Bad Beaver Publishing

Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year
from BAD BEAVER FARM!

From Carol and Tom,
At the end of February, Carol fell on the ice in Dog Poop Alley and suffered a radial head fracture of the elbow. The whole story can be found on her blog at:
http://badbeaverfarm.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/10/the-saga-of-my-broken-arm/ Contrary to medical advice, Carol took her cast off and signed up for a strength training class for senior women. She worked out with 80+ year old women doing weights and resistance training with those lovely ladies until she was able to pick her nose with her left hand. Her arm was completely healed in less than 6 weeks thanks to those feisty old gals. (And now she wears YakTraks to get old deaf Gladys out of the compost pile at night.)

Carol’s book Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart, A Midwife’s Saga, became a run-away best-seller and was approved as a Sociology textbook for use in all colleges in the US. That’s what happens when you get this old…everything you did in the past is now considered to be of historical significance. The original manuscript of LHLH is in the Margaret Sanger Archives at Smith College.

In March, Tom and his brother, Lee, left for an epic cross-country motorcycle trip on their BMW GSs. They were gone for 2 weeks and got as far as Tucson, Arizona. They froze their nuts off on the way back but they made it home safe and sound.

Tom is working on getting a patent on an invention he developed called The Bad Beaver Shingle Shortcut. It’s a gizmo that makes sidewall shingling a breeze. He demonstrated it while shingling our little cabin in Ellsworth, CAMP KWITCHABITCHIN, with cedar shingles made from our own cedar trees. He says I can’t say anymore about it because it is Top Secret. Tom is still a very busy beaver and despite the downturn in the economy, he is over-committed with building jobs as usual.

On July 3rd, we did our annual ride in the URAL to the top of Mount Cadillac at dawn to watch the sunrise for our SIXTH wedding anniversary (Tom says it feels more like 60.) Brother Lee and his girlfriend, Nancy Benedix, rode in their URAL with us. It is such a beautiful ride watching that breathtaking ocean view winding up and down the mountain in the sidecar. What a blessing. Later that day, we had our annual Lobstah Bash at The SeaWitch with a boat-load of relatives and friends and much crustacean body parts.

In mid-September, Carol took a course with NH Fish and Game called “Field Dressing Big Game.” The story can be found on her blog at: http://badbeaverfarm.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/15/the-gutters-5/

THE NEW BARN AT BAD BEAVER!

In late September, Tom finally realized his dream and began work on his barn at Bad Beaver. Liam (AKA “Casey”) O’Brien came to stay with us at the Beeve for two weeks to help Tom get it built. The barn is maniacally engineered. Tom has been building it in his brain for years. It is insane. The second floor is supported with 4 enormous (30’) steel I beams from a NH highway overpass. The whole thing went up like a giant erector set with the help of his 2 LULLS. Now Tom can drive all his equipment around inside the barn without being hampered by columns. (A must have, apparently, in a man-cave.)

There are 120 roof rafters in the barn. Tom cut all the lumber for the barn from our own trees with his sawmill! The roof rafters are HUGE. They are 2 x 10 x 30’ and weigh 150 lbs. each. Tom physically lifted every single one up to Liam who was waiting up on a cat-walk. They got all 120 rafters in place in one day. Lots of Ibuprophen for dinner that night.

Tom and Liam pushed like hell but they got it done in 13 days.
DAY THIRTEEN ~ 10/8/11. The barn is 30’ x 70’, 4200 sq.ft. Designed and engineered by Tom Lajoie, the baddest dam beaver of them all.

The barn looks like an antique New England barn from the drive and the gable ends. The far-side has 5 huge bays for all of Tom’s equipment. A great quote overheard from Tom describing his structure, “The first impression of the barn is one of New England tranquility. The far-side looks like JiffyLube.”

Milan still lives in Bar Harbor with his girlfriend, Nina Donghia. They have a quaint little cottage at the base of Mount Cadillac. This is great for us because we get to see them when we go to Ellsworth. They have a band, Coke Weed, that is very popular in Maine. Their new video just came out:

Coke Weed – Magpie
www.youtube.com
The second single from our new album – available 2012.

I absolutely adore this song. Milan writes the music and Nina is the singer. Hauntingly beautiful.

Lastly, we put our house in NH on the market with LandVest in early December. http://landvest.com/property/13896980/585-Hopkinton-Road-Hopkinton-NH-03229 It is a huge move for us but we are ready to commit to Maine for the long haul. The real estate market is about as shitty as it’s ever been…but we decided to pull the plug on this thing and see what happens. We’ve already had one showing. Actually, if Hopkinton does sell immediately…we’re going to be living in JiffyLube.

We hope that you are healthy and content and joyful. We send you our love and best wishes for 2012.
SMOOCH! Carol and Tom, Gladys (who is still going strong at 15), Phaedra Louise, “foster dog” Matilda, Taboulie (AKA: Catzilla), Shrimpy and all the chickens.