The Reillys are now in Sprucewold. We leave New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, and arrive in Maine, The Way Life Should Be, five days later. Then we realize again how fortunate we are to live in these two special, beautiful states. Dotty, Doug, and Cinnamon Reilly made the trip to Sprucewold this year having stayed in New Mexico last year due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. Happily our cabin was in better shape than we expected after being empty for two years. Dotty keeps singing the praises of dryer sheets and mint tea bags as good ways to keep mice and other critters at bay. We are now enjoying a visit from our son, Sean, who has not been able to come for several years. More guests are expected as the summer continues. Like Doug Smith said, folks are making up for the past summer.

Sprucewold held its welcome reception on Saturday, July 10; it was postponed a week due to rain. Ralph Kimball gave a short welcome to the several dozen attendees. We chatted with the Jaegers, the Kahns (their Linekin waterfront cabin is for sale), Kevin Roche, Racheal Schwartz, a mushroom hunter (the hunting's good now), Tom Thompson, and others. Tom worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; he was at Three Mile Island when Unit 1's core melted. He'd also visited Los Alamos National Lab, so he and Doug had much to chat about.

The Reilly family is often best known by our white dogs. Cinnamon is our 6th Samoyed dog; she's a healthy, happy, frisky lady who just celebrated her 10th birthday. We picked her up in Boise, Idaho in early April. Some may remember that Shuba, our previous Samoyed always road shotgun during her 22 trips to or from Maine. We now have a 4-door SUV, so Cinnamon rides in back.

It was nice to have lobster rolls for lunch when we arrived, and also nice to wake up to the sound of lobster boats the next morning. Later there was fog and then foghorns. Fog is not that common in Los Alamos. We measured over 4+" of rain here one morning; that's one-third of the annual precipitation at our NM house. Add the 3+" later and you have 2" more than the average annual precipitation of our entire state. As you've read, the west, especially the southwest, is experiencing a severe and long-lasting drought. Our wildfire season has been, so far, less severe than states further west. We hope it will remain that way and not cut our stay in Maine short. We look forward to renewing old friendships and getting to know all those new to Sprucewold.

The Sprucewold annual meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 7 on Zoom. An invitation to the meeting will be sent out on Friday, Aug. 6. We are also planning our second community event for that evening.  Please stay tuned for details.

Firewise programs: We have two programs whose dates are fast approaching. The Chipping Program is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 10 and the Firewise Cabin Assessment Program is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 18. The Chipping Program is filling up and we have room for four more cabin assessments. If you have an interest in either of these programs or would like more information about either program, please email Ralph Kimball at ralphkimball@charter.net