I spent Friday fishing the upper Androscoggin River above Bethel with Dan Tarkinson of Fly Fishing in Maine. We fish together at least once a year and this year we decided to fish that stretch of river for trout. We had a beautiful day, cool but not to cool and perfectly clear. The fishing was very good we each had a number of both rainbow and brown trout during the day. Not to mention a number of trophy chubs that kept us alert.
Today was one of those cool fall days that serve as a reminder of what is coming. When I pushed the boat off of the trailer I could see the birds working on a school of stripers that had bait pushed to the surface. The wind was blowing harder than I like it to first thing in the morning and the sky was not crystal clear but you could tell that it would be not long after sun up. It was cool enough to have me wearing a couple of layers for warmth and my rain jacket to keep the wind off. The leaves are getting pretty far along with changing their colors even down on the coast.
I started to cut and split our firewood for the coming winter this morning. When I was younger cutting it to length took one day. But now that I am 50 I work for a couple of hours in the morning and then get cleaned up and sit at my desk for the rest of the day. Partly because I am not as able to handle a chain saw all day and partly because I now have work to do at my desk, given this slower pace it should take all week to get six cords of tree length firewood sized for the Jotul 118 and most of the weekend to get it split.
