The cabin next to Your Scribe's property is for sale.

Actually, it's more than a cabin and that's why the asking price is $300,000.

Come to find out, the family wants to return to Oregon, from which they hail.

So they are selling their property in New Sharon.

It will be interesting to see if there are any buyers at that price.

New Sharon is between Augusta and Farmington, which means within a half-hour of several cities and Route 95.

But will people want to buy in the woods?

(New Sharon is not fashionable now, but I hate to say it is getting discovered).

What The Neighbors are offering is a large log cabin on 20 acres of land.

The wooded property runs down to the Sandy River, where you can fish, canoe and swim.

In addition to the cabin is a two-car garage with an apartment above it.

And there is a small "in-law" cottage on the property, where an in-law actually lived. Until she died, last year.

So there you are: three residential units, with 20 acres of fine land.

A disbursement of $300,000 wouldn't buy you a gardener's shack in Camden or Kennebunkport.

We'll see if buyers will bite on this figure in central Maine.

Notes1: If you read the blueblood classifieds in Down East, you would think there is no chance to ever buy waterfront property. But here are some more reasonable listings from the Franklin Journal, the paper of record in rural Franklin County.
- A cabin on 220 acres on Ballard Pond, near Temple, for $285,000.
- Cottage with two bedrooms, guest house and outbuilding on Worthley Pond, Peru, for $190,000.
- Camp with 100 feet of frontage on Kimball Pond, Vienna, for $174,500.
So there is hope.
All you need is money.

Bob the Woodsman is a good man who shouldn't be blamed for putting on hold my plan to become a lumber baron.

That's because Gary the Woodsman explained why Bob why hasn't started cutting my trees yet.

I am trying to have part of my 20-acre parcel thinned by a small-time logger.

I found a candidate, aka Bob the Woodsman, who said he would do it.

We even have a written agreement.

We plan to split the proceeds.

That was in May.

However, Bob the Woodsman has not entered the forest, saying it is too wet.

It's rained only a few times in August in Franklin County, and the road to my cabin is as dry at the thoroughfare the Joads took to leave the Dustbowl in the '30s.

So Your Scribe has been wondering why Bob hasn't started.

Well, my activity has fluctuated between "knitting my brow" and "scowling in frustration."

I chatted with Gary this weekend, who also works in the woods.

He noted that my land is at the bottom of a long hill, and moisture tends to gather there.

Also, it was unusually rainy this spring.

Gary added that the mills have stopped taking hardwood for the next two weeks, which implied that no one is buying oak and maple anyway.

The discussion with the cheerful Gary reminded me of how hard it is to be a woodsman.

The ability to make money is hemmed in on all sides.

The woods can be wet.

The equipment can break or get bogged down.

The pulp mills can stop buying.

The logger can sustain injury on any given day.

Equipment such as trucks and skidders are hugely expensive.

Big operations are employing massive and efficient tools, and running the small woodsmen out of business.

Logging and fishing are two of the most hazardous occupations in the country, a fact not lost on actuaries in the worker-compensation field.

And Maine has (or had) both in abundance.

Big international shipping operations have just about put Maine fishermen out of business.

Now well-financed lumber operations are starting to drive out the small woodsmen.

In light of these conditions, probably the best thing for me to do right now is stop complaining.

Bob the Woodsman says he'll get going in early September.

To which I say . . . go to it, at any pace that works.

The leading social institution in my part of Cabin Country is the Sandy River Farm Store.

It is located on Route 2, where the Sandy River runs through New Sharon.

It sells farm implements, household gadgets and small items that carpenters and farmers inevitably need.

Beyond its capacity to sell, it brings people together.

Those tacking up notices on its mammoth bulletin board can sell pets, or farm goods, or services ranging from bat control to babysitting.

Your Scribe found both his contractors there: the builder of my cabin and my (would-be) logger who is going to make me a lumber baron if he ever actually gets started.

Under the bulletin board sit local characters, mulling over weather, or taxes or local gossip.

The store has been there for more than 50 years, but has been doing especially well in the past decade.

Local management came in, and began selling coffee, sandwiches, and especially pizza.

Since it is the only store within several miles, it has customers coming in all day for snacks or quick meals.

Its shining moment is in November, when it serves as a tagging station for deer hunters.

Scores of hunters and hangers-on gather throughout the day, as the inert animals are weighed throughout the chilly days.

Last year they tagged 90 bucks and 89 does, according to the informal chalk board on the front porch.

In recent years Maine has welcomed email, mobile phones and now over-the-Net video.

But the country store still stands first in many communities as the No. 1 gathering spot for its denizens.

Notes1: One great thing about the Farm Store is that it gives credit. It takes credit cards, sure, but it also lets people sign for goods with the promise of paying "later."

Notes2: The store has a water tap outside that offers clean drinking water from a deep well. According to a sign above the tap, the well was discovered after an underground explosion in the mid-'50s.

Notes3: Politically, this is "red country." There are numerous patriotic wall signs supporting the war, as well as a declaration that the owner will shoot prospective robbers without asking questions.

Notes4: This Farm Store is like many throughout the state - small gathering spots that provide a center of communication for rural folks who like to visit. In doing so, these stores defy time.

A statistic in a recent tourist book about Maine stated there are 44 million "visitations" per year.

Could there be that many?

Granted, a visitation doesn't necessarily mean an overnight tourist.

A busload of senior citizens to the Kittery malls can mean 50 visitations.

The traffic going through airports in Portland and Bangor can mean thousands of visitations per day.

Still, the 44 million figure seems high.

Driving through Belgrade Lakes Village in mid-August, Your Scribe was struck by how empty is was.

Maybe everyone was tucked away in their waterfront rentals on a warm day but it didn't seem very busy.

Nor did Rockland in early July, when Your Scribe marched through on July 4.

But visiting Maine is one of the great delights of those in the eastern states and beyond.

With flying getting more sketchy each year, the tourist industry looks like it has a vibrant future.

Cape Cod, a key regional competitor, has gotten overrun.

Maine isn't very crowded at all, unless you are driving south on the Turnpike on a late Sunday afternoon.

Notes1: Your Scribe can't wait until the Common Ground Fair in late September. I plan to gather information from businesses that dig wells and harvest wood.

Notes2: The Land Use Regulation Commission was wise to stand tough against the Plum Creek construction magnates at Moosehead. The one consistent thing about "developers" is once they get their permits, they are almost impossible to control. Good that the LURC is making demands early.

Notes3: The vines in front of my cabin are growing so rapidly that each support post might be entwined by the end of summer. I haven't formally named the cabin but I might have to dub it Bittersweet after the large amount of the vine (invasive weed) that is climbing the outer walls and stanchions.

Negotiations between Your Scribe and Bob the Woodsman did not go well.

My goal is to nudge him off the dime to start cutting wood.

To recap, I have contracted with Bob to thin out some of the woods in which the cabin sits.

Some hardwood will be sold, and softwood will be felled so it doesn't fall on the roof.

But a call to Bob this weekend resulted in yet another explanation that it is still too wet in the woods for him to bring his equipment.

(An aside: "But Bob, there is a logger working across the road, and he is doing fine.")

So it goes.

Maybe in September, he said.

Observations:

- It was good to see that the logger who is working across the road has a permit from the Department of Conservation. He has left plenty of trees along the road, so the dirt thoroughfare still has its leafy character.

- Your Scribe made progress on the project to dig out part of the bank so we can launch the canoe in the river. I judiciously put in river stones along the bank to harden it for launching. It will still take some work, but it will be all natural.

- The cool weekend meant fewer bugs. In fact, I fell asleep at the river's edge, which can't be done when the insects are on the attack.

- The pumpkins are blossoming but there are no actual pumpkins yet. The corn is about 18 inches high. The corn was planted in mid-July, so who knows if it will produce ears before the frost.

- There are still no critters visible on the land, such as groundhogs and racoons. This puzzles me.

- I hope to have Bob cut up a couple piles of dry wood that are left over from two years ago. Or maybe I will take the plunge, and buy a chainsaw myself.

This weekend I find out if Bob the Woodsman is going to deliver.

My goal is to be a mini Lumber Baron.

Bob was going to thin out the 20 acres that surrounds my cabin.

I hope to make perhaps a thousand dollars from the hardwood that he cuts and carts off.

And I'd like him to knock down the aging pine and spruce trees on my parcel before some of them collapse on the cabin.

In recent weeks, Bob has said it's been too wet to get the skidder onto the land, which is in central Maine between Augusta and Farmington.

In May and June that was true.

But it hasn't rained much in the past few weeks.

It is my great hope that Bob has been at work.

If not, I will flag down a logger who is thinning the forest across the road.

I really want to get this project started.

Another hope this weekend is to get a road number from the local Post Office.

If I have a recorded number, I might be able to get the town's road department to plow down to my driveway this winter.

Then I could use the cabin through all but the most severe parts of the winter.

And I want to work on my launching area for the canoe, along the Sandy River.

This is a weekend of great expectations.

Here are some cabins on the market that look reasonable, in price and in photo:

Mariaville (due north of Ellsworth)" "3-bedroom cottage with three acres on Graham Lake, $175,000.

Dedham (between Bucksport and Bangor): "3 bedroom home in the pines and hemlocks with one acress on Phillips lake. Woodstove and skylights, $274.900"
1-800-639-4905.

Abbot (near Moosehead Lake): "New 2 bedroom cabin with 110 feet of land on Doe Pond. $125,000" (call 207-876-3441).

Forks (near Bingham) "Log cabin overlooking Lake Moxie. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. Full basement, kitchen and dining room. $210,000." 1-866-672-4108.

East Grand Lake, dubbed by the advertiser as the third largest lake in Maine, "Waterfront camps, excellent salmon and bass fishing, $145,000 to $214,000." 207-448-2440.

Could prices be coming down?

It came to me last weekend that I bought my canoe in 1992.

I drove to Old Town back then, and bought a bright red composite Penobscot model that is 16 feet, 9 inches long.

What a fine craft it has been.

We have launched it in water from Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, to the Round Pond public pier on the Pemaquid peninsula.

In terms of fresh water, it has been on the Kennebec River and many of the lakes in the Belgrade region.

And, of course, it has spent many hours on the Sandy River between New Sharon and Farmington, its home waters.

The only downside to the canoe has been putting it on the roof of the car.

Since Your Scribe has generally owned small economy autos no longer than a bath tub, it must have looked like the Queen Elizabeth atop a Chris Craft.

But I drove it around Maine with great pride.

Though I tried to listen to what the transport people at the sales office in Old Town said, I was never a whiz at strapping it tightly to the top of the vehicle.

On numerous occasions during the period when we transported it to water, passing motorists would beep and gesticulate to convey that the canoe was dangerously shifting to one side of the cartop.

But that is history.

The canoe is now permanantly perched on the river's edge, where it stays year-round.

If the hard winters of Franklin County are damaging it, there is no evidence to support that suspicion.

It still makes fine progress on the Sandy.

In the past year, erosion has claimed our launching area beside the river.

I am currently fashioning a new platform from which to put in, along a natural aperture where a small creek meets the river.

It has been a temptation to bring in a carpenter to install a wooden ramp and dock on the water.

But in our area the Sandy, believe it or not, has no docks or boat launches.

It is a "wild" river where boaters see nothing but trees and river bank.

I am proud that our big red canoe, now 14 years old, is still launched from a natural (if inconvenient) extension of the sandy bank.