This month is a big one for my family. Not only are we celebrating my older daughter’s 14th birthday (HOLLA!) but that very same day marks five years since we first moved to Maine!
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Rejected Houses Edition

This month is a big one for my family. Not only are we celebrating my older daughter’s 14th birthday (HOLLA!) but that very same day marks five years since we first moved to Maine!
It’s been a lo-o-o-ng winter here in Portland, Maine. Now nearly March, snow tickles the windowsills and blackens the streets. People warned us of the ugliness of this time when we moved here five years ago. They urged us to look inward, to remember that spring is on its way, to ignore the permafrost on every surface in this salt-lick of a city. But in truth, the snow itself, the mountainous banks lining every parking lot, even soot-gray, are a novelty.
A normal person who moved into a house where wild turkeys wandered the backyard might be inclined to ignore them until they went away. A normal person, once these turkeys disappeared, might describe the parting as fortunate. But since moving into our house, replete with flock of wild turkeys, my family and I have done our darnedest to bond with these big birds.
I’ve been having a conversation the past several weeks with the president of our local neighborhood association. My issue? Many homeowners along the main arterial through our neighborhood are neglecting to clear their sidewalks of snow, not just following a storm, but ever. Being that we live in MAINE, where we tend to get a lot of snow, this is a serious safety concern.
A friend recently posted this to her Facebook wall: