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Environmental Studies

This was the topic of my master's thesis oh so very many years ago. Basically at that time, girls' "home ranges", the distance they will walk away from their homes unaccompanied, is generally half that of boys' and this continues into adulthood. This limits their lifetime interactions with nature and place and puts them at a disadvantage to boys in the same neighborhood. Of course, as I write this I wonder if now boys' and girls' free ranges have decreased so much that they only encompass the distance between the computer and the refrigerator! lol Anyway, I have walked alone and hiked daily in good weather for years. Out of those hundreds of walks have had a total of four out of the ordinary interactions with men. Two were in isolated preserves. In the first instance I was not alone, but was with girlfriend and our babies. We were startled by a man who seemed a little "off"coming our way. As he got closer, we began to suspect he was developmentally disabled, and in fact he just walked by us toward a housing development at the edge of the preserve. Another time, I was with a large group of women with strollers on a unpaved portion of a rail trail. A man followed us making unusual sounds. Again, I think the man was developmentally delayed. Nothing bad happened. Though in this instance all the women were on high alert with their phones out. On my own in a thickly wooded preserve, I once sat by a stream to eat my lunch. Several people passed on the trail about 15 yards away. One man saw me and stopped dead in his tracks staring at me. I immediately left via another trail behind me. I believe the potential threat in that instance was real. When I was a college student I went to a tiny coastal spot near a tourist shop that was closed for the season. Another car pulled up and two teenage boys got out. They started acting wild and throwing rocks at ducks, presumably to get my attention. I walked to my car and drove up the road to a small town beach. I got out of the car and was walking on the beach when the teenagers arrived in their car (which had a very loud engine or exhaust system). The moment I heard them I went completely still with fear. A dad who was walking on the beach with his daughter looked up at the parking lot and then looked at me, and without a word between us he changed direction, walked to the parking lot, and I followed him and got safely in my car. That experience was the most maddening of all because of the boys actively followed me from one location to another. I was so angry at being limited in my ability to enjoy the seaside like that I drove four towns away to a state park beach and walked there for the afternoon! For the most part, walking alone is safe. Sometimes it is not. Don't let your fear ruin your experience, but know the area, listen to your gut, and bring your dog or your pepper spray or your phone if they make you feel better. Most likely nothing will happen. If the fear is ruining all your adventures, try to find a companion so that you don't have to give up walking or hiking. It's not worth limiting your life out of fear.

I kinda like being a pessimist. My husband, the optimist, is constantly being disappointed. He thinks housing prices must go up after 9 years! Slap! Nope, still down in the neighborhood where we are trying to sell our house. Look! Some extra fun money this month! Slap! Nope, furnace needs a new part. I, on the other hand, assume that things are not going our way and everything is going to be more expensive than we think. I am sometimes pleasantly surprised when things go our way. I am not constantly disappointed like dh. I am just like, "Of course, our house has not increased in value in 9 years! We should learn from this and plan better in the future." "Of course I didn't press the buy button to spend the fun money before the month was out, there were two weeks left during which something could go wrong. Sure am glad we still have that cash!" I know I am a generally happier person than dh and I think it is because of practical pessimism. I think one could go too far into pessimism and become depressed. I stick to the prepared pessimist angle not the "everything is going to hell in a handbasket" doom and gloom angle and am not unhappy with my choice. But for a completely opposite view here is Mr. Money Mustache on outrageous optimism. As usual in a MMM article there are swear words. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/10/03/the-practical-benefits-of-outrageous-optimism/

I outed a similar secret in my MIL's family with a shifted anniversary date. A mom of a college age daughter was reacting to the girl's out of wedlock pregnancy by shaming her and refusing to allow a baby shower. I heard this, thought it cruel, and said, "Why would she do that when she is the product of an out of wedlock pregnancy herself?" After which, the room was silent and all eyes on me. I had no idea it was a secret. In the future, don't tell me things you don't want me to blurt out at the most inopportune moment. Luckily, the mom of the pregnant daughter got over herself and helped her and loved her grandchild once it came along.

Journey to River Sea by Eva Ibbotson The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

I think you are near these: Maine Audubon http://maineaudubon.org/events/ Dino exhibit https://www.portlandsciencecenter.com/ February Family Art Activities: http://www.portlandmuseum.org/events/families Fantastic small museum about arctic peoples and exploration: http://www.bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/ Unbelievable new collection of art recently donated and installed: https://www.colby.edu/museum/

I think that one reason braids, especially high on the head, don't pop up as much in the over 40 set is that these are the years that some women start coloring their hair and within a week or two after coloring roots will be showing, any updo reveals these gray roots. That being said, if you like braids, braid away!

A writer's retreat where you work all day and come together for readings in the evening, complete with individual cabins (with running water/shower & tub/kitchen) in an interesting location with several nature trails.

I remember the tawny frogmouth from my year abroad in Victoria. They look like muppets invented by Jim Henson. I could not believe how cute! They are cuter in real life than in photographs. Still my favorite Australian bird even though I also saw a lyrebird and emu and rainbow lorikeets in the Whitsunday Islands and heard bell birds on that trip. I must get back to Australia one day... As for Maine, I still haven't seen my New Year's Bird (unless you count my hens, which I don't). I suspect it will be a raven as a group lives near my house, and they are often raucous and attract attention to themselves.

The houses on my road of nice nosy neighbors were watched by someone looking for a target. One of the grandmas called the cops on a twenty something stranger skateboarding up and down our very rural road. He wasn't one of the neighborhood kids and not really the right age bracket for random skateboarding trip down our road. He wasn't breaking any laws so they just talked to him. Turns out, he was caught a few days later after burglarizing a house in another neighborhood!

We lucked into a rescue of what I now believe to be the best dog breed ever imagined. We could not have been luckier. The breed info on petfinder said gordon setter, the breed info from the rescue said Burnese mountain dog, the vet thought GSD mix, but no, a fancier of this breed saw us on the street, ran up to us and asked if we knew what we had. I said "a mutt?". He replied, "No you have the best dog in the world." Quite rare in the US, the hovawart is shaped a lot like a golden without the shedding problem. They come in black, golden, and black and gold. They are very handsome, home oriented dogs, love children, love other dogs, are intelligent, and very, very calm in the house. Our dog is fun loving and joyful without being wild. The only minus (and some would think this good) is that he has an incredibly deep bark. It is startling. There are a few breeders of this dog in the US. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/hovawart.htm

The Montessori catalog For Small Hands has some. http://www.forsmallhands.com/kitchen/baking/oven-mitts

I live in the western mountains of Maine. Subarus are the car of choice here (or a giant Ford 150). We have a Subaru Outback and a Honda Accord. The Subaru is hands down better than the Accord (of course the Honda is only front wheel drive) though the Accord does okay if we go really snow and have snowtires (we like the Blizzacks). We drove the Subaru in a blizzard with 8 inches of snow on the road a few years ago and it was a trooper not a slip. I did slip on black ice going around a corner at the speed limit (didn't realize it had iced up) before I got my snow tires on my Subaru. AWD is not the most important component when encountering ice. Good Snow/Winter tires are what make all the difference in icy conditions. Snow tires are often poor at handling wet roads though which is why we tend to wait so long before putting them on (hence the slip) and take them off as soon as possible in the spring. The Honda is already over 200,000 miles and on track to last longer and have fewer mechanical problems than the Subaru though.

I would say wool, especially that provided by a small farm. There are life cycle analyses of these things, but they don't always look at all the variables. Like water and energy consumption but not persistence in the environment (problem with all plastic products). In the end you will have to decide which of many issues is most important to you: using the yarn that results in the lowest pesticide use, using the yarn that results in the fully biodegradable products that will not end up in the diet of a sea animal or invertebrate (as plastics break down into microscopic bits, some are ingested by invertebrates), using yarn that takes the least energy to produce, or using yarn that takes the least water to produce (and was the yarn made in a water rich area or a drought prone area?). http://envormation.org/environmental-footprint-of-clothes-and-comparison-of-cotton-and-linen-flax-fabric/ http://www.woodguide.org/files/2014/07/LCA-textiles.pdf I don't know how much a possibility this is for knitters as opposed to seamstresses, but deconstructing already existing clothing and turning it into something new seems a very good environmental choice.

There are some chime alarm clocks. They are expensive. http://now-zen.com/

My husband wore a bolo tie to our wedding.

This year's favorite: Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery. A biography about the first woman to complete a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail at 67 years of age.

I live very close to Gould Academy. It is a good, small boarding school, but not in the league with Andover or Holderness. It is set in a charming rural town in the mountains very far away from any metropolitan area. They have a strong focus on skiing. In the depths of winter (January and February) , the area can have temperatures down to negative fifteen or so, especially in the mornings and there is plenty of snow. On the up side for some of the Chinese students who go to my son's school (not Gould) this area has pristine air quality.

Things we are good at: Bar rags for cleaning and hand wiping in the kitchen. (However: Do use a few unbleached, recycled paper towels for bacon grease, homemade fry grease and cat and dog barf.) We both work at home. No gas for commutes. We save up errands to reduce trips into town. Buying mostly clothes that will eventually biodegrade. Avoiding plastic based clothing (no polarfleece, polyester, spandex, etc) except we do continue to use what we had before we made the switch. Eggs from our own pastured chickens so no packaging. Composting or feeding to chickens all food scraps. Using a funnel to get the last bit of katsup etc. out of the bottle. Do not use fabric softener or dryer sheets. Gave up soda. Use stainless steel water bottles and lunch box containers. Line dry clothes when weather permits. Use reusable bags when shopping. (Except I always forget to bring one to Rite Aid? Why just Rite Aid? It is a weird mental block). Shop at the local farm stand when in season to avoid packaging. LED bulbs except in my "mothing" lights on the back porch. Hand tools in the kitchen. No KitchenAid, no electric can opener, no coffee maker, etc. Choosing items in glass instead of plastic even when more expensive. (e.g. buying the smaller glass jars of pasta sauce rather than the larger plastic ones. No, we don't make our own. But I am sure we should. Experimented to see the what the smallest amount of laundry detergent, dish soap, etc. was that still got the job done. Buying in bulk when it reduce strips to the store and means less packaging. What we really need to do: Get off catalog and organization mailing list to reduce the amount of junk mail that comes to our home!!! Use the 1000 paper grocery bags we have in the basement for "dry" trash (saving the plastic bag just for things like cat barf and mopped up cooking oil). Buy more things made in USA. Bring the reusable bag when I go to Rite Aid! Get a reel mower for myself only. (We had one, which I loved to use, but my husband managed to cut himself badly on it once and it "disappeared").

I haven't noticed any smell with Arm and Hammer Sensitive Skin Laundry Detergent. It is in a white bottle.

My daughter chews gum to reduce the nausea.

Really investigate the property tax situation in the areas you are considering. When people mention "high taxes" it means vastly different things in different areas. In an affluent suburb like Sudbury where my friend lives, a three bedroom two bath two story ranchâ€looking "colonial" on an acre can cost you $16,0000 a year in property taxes. (This is why I never complain about my property taxes to anyone in the Boston or NY suburbs). Otherwise, it really is a fabulous place to live. Very intellectual. Full of history and museums and natural areas. The people are reserved so they never bother you, but if you need help they will be there.

I've only had this one 6 months, but it is incredibly sturdy, made in the USA, and opens with very little effort. At $9.99 plus shipping it is worth giving a try. https://www.lehmans.com/product/grip-handle-can-opener

I am so sorry about the school. If it is any consolation, moving (which if I remember correctly you would have to do for her to attend), even when it is for a great thing, is really rough and now your family won't have that stress.