Some of the things I remember doing as I grew up in Maine involved different aspects of the lifestyle available in the that particular state. From what I remember it was a pretty quiet area near the ocean. We lived in a 2 story Dutch Colonial style house on 52 acres of woods. Pretty much the only cleared area was the main yard around the house and barn. There was an area where my maternal grandparents had a mobile home on our property and a large garden where my family grew a lot of our own vegetables.

Our house literally sat on the edge of a ledge. There was about a 2' wide strip between the back of the house and a long drop down to the ground below. In the winter when our yard was covered in the magical white stuff we would sled down this incredible decline and if you didn't stop in time you would end up in the trees. And when the snowplow would come clear our long driveway and push the snow up near our barn we could make huge snow creations. From tunnels through the snow to 'forts' made from snow packed in snow molds that you always seemed to get for christmas. I heard that one winter, my older brother Paul, slid off the garage and down the packed snow and straight down the hill. He got going to such a speed that he ended up splitting his head open when he came to an abrupt stop.

Several areas around the property held ponds of water and in the winter they would freeze over. I never owned a pair of ice skates, but that never stopped us from sliding all over the ice and busting our tail bones on numerous occasions. Of course we would wait near the radio in the morning to hear if it was a snow day, just so we could stay home. One year we had so many snow days we had to go to school on a couple of saturdays to make up the time.

Above is a view of the front yard and part of the house I grew up in, not a great picture, but an idea at least.

I only spent 8 winters in Maine, but there was a lot of memories tied to this home.  And I will touch on more next time.....