Buildings that heated with coal

I will add, that I really try to be upbeat on here and positive, and am sorry that the above post was so negative. If anyone is able to put a good spin on what is happening, I would like to hear something not so depressing. Unfortunately, at this time I just shake my head and swear...it really is a sad chain of events.

Again, I apologize for being negative...

I don't think there is any need to apologize for the truth NoSmoke, sometimes we don't know what is going on in other parts of this big country of ours. There is plenty of sawdust around here, probably because logging isn't big enough to attract much of the pellet industry until father East of me. It's mostly Amish & on a smaller scale & the dairy farmers are for the most part downsizing or going out all together. The same employment lies happen here with the fracking, there are a couple drilling outfits (mostly from Texas) they had a Hispanic crew & move from drill site to drill site, stay on site in a trailer & only on occasion eat at a local restaurant. I guess they get maybe some machine work & supplies locally & bought some pick-ups off the Dodge dealer but other than that few people if any hired. Our Governor trumped all local zoning laws so local municipalities can do little more than road bonding & telling people to have their well water tested but many can't afford that, just like all politics big on promises but short on results. Sorry for getting so far off subject but it is all energy related somewhere along the line.

I will add, that I really try to be upbeat on here and positive, and am sorry that the above post was so negative. If anyone is able to put a good spin on what is happening, I would like to hear something not so depressing. Unfortunately, at this time I just shake my head and swear...it really is a sad chain of events.

Again, I apologize for being negative...

Not sure how you put a positive spin on that. It seems to be a never ending tale of such stories in Maine. From early forests and mills to barren landscapes of immature trees and mono cultures of non native species(or just a mess of slash and ruts), the herring fishery and its boom and collapse(not one cannery left), the chicken houses all fallen in or gone from the feed tripling over night, and the dairy industry has been gone from my area for many years. Due to increased cost and gov. restrictions on price. I think Shoppee's Dairy was the last in the Machias area and the Bell family is trying to get an organic milk business going in the Cobscook Bay region. The Tidemill farm I think. They even pulled up the train tracks between Ellsworth and Calais because there is no reason to believe there will be a need in the near future. Nice 4 wheeler trail however.
Not all change is bad, but I don't see anything progressing up there except taxes and more restrictions on land use, or more directly, quaint villages on the edge of a national park, tourist crap like the Trenton area going into Bar Harbor, and the eventual loss of the harbor lands now enjoyed by fisherman. Greenvile is already there and will never be the same once the money people buy up the house lots. The locals are great as servants, just don't want to see ya any other time. As a lawyer was overheard to say(owned a large shore front development called Yoho Head), "This would be a great place if it weren't for the locals". No easy answers here, just different opinion as to what "progress" is.

How was that for negative?

Kevin

gotta get something in on topic!! I can think of several buildings in Machias that still have the access doors on the sidewalk, etc. where the coal chutes used to go. A lot of them have been removed in upgrades on main st.

We have the Amish here as well, and please do not get me started on them. I know for the majority of people, they are the ideal neighbors to have, and while it is VERY true there are worse ones to have, in the end they are people from away with lots of money who think they can manipulate the local community.

Where I live in Maine, we also have the yuppies moving in. With MOFGA next door, and Unity College, our area is attracting a yuppie/hippie crowd that is really putting a squeeze on local agriculture. There are so many start up farms, so many veggie farms, that land prices are high and it is getting tough to find rental land for agriculture. With 1200 cows, you cannot own enough of your own land to get the feed you need, and pay taxes on it too. But with the Amish moving in, buying large tracts of tillable land, and the yuppies buying the smaller tracts, land rentals have shot way up and we cannot find enough land in which to farm. Every time we find a new field we are interested in, it turns out, organizations with a lot of money, like Maine Farmlink, MOFGA and the Nature Conservancy, have already retained the rights to it. We have resorted to clearing forest to make room for more tillable land...and I have a lot more acres in which to convert. It is sad to see good forest go back to farmland, but with sawmills and paper mills really getting hurt by regulation, and society going more and more paperless, I am lucky I can sell the wood I do cut, and 90% of it now is for firewood.

I was saddened to hear of the reality in PA. I knew natural gas fracking was going on, but I assumed PA was experiencing a boom time. It is sad to hear that the area is not gleaning all they can from the short term boom that it probably will be. As I said, just because our area is in dire straits, that does not mean I wish other areas of the country were no better off. Hardly...I had hoped to hear better economic news from PA. What a shame when reality rears its ugly head and tells you what is truly going on...

All I can say is...buy coal AND VOTE!

freetown fred wrote:Amazing that some of us have lived through the asbestos & lead paint era did we really put a man on the moon

I remember as a kid playing with liquid mercury. It was used for cleaning gun barrels. And I am fine, I am fine.

I remember as a kid playing with liquid mercury.

I think we all did Flyer5, but I'm not so sure if I'm fine.

Kevin

We used to play with the mercury in science class,move and roll it all around and all comes back togather again

Shippensburg university still runs their powerhouse on coal but I think it's getting changed out in 2014. I also know that Newport elementary school in Newport pa still heats with coal. The high school used coal up until 2008. Also I may be wrong but I think west Chester university still uses coal. Good to see some of the proven stuff still in use instead of the new expensive and problematic geothermal crap out there.

BlackBetty06 wrote:Shippensburg university still runs their powerhouse on coal but I think it's getting changed out in 2014. I also know that Newport elementary school in Newport pa still heats with coal. The high school used coal up until 2008. Also I may be wrong but I think west Chester university still uses coal. Good to see some of the proven stuff still in use instead of the new expensive and problematic geothermal crap out there.

I went to ship from 1997-2001... I was amazed then that the school was still heated by coal... I wonder if they're going to convert to gas

Looks like they had a nice stash of coal in early september!

Found these plans of homes in the (very upscale) West End of Hartford, CT. If you look at the basements they have huge portions set aside for heating and/or stove coal.

http://emuseum.chs.org:8080/emuseum/vie ... images/223