I had not been to Split Rock before, so went there, around 5.30pm, on my way to ‘Eastport‘, to check it out.
Saw a thin pair of legs poking from underneath a bright yellow (see above) ‘Indian Taco’ trailer. I casually inquired ‘do you need any help?‘.
Voice from underneath the trailer said: “grab that metal leg by you and pull it down“. That was the start … I was there for nearly 2 hours helping him get set up.
He then did this song for ME as a THANK YOU. WOW.
He performed a shorter version, on Saturday evening, for the crowds, under the tent. But, this is the FULL version.
WOW. I am so fortunate.
Blawej & I had fun together. My kind of man. We are roughly the same age. Much I can learn from him.
Click to ENLARGE.Click to ENLARGE. Link to this Facebook page.Click to ENLARGE. From above Facebook page.
There are NOT in ‘Eastport‘, Maine per se, but that is best known landmark.
Over the last few years I have had SOME, but alas NOT enough, interaction with this tribe — both near Eastport & North of ‘Calais’. But, I do NOT know them, alas, as I do my beloved ‘Navajo‘. I would love to rectify that. I would LIKE to make it up for this event. I missed it last year — because I had NOT heard of it, until it was done. This year, I started making inquiries before it was too late.
Took some digging yesterday & the Eastport Library helped me locate the Facebook page. Now at least I have somewhere to start from.
This was the first time I had the fortune of being able to visit. Previously, it was either COVID or I was there when they were closed.
Wow. A veritable “Aladdin’s Cave” of mouth-watering treasures. I must confess it was all too much to take in all at once. There is so much & much of it is just plain exquisite or gorgeous. To cap it all I had the very good fortune to meet one of the three women of ‘The Commons’ — Meg McGarvey. Talk about a class act. She was fascinating, had so much to tell & was so hospitable. I was blown away with her jewelry. Wow.
This was quite the experience. Given that I had made multiple stops along the way, e.g., the ‘Cobscook Institute‘, I hadn’t made it to the always enchanting ‘Eastport‘ till quite late in the afternoon. Meg had to close shop (quite literally) at 4, so we didn’t have much time. We exchanged business cards.
On my next visit to Eastport, which hopefully will be soon, ‘The Commons Eastport‘ will definitely be my 1st port of call. Hopefully Meg will be there. I will try to coordinate it with her — esp. as I want to take some pictures of all their treasures.
An interesting & educational YouTube video I found when researching for this post.
It was at the main dock in ‘Eastport‘, Maine, when I visited last Thursday. To begin with I was just seeing it headon, BUT I could tell it was BIG. Well no cat was ever more curious than I. I ambled over. WOW. It was full of ducts, pumps & other equipment — as you can see from the 2nd composite image. I thought it was some kind of dredging machine — probably harvesting some valuable minerals from the seabed. Well, I tend to saunter, look, peer over, take pictures. You can’t miss me. I had seen a deckhand & I was hoping I could catch him again. I was in LUCK. He came out & said something along the lines of: ‘I see you are interested‘. Heck, I was.
Nice young lad. He proceeded to educate me. Very patient. Answered all my questions.
He told me it was to ‘de-lice’ (delouse) — i.e., remove lice — from salmon.
I guess he ASSUMED that I realized that he was talking about farmed salmon contained within pens. NO, I had not made that connection at that point.
I had visions of this ship going out, in open waters, catching salmon & then delousing them.
I had NO IDEA that salmon got lice & that they needed delousing.
I eat farmed salmon from Maine, that I get from ‘Hannaford‘, at least two to three times a week. I had no idea about lice. Knew that fish got parasites but this was kind of new (though having kept fish for as many years as I have I should have remembered that they get ‘stuff’ growing on their scales).
I commented that this had to be expensive. Big SHIP with a crew of 7 (including the captain). It is owned by the company that operates the pens (outside of Eastport). This is part of the whole farming process.
They use hot water to remove the lice. The removed lice is dried and sold as fertilizer.
Just in the last half-hour I have learnt a LOT about this process. WOW! It is controversial. Check out this article (from which I got the above YouTube).
The ships even have a name. Thermolicer! That makes sense.
Well I was sure you would want to know all about this.
Calais, Maine, though its heyday is long past, is still a friendly, cheery, optimistic & quietly bustling town — mainly thanks to the steady stream of Canadians always crossing over from the three border crossings spanning the ‘Saint Croix River‘. In terms of architecture (i.e., many of the downtown buildings) it shares much with its ‘neighboring’ sister towns ‘Eastport‘ & ‘Machias‘. Though it once had a bustling waterfront, with upwards of 19 wooden piers jutting into the river, now its muddy banks only sport the rotting skeletons. Given that it too was a mill town one can also see similarities with ‘Millinocket‘.
Though Calais is pretty enough during the day, I found it to be resplendent this midweek night, with is full-moon. Enjoy.
