My farm girls and driving

Our newest acquisition has the girls all aflutter -- a tractor lawnmower. Fino took the mower part off for some cleaning and repair and gave the girls a chance to drive the tractor around the yard.

They love it.

Yup, the girls have turned in to real farm kids even though our "farm" consists only of poultry (about 32 chickens, ducks and guineas altogether) and a large summer garden. Although L. has been asking for a sheep for a couple of years and Fino wants goats for milk even though none of us really has a taste for it. Me, I'm aalll set with the poultry so as long as I have some influence in the family, we won't be expanding the family farm anytime soon. Plus, the topic of chicken chores - which are not too time-consuming or difficult most of the year (winter is rough for managing water in the coop) - usually reminds them how much more work additional animals would be.

It seems the tractor has also served as a change in thinking for G. She has declared periodically since she was about 5-years-old that she is NEVER going to drive. Some of her reasons ...

"It's too confusing with all the other cars driving so close around you."

"There are too many rules and things to remember."

"It would make me too nervous."

"It doesn't seem like much fun."

Of course I knew the tide would turn on that and now at 12-years-old, she's thinking her experience with this new (old) tractor is "good practice for driving a real car someday."

Yup, a new dawn is rising.

What I like about the tractor is that it is a manual transmission. G.'s trying to get that figured out so she can buzz around a little faster than first gear allows. Better to learn that skill on a tractor than on mom's car in four years.

Yikes, four years?! I can't possibly be that old yet...

My farm girls driving the tractor

A cautious good time at Funtown

We met up with Mom of 9 at Funtown last weekend for my kids' first trip to the park.

My kids had never really been to a big amusement park except for a short trip to Disneyland when they were both little (3- and 5-years-old). We also went on a camping trip with their cousins to Big Sur during that same trip to California. When we got home, the girls talked to family and friends for months (maybe years) about the "mermaids" they spotted off the shore (they were seals but all the girls were sure they were mermaids) and the waterfall we saw on one of our hikes during the camping trip. They even shared the stories about the bathrooms with the quirky showers at the campground.

What they never talked about, not once, was their day at Disneyland.

Fino and I thought the Disneyland trip was memorable, but not in a good way. The crowds were crazy and we got on two or three rides in the five hours we were at the park because of long lines. I remember G. had a few break-downs because her sensory issues - combined with the sights and sounds of the park - made the experience completely overwhelming for her. And dealing with her crying one moment then running wild the next because she simply didn't know what to do with herself was no fun for anyone.

So that was the beginning - and end - of attraction-type parks for us (which was OK with me because family budget couldn't afford them anyhow).

Then when the Funtown trip came up recently, neither of the girls were overly excited about going. I actually had to talk G. in to the trip (which thanks to Momof9's suggestion to show her a map of the park to scope out what she wanted to do ahead of time, got her interested in giving it a whirl).

But the kids have been on rides so that's not a totally foreign experience for them.

Every year we go to the Ossipee and Cumberland fairs and I give the kids the choice of riding a couple of rides when we're there. And we've been to Old Orchard Beach's Palace Playland a few times as well.

Their favorite "ride" is usually the fun house and/or carousel.

Me, I loved roller coasters as a kid/teen/young adult and dragged whoever was with me on one at every opportunity I had.

It started with Canobie Lake Park when I was a preteen then I jumped at the chance to visit King's Dominion in Virginia to try some new coasters during a band trip in high school.

When I was in college in upstate New York and my dad came to visit, I dragged him to Canada's Wonderland in Ontario (which had an impressive number of coasters there).

Then after graduating with my master's degree, I drove across the U.S. with a couple of friends to celebrate and we splurged on a day at Six Flags over Mid-America (that month-long trip was memorable and blog fodder for another day).

I also begged my dad to go to Valleyfair when I drove out to Minnesota with him in his '48 Ford for a hot rod show in my early 20s. Then there were the multiple trips to Six Flag parks in Massachusetts, New Jersey and California, depending on where I was living at the time.

So as much as I have always hated crowds (I was never a stay-all-day type of park visitor), I felt a need to try new coasters wherever I went.

I figured that the day we did go to a larger amusement park (when the girls were older) that one of my progeny would enjoy roller coasters like I always have.

Nope.

L. has her daring moments but not with amusement park rides. The spread eagle hands on the Flying Trapeze was as far as she went at Funtown. Oh, and the five rides she took (four consecutively) on the tea cups. The Thunderbolt was, in her opinion, "OK, but a little too fast." At least she tried it.

G. skipped the Thunderbolt but I did talk her in to the log flume ride. The photo taken by the park's Action Shots of our log going down the big hill was priceless. Everyone in our log had their mouths open screaming their delight and G. had a look of sheer terror on her face. (I should have bought the photo but couldn't justify spending $9 on something that stressed G. out.)

Her thoughts about the flume ride?

"That was the scariest ride ever mom! I am never going on another ride like that again."

I guess a love of roller coasters is not a genetic thing.

Haying season on a Maine farm

During a stretch of warm, sunny weather when most of us are thinking about swimming and playing outside, Maine farmers are thinking about winter. Well, the preparations they need to do during the summer to feed their animals when the green pastures are covered in snow.

Baling hay and storing it to feed animals during the winter has to be done during the hottest, driest days of the summer. Why? Because hay can not be wet when it is stacked in the barn. The moisture can cause spontaneous combustion from heat building up in the hay, which is the main cause of barn fires. (This was a new learning for me, which you can read more about here.)

Since G. has been halter training a beef cow for her 4-H project this past year at a local farm, our whole family has been educated with the ways of Maine farm life. G. has helped with weekly farm chores as well as the care of Sparkles (her cow) since November. And since Sparkles needs to eat this winter (as well as all the other animals at the farm), G., L. and I helped with the haying chores yesterday afternoon and evening.

Haying is hard, hot, sweaty, dirty work. It’s also quite interesting to a know-nothing-about-farming person like me. There is a science and technique behind loading and stacking the bales in the barn.

Since L. had a hard time lifting the hay bales, she was given the task of keeping the floor clear of hay in the loft. She was given a wood board for this job. L. got the hang of it but said she would have been able to do a better job with a broom (little did she understand the barn floor was never going to be free of hay).

G., having worked with her 400-pound (give or take a few pounds) cow for months now, did not have a problem swinging the hay bales in to stacks. G. has a powerful strength that she had never been able to put to constructive use before her time at the farm. But the weekly visits keep her sensory issues in check with all the heavy lifting (and wrestling with a reluctant cow to teach it to walk with a halter).

We worked hard stacking hay and I was impressed the girls worked through the last wagon delivery of the day. We made a stop at the McDonald’s drive-thru afterward for an ice cream sundae. We would have preferred different ice cream but there was no way any of us were walking in to a store covered in hay, dirt and sweat after four hours in the hayloft. The drive-thru seemed the only option for us at the time.

I thought I'd share a few of my family's learnings about stacking hay yesterday:

1. Wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt even if it is wicked hot outside. Last night G. and I were nursing cuts and a rash from the constant contact of hay on our forearms.

2. Wear gloves. We brought some and we were oh so glad we had them (see #1).

3. Bring lots and lots of water. It might have been the upper 80s outside, but on the roof of a barn, it gets a whole lot hotter.

4. People with pollen allergies should plan to have an extra dose of antihistamine and eye drops on hand along with access to an air conditioned room for the night to fight off their body’s reaction to being around that much hay. (G. and I had a rough night sleeping last night but we were feeling much better today.)

5. Taking photos in the hayloft is tricky because there were particles of hay flying around everywhere so it looked like raindrops on the camera’s lens.

6. Hay is slippery on a wood floor. Stray strands of hay fell from the bales as they came in to the barn and were being stacked and I slipped a couple of times before L. made it over to my part of the loft to clear it up. I looked and moved like the total and complete amateur while I was in that hayloft.

7. Hay bales are slippery when you climb on them. All the people in the loft had to catch the hay rolling down from the pulley thing (I’m sure it has a name, I just forgot to ask) and swing the bales in to place. Swinging a heavy bale while standing and balancing on a few bales of hay (we had to build from the floor up) took some coordination. Both G. and I took a header off the hay stack but were unhurt (unless you count the painful blush each of us conjured after the tumble).

8. There is a science to stacking the bales of hay. I was instructed to use the momentum of the bale to squash it in to place in the stack and could not seem to get the hang of it. The rest of the stacking crew made it look easy (years of experience will do that).

9. It takes about 5 1/2 hours to load and stack 1,400 bales of hay in the hayloft (we missed the first hour and half because of my work schedule). The only break the crew had during that time was between hay wagons being pulled up to the barn.

10. Those 1,400 bales of hay (plus the additional 200 or so more that will be loaded in to the barn before the end of the summer) will feed about 20-25 beef cows during winter. I thought that was a whole lot of hay for the number of animals. I knew cows ate a lot but I have a whole new perspective about how much that "a lot" actually looks like now.

A video of the hay rolling in to the barn

Skin crawling drama at the river

I took G. and L. and two of their friends on a bike ride to the Saco River to swim (in a different part of the river than where we went kayaking). All the girls wore their bathing suits under their shorts and t-shirts and packed their towels and water bottles in their bike baskets. It was a fun 3 1/2 mile ride with a water break about halfway there.

Once we got to the river, we had to drag the bikes over some rocks and found a nice spot to swim.

After much pleading to swim to the little island just off the shore (about 50 yards away), I finally agreed on the condition that they had to swim with me because we didn't have noodles or floats with us (no room on the bikes for that gear). The girls were standing on a sandbar about 1/2 way to the island at that point so I thought they could manage the remaining distance without much trouble.

I swam to the four girls at the sandbar and decided to take two at a time over to the island, and took L. and her friend K. first. The girls swam the distance easily and climbed up on the island's rock. But as I turned back to get the other two girls, L. started screaming.

"mommy, Mommy, MOMmy, MOOOOOMMY!!"

I asked her what was wrong and her friend K. said, "Oh gosh L., you got leeches."

So L. did what most females would do, she started swiping at her skin, jumping around and screaming.

L.'s hysteria grew and I had to firmly tell her to stay still so I could take a look. I confirmed (silently) that she had a whole bunch of tiny, squirming leeches attached to her legs and feet.

I thought (again, silently), "Oooh, yuck-a-doo but I am the mommy so I can NOT freak out."

I tried to get the leeches off with my fingernails but there were too many and my nails weren't working very well (probably the one and only time in my life I wished I had long nails). I knew I had to get L. back to the shore where my first aid kit was.

As far as L. was concerned, getting back in to the river was unthinkable.

I wasn't so keen on that either (I had several leeches on my feet that I couldn't deal with at the time) but we had no choice.

So I sent K. out first and asked G., who I knew was a solid swimmer, to meet K. and guide her back to shore while I carried a hysterical L. back in to the water.

I swam L. back to shore in a rescue carry and was thankful that I remembered my former training a certified swim instructor and the basic life guard class I had taken years ago.

Once I got L. to shore I had my hands full with her and the three other girls, who were also jumping around in a building hysteria trying to find out if they had leeches.

Then K. pointed and exclaimed, "L. you have some on your back too!"

That made L. jump and swipe at her back while she also hit her legs and feet trying to "get them off, Off, OFF!"

I snapped at the other girls to check each other for leeches away from L. I could barely handle L. in her current state of hysteria but felt bad I was short with the other girls. But at the time I didn't feel like I had a lot of options.

I sifted through my backpack only to find that someone had removed the first aid kit and had not returned it. (As of today, that "someone" in my family has yet to fess up.)

So I grabbed a plastic card from my wallet but it was too thick and didn't bend enough to fit between L.'s toes (she had several leeches between each one). So after testing a handful of cards, I found my old BJ's one had the most flexibility and worked the best.

Now when I say that L. had leeches all over her, I'm not exaggerating. The tiny little suckers were all over her feet, legs and back. A conservative guess would be around 40, although I think there were more than that.

The worst clusters of the suckers were on her recent cuts, which is why I think they were attracted to her in the first place. The day before L. had sliced her leg and had a 3-inch cut that was still scabbing over. She had about 10 leeches on that cut alone and as I scrapped the leeches off, it opened up and started dripping blood down her leg.

It took about 10 minutes to scrape the leeches off with the card, although it felt like an hour. As I worked I explained to L. and the other girls that leeches were used at hospitals by doctors of the past and that I thought they were still used in some places because leeches were good for healing.

As you can imagine, the girls thought that bit of history would have been more interesting if it they weren't having a hands-on learning experience at the time.

L.'s feet became full of sand during the leech removal and I couldn't tell if I got them all off so I suggested we rinse her feet off.

Oh no, there was no more walking anywhere near the water for L., no matter how important those suckers were in the history of medicine.

I got off as many leeches as I could see and then took a moment to scrape off the ones on my own foot and the one leech that B. had on her back. The other two girls did not have any on them.

L. had calmed down enough to ask to go home at that point. That was when I realized that we had a 3 1/2 mile bike ride ahead of us.

The girls put on their clothes, shoes and bike helmets in record time amidst the shutters from the creepy crawly jitters they had. They were troopers though and we made tracks away from the river. No one was interested in stopping for a water break on the way back (although L. found a dead butterfly on the side of the road and picked it up to bring home, which I took as a good sign that she was calmed down enough to pick that up).

I got L. in the shower once we got home and tried to put salt between her toes to get rid of the remaining leeches. The salt didn't seem to work (it probably would have but I think it just wasn't working fast enough for L.) so I went back to scraping them off with the card. Unfortunately for L. she found one in a particularly sensitive private area (just on the outside edge). And since it had been attached for a while, it was full of blood and not easy to scrap off in that tender spot. L. was mortified and really upset about the bleeding that happened after the leech was removed (leeches know how to open a vein).

Later that night L. just wanted to snuggle with me. She was experiencing the aftereffects of feeling like her skin was crawling and asked me a couple of times to check her body again for leeches. There weren't any left.

She woke up several times that night saying she kept dreaming about 'creepy crawling stuff' and couldn't sleep.

The next day I asked her if she thought having leeches was worse than the time we were swarmed by the yellow jackets (everyone in the family was stung multiple times and the incident ranks top on our list of our scariest experience while hiking).

"No, the bees were worse."

OK, so there is hope we might go swimming again this summer.

Next time we're going to the lake.

Since we had never swam to the island before (in background), we believe L. picked up the leeches on her swim over there. We've swam in this area for years without ever even seeing a leech. A cluster of the little suckers on a small cut on L.'s toe. G. snapped the pics while I helped L. That old BJ's card really took care of those suckers. The dead butterfly, which proved a nice distraction at home, that L. picked up on the ride back. As long as she has something to hold, she's a calmer kid.

Learning to kayak ... and a rescue

Last week the girls and I, along with some friends, took an introductory kayaking class with LL Bean's Walk-on Adventure Series. It seemed a good way to learn the basics of kayaking to see if we would like the sport.

We did but there was a bit of disappointment in the pace of the class. The instructors were very knowledgeable but we didn't spend much time paddling. The kids felt they did more waiting around than paddling and were a bit frustrated trying to keep their kayaks floating in one spot. It would have been more fun for all of us if we had done a steady slow paddle. We spent most of the class paddling a half dozen strokes or so and then would be told by one of the instructors to stop and wait for the rest of our group lagging behind (and for the record, we weren't waiting for any of the kids in this class).

So I told the girls we'd rent kayaks somewhere else, like maybe a river so we wouldn't get all salt-water sticky (the class was held in a quiet ocean cove off Wolfe's Neck), to try it again. After a bit of surfing the web, I found an outfitter in North Conway, N.H., that had a good family rate for kayak rentals and made a reservation for Friday.

The equipment we were given at the river was not nearly as nice as what we used with the LL Bean class but everything appeared in working order even if the life vests were less than comfortable (they were the classic orange ones).

After the friendly guy from the outfitters dumped all our gear on the beach, Fino and L. got in their kayaks and were headed around the first bend of the river before G. and I were. Fino hit the faster moving water first and when L. saw him cruising along, she got nervous and stopped paddling.

I yelled to L. to paddle but she just let the current take her along and by the time I realized that she was going to hit the stump in the middle of the river, I couldn't get to her in time.

L. flipped over.

I paddled as quickly as I could over to her but not being a proficient paddler myself, it wasn't the most direct - or controlled - approach. But the river was only about three feet and L. had stood up after the flip and was grabbing for her Webkinz puppy before she walked herself to shore.

But the flip had really taken her by surprise and shaken her up so she was crying when I reached her.

Fino grabbed her paddle in the middle of the river while some very nice 30-something guys in a canoe grabbed her kayak and floating lunch box and brought them to the shore. We dumped out the water and dragged it to our other kayaks while L. continued hugging her puppy and sniffling.

While I was talking to L. and sharing a giggle with her about how she can never be without one of her Webkinz at all times, a man with a camera (that looked pricey and professional) walked over to us.

It turned out he was from The Conway Daily Sun and took photos of L.'s flip. He was watching that particular area because the newspaper was doing a story about a mother who had complained to the newspaper about the lack of signage and information about the dangers of the river.

The photographer asked L. her name and commented that she handled her flip well - and that she was able to get her puppy out of the water so quickly. She introduced him to Meggie while she wiped her tears away and I shared with him how we had taken a kayaking class earlier in the week so L. wasn't totally clueless about kayaking. L. told him she was surprised by the current so she got nervous and forgot to paddle away from the stump.

Since L. wasn't keen to get back in to her kayak right away, Fino linked hers with mine and L. walked along the shore while I paddled down a short stretch of the river. The Saco is not deep (about 3 feet deep or less in most places) and the sandy pebbled shore made it easy walking for her.

L. got in her kayak a short time later and after the second patch of faster moving water with me in the lead, she handled it well and gained some of her confidence back. We paddled about four miles down the river without further incident. In the van on the way back to the outfitters to get our car, L. told me that Meggie thought the trip was OK but kayaking was not her favorite thing to do.

On Saturday morning I went to The Conway Daily Sun website and found photos of L. on the front page accompanying the story about the river. The story was about a Rhode Island mother and her son who flipped over (in the same spot as L.) in a rented a canoe.

I think a heads-up that there are a couple of faster moving parts to the river would have been helpful to me because I would have tested the current out first in my kayak instead of letting L. get ahead of me in hers. That was my fault for not taking the lead initially (no one at the outfitter office or delivery guy said a word about a river current).

But the current wasn't unmanageable, just not what I had expected. I am familiar with the stories about the partying that goes on the Saco River so I never thought to ask about the river's current because I figured it wasn't anything to worry about. And other than a handful of spots, the rest of the river was in fact slow and easy and offered some very pleasant paddling (and although there was some partying on various part of the shore along the river, it was not too crowded or crazy because it was a weekday).

So on one hand I agree with the mom that a warning sign at the put-in location would have been nice. But what I can't get my head around was what this mom was thinking when she took her 4-year-old out on the river in a canoe knowing she did not know how to swim (see the newspaper story below).

As for L., she is no worse for the wear after her kayak flip -- she's been initiated to the "club" so to speak. And she couldn't wait to tell all of her friends she was in the newspaper.

"I'm famous ... and look, you can sort of see Meggie too," she told me with a big grin on her face after I printed out the paper's front page.

To her friends upon showing them the print out, "Yeah, I didn't like that stinking kayak too much when I flipped over but I saved Meggie and we paddled 4-miles afterwards."

The headline with L.'s photos are unfortunate as I think my family did not fit in to the 'lack of common sense' category nor were we the family the story was about.

L. and Meggie down river

Here's the text of the story since it's not easy to find in the .pdf format they have on that newspaper's website:

By Nate Giarnese, The Conway Daily Sun

CONWAY - A flurry of e-mails by a "panicked" mom detailing her frightening ordeal on the Saco River has river guides reminding inexperienced canoeists that common sense is key for a good time on what is generally considered a family friendly river.

Pamela Bhatia was on vacation when she was sucked under by a swift current that dumped her young son out of a canoe during what she describes as a heart-stopping brush with death over the July 4 weekend.

"I can't get these knots out of my stomach of what could have happened and I can't wipe out the image of Kamran's head in the water under that canoe," wrote the Rhode Island mom in an email widely circulated among river watchers and officials.

"Kamran's Warning - this river can be swift and unpredictable and is unsafe for small children and inexperienced swimmers," she said is a message that should be posted. "This would have been enough to stop us - it is a start to help other parents." The rental company where she got the canoe says it's not that simple.

Northern Extremes, says the woman ignored simple directions and safety instructions and refused to take responsibility for her own children, returning to the shop yelling and in tears after floating too far down an "extremely safe" stretch of river. The company said it was her own panicked reaction that caused her boat to flip somewhere east of First Bridge in North Conway, and her inability to swim or even float that was at the root of the scare.

"At some point Americans have to start to take responsibility for their actions," said Stephanie Manson, who owns the Conway outfit with her husband.

"It's not a dangerous river, this is not white water."

Bhatia, who declined to give her phone number and could not be contacted beyond by e-mail, overturned the same day a Massachusetts woman who apparently couldn't swim waded over her head in Albany's Iona Lake and drowned in seven feet of water, with friends perched nearby in a boat.

Bhaita said hers wasn't the only boat to flip that day. She left New Hampshire feeling regulations and warnings were not in place to prepare her to fend for herself in the "middle of nowhere."

"There are more precautions taken before you ride the tea cups at Story Land than on a 7-mile stretch of running river in the wilderness," she wrote.

Bob Tagliafferi, head of a river group promoting safe, eco-friendly recreation on the Saco in Maine and New Hampshire, said it sounded as if Manson handled it properly, including having the woman sign a safety waiver. While Bhatia, he said, suffered "an unfortunate series of events that happened quickly," and walked away "looking to assign blame."

"No doubt she had a frightening experience," he said. "Thankfully no one was seriously injured, hopefully something can be learned from this."

Manson said she gave Bhatia standard instructions and warned the family their two kids wouldn't fit safely in a canoe. Yet Bhatia's husband was "adamant" that they go out, Manson said, so the family opted for a rubber raft which they lashed to the canoe with a rope.

"We won't even rent to somebody with kids if no one in the group can't swim," Manson added. "I know I did everything right."

She said the woman was too preoccupied listening in on another rental agent discuss alcohol policy with another group to pay attention.

Still exhaling from her terrifying plunge, Bhatia e-mailed many, including state Rep Tom Buco, DConway, at midnight Sunday detailing her plight and begging for her message to be spread. She offered to pay for signs warning the river is unsafe for children, urging the rental company to remove a picture from its Web site of a baby in a kayak with its parents because she said it sends a false sense of safety. "I told her I was sorry she had such a terrifying time on our river," said Buco, who planned to discuss the incident with outfitters and said safety standards must be set at a level to protect even the least prepared boaters. "It has to be safe for everybody."

Mary Seavey, a local woman who helped rescue a woman floundering in shallow rapids Saturday, said a glut of rude and foolhardy tourists venturing out unsafely or disrespectfully has made the river a must to avoid on holiday weekends. “It was a nightmare," said Seavey, who was out for a paddle when a woman, whose story is strikingly similar to Bhatia's and on the same day, went under. It was unclear whether it was the same woman or a separate incident, but Seavey saw a multitude of boaters behaving badly. "People didn't care what their kids were doing," she said."The river was full of rude people. Kids were throwing rocks." Seavey stopped to attempt to help the "panicked" woman, who despite wearing a life vest, was being dunked underwater in a stretch in Conway near rocks and steep sandy cliffs.

She said the heavy-set woman, who she doubts was Bhatia because of the description of the boats and her husband, was thankful after she was helped. But she clearly had no idea what she was doing. She had kids on a raft tied to her craft by ropes stretched across a wide expanse of water. They snagged and the woman went over when she hit a rock, she said. "What these people did was absolutely ... I can't imagine tying things up like that," Seavey said. "The kids were rude, they were screeching." She noted with disdain that a group on shore ignored the struggling woman who was eventually pulled from the river by two teens.

Seavey has since sworn off hitting the Saco on big weekends, despite the best efforts of rental outfi ts to educate their renters - Tagliafferi said outfitters' boats comprise only a third of the as many as 3,000 folks who can be on the river at one time because of a lack of "courtesyâ" and the safety risks it presents. "I'm sure Stephanie gave them all the rules. She's not the river police, she's running a good business," Seavey said. "It was people who think they know what they're doing but don't."

Bhatia, who hails from the Ocean State town of North Smithfield, complained on her trip of brushes with booze, including two girls whose canoe she said was lodged in the rocks and whom she said she hit. She said she didn't know whether to blame her own family's inexperience, or that of the "partying" duo, who had loaded into their canoe a cooler and a dog. Either way, she said rafting rental companies turn a "blind eye" to alcohol, and that officials should better regulate the waters. Manson rents floating coolers, but says she tells renters she does not "condone" public drinking, even though for many boaters and riverside campers, beer is an entirely legal staple of a relaxing trip. “I can't tell people they can't have a good time and have a beer on the river," Manson said. "I say, "I don't have the right to look in your cooler"."

Tagliafferi said there are no state laws against alcohol on the river itself, but laws governing drinking at landings vary by state and location. Moderate drinking he said can be part of safe, responsible outing. It's only a "small percentage" - heavy problem drinkers - he said his group has set out to chase off.

Conway police Lt. Christopher Perley said Conway's scarcity of open beaches where large groups can congregate contributes to Conway having fewer problems with alcohol and disturbances than across the border in Maine, where agreements with large landowners provide ample public party spots. "There's less places to stop," he said. Tagliafferi, executive director of the Saco River Recreation Council, said the wild Saco, while not a controlled amusement like a theme park ride, is an "extremely safe river." "Still, it should be approached with respect. “It is not without risks," he said.

The council is working with state and local authorities to educate boaters about responsible camping and to bring more policing "to curb this activity no one wants to be around." Tagliafferi said police this weekend will be at put-ins along with council members, part of a bid to remind boaters to pick up trash and to fend off those who badly abuse the river. "Sooner or later they will find somewhere else to go, realizing they're not wanted around here," said Tagliafferi, who owns outfitter Saco Bound. "It's a busy weekend coming up and there will patrols out there." His advice to unsure boaters new to the river: "If you don't know, ask questions. Overall it's a great activity for families," he said. When in doubt, you can always get out of a canoe in shallows before approaching uncertain waters. One warning could be a lifesaver: Watch out for fallen trees, called strainers. "Even with a life vest, it can drag you under," he said. Tree trunks and limbs don't impede the speedy current, whose force likely eroded a dirt bank and caused the tree to drop, but branches can strain out boats and people, a "every dangerous" situation. This time of year, though, water levels are low and the current is mild, unlike spring when ice melt and rains can swell rivers over their banks and to unsafe heights.

A week before Bhatia's incident, Manson said the flow was considerably higher when Northern Extremes sponsored 30 boats for a Girl Scout river cleanup. Like most days no serious incidents were reported. "It was a beautiful day. It's a really safe river," she said, adding still, "It is a river in New Hampshire, there's no McDonald's on the side or EMT's on that river."

Long Island on Casco Bay

This was one of our island stops that people who do not own boats can get to (it's a stop on the Casco Bay Ferry Line).

The first thing we had to do once we got to the island was buy an ice cream at the island store. It was just one of those things we had to do.

We ate our cones while walking down the road (across from the store) to the other side of the island to visit the ocean side beach (which we were told was a really pretty beach - and it was).

We found interesting things to look at during our visit to Peaks Island last month and have figured out that maybe the island residents around Casco Bay enjoy enhancing the scenery a bit for their summer visitors.

We might have forgot our bathing suits (me not thinking, although I was tired from our busy day on the boat the day before) but that didn't stop L. from splashing around in the water and directing me to take more 'jumping' photos of her. G. wasn't so keen on getting her clothes wet so she just put her feet in and then ran away from her jumping sister when she got too close.

From the beach we could see the tower on Jewell Island and are now trying to figure out how to get back to Jewell for a camping visit before the summer is over.

We're thinking about kayaking but first we have to learn how to do that ...

Fort Gorges ... and sore armpits

Another island stop we made during our sailing trip around Casco Bay this past weekend was Fort Gorges. The girls have wanted to visit the fort since the day they spotted it so it was high on our list of places to visit on this trip (the only way to get there is by private boat).

We took a dingy over to the fort because it's shallow around the island and the tides move really fast.

We tied up a distance from the shore and walked in because the tide was going out and we didn't want the dingy to run aground while we were exploring. Unfortunately for another set of visitors, they didn't know about the fast moving tides. Fino and Mike offered a hand to help them carry their boat over quite a bit of dry ground to get it back in the water.

L. loved all the periwinkles on the beach and kept running her hands through all of them. She picked out a few before she was off and running to the fort's entrance.

We walked through the hallways around the fort then found the stairs to explore each level. There are several dark hallways that require a flashlight and Mike warned us that the light often startles the pigeons who nest in the dark corners.

But L. wanted to explore the "everywhere" so after we walked through all the sunlit hallways she and I walked in to one of the dark stairways.

I flashed my light in front of us and startled a pigeon in a corner about a foot away from us. The pigeon flapped through the doorway at knee level and L. flung her arms up as she jumped and screamed. She did it all in one fluid motion and her arms moved nearly as fast as the pigeon's wings. L. leaped into me and between the pigeon and a flying, screaming kid heading right at me, I was startled in to a scream myself. Then G., who wasn't even in the doorway with us, screamed too.

The guys of course thought the whole thing was incredibly funny. L. really had been terrified but she got over it quickly and laughed along with the rest of us too.

As we were heading back towards the boat, L. started complaining about her armpits being sore.

"Don't laugh Mommy! They really hurt!"

I guess we can't all flap our arms like a pigeon.

L. loved all the periwinkles on the beach around the fort. They look so peaceful by the open windows...

Exploring Jewell Island

I think we have a theme going this summer - exploring the islands of Casco Bay.

We had not originally set out to do this but favorable circumstances presented themselves to us recently so we were able to see more islands this past weekend.

Our friend Mike, who travels year-round on his catamaran sailboat, is in Maine this month and offered to take us out on Casco Bay for a couple of days of cruising.

It was glorious!

Our first stop on the trip was Jewell Island. We chose this island because several friends (including our host) said it was an interesting place to explore. Since we don't own a boat and therefore couldn't get there normally, we looked forward to visiting.

Since the girls can't resist logbooks, when we found a log book hanging from a tree on the bay side of the island where we tied up the dingy, G. stopped to sign it. We set out on the nearby trail that headed in the direction of the towers (there are two) on the southwest side of the island. It was a nice surprise to run in to one of the island's caretakers on that trail (he and another caretaker work for the Maine Island Trail Association and live on a north side campsite from Memorial Day to Labor Day). He gave us a map and chatted for a few minutes about the interesting features around the island.

We found the taller of the two towers first after a short walk through the woods.

The observation towers were built during World War II because the military believed Portland Harbor needed better fortification. According to the map brochure, "Although Casco Bay was never threatened during the War, a German U-Boat was sighted between Jewell and Cape Small in June, 1942."

An interesting history lesson for us as well as the girls.

We climbed to the top of each tower and were treated to some fabulous views of Casco Bay and the ocean. We spotted Halfway Rock lighthouse in the distance and tried to identify the various islands around us, which is much easier said than done. L. was less interested in naming the islands and wanted me to take some 'action' shots of her at the top of the tower (we have quite a growing collection of these type of photos).

The remains of a bunker and some other buildings that housed the troops that lived on the island during WWII (about 400 we learned) made for some fun exploring. Our forward-thinking friend Mike (who had been to the island previously) had thought to bring along a flashlight so we could fully explore all the rooms inside.

The kids loved it.

We decided to hike to the other end of the island to visit the Punchbowl where the anti-motor torpedo boat battery was located. It was high tide so the small cove didn't look like much of a bowl (we're told at low tide it looks separate from the ocean) but the kids found one of the old gun blocks and enjoyed looking for shells and exploring the rocks in the area.

Jewell was a great place to explore that does not have many visitors because you have to have a boat to get there. Overnight camping is permitted and we saw several people setting up their sites around the island.

And although the island was actually named after it's first inhabitant, George Jewell, it really is a gem in Casco Bay.

A view from the top of the taller tower Exploring the bunker The punchbowl

An interesting eye for photos

My 12-year-old likes to take photos. Since she struggles with traditional academics because of her processing learning issues, Fino and I encouraged her to explore her interest in photography several years ago and she has a real passion for it now. For the past week or so she has been sifting through her photo collection taken this past year - most of them of the various animals in her life - to select her "best of the best" for her 4-H exhibit hall display at the Ossipee Fair (it opens next week). With the hundreds of photos she had, it was hard for her to make her final choices. But she finally settled on 20 photos organized in to four themes - Round, Action, Light and Eyes. It was the Eyes theme that I thought was particularly interesting. She managed to take a picture of every set of eyes in our house (well, not all 30 chickens, but a couple of them, along with the ducks, cats - including the blind one - and human family members). G. shared her observations about our family's eyes while waiting for the printer to spit out her final collage: "Wow mom, my eyes really are exactly the same color as daddy's. They are like dark chocolate." "L. has the longest eyelashes, why don't I have eyelashes like that?" (I wish I had eyelashes like that too but L. doesn't think they're all that great. Since L. was little, if she rubs her eyes too much her long eyelashes get caught in her eyeball and it takes a minute - with some discomfort that usually includes crying - to get them cleared out.) "Mom you have weird brown spots in your green eyeballs. They look like weird freckles." (What isn't weird about your parents when you're 12?) Watching G. work on this project helped me to once again appreciate her special view of the world. Light Round

Kid Tracks Column: Awed by Acadia on hike-bike jaunt

How much can you pack in to a three-day trip to Acadia National Park and still have fun?
For my family it would include exploring 16 miles of carriage trails, hiking to the top of a couple of mountains and completing the park's EarthCache program.

It sounds like a lot to do in three days – and it was – but as clichéd as it sounds, Acadia is awesome and we left wishing we could have done more.

DAY 1
We rode the carriage trail around Eagle Lake our first day at the park. It was just shy of six miles and thanks to a tip from one of the rangers, a fairly easy ride. The trick about biking around Eagle Lake is to ride with the lake to your LEFT. It's mostly downhill that way and a good introduction to the carriage trails.

After our ride around Eagle Lake we decided to drive to the first set of coordinates we were given for the park's EarthCache program (a geology program requiring a GPS unit). The location's name was not provided, but it wasn't hard to figure out where we were headed because we were familiar with the park from our visit a few years ago.

Once we arrived at the first EarthCache location, we had to find a clue to get the waypoint (GPS coordinates) for the next location.

I love a good puzzle and the girls enjoy treasure hunts, so after a bit of looking around, we found our clue. But it didn't give us the complete waypoint, so we had to answer a question related to the geological feature we were looking at (the answer was easily found on a nearby kiosk) to determine what that missing number was.

I don't want to give away any secrets because this program (very clever and well done) is based on finding locations that are not identified by name. But after answering geology questions and figuring out the waypoints to new locations, we ended up climbing to the top of the South Bubble to get more information to help us solve another riddle.

Our first day at the park was an active one with all the biking and hiking and driving we did, but everyone left energized for more.

DAY 2
Our second bike ride was supposed to be only "a bit more difficult" (my description to the family that morning) than Eagle Lake, but I took a wrong turn and it turned into a whopper of a challenge.

We started at the Parkman Mountain trail head and made a left turn prematurely (OK, I made the turn and my family followed me). We should have taken a right from the trail head and then a left at the intersection labeled No. 13 to get to the Waterfalls Bridge. We did eventually get to that bridge, but in a major round-about sort of way.

We ended up on the Around the Mountain Trail and it was not until we actually arrived at Gilmore Meadow that I realized our mistake. But it was a beautiful spot, so we stopped for a snack break and took a few minutes to admire the handiwork of a beaver trying to cut down a tree.

We opted to continue on the Seven Bridges Trail, which turned out to be a serious elevation gain (about 450 feet) and not a ride I would recommend for children unless they are strong riders.

The girls were troopers on this trail and the long rides we've been taking around southern and central Maine this spring really helped them handle this particular ride. But truth be told, we did quite a bit of walking with our bikes and took many water/snack breaks along the way.

The whole trek turned out to be nearly 10 miles, which was mostly uphill, before we eventually made it to the Waterfall Bridge. The kids were not as impressed with the beautiful views – or the waterfall – as they would have been had we taken the shorter loop I had originally planned.

And as if this is any surprise, the girls (and Fino) spent a good deal of time at the top of Parkman Mountain lamenting my map-reading skills (which normally are pretty good) while eating their lunch.

Oops.

Since we had hiked a couple of miles around the Otter Cliffs trail on Gorham Mountain before we undertook this bike ride, my crew was seriously tired.

But everyone seemed to forgive my poor navigation skills once they ordered big sundaes at the Dairy Bar before heading back to our cottage for the night.

Oh, and we did manage to complete the EarthCache program and report back to the ranger station with the answer to the final riddle before we left the park. I must 'fess up, however, that one of the riddles required some deeper thought and a math calculation that I'm embarrassed to say took Fino and me more than a few minutes to figure out.

We were tired. That must have been the reason for our lack of problem-solving skills. Yeah, that's it.

DAY 3
The kids and Fino woke up on our last day and said they needed a break from bike riding, so we decided to hike to The Bowl from Gorham Mountain (the kids liked exploring the cliffs on the mountain the day before) and maybe tackle the Beehive. We enjoyed the trails, but with the elevation gain to the summit of Gorham Mountain and then another bit of climbing to The Bowl, we decided to skip the Beehive and took the Ocean Drive Trail to loop back to our car.

The Beehive (rated "difficult" by the park service because of exposed ledges and cliffs) seemed too much for our bike-weary legs. Next time, we decided – like we needed a reason to return.

The events of this trip – the fun as well as the navigationally challenged – have been shared with much animation by the girls to anyone who will listen.

If you've never been to Acadia National Park, you really are missing out on a wonderful, relatively inexpensive family vacation. We stayed in a small cabin with an efficiency kitchen that kept our food costs minimal. The park fee was $10 for the week, and apart from the gas to drive there, we had no other expenses.

IF YOU GO
Maps of the park (including a detailed one of the carriage roads) to help you plan your trip: www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/maps.htm

EarthCache program at Acadia: www.nps.gov/acad/earthcache.htm

The Beaver Log, the park's official newspaper, lists all ranger-led programs at Acadia during the summer and fall: www.nps.gov/acad/parknews/newspaper.htm

Nearby lodging/camping listings: www.barharborinfo.com/lodging_frame2.html

Originally published in Raising Maine Magazine, July 2008