We love living in Maine, as we celebrate being here 20 years, we find we have lost our desire to travel far from home, of course, age probably has something to do with that. No matter where we live, whether it an acre or ten acres, it is never complete unless Dave plants a few trees. He has planted several fir trees, a few maples, and a couple of oaks. One year I bought him a black walnut tree, but it did not survive its first winter, despite the fact it was supposedly hardened to ensure its survival. Many of the trees Dave planted are now between 20-35 feet tall. One of the trees was planted next to our car barn. This year Dave noticed the top of the tree was looking ragged, upon close inspection we found the culprit: a brown tail moth caterpillar. Where there is one, their are thousands as we discovered.
Last year was the first that Dave or I remember there being a warning about brown tailed moths. The moths lay their eggs in your tree and when they hatch in the spring, the little caterpillars eat the leaves off your lovely oak trees faster than you can shake a stick. It was evident that we had a significant infestation of BTM’s. It was serendipitous that our landscape company was coming to our house to reset our old granite steps to the dooryard entrance, in order to make them more stable, so the klutz in the family (me) would not fall. It takes heavy machinery to lift and position large pieces of granite. The young man operating the backhoe, I swear, could pick up an envelope with his scoop if he had to. While we watched, fascinated by his precision, we figured Nick, the owner, would be a good person to ask about pest control. He recommended Dave, the tree guy, and gave us his number. Shortly thereafter we were scampering up and down our granite steps, and marveling how it was so much easier to get into the house now that the last piece of granite was just a few inches from the threshold rather than the old 10″inch last step, which was so hard on the knees, especially when you are burdened down with groceries!
Just before they left, I called the tree guy Nick suggested and learned he was coming to Sidney to spray Nick’s yard for ticks and so he would stop and check out our tree. Turns out Dave the tree guy was affordable and quick. He looked at the tree one day and by 7:30 AM the next it was sprayed. We now had an oak free of BTM and about a thousand of dead ones on the ground and in the back of our pickup truck which was parked nearby. Note to self: move the truck the next time!
Most of the warnings we saw on TV were not about saving the trees, but about a gruesome rash that appears when you are near BTM’s, dead or alive. The little caterpillars have microscopic hairs which fly on the wind and are not visible to the eye, BUT, when they touch you skin you are covered with a very itchy, very nasty, very painful rash. Yup, you guessed it Dave got it first as he mows the lawn underneath the oak tree. So far I was untouched by the invisible hairs, but not for long. I got the bright idea to wash out the hundreds of moths in our truck bed with the hose- thinking that the water would prevent the offending hairs from being air borne. Well, I can tell you that that theory does not hold water. By the next day both arms and my back were just covered in bright red spots which itched like the devil. If I did not know better, I would have thought I had measles! Apparently, the rash can last for weeks on end. I have the remedy that is available online and at the VA: a mixture of witch hazel, cortisone cream, and a lidocaine creme (i.e Aspercreme ) mixed well and sprayed on the rash. Tea Tree oil apparently works for some people as well, the tea tree oil came in a roll-on form which was better in my opinion because you could target the bites specifically. I have tried them all and can tell you that they may help, sort of, but all it takes is some summer weather and perspiration and the rash is raging again! Little buggers.
The reason we spent so much time near the offending tree was because it is right next to our car barn (a 5-stall horse barn with the doors in each stall removed). It has been home to a number of antique cars during our 20 years living here in Maine. Trying to reduce the “stuff” we have we gifted two of these cars to grandsons.
Ethan who received the 50 Plymouth (think Doc in the movie “Cars”) decided to sell his. Ever since he moved back to Maine to live with us, Ethan lives and breathes cars. Cars on marketplace, cars on craig’s list, it matters not. He gets one and keeps for a few weeks and then he buys another. I have to give him credit – he works on them outside during some really cold weather months in Maine – like January, February and March. During the worst of it we tried to make space for him in the carriage house which is attached to our home- but it was a tight fit and being unheated was still darn cold. Despite his love of cars, new and old, the ’50 Plymouth was not his cup of tea, now that he is approaching 20. A Mitsubishi 3000GT is more to his liking. Now he has a space in the car barn all to himself.
Our other grandson, L.J. was gifted the ‘ 41 Plymouth, and he and his father were going to bring it down to PA where they currently lived. When we offered to bring it down, this spring, we heard the hesitancy in our son’s voice and knew that the plan to bring it down was creating a problem: most likely due to lack of storage, cash, and like Ethan, the interest to fix it up. We suggested that if that was the case we could sell it and gift some money to our grandson. Like the ’50 Plymouth the market is not as strong now as it was 8 years ago when we purchased them, so we knew we would have to sell it at a loss, but such is life. It rolled out of the yard last weekend, on a rollback, headed to its new home and we now have another space for a modern car. Come winter Grace and Ethan can get their cars in the shelter which is so very helpful. Grace is not forgotten in the great car adventure. She has long had her eye on the ’13 Buick which was once her great grandpa’s car. It is the first car she remembers riding in to go to car shows and even once, a very cold Easter morning ride to church. Just so no grandchild is left out Will is in line for the ’12 Buick, another one of his great grandfather’s cars. It has already gone to Josh’s home to be stored. We hope to get it repaired this summer or fall so we can take it out on a ice cream run!
Some people have a bucket list of places to go and things to do and I confess, I have my own, although it is not all that long. What is long is my other to-do list which involves cleaning out attics and rooms to have less stuff for our kids (primarily Josh) to deal with, when we are gone and less for me to clean around. My goal is to have the attics (yes plural) we have, cleaned out. For that to happen we need to not only get rid of furniture but also boxes of stuff we haven’t seen since we moved here. Since cleaning seems to be primarily my job and since I really, really, dislike it, I am more motivated to getting rid of stuff than Dave is.
I could sell stuff on Ebay or on Facebook marketplace, and I have had some success using those two opportunities to rehome some of our stuff, I really wish the practice of having an estate sale would come back into fashion. It would be the perfect way to get rid of all the stuff” we have accumulated and inherited over the years. In the meantime, I will take advantage of the 19- and 21-year-olds that are currently living with their grandparents and get some young legs to carry stuff down so I can get rid of it.
There is always something that needs to be done!
weftalone 