Notes from Maine - 2025/03/16

So. Much. Mud.

Every day after Albert chases the frisbee we have to allot a big chunk of time for trying to clean some of the mud from his fur. It doesn’t matter how many towels I use. The third towel will be just as dirty as the first. After getting him reasonably clean, I turned to the horses. With the “shedding blade” I pulled so much hair from Maybelle that it was up to my knees before I was done. Earl wasn’t as hairy. I don’t know where his people come from originally, but Earl doesn’t seem to think that Maine is cold enough to require long hair. Maybelle develops a thick, shaggy coat, but Earl’s coat hardly changes at all. Neither of these horses ever wear blankets. 

We have a few big piles of snow. It will be April before the last of it melts. When the snow has melted maybe the mud will finally dry up.

At some point, I’d like to leave a diary in this house. I’ve hidden different things in the walls over the years, but I’d love to find a diary of every day life from 200 years ago, just to experience the details of every day life in this house from that time period. Since I haven’t found any writing from when this house was new (I’ve found some scribbling about measurements on the back of lumber, but that’s about it), the next best thing is to grant that experience to someone in the future. In the diary I’ll just talk about everyday life in 2025. 

Each morning I have yogurt with frozen blueberries. Did people in this house have yogurt for breakfast 200 years ago? Google says that it wasn’t well-known in the West until the 20th Century. And, obviously, they weren’t flash-freezing blueberries to make them last into March. We get blueberries up at the camp around mid-July. They could have dried them, I guess. I don’t know how common that was. If I had to guess, the original inhabitants in this house would have broken their fast with eggs, bread, and some kind of meat? ChatGPT says, “Porridge or oatmeal, cornbread or Johnny cakes, bread, and leftovers.” In general, preserved meats, dried fruits, root vegetables, and hearty grains were available in March. 

I really dislike Blueberries, but I really like Wild Maine Blueberries. The package almost looks the same. A few weeks ago, I forgot to uncheck the “Substitute All” button on the grocery store’s website and I was given Blueberries instead of Wild Maine Blueberries. They’re both just unsweetened, frozen blueberries in a big bag, but for whatever reason there’s a world of difference. The Blueberries are as big as marbles and they’re way too sweet. I like the tart little Wild Maine Blueberries on my yogurt. 

Can you imagine trying to explain that to a Maine person from 1825? I bet they hadn’t seen a decent piece of fruit (let alone a berry) in months, and I’m over here complaining that, “These big, delicious blueberries are just too sugary-sweet for my delicate palate. I prefer something more tart!”

Maybe 200 years from now, blueberries in March will be just as uncommon. That’s why I want to write a diary. I guess I could just print out these weekly letters. If I was trying to write for an audience in the distant future, I would change the language. I’d take out references to Google and ChatGPT. Maybe explain what a ”grocery store website” is. I always hated reading old passages where the teacher would have to give context every other line. To be honest, I’m not even sure what a “Johnny cake” is. If I had to guess, I would say it’s like cornbread, but ChatGPT drew a distinction between the two. I’ll look it up…

“A Johnny cake, also known as a journey cake or hoecake, is a cornmeal flatbread, a type of batter bread, and a staple food in the American South, New England, and parts of the Caribbean.”

Huh. I wonder if I’ve ever had that? Should I explain to future readers that I stay away from bread—batter or otherwise? Batter bread sounds like the kind of thing I would eat at 9am and regret until about 3pm the next day. I feel sluggish just writing about it. Breads have been around for about 30,000 years (according to Google). I think the domestication of grains coincides with the rise of civilization, and yet I’ve decided that bread makes me sluggish. I’m not alone—maybe it’s just a fad though? Maybe people in 200 years won’t recognize an aversion to bread? Maybe they’ll have a completely different grain? I think I’ll leave Johnny cake out of my diary. I don’t want to have to explain something that I don’t even eat. 

When I have my lunch this afternoon, I’ll likely watch some of the Disc Golf Pro Tour coverage of the recent event in Waco. Explain frisbee golf to someone today and you’ll get some strange looks. Try explaining it to someone from 200 years in either direction and they’ll probably think you’re crazy. Maybe I’ll leave YouTube out of my diary too. I guess that just leaves the blueberries and yogurt. Each day, my diary will consist of the day’s date and the fact that I started with wiping down the dog, brushing the horses, and then eating frozen (Wild Maine) blueberries and yogurt. At least it will be easy to write. I can just cut & paste.