mother nature at her finest

what i love most about our time in maine
is the safe haven my husband has created
for all the creatures
and that duke doesn't bother
from the chipmunks

to the birds

to the grey squirrels (not the red ones)

we've even had some visits from a woodchuck and some raccoons
but this one...
mother nature is not at her finest...

a chipmunk photoshoot

remember the safe haven for nature i described
that my husband has made
besides having nature all around you
it has other benefits
like offering photoshoot opportunities that aren't the norm

amy and i found this scale while antiquing one year
and sean and i turned it into a bird feeder

that is enjoyed by all creatures, great and small, at all times of the day and night
like birds, chipmunks, squirrels and even raccoons

it was so much fun snapping away
while this little guy filled his cheeks to the brim

i realize the pics aren't the sharpest but they sure are cute!!!

migration north - day 9

today was our last day of the trip
we made one stop in rangley, maine
where nothing was really open yet
which was fine as we were anxious to get to camp

migration north - day 8

today we headed to littleton, new hampshire
via the back roads of vermont
i like to say that today we ate our way through vermont
first stop was ben & jerry's
the tour wasn't that great
but the taste test of a new flavor at the end made up for it
and because i haven't shown duke in a while
here he is doing what he does best

i was sad to see this in the ice cream graveyard :(

next stop was cabot cheese
i highly recommend this tour!
plus being able to taste all the cheeses made it even better
cuz i love cheese!
when we left cabot we made a wrong turn
which when you're driving a 30 foot rv
doesn't make it very easy to correct

so we ended up down a lot of narrow, dirt roads

before we finally reached the "highway"

our campsite welcomed us with this

perhaps we are headed to maine too early this year!

migration north - day 7

today we headed to saugerties, new york
but we had a special stop on the way
hershey's chocolate world!!!
we learned how to taste chocolate

which sean had a very hard time with
as he wanted to just chew it - ha!
we also got to make our own chocolate bar

which you got to pick the fillings

watch it make its way through the process

and even design our own cover

since we hadn't had enough sweets
we ended the day with a campfire
and smores

migration north - day 6

today we decided to head straight to our campsite
in gardners, pennsylvania
so we could enjoy being in one place for a little while
it was so cold we had to stay inside
but could only get 3 channels
so we watched reruns of
all in the family
the jeffersons
and good times
my how times have changed!

migration north - day 5

today we went under a mountain
as far as the empire state building is tall
to see a waterfall

no one knows where it comes from

but the story of how it was discovered was amazing

and to get to the falls required some tight quarts

these were the ruby falls in chattanooga, tennessee

oh and the trip to get there was interested
as it required some really windy roads
a low bridge and an interesting parking place
of which this picture doesn't do it justice

our stop for the night was fort chiswell, virginia
were we enjoyed pizzas on the picnic table
with the aroma of manure