Fryeburg, ME

On Monday, we drove to Fryeburg, ME. We went now because the Fryeburg Fair was in progress. We also went to visit Marge and Jack and Emily, Dennis, and Connor (Jim's cousins and family). We spent most of Tuesday and Thursday morning at the fair (it rained on Wednesday), and we took a scenic drive home through northern New Hampshire.

To be or not to be:

The fair itself has all the standard midway attractions and plenty of food opportunities (more on this later from CL).

But it's all the agricultural and crafts exhibits that we really enjoy visiting.

This is he, but we didn't see him walking tall, walking, or even moving while we were there.

The little ones were a lot more active.

This was a fascinating sport we hadn't seen before -- lawn tractor pulling. The weight being pulled was several times that of the lawn tractor plus driver, and the tractors don't have locked or limited slip differentials. The driver gets traction by bouncing on the seat, and he gets several inches each bounce. The tracks show how far he's gone, in this case a full pull.

This goat (sheep?) apparently was so new that his factory wrapping was still in place.

I'm not sure I understand this

or this.

When we got back to Mr. Toad on Tuesday, he looked as if he'd been neglected for months, but this was just one day's deposit of needles.

A couple pictures of Emily and Dennis' house. It's getting difficult to come up with superlatives for the wonderful places we've stayed. This B&B offers wonderful hospitality, entertainment, and food (Dennis is known far and wide for his lasagna).

No idea where or who this is, but Mr. Toad likes to consider anywhere with twisties part of his acres.

The covered bridge is in Fryeburg; the other foliage pictures are from the Kancamagus Highway, Bear Notch Rd., or an unnamed road off Bear Notch.

All in all, a very good trip. We enjoyed the Fair and the time with family, and Mr. Toad enjoyed the mountain roads.

North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival

On Sunday we went to the North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival. I wrote a guest blog on it for Corduroy Orange a couple years ago, so I'm not going to repeat myself here, just show a few pictures.

Delivery Van

In August, CL started refinishing an antique mahogany dining table that had been Jim's parents' table. She stripped the old finish, and then we both sanded it. Next step was stain:

And, after applying 5 coats (each hand rubbed) of spar varnish, she applied several coats of wax:

Now it was time for Mr. Toad to get involved. We delivered the table to Jeremy and Amanda in Cambridge on Friday. All the table's pieces plus a cooler, camera bag and duffle easily fit in.

We assembled and fully expanded the table to verify we hadn't forgotten anything. Full size, with all leaves, is about 3.5 by 8 feet.

Then J & A discovered that the rug they'd purchased to fit under it was too small, so Mr. Toad returned the first one to the store and carried the new one (8' x 10') back.

And here's the final result: