When Margaret — known today as Peg to everyone in Lincolnville — Drinkwater Miller was a little girl, living a mile from the nearest road that went anywhere (Belfast Road Route 52), a few other families still lived on Vancycle Road which went through to Belmont’s Hall Corner. Her parents, Grover Cleveland and Cora Gray Drinkwater, were a farming couple, each doing the work as needed. They were helped out by their three big, strapping sons – Clarence, Harold and Lloyd. During mud season, the six weeks or so it took for the ground to thaw out and dry up every spring, the teen-aged Lloyd hiked down every day to Grange Corner (where Vancycle came into Belfast Road) to meet the rural mail carrier’s car, take Vancycle’s mail and deliver it on foot all the way through to Belmont.  

By the time little Margaret came along her brothers were nearly grown up. One by one, throughout her childhood the remaining neighbors moved away or died, nobody wanted their old places, and the road got lonelier and lonelier. Finally, Grover and Cora packed up, took their daughter and moved to Grover’s parents’ farm on Prescott Hill in Northport. Many years later, when Cora was an old woman living in a nursing home, Lloyd passed the time during his visits with her by asking her to remember the families in the order they lived along Vancycle back when she was a bride. She recalled thirteen. Read more in Staying Put in Lincolnville: 1900-1950.

During the decades after the Drinkwaters left, the road beyond their place deteriorated to the point where it was closed. For much of the time, until it was bought by painter Neil Welliver and his wife Polly in the late 1960s, the Drinkwater farm was abandoned. The only other house on the road by then was the large, rambling place on the brow of the hill overlooking Pitcher Pond and the ocean beyond, where the Cilleys had a chicken farm in the 1940s and 50s. In 1974 Taylor and Dale Mudge bought it, and erected a “new” barn, one they’d dismantled on Slab City Road and rebuilt on Vancycle Road.  They raised four children on the farm, and kept sheep, pigs and chickens. During this time Taylor founded the State of Maine Cheese Company.

In 1993 the farm was bought by Robyn and Bob Metcalf who named it Kelmscott Farm and began raising rare and disappearing breeds of domestic animals. The farm was open to the public, and became a popular local attraction for several years. In 2010 the farm, by now an elaborate collection of buildings and barns, was sold again, to Drs. Garo Armen and Alice Saraydarian who renamed it Ararat Farm. The farm managers are Jed Beach and Emilia Carbone who are raising their son on the farm.

Vancycle, a road to nowhere with not much going on in Peg Miller’s childhood, is today a beehive of activity: five separate agricultural endeavors are unfolding along the mile before it deadends on the way to Belmont. First up, across from Ararat Farm is Sam Mudge’s Grange Corner Farm where “fields of rye and wheat are starting to deepen into lovely shades of gold and green”. Sam, who grew up across the road when his parents were raising sheep, now grows certified organic wheat, rye, barley, and corn.  Also up on that parcel is Duck Trap River Hop Farm, operated by Taylor Mudge and Jim Sady; hops, of course, are those flavorful little flowers that make beer distinctive.

Continue up Vancycle a bit further to Donkey Universe Farm where Josh Gerritson and Marya Gelvosa raise organic pastured eggs, pastured Heritage chicken, and forage-raised Heritage pork. Finally, nearing the end of the road are Elderflower Farm’s blueberry fields, dotted with the cellarholes of Cora Drinkwater’s memory. Briar Lyons and Jon Fishman will begin harvesting in the next week or two, and are looking for a handful of folks to help with the harvest: mail to:elderflowerfarm@gmail.com

The Friday Farmers’ Market at Dot’s is a great place to shop, and to grab lunch – grilled burgers - beef, lamb, or buffalo, maybe chicken or sausage, cooking on the barbecue grill. The vendors offer organically grown produce, grain, eggs, and chicken, as well as maple syrup.

Quite a busy week is coming up in Lincolnville, starting with Vacation Bible School, the VBS of many childhood memories. Pastor Dave Pouchot of Crossroads Community Baptist Church and his wife, Marian, run it at their home, 2266 Belfast Road, five evenings this week, Monday through Friday, 5:30-8 p.m. for children age 3 through sixth grade; contact 594-7212 for more information. Although C.C.B.C. doesn’t yet have a church building (they meet every Sunday at the Lincolnville School), that doesn’t stop them from hosting several community activities throughout the year – VBS, free-to-all barbecues, and coming up, a free Family Block Party on Sat, Aug 2, at Breezemere Park in Lincolnville Center from 5- 7 p.m. More details next week.

By the way, if you travel Belfast Road, you have no doubt noticed the sign marking the future home of the church. With so much energy in that congregation, they’re sure to get it done!

The Lincolnville Historical Society is bringing another of their monthly programs to the Library on Wednesday the 23rd, 7 p.m.,  when Walt Simmons will speak on Lincolnville Salmon Wherries. These boats were specifically developed for the salmon fishery that once thrived along our coast, and Walt probably knows more about them than anyone. He’s been building them for forty years at his shop on Duck Trap Road, and has written several books about them and other small craft.

Our new Jackie Young Watts Open Air Museum has one on display, a small wherry that was 10-year-old Osborne Wade’s first boat in 1898; if it’s not raining the group will go outside to see it for part of the program.

Beyond the Sea, located at the Beach on Frohock Bridge, is hosting a week-end-long book festival, Friday through Sunday the 25th through 27th, featuring author talks, bookbinding all day Saturday, children activities, self-publishing programs, and lots more, open to all. See the schedule to find events that interest you.

Coleman Pond Association holds its annual meeting Saturday the 26th, 9 a.m.-noon at Whitney Oppersdorff’s studio, the third left on Brawn Road which is off Slab City Road. This year’s speaker is Claire Enterline from the Department of Marine Resources who will discuss the benefits to the ecosystem from alewives and other migratory fish that may use the new fishway on Coleman.

Back in May, Coleman Pond was stocked with about 1,500 alewives, pumped in from a D.M.R.  truck; this amounts to about 6 fish per acre of pond. The commitment is to stock annually for four years, the length of time it takes alewives to mature and return to the pond.

Sunday afternoon, July 27, the third annual Library Old Fashioned Summer Picnic and Auction will be held at the Lincolnville Boat Club in the Center. Once again, Rose and Peter Thomas of Dolce Vita Farm and Bakery will bring their delicious pulled pork and vegetarian baked beans on homemade rolls. All is baked in their wood-fired oven. The meal starts at 5 p.m. and includes several homemade salads and Kathleen Oliver’s cookies. If you know Lincolnville, you’ll get there promptly at 5!

After the meal Rosey Gerry will start the auction with some 25  items, all donated by local businesses and individuals. See the list in the sidebar. A Rosey Gerry auction is not to be missed: lots of laughs are guaranteed. And best of all, all proceeds go to the ongoing operation of the Lincolnville Community Library.

Librarian Sheila Polson puts together most of the programs so many have been enjoying this past year, including last week’s African mask making with Nanci Kendall. Twelve children and several adults spent a fun morning hearing Nanci tell African folk tales, and then showing them how to make their own masks. 

A reminder from Gene Stinson that the deadline for buying tickets to the 109th Camden High School Alumni Banquet is August 1; tickets, which are $30 each, won’t be available at the door. The Banquet will be held Friday, August 8th in the Islesboro Ballroom at Point Lookout, 67 Atlantic Highway, Northport. Doors open at 4 p.m. for a social hour and Silent Auction; dinner will be served at 6 p.m. with a cash bar open from 4-8 p.m. Reserved seating for reunion classes of 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959, and 1964. Make out checks to “CHS Alumni Association”; send to Sheila McFarland, 448 Youngtown Road, Lincolnville 04849 along with a SASE so Sheila can send out your tickets.

The second annual Miles for Meals 5K, from the Spectrum Generations Waldo Community Center, 18 Merriam Rd. to the Belfast Soup Kitchen, 9  Field Street, Belfast will be run on Saturday, August 2. Registration is $6 and pledges of $6 per kilometer are optional. Each $6 helps cover the cost of one meal for a community member. Contact Allison, 338-1190 to register.

According to a recent presentation by the Knox County Fish & Wildlife Association at Alford Lake’s Beaver Lodge, discarding rubber bait – worms, frogs, salamanders – into the lake is killing both fish and the loons that eat the fish. The rubber bait is too big to pass through the animals’ digestive system and kills them. If you’re a fisherman, or perhaps have a rental cottage on a lake, this is information to pass around.

This past Friday evening our dog, Fritz, was terrified by the sound of what must have been some sort of cannon, deep, booming sounds, seemingly  coming from somewhere up Beach Road. So terrified that he bent the door and broke the wire bars of his dog kennel. Fritz has slept in that kennel every night of his two years with us, but on Friday he destroyed it. A friend’s chihuahua wrapped himself around her neck he was so frightened. I don’t care who is doing this, I just hope they will stop when they hear how this sound affects animals. At the time we were debating and voting on the fireworks ordinance one of the opponents wrote that people would “show common sense” when using them. Now’s the time.

Lawn “art” is appearing in our neighborhood this summer, including a lawn mowing couple (the way life should be??), and, further up the road, a mobile chicken coop. My husband pointed out that the chicken is fake, even though every time we pass by it’s in a different position. Long-time readers of my column may remember the cardinal, sitting on Paul Hyatt’s Youngtown Road fence, that Wally envied. We never get cardinals at Sleepy Hollow, and he wondered what Paul’s secret was. The secret? It was a fake cardinal. Fool him once, shame on you. Fool him twice....well, you know the rest.

To be included in This Week in Lincolnville, contact Diane, ragrugs@midcoast.com with events, family milestones, wildlife sightings, anything to do with our town.