Different angles on the same business!

Yesterday I attended the Board of Directors meeting of the Maine Tourism Association. The meeting was held at the Harpswell Inn down in Harpswell. The Inn is a beautiful spot looking out over the saltwater with a great Maine feel about it. They served us an outstanding lunch after the meeting that was one of the better meals I have enjoyed in a while.
 
At lunch I was fortunate to sit with Mac McKeever of LL Bean and Jay Friedlander of O’Naturals a natural foods restaurant in Portland. Of course we discussed our businesses and challenges. At one point in the conversation Jay asked me how I manage having such different facets of my business. I have written about this before and told him that I was simply in the conservation education business and that lobbying was very close to leading a canoe or fishing trip. That my primary activity in both facets was explaining to someone how things work in the natural world and how to see the connections. He immediately saw a connection and responded that in fact we were in similar businesses because at O’Naturals they think that they  educate folks on the value of eating local and organic foods. So it turns out that we are in similar businesses although at first glance not so at all.
 
Of course there is  snow just like we have right down on the coast but with a little more crust on top, they must have had a little more rain at the end of the last storm. I was surprised to see how much of the saltwater cove above the Inn was covered in ice. I was also surprised to see smelt shacks out on the Kennebec in Gardiner already. It has been colder than I thought this month of course I should have know by how fast the firewood is disappearing.
 
Light snow here last night and this morning we have maybe four inches of new snow to go on top of our snowpack. The good news is that it stuck to the ice in the driveway and walking around is not as treacherous as it was. It is also warmer with the overnight temperature up around twenty. That slight change is really noticeable as the house heats pretty easily with the wood stove above twenty outside.