Pig Roast 2007

The weather was less than certain but after setting up in the rain the sky opened up and all was perfect by the time our guests started to arrive. Food was excellent and the music even better.

Bach on the B3

Recorded this in 2006. B3 not sure what is going on.

Century Ride #4

Went out with 7 others members of the CCCB bike club. From Portland to Freedom, NH and back. Crossed the 2,000 mile mark for this year.

Here is the route

Nell goes for a ride

We have never treated our Schnauzer really like a dog. I don't think she minds too much. Always seems that she is game as long as she is with us. We let here off the bike and she runs along with us for exercise. She weights around 17 pounds but you really don't much know you have the weight on these bikes.

She also flies. Goes under the seat. Has flow to Seattle several times, St. John, Phoenix, Iowa. Never makes a sound. Sleeps until time to disembark.

Chebeague Island video

Put this together mostly on the laptop before leaving the island. The audio is stuff I recorded at home a couple weeks ago. Was the only audio on the laptop so made do with that.

Tech note on YouTube video setup: H.264 Quicktime compression, .mov, high, 425 x 320 pixels, 24 frames per second, auto keyframes, limit data rate to 1500k, optimized for streaming, 2 pass, AAC sound. 96 meg file for 7 mintues. Set to "Crop".

More from Chebeague

Just finishing our week on the island. Marie, David and Regina came over today on Marie's boat, The Lemon Shark. Perfect weather for almost the entire time. Been most relaxing. Did a little work, the cottage has wireless so easy to stay connected if you wish. Biked over 100 miles which is not easy given the island is 4 miles long. Could get used to this. My little keyboard with garage band let me keep up with the piano. Need a speaker but was fine for some practice while looking over the ocean. We are most lucky to have a spot like this just minutes from home. On Maries boat we will be back in Portland in a half hour. Good stuff.

See all the image here:

Chebeague Island 2

Chebeague Island vacation

We're on Chebeague Island this week. Will keep the photos coming as we go. Great place and the weather is perfect. Frank, Heather, Oriana and Flannery came over yesterday. Lewi came with Nell, Nance and I.

Click image below to see all:

Chebeague Island 2007

Robins nest in the pergola

Nance spotted our latest tenants.



Or go see the album

robins nest

Garden tour

Here are a few shots taken around the gardens.



Or click this image to see the photo album

447 Deering Summer 2007

Crossed 1,500 miles on the bike this year

Just passed the 1,500 mark today. Now you can see my online bike journal if you wish. Or here is the journal overview page.

Hilltop Century: Maine Bike Club

The Maine Bike Rally was this weekend. Maine Bike Club event. Did the Hilltop Century. 101.8 miles. Most aptly named as I have never done that many hills in one day. Did Blackstrap Road, Pleasant Hill Road, Glouster Hill Road. You see the patern. Took exactly 7 hours. Rode fast to start with a hurd and then as the hills kicked in I dropped off the pace. Was a great weather day. Party cloudy. Light winds. Put a new seat and a new back tire on the bike. All worked perfectly.

Finally, a pardon

Bush has never been big on pardons. This makes his commuting of the Scooter Libby sentance even more egregeous. His record in Texas is very clear. No mercy from this so called religious man. See this from the NYT, June 17, 2000 . Or this from the Atlantic, July/August 2003. Or this from the New York Review of Books, January 2005 . Another blow for our country. January 2009 is still a long, sad ways away.

A day in Kennebunkport with George and Putin

Drove to Biddeford and then biked with friends to the protest March. Paper said 1,700 people. Lots of people very upset about war, Dafur, Palestine, scandals of every type. Generally very calm and peaceful gathering. Great signs. Will fall on deaf ears.

Montgomery Design's Salmon Interpretive Panels

Nancy Montgomery, Montgomery Design planned, researched and designed these educational panels for Maine DOT.

Nell turns 12

Hard to believe. Nell turned 12 years old on June 20, 2007. We tried to have a hot dog party with a few other dog's but had to cancel. She has been a medical challenge but her hand made diet (beef heart, carrots, potatoes, brocolli, oatbran) plus a few pills seem to have done wonders for her. Thanks to Dr. Rita of Tender Touch or this day would not have come.

Piano recordings

I've been testing some recording techniques with my piano. Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Praeludium I by J. S. Bach (1685-1750) BWV 846. My goal is to learn all of these. Many year project at my pace. Recording as I go along. There is a site that links to pdfs of all the music if you want to read along. Bach music


Click here for audio player popup with my recordings of Bach Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I Note: have to allow popup windows for this to work.

Montgomery Design recent projects

We have recently launched or updated several websites. We helped guide Kennebec Mental Health Center through a comprehensive branding process. The name is now Kennebec Behavioral Health. We developed a new logo, taglines and byline. And a complete revise of the website. We tapped Google tools for the blog and tracking functions. Paypal is used to manage online donations. Visit the site.

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We created a logo, brochure and website for our wood flooring client's new location near Dubai, UAE. The HanseStar site features an intro video tour and we developed a database to feed the various types of floors and colors to the right sections of the site. Visit the site.

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This is an update of the Great Northern Hardwood Flooring site. Includes images we have art directed over the last year. We manage all the location production details, set design or locating sites, propping and models. We developed brochures and displays for retailers across North America. Printing is managed both locally and in China. The web site uses the same database structure to track brands withproducts and make it easy to add or modify colors. Visit the site.

Iowa Century

Well almost. 95+ miles. We had to round up. Dinner reservations. Sore knee, etc. all viable excuses. Flew home to Iowa for the weekend to help celebrate my dad's 88th birthday. Rode with brother Roger (now on his home turf), brother-in-law Bill (Vinton, IA) and their friend Lanny. Bill and Lanny really did the 100. We started in Conrad. To Beaman, Union, Whitten, Gifford and on to Eldora. A cement path around Pine Lake and back to the county roads across the corn and bean fields. On to Owasa and then to Hubbard for a BBQ in the parking lot of the local grocery store.

Very little traffic. Hit some wind. Striking how few people actually live on the farm land. Could ride miles between inhabited houses. Here is the route

Attic progress

Finally getting some time to work on the trim in the attic. Got the two halfit joined from two 10" poplar planks. Used "whacky board" for the inside curves. Got a new router to replace my dead Sears one. Used that with a flush trimming bit to give the inside curve after gluing up the whacky board. Made a big compass and marked out the outside curve and cut with a skillsaw.

Also have the little closet door done. Made up of poplar. 6' piano hinge. Nothing was even close to square so most of the work involved compensating for that.

Maine Century

Brother Roger and I rode our bikes 100 miles around Maine. Started at brother Stewart's new place near Gray. On to Yarmouth, Falmouth, Portland. Cross the bridge to South Portland. Took the trail out to Wainright Field then back on the road to Prout's Neck, Kettle Cove, Higgins Beach. Stopped for lunch at Two Lights. On to Fort Williams and back into Portland. Stopped home for a minute and then back up to Falmouth and Yarmouth. Stopped at Rosemont Market and talked with our friend and owner John Nayler. Ateeverything in the place. Back on the bikes to return to Stewart's. Had to add a few miles to turn the full 100 so wondered a bit to achieve that.

All in all the first 80 miles are easy. Those last few really start to stretch out your sense of time.


Click image below to see more photos.

Maine Century Bike Ride

Five Boro Bike Ride

May 6, 2007, New York City.

Why spend 12 hours driving 640 miles to ride a bike 40 miles? Well, guess it takes a certain type. Joe, Kyle and I being that types loaded the bikes on the Subaru (115,000 miles and counting) and left Portland at 6:45 am Sat. May 5. Arrived at Larry's place on Washington Park around noon. Weather was warm and perfect.

Here's the route

Got up early Sunday for the ride. Was in line at 7:30. This should not be a suprise. 32,000 bikers on the streets of NYC tends to jam things up. Not just for the cars (steets are closed for this), but for the bikers. We went nowhere for over an hour after the first bikes left. That was the first of many long waits.


You end up coming back to the start on the Staten Island Ferry. That too was a couple hours of wait time. Not counting. Really.



But, what the hell. Great day. Fun crossing town and over a number of excellent bridges with views of the city. Do we look happy?

Blown away

Portland lost so many large trees in the high winds and rain on April 16, 2007. This is just one of many that went down in Deering Oaks Park. The ground was saturated and with gusts up to 80 mph the trees just laid down. This one pulling a blanket of sod over its roots.

Reading now: The Tree. A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter. By Colin Tudge. IHT review