for those on the go. Local artist Marcia Hancock’s photographs grace the walls, as part of their commitment to the community and they said they’re open to more artists.

Both women are self-taught in making fresh pizza dough, having never having done it before. “When we got into the space January 1, we spent about a month of menu testing and that was the fun part,” said Schlensker. “We pride ourselves on fresh ingredients and once the summer gets going, we’ll be sourcing as much as we can locally.”

“We also want to give a shout out to our staff,” said Schlensker. “Everyone works really hard and really well together.”

The restaurant carries all Maine-made craft beers and wines in cans, ranging from $4-6. “We do also offer PBR and Bud Lite, because they are Maine staples,” added Pearse.

The public has been enthusiastic for the new restaurant’s opening. “We’ve been getting a lot of feedback about how the process are great, but the food is amazing,” said  Pearse. “A lot of people are just excited to have a restaurant they can pop in and grab something to take home or that delivers so close.”

The Stone Brick Oven Kitchen offers delivery within 10 miles for a nominal fee, free delivery within that range to businesses on Mondays and even a “free Wednesday delivery” for customers within range. “Just something to get people over Hump Day,” said Schlensker.

For more information, visit: TheStoneBrickOvenKitchen.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — The Oak Hill Cemetery is one of two public cemeteries in Camden, Maine, a fact that unto itself is nothing unusual. However, to pass by the Oak Hill north side of the cemetery on Hosmer Pond Road, there is one lone gravestone sitting in the middle of a snowy field, which is unusual.

The man it belongs to, Reginald Dean, was 83 when he passed away after a long illness in May 29, 2018.

“There are currently 62 lots mapped out with each lot holding eight individual grave spaces,” according to Bruce Libby, cemetery sexton. “The stone that you see just happens to be the first upright monument installed since the bylaws were revised in 2013 allowing uprights to be placed in the back section. The front section allows only flush markers of which there is also just one in place. There will be more installed in the spring.”

With help from Dean’s daughter, Rhondalee Dean-Royce, we were able to find out more about Reginald Dean.

Born November 19, 1934 in Milo, Maine, Dean didn’t have an easy life from the start.

“He was born in northern Maine and had a really hard upbringing,” said Dean-Royce. “He lived on a farm and had parents who couldn’t really take care of him. He only had his mom, who wasn’t ready to take care of him full-time so he grew up with his foster parents, Osmond and Leta Hammond, of Camden, whom I consider my grandparents.”

He worked as a master carpenter and cabinet maker.

“There are quite a few house that he built or renovated in Camden, Lincolnville, Rockport, and Rockland area,” said Dean-Royce. “He also built amazing furniture, including a lot of Shaker-style furniture.”

But like many young men his age, the war in Vietnam would take his life in a different direction. Dean served three tours during the Vietnam War in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Captain. 

“He really worked hard in everything he did,” said his daughter.

“To me he was an amazing person,” said Dean-Royce. “My degree in college was in history, with a focus on Vietnam, so I got to know what he went through. I worked at Togus for while and worked with some of the veterans there. When I was 25, we still lived in Camden by the river and he spent a whole weekend with me and told me all about what happened in Vietnam. He said ‘Now, you’re going to understand what I tell you.’ It took him awhile to be able to talk about it.”

When Dean-Royce moved to Washington, D.C., in 1997, she encouraged her father to visit two years later and see the Vietnam Wall with her.

While down there, after visiting with other veterans, Dean admitted to her he wasn’t ready to see the Wall.

“But, the next day he went with me and it was extremely moving,” she said. “He took it really slowly. The first time you see this Wall, it’s overwhelming. So, as he was standing there, these two old guys came up to him and one of them says, ‘I think I know you.’ And my dad said, ‘OK,’ like he wasn’t sure. And the other guy said, ‘Captain Dean?’ It was one of the men who was in his original troop. Pretty impressive.”

As for his personal life, Dean married Thelma Iona Small on June 3, 1956 in Camden. They had a daughter, Rhondalee, and four sons, Michael, Christopher, Timothy and Jeffrey.

“After the war, he came home and worked a lot of different jobs,” said Dean-Royce. “He worked for the town of Camden, and other carpentry jobs. He also went back to school and got his bachelor’s degree in history and science. He ended up teaching for a little while in Belfast and also coaching their baseball team. He had fond memories of teaching and helping kids.”

Dean had a lifelong love of the outdoors and and as a skilled outdoorsman, he enjoyed traveling around the state to both sharp shooter and archery tournaments.

“We would spend our weekends traveling and camping all over Maine and New England,” said Dean-Royce. “He taught all my brothers and I how to hunt, fish, camp, canoe and explore the wilderness. We were always outside doing something.”

He was also, for a time, the caretaker of Curtis Island Light House.

“That was such a special time,” said Dean-Royce. “As a kid, I got to to Curtis Island many summers, while he took care of the mowing and the lighthouse.”

As for the lone monument in the front section, it’s what Dean wanted. 

“He picked out the black, shiny stone and he wanted to be in that particular place,” said Dean-Royce. “Three days before he passed away, we walked to that Oak Hill Cemetery and he told me, “I like this place. I don’t want to be in the back. I want to be in the front where I can watch everything.’

“I look back my life with my dad and think I was the luckiest person to have a dad like him,” she said. “He was my hero, and my calming voice and shoulder anytime I needed him. He provided us with unending love, strength and support. I miss him every day. I miss his smile. His hands. His face and his old Maine humor. My heart will always be broken, but I know what he did for us and the life we had and it makes me smile. He is one of the most honorable men I know. I don’t want his memory forgotten.”

To see Dean’s full memorial, click here. To look up the memorial on any gravestone, there is a worldwide database called Find a Grave.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — The Oak Hill Cemetery is one of two public cemeteries in Camden, Maine, a fact that unto itself is nothing unusual. However, to pass by the Oak Hill north side of the cemetery on Hosmer Pond Road, there is one lone gravestone sitting in the middle of a snowy field, which is unusual.

The man it belongs to, Reginald Dean, was 83 when he passed away after a long illness in May 29, 2018.

“There are currently 62 lots mapped out with each lot holding eight individual grave spaces,” according to Bruce Libby, cemetery sexton. “The stone that you see just happens to be the first upright monument installed since the bylaws were revised in 2013 allowing uprights to be placed in the back section. The front section allows only flush markers of which there is also just one in place. There will be more installed in the spring.”

With help from Dean’s daughter, Rhondalee Dean-Royce, we were able to find out more about Reginald Dean.

Born November 19, 1934 in Milo, Maine, Dean didn’t have an easy life from the start.

“He was born in northern Maine and had a really hard upbringing,” said Dean-Royce. “He lived on a farm and had parents who couldn’t really take care of him. He only had his mom, who wasn’t ready to take care of him full-time so he grew up with his foster parents, Osmond and Leta Hammond, of Camden, whom I consider my grandparents.”

He worked as a master carpenter and cabinet maker.

“There are quite a few house that he built or renovated in Camden, Lincolnville, Rockport, and Rockland area,” said Dean-Royce. “He also built amazing furniture, including a lot of Shaker-style furniture.”

But like many young men his age, the war in Vietnam would take his life in a different direction. Dean served three tours during the Vietnam War in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Captain. 

“He really worked hard in everything he did,” said his daughter.

“To me he was an amazing person,” said Dean-Royce. “My degree in college was in history, with a focus on Vietnam, so I got to know what he went through. I worked at Togus for while and worked with some of the veterans there. When I was 25, we still lived in Camden by the river and he spent a whole weekend with me and told me all about what happened in Vietnam. He said ‘Now, you’re going to understand what I tell you.’ It took him awhile to be able to talk about it.”

When Dean-Royce moved to Washington, D.C., in 1997, she encouraged her father to visit two years later and see the Vietnam Wall with her.

While down there, after visiting with other veterans, Dean admitted to her he wasn’t ready to see the Wall.

“But, the next day he went with me and it was extremely moving,” she said. “He took it really slowly. The first time you see this Wall, it’s overwhelming. So, as he was standing there, these two old guys came up to him and one of them says, ‘I think I know you.’ And my dad said, ‘OK,’ like he wasn’t sure. And the other guy said, ‘Captain Dean?’ It was one of the men who was in his original troop. Pretty impressive.”

As for his personal life, Dean married Thelma Iona Small on June 3, 1956 in Camden. They had a daughter, Rhondalee, and four sons, Michael, Christopher, Timothy and Jeffrey.

“After the war, he came home and worked a lot of different jobs,” said Dean-Royce. “He worked for the town of Camden, and other carpentry jobs. He also went back to school and got his bachelor’s degree in history and science. He ended up teaching for a little while in Belfast and also coaching their baseball team. He had fond memories of teaching and helping kids.”

Dean had a lifelong love of the outdoors and and as a skilled outdoorsman, he enjoyed traveling around the state to both sharp shooter and archery tournaments.

“We would spend our weekends traveling and camping all over Maine and New England,” said Dean-Royce. “He taught all my brothers and I how to hunt, fish, camp, canoe and explore the wilderness. We were always outside doing something.”

He was also, for a time, the caretaker of Curtis Island Light House.

“That was such a special time,” said Dean-Royce. “As a kid, I got to to Curtis Island many summers, while he took care of the mowing and the lighthouse.”

As for the lone monument in the front section, it’s what Dean wanted. 

“He picked out the black, shiny stone and he wanted to be in that particular place,” said Dean-Royce. “Three days before he passed away, we walked to that Oak Hill Cemetery and he told me, “I like this place. I don’t want to be in the back. I want to be in the front where I can watch everything.’

“I look back my life with my dad and think I was the luckiest person to have a dad like him,” she said. “He was my hero, and my calming voice and shoulder anytime I needed him. He provided us with unending love, strength and support. I miss him every day. I miss his smile. His hands. His face and his old Maine humor. My heart will always be broken, but I know what he did for us and the life we had and it makes me smile. He is one of the most honorable men I know. I don’t want his memory forgotten.”

To see Dean’s full memorial, click here. To look up the memorial on any gravestone, there is a worldwide database called Find a Grave.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com