October ~ County Style

Last year I missed October in Maine. We spent most of it in Utah, returning to the East Coast at the very end of the month. This year our Utah trip is a bit shorter and we're leaving a bit later, giving me two full weeks to enjoy October in the County.

Despite spending a good week sick with a cold, I have managed to enjoy fall immensely (but I winter is still my favorite season). The foliage here in the County has been incredible and, for the most part, we've had really nice weather.

As always and because I think blogs without photos are incredibly boring, here is a visual tour of my last two weeks:

The view from a dirt road on my favorite running and mountain biking loop here in Fort Kent.

Colorful hillside in New Canada, just south of Fort Kent.

Harvested potato fields already turning green...

Colorful view...

One day we went for a drive and Seth was going to hunt but it ended up just being a scenic drive through quiet logging roads...

Last week as we were enjoying a quiet morning we heard that a local business, Valley Auto, owned by a ski/biathlon supporter, was burning. Sure enough, we could see the smoke from our house and when we went into town the next day, this is all that was left.

Sad but Valley Auto is already back in business and making plans for rebuilding.

Yesterday I spent a few quality hours at the MWSC office in Caribou helping out with the new inventory of Healthy Hometowns equipment. Most of the stuff we unpacked is headed for 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent and the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle to be rented out for the season. Yesterday's tasks: unpacking skis and poles, applying Heathly Hometowns Stickers to EVERYTHING.

Gentle and I put stickers on several hundred pairs of poles...

Lots of boxes of new boots still waiting to be unpacked and inventoried.

Cody sweeping up the mess left over from unwrapping poles.

Very official looking stickers, still going on straight several hundred poles later!

Putting stickers on new skis...

Ready for winter...all we need is snow!

Lots of skis just waiting for adventurous County Folk!

And more skis...

Just one of the 10+ boxes of poles we "stickered".

Seth and I took the scenic route home from Caribou last night. He hunted, I drove and took pictures.

When we finally (yes, we got lost) came out of the woods and turned toward home on pavement we noticed that the Northern Lights were shining. Luckily we had Seth's camera on hand and managed to capture a few gorgeous shots: