Our Always Fair and Balanced Lobster Trap Tree Poll and Gloucester’s Lobster Trap Tree Gets A Helping Hand From Our Awesome Fire Department!

vote in the poll mid way down in this post

Don’t forget to bring your children down to Art Haven to paint a buoy to adorn the tree.  That’s what separates our lobster trap tree from all those horribly disfigured monstrosity lobster trap trees up in Maine that are all built out of simply traps and cheap pre-made ribbons imported from China and manufactured in sweat shops with unfair labor practices.

Compare our Tree decorated with heart felt appreciation for our lobster industry and hard working fishermen by sweet adoring children form the Gloucester Community to the abomination seen below-

Gloucester’s Lobster Trap Tree Decorated With Hand Painted Buoys By The Loving Appreciative Children Of Gloucester MA-

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vs.

Provincetown lobster trap tree adorned with cheap imported Chinese pre-made slave labor ribbons-

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Isn’t Provincetown where all the gays are?  I know the gays are better than this, much more creative and artistic.  Be better Provincetown, you’re not representing well here- at all.

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Then you got the terribly disfigured one from Maine where it looks more like a Christmas Spike than a Christmas Tree-

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Here we go folks, the third year of our fair and balanced GMG Lobster Trap Tree poll-

When our awesome Fire Department isn’t busy saving folks from horrific fires or rescuing cats from trees they make themselves available to help adorn The World’s Greatest Lobster Trap Tree With the lobster trap wire star that Russell Hobbs and his wife Melissa built back in 2009.

Yesterday was the day that Ed and the Crew from Art Haven strung the lights on the Lobster Trap Tree. Thanks David Brooks for the photos.

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Lobster Trap Tree Star Built By Russell and Melissa Hobbs

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Joey C

Gloucester Fire Department Places The Star Photos From Brianmoc

Hey Ladies- Head Downtown Gloucester For Ladies Night- Get Tanked On Cheap Rum Punch and Drop Some- Cash December 6th

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The growing popularity of Ladies Night in Downtown Gloucester is irrefutable. This has become a monster night out for yoga pant wearing prozac popping mommies.  Go get your cheap rum punch and cheese and cracker swagger on Downtown December 6th!

(and don’t forget to drop some cash)  Shop local baby!

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Community Stuff 12/3/12

THANK YOU

The Friends of Seacoast Holiday Fair held on December 1, 2012 was a great success made possible only by the generosity of the following merchants and volunteers:
The Liquor Locker, Seabreeze Liquor, Ryan & Wood Distillery, Cape Ann Liquor, Bank Gloucester, Stop & Shop, Lisa Leahy, Joey Ciaramitaro, Rudy Macchi, Jerry Nicastro , Debbie Sheedy,  and  Linda Rogers who donated the popular lighthouses of the United States.

Thank you Vince Scola, Florence Martin, Ann Letendre who sold the cookies made by so many wonderful ladies. Donna Saunders of the Amvet Ladies Auxillary #32.

To the caring staff at Seacoast Tom Doucette, Paul Spinole, Matt Putanasuu, Jennifer Shairs, Kerry Arsenault, Linda Cooney, and Dolly Prevost.

Thanks to David Cox who came and took pictures of the children and residents with Santa Claus and for the beautiful framed ocean scene picture he donated.  To the many vendors who came to sell their wares.
 
A special thanks to all the hard working members of the Friends of Seacoast, who baked cookies, made gift baskets, sold raffle tickets to the 30 bottle Wine Cellar Raffle, and worked the various tables and gave up the day away from their families.
Angela Ciaramitaro, Pat Ciaramitaro, Rosalie Nicastro, Buzz Mc Eachern, Maryann Amero, Jane & Vincent Pallazola, Meg Mc Cann, J.D Mc Eachern, Sam Santuccio, Joanne Waalewyn, and Tom Lattof

Thanks to Alison Cox, our Activities Director and Stephen Doyle for all their help and support.

Congratulations to the winner of the 30 bottle wine raffle won by Paul Ciluffo. and to the winners of the several baskets, Cathy Mortillaro, Helen Kimmence, Sharon Crowley, Sam Santuccio, Chris Pantano, and G. Selig

The proceeds will be used to provide meaningful social activities and entertainment for our residents.

Karen Mc Cann, Gen Chrm
Holiday Fair


Video- Schooner Adventure Homecoming Trip From Bath Maine Circa 1987 From Ron Gilson

Listen To Ron Tell It Just The Way It Went Down

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To Our Contributors: Let’s Keep Pushing!!!!

Let’s Earn This Every Single Day!

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  • 2012 BONS (Best of North Shore) Magazine Awards For Best Blog Editors Choice and Best Blog Readers Choice

  • GMG Wins CBS Boston Most Valuable Blogger

    GMG Wins CBS Boston Most Valuable Blogger

LETS  DO THIS!

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Bananas

The fourth year of the GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Video Series where we walk up and down Main Street and try to capture as many retailers as we can and highlight their best gift ideas one a day every day leading up to Christmas.

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2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Premier Imprints
2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series The Cave

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Lone Gull

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Kids Unlimited
2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series- Harbor Loop Gifts
2012 Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series- Pleasant Street Tea and Coffee Co

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Lobster Tagging Project

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department in cooperation with the University of New Hampshire is in the process of trying to identify areas in New Hampshire state waters with aggregations of large reproductive female lobsters and track their movements.  Though we’ll be looking a variety of other information from this study, this is the major objective.  We’ll also be tagging smaller females and possibly some males so that we can compare their movements with the larger animals and identify if they’re undertaking seasonal migrations.

We hope to tag a total of 2400 lobsters by November of 2013.  Thus far (November 2012) we’ve tagged 700 lobsters and lobstermen have provided recapture information on approximately 100 lobsters.  We really want to spread the word so that fishermen will call us and report tagged lobsters.  This information will give us a better understanding of the movements associated with lobsters in the Gulf of Maine.  As an incentive for lobstermen to report tagged lobsters there will be a raffle held at the end of 2012, 2013 and 2014, three names will be chosen each year and winners of the raffle will be given a 50 dollar gift certificate to New England Marine Industrial or a Grunden’s  hooded sweatshirt.

Though we’re also very interested in finer scale movements within the State, perhaps our most interesting tag returns have come from other states.  We’ve had two lobsters that were caught near Portland Maine and had moved over thirty miles.  We’ve also had a few reports from fishermen in the Gloucester that have caught tagged lobsters in their traps.  Below you’ll find a Google Map showing the movement of a lobster that was tagged on 9/21/2012 near the Isles of Shoals and was recaptured on 11/12/2012 near Gloucester, it was estimated that this lobster moved approximately 22 miles.

If you catch a tagged lobster, we’re interested in the following information:

Date of Capture:
Tag#:
Sex:
Latitude (Loran is fine):
Longitude:
Did Lobster have eggs:
V-Notch:
New Shell or Old Shell:

Please Call New Hampshire Fish and Game at 603-868-1095 and ask for
Joshua Carloni or just e-mail me at joshua.carloni@wildlife.nh.gov. 

Thanks for all your help!

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Community Photos 12/2/12

Summer Nostalgia from Christian Derobert

Christian writes-

When we get the first snow I like to look at pictures from the summer and think "6 months to go"

Appleton Farm Cheeses Available Locally!

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Stock up on holiday cheeses at Appleton Farms’ Dairy Store…we’ve got farmstead cheddar, triple cream and a variety of herbed rounds! We’re open Mon-Fri 11am-6pm and Sat & Sun 10am-4pm!. See you at the farm!

www.thetrustees.org/dairy

FROM GRASS TO MILK TO CHEESE TO YOU

Our grass-munching Jersey herd is making history at the farm. Thanks to quality pastures and feed, careful and knowledgable cow-handling and expert cheese making, our dairy store is chock-full of tasty farmstead products, just in time for the holidays. So how does this happen?

FROM GRASS

Appleton Farms’ jersey herd eats about an acre of pasture a day during the growing season (late April to early November).  With 80 acres for grazing, the dairy herd is rotational grazed, allowing pasture to rest for three weeks to month between grazings, and providing the cows with the finest in grass. During the winter months, the herd feeds on more than 1,000 round bales and 5,000 square bales hayed at the farm. The fields are carefully managed by the farms field and equipment crew, maintaining a diverse blend of nutrient-rich grasses like orchard grass, timothy grass and clover in wetter fields and alfalfa and orchard in drier fields. In addition the crew spreads the farms compost on the fields two times a year. Its our high quality prime hayland and pastures that really fuels our cows!

TO MILK

It starts at 4am as the morning dairy crew pushes the cows in from pasture. The morning milker preps the machines for while the feeder grains the cows and feeds the heifers and calves. As the milking gets underway at 4:30am, the feeder also tends to a slew of chores throughout the morning, including scraping loafing sheds and fixing fencing. When milking is done, around 6am, the crew pushes the cows out to pasture (or to the loafing shed in winter). The “late” crew arrives at 7am, allowing some overlap for the staff to check-in with a short coffee break. They’ll jump in with chores like bedding barns and making sure all the equipment in and around the barn is working. The morning crew’s day ends around 1pm, and the afternoon schedule of chores and milking and feeding wraps by 5pm. Of course, there’s the evening night check on the heard. And over the course of the year there’s breeding, health checks, calving, setting up pastures, training heifers, staff training, public programs and more. As any farmer will tell you, there’s always work to be done.

Cows eat for about six hours a day, nap on and off for about four hours a day and chew their cud for about eight hours. One dairy cow drinks about a bathtub of water a day and eats approximately 63 pounds of grains, grass and hay. The dairy staff ensures that the cow’s diet is well balanced in order to produce high quality milk and dairy products. One dairy cow produces about 6 gallons or 50 pounds of milk a day. That means the farm has more than 550 gallons of farm-fresh milk a week to sell locally, some in the form of fluid milk and some the form of value-added dairy products, namely cheese and butter (and yogurt coming soon!).

TO CHEESE

Every Monday morning about 250 gallons of milk are pumped from barn to the dairy plant (just yards away in the old bull barn). This batch is used for cheddar. So what happens? The milk is pasteurized and cultures and rennet are added. By 2pm the cheesemakers are elbow-deep in a vat of curd, expelling the whey. Next, the cheese is formed –  pressed the old-fashioned way with buckets of water and boards. On Tuesday, the weights are lifted and the wheels are flipped. If they look good, they go to storage – if not, more weight. The two-day process yeilds By the 30 ten-pound wheels of cheese that will age for at least a month or up to a year. The cheesemaking process starts all over again on Thursday and Friday for our soft cheeses and triple cream. The process for the soft cheese is more simple, and the cheese is ready for tasting in just 24 hours.

When the cheese makers aren’t making cheese, or butter, or other specialty seasonal items, they are likely caring for their aging cheeses that must be flipped and rubbed in the aging room every other. Or, they’re doing dishes, and lots of them. A friendly word of advice from our cheesemaker – if you want to be a cheesemaker, you should also want to do dishes.

TO YOU

Appleton Farms’ dairy products don’t travel far to reach you! The store, just on the other side of the veggie fields from the dairy plant,  features the farms very own jersey products like, triple cream and cheddar cheese, an assortment of soft cheeses, milk and butter, and seasonal items like crème fraiche and whipped cream as well as Appleton Farms beef. Other locally sourced products for sale include maple syrup and honey and artisan crafts. The store is open daily:

Monday -  Friday, 11am – 6pm and Saturday & Sunday, 12noon – 4pm.

Stop by to sample and buy your cheeses for the holiday season, join for a Saturday Meet the Cows program (3pm; meets at the Visitor Center, $4 Trustees members. $5 nonmembers), and stay-tuned for cheesemaking classes at the farm this summer!

HOW TO FIND US

To visit the store, enter the farm off of Route 1A (219 County Road) in Ipswich. For more information call 978.356.3825 (dairy store) or 978.356.5728 (office), or email appletonfarms@ttor.org.

To learn more about the dairy operation visit the website at www.thetrustees.org/dairy or join us on Saturday’s at.

Community Stuff 12/2/12

The Next Wave @ Flatrocks Gallery

The Next Wave
From the earliest days of fish and stone, Cape Ann has continually redefined itself. We who live here shape and are shaped by how we use this place, what we give to it, what its future will be.

Flatrocks Gallery has assembled a group of younger artists who embody this process of reinvention. In our fall show The Next Wave we see them rethinking the world with whimsy, energy and inventiveness – finding new ways to use traditional media, to transform and be transformed by their surroundings. Above all their work is meant to be
lived with and enjoyed.

Featuring: Brett Dunton, Jenna Powell, Ben MacAdam, Elizabeth Woodward, Nate Longcope, Daniel Semero, Brooks Gibson, Nina Samoiloff, Sean Hurley, Whitney Gibson, Nika Feldman, Jamison Knowlton, Jess Semeraro, Ari Martin.

Through Dec.30th Thu-Sun 12-5pm or by appt.
Artist’s Reception Nov.10th 5-7pm
77 Langsford St. Gloucester MA
978-879-4683


Maritime Gloucester is proud to host Jeff Bolster, historian, UNH professor and professional seafarer on Wednesday, December 5th at 7pm in the Gorton’s Seafoods Gallery. The author will share stories, pictures and data from his new book The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail.  Bolster will take the audience through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in the world – the Altantic. Learn more about the book, and gain insight to the topic of his presentation, by taking a look at the short video found here

The presentation starts promptly at 7pm at Maritime Gloucester (23 Harbor Loop). The event is co-sponsored by The Booksore of Gloucester. Signed books will be available for purchase at the event.


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2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Premier Imprints

The fourth year of the GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Video Series where we walk up and down Main Street and try to capture as many retailers as we can and highlight their best gift ideas one a day every day leading up to Christmas.

Click for video with owner Patty Gates-

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Click for other Videos In The 2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series –

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Lone Gull

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series Kids Unlimited

2012 GMG Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series- Harbor Loop Gifts

2012 Downtown Gloucester Holiday Gift Series- Pleasant Street Tea and Coffee Co

The One Armed Cigarette Smoking Worker

I remember back in the late 80s when the dock was way busier with about 40 dayboats and many lobster boats that used to offload at the dock. 

You have to imagine tens of thousands of pounds of fish all stacked up in totes and bushel baskets waiting to be sorted and packed for New York and Boston markets and trying to get it all done before the last trucks would leave Gloucester for the next day’s marketplace.

We had an employee that would smoke or pack lobsters one handed.  There was about 6 of us working our asses off trying to get everything done and here’s this big guy handling a fish pick or lobsters one hand at a time.

The guy was twice my skinny size and I’d just look at him til I couldn’t take it any more.  “You do realize you’re doing half the work as everyone else, right????  you’ve got two hands, use ‘em.”

Arghhhhh

This scene today at the dock reminded me of that guy back then.

Video-

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Cat-Friend vs Dog-Friend

Jon Cahill writes-

Joey C.,

Thought you’d like this video my guys Jimmy and Justin did here at McDougall Interactive:

It’s gone viral, which is fun to watch….

 

I rarely click on stuff people send me but because it was Jon I did and I agree- definitely funny.  Especially for cat and dog lovers.

Gloucester’s wind turbine being prepared to be lifted into place From Nubar Alexanian

Gloucester’s wind turbine being prepared to be lifted into place

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Nubar

check out the full sized photo at Nubar’s blog here

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Each blade is 45 meters long. This is what it looks like before the cone is added and it’s lifted into place. Lost light before it could be lifted into place today. 

The photo above is a small representation of the full size photo which you can view on Nubar’s site.

Go See Our EJ Today At The Manchester Athletic Club Holiday Fair. 9-1

The day has arrived!! Come get your holiday shopping done at Manchester Athletic Club holiday Fair. 9-1 TODAY!!!

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Community Photos 12/30/12

Joey
a chilly run on Good Harbor for two friends.

2012-10-07 08.31.08


I thought these red berries looked pretty against the blue and white sky.

Best-Janet

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Full Moon Setting From Len Burgess

Nature served up this beautiful setting Moon for Breakfast this morning and scrambled in a couple of seagulls.

–Len Burgess

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Community Stuff 12/01/12

Once again North Shore 104.9 and State Senator Bruce Tarr will hit the road collecting toys for children on the North Shore and broadcasting live all day. This year’s Holiday Toy Drive will take place on Thursday, December 13th from 6:00am to 6:00pm from ten locations on the North Shore. The live broadcast will feature local entertainment, school choirs and bands, great food, interviews with local officials and even Santa Claus will be on the road helping the cause. The Paper Store has partnered once again with Senator Tarr and North Shore 104.9 to present the 17th annual North Shore Holiday Toy Drive broadcast.

“People on the North Shore have powerful spirits of caring and giving, and our toy drive provides an opportunity to those spirits to translate into a real difference for kids in our area during the holidays.  I’m honored to partner with North Shore 104.9 to help make that difference, and truly appreciate the station’s ongoing commitment to public service now and throughout the year” said Tarr. This toy drive will be his 17th since being elected into the Massachusetts Senate in 1994.

North Shore 104.9 President Todd Tanger stated, “We are thrilled to be a part of this wonderful event. The North Shore Holiday Toy Drive is such an exciting event that brings holiday joy to deserving children right here in the North Shore. We thank everyone for their overwhelming generosity and kind contributions, especially Bruce Tarr for his continued efforts and energy year after year. We appreciate listeners and clients allowing us to break from normal programming to broadcast this event and hope they help us bring some holiday joy to the lives of children on the North Shore this holiday season.”

The scheduled broadcast locations are as follows (times are subject to change):

6:00am Capitol Diner 431 Union Street, Lynn, MA

Toys being collected for: Toys for Tots- Coordinated by the Lynn English High School R.O.T.C.

7:30am Devereux House, Marblehead 39 Lafayette Street, Marblehead, MA

Toys being collected for: Making Ends Meet

8:15am The Paper Store, Swampscott 435 Paradise Road Swampscott, MA

Toys being collected for: Toys for Local Children (The Paper Store in Swampscott will only collect toys on December 13th.)

9:00am Flint Public Library, Middleton 1 South Main Street, Middleton, MA

Toys being collected for: Neighbors in Need

10:30am Dawson’s True Value Hardware 50 Enon Street, Beverly, MA

Toys being collected for: Beverly Bootstraps

12:00pm First Ipswich Bank 31 Market Street, Ipswich, MA

Toys being collected for: Action Inc./ Ipswich Caring

1:15pm Woodman’s of Essex 121 Main Street, Essex, MA

Toys being collected for: Action Inc.

2:00pm Manchester Athletic Club 8 Atwater Avenue, Manchester, MA

Toys being collected for: Pathways of Gloucester

3:30pm Tuck’s Candy 15 Main Street, Rockport, MA

Toys being collected for: Action Inc.

5:00pm Cape Ann Savings Bank 109 Main Street, Gloucester, MA

Toys being collected for: Action Inc.

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New Event at the Gloucester Writers Center

When: 7:30 PM on Saturday, December 8. (12/08/12)

What:  The Gloucester Writers Center presents the Poetry Salon series featuring author, poet, musician Damon Krukowski and award winning poet Darcie Dennigan.

Who: Damon Krukowski is the author of Afterimage (Ugly Duckling Presse), The Memory Theater Burned (Turtle Point), and 5000 Musical Terms (Burning Deck).  He and his partner, Naomi Yang, run the press Exact Change, which specializes in writings associated with the historical avant-garde.  The two are also musicians – performing currently as Damon & Naomi, formerly as 2/3rds of the indie rock band Galaxie 500.  Krukowski lives in Cambridge, MA, and works at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Darcie Dennigan’s books are the poetry collections Corrinnna A-Maying the Apocalypse and Madame X, and a poem/play/joke chapbook, The Dept. of Ephebic Dreamery.  Her work has received awards from the Poetry Society of America and Discovery/The Nation, and fellowships from the Breadloaf Writers Conference and RI State Council on the Arts.  She lives in Providence, RI, and teaches at UConn, Brown Continuing Studies, and Holy Cross.  She’s also the cofounder & codirector of Frequency Writers, a Providence-based community writing organization.

Where:

The Gloucester Writers Center is located in the late poet Vincent Ferrini’s historic home, at the Gloucester Writers Center at 126 East Main Street, East Gloucester, MA.  The Center was founded to celebrate, preserve, and promote Gloucester’s rich literary legacy and to create space in the community for the voices of people of all ages and backgrounds to be heard through writing, dialogue, and the artistic process.  Find out more about the Gloucester Writers Center at gloucesterwriters.org


anita diamant day after night

Sawyer Free Library & Temple Ahavat Achim present the Gloucester Lyceum Author Series "Words Beyond Words: Behind the Page":
Anita Diamant, an award-winning author, has written four novels – three of them set in the past. Her most recent book, Day After Night, takes place in 1945, in the immediate aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. It tells the stories of four young women who survived with very different stories to tell and meet in an internment camp in Palestine, where they begin to face the uncertain future.
Diamant will discuss the process of writing historical fiction and the theme of human resilience in the wake of unspeakable pain and loss.
Please join us on Thursday, December 13th at 7 pm at the Temple Ahavat Achim (86 Middle Street, Gloucester, MA)!