Elwyn's Wharf

The Salt Pond Rd. crosses the Meduncook River from Friendship to Cushing, Maine.  Off-season Mr. Huper stores his traps on the salt pond side of the stone causeway bridge.  His wharf, and old landing, are across the road on the Friendship side of the river.  It is the last navigable point on the Meduncook - and only at mid to high tide.  Today we are two days after the full moon. (94% of full - waning gibbous)
All but the last shot is taken at lower  high water, predicted to be 10.2 feet.  Last night the predicted high was 11.68 feet just before midnight.  The wharf has been swamped, carrying away decking, and one of the stringers.  
The old rail-way, cradle, anchor, and winch house are a bit of industrial archeology.  Part of the cradle is the now crumbling gate.
But don't be misled.  This is not a defunct operation.  Modern cranes and trucks have made the old winch and drydock cradle inefficient.  Hundreds of yellow wire lobster traps are stacked across the road waiting for Perseverance, to be loaded on deck, baited and returned to the Muscongus Bay, Gulf of Maine.  - GWC

click on pix to enlarge and for slideshow

railway

The Salt Pond Rd. bridge

The Salt Pond drains into the Meduncook River

Men at work: Friendship harbor at year's end

Friendship harbor (click on photos to enlarge)

rigged for trawling

Friday, December 30, the last workday of the year was a busy day in Friendship harbor.  By a rough estimate of the dinghies at moorings in the morning about 20 fishing boats were out - baiting and hauling traps, or bringing them in for storage in the off season.  Others were getting ready for the shortened shrimp season.  The Department of Marine Resources has declared:

"The 2011/2012 fishing season specifications are a total allowable catch (TAC) of 2,000 metric tons, with the season closing when landings are projected to reach 95 percent of the TAC (1,900 mt). The trawl season will start January 2, 2012 with three landing days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Vessels may only land once a day. The trap season will start February 1, 2012 with a 1,000 pound landing limit per vessel per day [and no days out]."

Delayed a month, it will be a short season, hard on Friendship's fleet. 

Taisy's anniversary card

We went to Friendship for our 20th anniversary.  We didn't make it to the post office, so we didn't know of the anniversary card from Taisy.  I gave it to Marilyn to open, confident that the message inside would touch us both.  We were not disappointed.

Taisy's anniversary card - George Conk - Picasa Web Albums:

'via Blog this'

HATCHET COVE - N 43 58 714, W 69 21 019

Hatchet Cove

This was Father's Day...aboard Jim Bolen's Carolina skiff, picking out a spot for a mooring in Hatchet Cove, around the point from Friendship Harbor which - with 200 lobstering licenses in town - has no room for more moorings. (click on photos to enlarge)

Jim  Bolen - Bolen Marine Services

Ram and Sand Islands

Ashbri

James comes running

On Back River meadow, Friendship, Maine, March 2011

James is very happy that we bought the house on the Back River in Friendship, Maine.  He loves to run on the salt marsh.  It's Labrador Retriever habitat.

Supermoon - March 19, 2011

Tonight is the closest full moon of 2011.  Some are calling it a supermoon.  It is a perigee moon - when the moon is closest to the earth, so its gravitational pull is stronger.  And Saturn is visible in the eastern sky.  Great info at Earthsky.org


I rowed from our house to Friendship Harbor - leaving 1/2  hour before the morning high tide, the meadow at the edge of the river was flooded, and when I took James for a stroll on the same meadow in the evening the water had fallen 11 feet in six hours revealing a dramatically different landscape.  Those shots are HERE.

high tide - supermoon 2011

low tide six hours later - 11 feet lower

Friendship - President's Day 2011

slideshow HERE

First day of ice on the Hudson

makes me remember summer

the Back River from our living room - Friendship

the North (Hudson) River from our living room - New York

Sunset - Back River - Christmas Week 2010

Columbus Day - new moon - high tide on the Back River

The Front Yard

"Believe me my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

When we bought the house we saw the view, the river, and the dry full basement.  The lot looked interesting - 12 feet above sea level at the roadside, salt marsh at the wind in the willows riverbank.  What we did not realize (especially I did not) was how appealing the grounds could be and how interesting caring for and improving it could be.

After we cleared out the invasive jewelweed we turned our attention to the front yard.  We pulled out the scraggly 40 foot silver maple, which Peter Green climbed and cut down for us.  That opened the front yard.  Step one was the raised bed, which Susan planted.  The next was planting three evergreens - two Canaan firs and a balsam fir. (click images to enlarge)

VFW Post 3095, Friendship, Maine

Spring Sale

Spring sale at the Friendship Trap Company

4 Quick Dips

James cavorting on the Back River Meadow, taking 4 St. Patrick's Day dips.  slide show HERE