Vegetarians, please look away. This post is for people who can’t wait for their Maine lobster. Finding a fair place to buy here on the shore is not that “hahd”, we know local Lamoine fishermen and women you can buy from. But then there are all those other questions, like, “What does the meat actually cost per pound?” and, “Which size lobster has the best price per pound of meat?”, and finally, “What about soft shell versus hard shell?”. Truth is, I’m not sure I can answer these tough questions without a little research. I will make the sacrifice for science and buy three different sized lobsters so we can get to the bottom of this. I will not be able to answer the soft shell question as at this time of year, all lobster are hard shell.

One of the assumptions about lobsters that I hear a lot is that there will be more meat as a proportion of total weight in a larger lobster. This is what I want to test. If I do find this to be true, then the question will be whether the extra meat will be worth the extra cost per pound for a larger lobster.  There are usually three sizes, or rather size ranges of lobsters. The first is 1.0-1.25 lbs, the next is 1.25-1.5 lbs and the third is over 1.5 lbs. Usually each larger category fetches an extra $1 or so in price.

Now I have my three lobsters. The smallest  is 1.03 lbs and costs $7.79 per pound. The next is 1.42 lbs and costs $8.79 per pound while the biggest is 1.74 lbs and costs $9.79 per pound. After cooking by the method below it’s time to weigh the meat. I will ignore the little legs and interior meat for this test. The smallest lobster has 2.54 ounces of meat for a ratio of 2.46 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound then is $50.55. The middle sized has 2.45 ounces of meat for a ratio of 1.73 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound is $81.46. Finally, the biggest lobster has  4.037 ounces of meat for a ratio of 2.32 ounces per pound of whole lobster. The cost per pound is $67.54.

First of all, is anyone else floored by the cost of the cooked meat? These prices are quite surprising! The rule of thumb is that meat only makes up about 20% of the lobster by weight, so it is logical that it should cost at least 5 times the price of the whole lobster.

The other shocker is how the weight of the meat seems to have little to do with the overall size of the lobster. Perhaps the question could be resolved with more data, but I can’t afford it. Maybe the meat proportion has to do with the way the lobster are handled; maybe storage in a winter pound denies exercise and the bigger ones lose more muscle mass?

I end up with more questions than I’ve answered. Now I’m going to have to try this again with fresh caught lobster from the boat instead of the supermarket. But first I’ll need to let my bank account recover.

• How do I prepare my lobsters?
o Fill a large (I use 5 gallon) pot half to two-thirds full with water.
o Add two large handfuls of seaweed (from the shore-low tide) to the pot.
o Set your burner to high heat and bring water to a rolling boil. This may take some time!
o Add lobsters to the pot head first, making sure that they are completely
submerged. I like to cut off the claw bands.
o Cover the pot tightly and return to a boil as quickly as possible. Watch for foaming!
o Once water is boiling again, cook the lobsters 10 minutes for the first
pound and 3 additional minutes for each additional pound. Example: cook a
two-pound lobster for approximately 13 minutes.
o When the lobsters turn a bright orange-reddish color and their tails curl,
they are done.
o Prepare some melted butter and lemon for dipping while the lobsters cool down.
o I like to provide some heavy duty scissors to open up the shells, a large discard bowl and plenty of napkins!

Have a GPS? Want to find treasure? Want to create a mystery for others to solve? Like to have fun without spending a bunch? Like going on line and want to combine history and geography. Try Geocaching…..

All of a sudden about four years ago we started seeing more folks drive down our road, stop at the middle, and then turn around and leave. It turns out our drive was part of the Geocach adventure. This is really a treasure hunt activity. We have a group of deer that use our meadow/woods as their sleeping place. As a result, you can see them every day as they wander home and wake up to seek out their breakfast. A picture of one of our does turned up on a Geocach website standing beside our driveway.

winter drive

Find a small box or container that contains some objects. Take an object, leave an object. The main adventure is to find some lovely spots while learning a bit of history. I think half the fun is setting up a spot around your own house and watching, waiting for others to find and enjoy the discovery.

The clue is a GPS location. Then there are some descriptions of the area, clues really. In addition, some suggestions as to what you will find at certain times of day. For example, since we have a deer yard near us, you can almost always spot a doe and fawn right after sunset around the field to the east of our driveway. In the morning, you may see the eagle our neighbor feeds near their pond. In the Fall you might even see two eagles, one with a white head, and one without, as the parents train their young eagle to hunt and scavenge food.

road to SeaCat's Rest

For more information on Geocaching,,,,go to their website

Geocaching
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. Search for a geocache below or learn more about getting started.

A lot of folks are not aware, but almost every GPS for the automobile can be utilized to find specific coordinates, so take the challenge and add another layer of fun on your next vacation. An email off of a geo-cache site recently had this advice to an upcoming visitor to Maine.

When are you coming to the state? It would be nice if there were an event going while you’re here. There are many on Mt Desert to do that are nice. Hunters Beach Hunt (GCGPXG) by Parmachenee (2.5/3) is one I especially like. Hope you have a great time.

The summer breezes off the ocean, which start up about 10 am are not good for growing peppers or tomatoes. While they lure visitors escaping the heat from the rest of the country, those 70° F winds can frustrate seaside gardeners. It works like this: The sun beats down on the land. The land heats up the air above it. The air rises and creates a low pressure which gets filled by the cooler heavier air over the water. And that is the origin of the on-shore breeze. It is pretty much independent of the prevailing wind direction, which at our spot happens to be southwest to northeast anyway, adding to the breeze. Move a quarter mile inland and the breeze warms up. This ocean tempering is responsible for our microclimate; cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, as long as the saltwater doesn’t freeze (it didn’t this winter). The ocean temperature is very slow to change. The constant churning of the tides keeps the water pretty cool in summer, at a maximum of about 63°F. In winter it usually drops only to the mid 30′s.

Bhut Jolokia, hottest pepper on earth.

Anyway, back to the peppers. My solution was to build a greenhouse. This, along with a few wind barriers creates a place where heat-loving vegetables can grow in our long but cool season. I’m nuts about peppers. I search the world looking for the hottest. The current front runner is the Bhut Jolokia from the state of Assam in India.  This boy is like pepper spray in a pod at over a million Scoville Heat Units. A few weeks ago I burned my hands just planting the seeds. I don’t have much use for this toxic produce but I’m committed to growing a few plants each year just to keep up the seed stock and to dare the occasional hotshot to eat a rice-sized slice.  I can feel sweat on my forehead just thinking about it. I got the seeds from The Chile Pepper Institute, part of the the New Mexico State University. A recent article reports that this pepper is being weaponized by the Indian military; they’re using it to make a “Chili Grenade” to use in the fight against terrorists!

My main crop is the standard yellow or orange bell pepper which this year I am growing from seeds taken from a supermarket pepper. Last year I was picking this variety from my greenhouse into December. I don’t heat my greenhouse; freezing temperatures usually don’t get inside until December at the earliest. My other favorites are sweet yellow banana and jalapeño. Both of these varieties are early and prolific. Colored bells are the crowning glory but yellow bananas are the workhorses. I also grow a few other hot peppers for custom paprikas. After tasting your own paprika you can’t go back to store-bought!

While the sun is strong but the pepper plants are small I squeeze in a crop of spinach or other greens. These are sewn in directly as soon as the ground thaws and temperatures moderate. The greenhouse produces food for us almost year round, and many plants come up year after year without being planted. We have a few bunching onions which serve as an emergency supply when we’re out. Claytonia has popped up and will be starring in a salad soon. Cilantro/coriander has seeded itself and claims a corner. Spring is here!!

Thinking back on my childhood, I loved that we spent a week in one nice spot. Renting a vacation home can create family memories, enable you to spend quality relaxing time together as a family. Cooking together for me enables a family to provide a merging of home life with vacation excitement, just what the kids need.

Many folks don’t think about cooking on vacation, but it is key to making your children feel at home in a strange new environment. Our family created four memory filled vacations by renting places with a home-like environment and spending time exploring the surrounding area. Cooking one or two meals together gave the adults a chance to explore the new and unusual foods, but gave our children the security of knowing that if they wanted their normal food, it was available to them. Also at our place, you get privacy and your own out-door space to enjoy the fresh air, water and woods all around. A picnic in your door yard, as they say in Maine.

Eric Clapton's Chelsea Residence

It also stretched our dollar further, enabling us to stay longer. We stepped into urban shoes in London, renting a flat in a nice building in a beautiful area a few blocks from Eric Clapton’s house. We were entertained just by walking around the streets by the history and pace of a large city. We spent days in museums and loved the theatre excitment. Being able to get around with mass transit was a nice difference to our rural lifestyle.

Going to a wedding, we spent a week on a small lake in rural Michigan – and created a stable place for my aging father who never likes to travel. Having his own room where he could walk out and mingle with all the kids and their kids’ kids. We were able to have a barbecue and eating became a celebration in itself. The small kids spent endless time exploring the shore and water. We got a house large enough for 4 groups to stay together.

Granada from Alhambra

We spent a week exploring southern Spain, staying in a condominium.  I have to say, because it was the cool season, we really only used the place at the start and end of our day, spending the rest of the time driving through the surrounding area.  We explored some incredible historical cities, ruins and Alhambra. Driving in Spain was an adventure. We were able to visit the Picasso museum in Malaga, something not easy to forget. Cooking with local food was an adventure too. It enabled us to sample local cheeses and thrive despite the local custom of eating dinner after 10pm, our usual bedtime….those Spaniards!

We spent anther wedding week in southern California, LA land. Staying in a house where again three families were under one roof. We were able to host the rehearsal dinner party there, around our own pool. I have to say that getting around on the highways was a bit challenging for this rural resident.

So keep looking at renting a house for vacation this time. The best part is accommodating a group size of your choosing, whether it is a family of 4 or a family gathering of 16. Vacation memories await you.  If you need a two bedroom suite on the ocean, please consider our SeaCat’s Rest.

How do you know you have one cat too many?    Well, you start with one or two and build up slowly till weird things keep happening.   Then you are stuck.   SeaCat’sRest has one cat too many at this time.   There.  I’ve admitted it.  A very nice cat named Blacky is available for a new home.   She loves people but not other cats at this point in her life.   Anyone want a warm, fuzzy, happy to be alone lap cat?

Maine coon cats are really the topic of this blog.   They are the latest two additions to our home.   We have a pair of cats with all their parts and the thought was that we would have kittens available to start a home business of sorts, but that has not happened.    But the resulting conflicts of  the cat-kingdom have forced us to do something we have never done before, keep a cat in one room.   My office has become the home of our male coon cat Photon- the one on the ladder.   Now I work from home, spending 70 hours every other week in this room, so he is not alone by any means.   He is not very excited about that limitation.   However our other three cats agree with us that that is the best solution.

Maine coon cats are an interesting breed.   They are larger cats, they both love water and play in it.   They will follow you around, wanting to be near you and just hang with you when you go about gardening or chores around the house.  Want to find our cat Sophie?   Run some water in the bathroom and she shows up.    I have two “water buckets” around the house just so she can splash around every day.    If I don’t do that, she will splash out all the water in the cat’s water bowl.    Photon has his head butt welcome to folks that come to see him.   If you sit in the right chair he will climb up and push his face into your face to say hello, purring like crazy.   They love to climb and spent a lot of time climbing ladders to the roof this summer while Bruce was painting the house.

I know, spaying our cats will solve this problem.    I will do that eventually, but I’d still like to see some kittens and there is always my outdoor cat pen for the summer cat-house. In the meantime, if you want to get to know a couple of Maine coon cats (outside of course!) before you get your own, come on down and stay at SeaCat’sRest. I also have to give honorable mention to our third wonderful cat Murlmel, who is a Norwegian forest cat (the orange cat on our photo page. Blacky, who will be 15 this year is the cat that no longer likes other cats around. She is a true Maine barn cat, and has a wonderful relationship with all of our guests.   She is the one looking for another place to call home.

OK,  so they don’t call it the dump anymore. After the dump it was the sanitary landfill, then the transfer station. In some towns it’s called the Recycling Center. It’s the place everyone in Lamoine visits once a week unless they pay Rusty to pick up their garbage. It’s also the place treasures are found.

Cool stuff found at the dump.

One of the smartest things some unknown solid waste person came up with was the Swap Shop. The Swap Shop is one of the highlights of many of our visitors’ Saturdays, and is a separate building well removed from the trash. People bring in books, dishes, vacuum cleaners and other appliances, electronics and toys and before they leave, pick out a few things to bring home. Some things need no fixing,  some need a simple repair, others get returned the next week. The book collection is extensive. I call it the Lamoine Landfill Lending Library just for fun even though most of what ends up in landfills these days is ash from the Orrington waste-to-energy plant. Last Saturday I picked out a book from 1934 called Dry-Gulch Adams by Peter Field. My brother-in-law likes westerns so I thought I’d have it on hand for his next visit. Just for fun I looked it up on amazon and they had one used copy for $125! Any buyers? Other big finds include watercolor paintings, drills, rice cookers, keyboards, ice augers, vacuums and radios.

We try to get our real trash down to one or two bags a week by separating out glass, plastics, metal cans cardboard and paper, all of which have their own destinations at the transfer station. Maine also has a 5 cent bottle return law which the transfer station makes available as a fundraiser. In 2009, $1,718 was raised for various community groups. Overall, the State of Maine recycles 36% of its waste (by weight) and another 35% ends up in the incinerator at Orrington. The rest goes into landfills.

Need some flower pots?  A length of rope? An aquarium? Wait until Friday or Saturday before running out to the store and swing by the transfer station’s swap shop. Not only will you keep things out of the landfill or incinerator, you may get what you need for FREE!

A little over two miles from SeaCat’s Rest is a fantastic seaside goat dairy.  Seal Cove Farm has been in existence for just over 30 years and is part of a growing trend toward hand-crafted local cheeses.  These cheeses are as different from Kraft as Maine’s Geary’s Hampshire Special Ale is from Bud.  About 125 goats freely roam the rocky farm and a roadside farm stand is opened from noon to 4PM, closed Mondays.  Seal Cove cheeses can also be purchased locally from Hannaford Supermarkets, Sawyer’s Market in SW Harbor and the Town Hill Market, but if you want a wider selection, go to the farm stand.  You will also have the option of taking a tour of the farm, meeting the working dogs and finding out about how cheese is made.  At the farm stand you will have the choice of feta, fresh and aged chèvre and blended varieties.  Feta is curds of goat or sheep cheese cured in brine, while chèvre is simply the French word for goat.  Seal Cove feta is made from goat milk, but your supermarket’s feta may not be.  Chèvre is by definition, made from goat’s milk only and is characterized by a somewhat more acidic flavor than cow’s milk cheese. The protein content is higher, the fat content is similar but is considered more digestible. Goat milk is said to be more similar to human breast milk.

Seal Cove also offers some cheeses made from blended goat and local cow milk.  Cheddar-like “Olga” has a semi hard rind and is aged for over 60 days. “Pearl” can be compared to a brie and “Moo Maine” is all organic cow’s milk. Many of these offerings are available with spices, herbs,  fruits and nuts and make superb gifts.

A trip to Provence, France in 2002 gave the owners the opportunity to learn local French goat cheese making techniques and so they have brought that knowledge to Lamoine.  You don’t have to go to France.  If you stay in Lamoine for your Acadia visit, it’s a bike ride away!

Barking dogs, busy roads, chainsaws and jet skis can ruin a beautiful spot.  How about that neighbor who feels he has to share his mufflerless motorcycle sound with everyone within a half mile? You can’t tell from the pictures or web pages. There’s a certain rule of thumb here in Maine. I don’t know why but the freshwater lakes are where you go if your idea of fun involves internal combustion. Here you will find soulmates who drive their speedboats and jet skis around in summer, snowmobiles in the winter and ATVs year round.  I was concerned about this when we bought our place in Lamoine on the ocean (Frenchman Bay), but my worry quickly evaporated.  I remember the first year we spent here the loudest thing was a woman singing opera across the water, and then a bagpiper a few days later. Neither of these has happened since. I miss the bagpipes.

Many people who stay with us ask about noise. We are sure to mention the airport 5 miles away but little airplanes are a lot quieter than they used to be.  Pleasure craft on the water are a rare occurrence; we get maybe one jet ski per year, usually on the Fourth of July. Lobster fisherman are more picturesque than noisy. The nearest road is not that busy, and it’s at the end of our quarter mile driveway.  The real source of most of the noise here is the birds. Crows and gulls are the loudest. When they fight the eagle he adds his squeeky wheel. Loons warble at sunset and in winter the long tailed ducks cackle in great flocks on the salt water.

I admit, I’m kind of anti-engine. I mow my lawn with an electric mower, trim my trees with an electric chainsaw and clean my house with an electric power washer. I own no outboard motors, motorcycles, snow blowers or motorized garden gadgets. I do have a generator for when the power goes out.  It’s quiet here. Not graveyard quiet but certainly buzz quiet. If you want to leave the buzz behind, stay at SeaCat’s Rest.

Long tailed ducks, Clangula hyemalis, just off our shore in February

Along with hiking and kayaking, biking is one of the main outdoor activities in Acadia National Park. There are opportunities for both easy and challenging workouts, all skill and fitness levels will find a place to ride.  You will soon discover that with so much to see, why go any faster? Renting bikes on the island is easy, there are so many rental companies they are too numerous to mention.

Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor are practically created for biking! To begin with, the 47 miles of carriage roads are car-free and are not to be missed. The surface is well packed crushed stone, so fatter tires do best but I have never had a problem. Private portions of the carriage roads as well as all hiking trails are closed to bikes, so please read the signs.  The private carriage roads start about 1/2 mile below Jordan Pond.  An easy, fairly flat first ride would be the 6 mile loop around Eagle Lake, just a few miles east of Bar Harbor on Rt. 233. Half way around the lake you could choose to take the “around the mountain” loop which has lots of climbing and mountain views.

If you prefer blacktop and don’t mind sharing the road, then consider the famous Park Loop Road. Motorists like to stop and enjoy the view, so watch for sudden stops. The nice thing about the Park Loop Road is that you can catch the free Island Explorer at any time and put your bike on the bus’s rack.  Park Loop Road is mostly one way, so that makes sharing the road easy.  The Island Explorer website has a number of bus/bike trips planned out for you.

Bicycles of any sort have to stay away – far away from Route 3 between the Eden Village and Hulls Cove.   This part of Route 3 has no bike lanes and a horrible horrible side of the road; unfit to ride.   The cars here zoom by at 50 miles per hour, and there are hills – so bikes slow down too much to be part of the traffic pattern.  If you must go towards Bar Harbor on a bike, take the by-pass – going towards Bar Harbor, take Norway Drive and turn left at the first intersection onto Crooked Road, which will take you pass the dreaded horrible part of Route 3.  You end up quite near the National Park Visitor’s entrance, and past that Route 3 is tolerable. However, if I had a choice, I would take the park roads into Bar Harbor any day. You may have a bit more hills to climb, but you have the beautiful vistas to compensate for your efforts.

Another favorite ride of mine is to leave from the Visitor’s Center on the carriage roads and go all the way the length of the island to Seal Harbor.   It’s exciting, and you get to treat yourself and stop at Jordan Pond House for a water, bathroom and perhaps lemonade/ice or hot tea or coffee plus popover break on the lawn.  If you tucker out, you can easily catch the free shuttle from Jordan Pond House too.  This route has two substantial climbs, but two great downhills each way.

Finally, Cadillac Mountain Road deserves mention for the true fanatic. It is a steep uphill climb and the downhill is too fast for me but the view at the top is amazing. At 1532 feet above sea level, it is the tallest coastal mountain in the country.

Bikes are a great way to see other areas too. You can hop on the mail boat to the Cranberry Islands at Southwest Harbor and bring your bike.  Swan’s Island also has quite a few roads; the ferry leaves from Bass Harbor. If you stay with us here in Lamoine we can tell you about our favorite local routes.

Once you’ve settled into your exquisite Lamoine lodgings, vacation plans for Acadia National Park almost always include a a trip up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to view the stunning panorama. On a clear day mere language fails to describe the breathtaking view of the town of Bar Harbor, Eagle Lake, Somes Sound and the many islands in all directions. The mostly bare rock prevents trees from taking root and obscuring the view, and the paved road makes access a breeze. Question: Is the mountain named after the car, the car after the mountain or both after someone who happened to spend time in Maine and Motown?

The answer is number three.  In fact, Antoine Laumet del La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac even helped found Detroit, Michigan, once known as Fort Ponchartrain.  Born in France in 1658 he departed for Canada (Port Royal, Nova Scotia) at the age of 25.  Throughout his life there is a suggestion of creative morality; he spent time running from the law, invented a title for himself,  and enriched himself by trading alcohol to Native Americans.  People who knew him said he was a nasty man, a liar and an opportunist.  Born Antoine Laumet, the name Cadillac was from a town near his birthplace, and the invention of sieur de Cadillac or sire of Cadillac was either a deliberate attempt to puff himself up in the New World or escape his identity in France.  Despite these moral lapses history shows that he managed to achieve high rank in both the French military and government, punctuated by frequent imprisonments and charges of corruption. He died at the age of 70 near his birthplace in Castelsarrasin, France.

In 1689 Cadillac was given jurisdiction over what is now the Downeast coast of Maine and it was around this time that his invented name was was attached to America’s highest coastal mountain. Cadillac, Michigan, a small town at almost exactly the same latitude (9 miles south) also bears his name, but it was named much later, in 1882.

The nice thing about Acadia National Park is that it can be enjoyed by people of all fitness levels and this includes Cadillac Mountain. Drive up or hike up on one of the two trails to the 1532 foot summit. Our Acadia area lodging, SeaCat’s Rest,  would be visible from the top if only a few trees weren’t in the way.  Here’s what the mountain looks like from our shore: