QUOTE OF THE DAY

“What I was actually interested in was doing what I wasn’t good at. That was part of the thing that drove me. I was trying to go from being a person who just used their brain to a person who had a body as well.”

— Kal Winer of Appleton recalling a friend telling him to quit homesteading and return to what he was good at. Winer, who had been a dean of students at a college in New Hampshire, moved to Maine with Linda Tatelbaum in 1977 and built an off-grid home where they still live today.

TODAY’S TOP MAINE STORIES

Jared Golden and Austin Theriault are fighting hard for these rural swing voters. Interviews with customers at Jimbob’s General Store on Denmark’s Main Street gave glimpses of each man’s appeal and weaknesses.

In a Sunday call to Maine Republicans, Donald Trump repeated his line that the U.S. has become “a garbage can.” The call was aimed at getting his supporters firmly behind Theriault.

For all the conflict around political signs in Maine, they may not even work. When signs do help candidates, it tends to be down ballot in smaller, more local races, where name recognition can’t be taken for granted.

A Maine couple who went back to the land and off the grid in 1977 are still there. With the home built, solar panels wired, garden established and child raised, the work now lies in keeping things going and deciding what changes to make as they age.

A new state program is helping connect town leaders to resources they need to get municipal projects off the ground. It comes at a time when many rural towns are facing problems with affordable housing, downtown revitalization and more.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

Artist Jess Yeomans works on a tugboat painting in her South Portland studio Thursday. Yeomans not only specializes in painting tugboats, she also drives one of the sturdy work vessels in New York City’s busy harbor. Credit: / BDN Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

In this Oct. 24, 2001, file photo, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is shown in an aerial view. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

“Many judgments now left to civil servants (those dreaded ‘bureaucrats’) and independent agencies could be eliminated by more simple and direct legislation, denying the special interests’ deals by not allowing for exceptions or special situations.”

Opinion: Amidst claims of a mythical ‘deep state’ Congress should reclaim its powers

LIFE IN MAINE

Outdoors Editor Julie Harris recently shot her first moose. It was a goal more than 20 years in the making.

Consider wearing hunter orange this fall, even if you’re not a hunter. Throughout Maine, many of the properties that are open to hunting are also open to hiking, paddling, ATVing and other outdoor activities.

Watch these blue jays torment an owl. Blue jays fly relatively slowly, making themselves easy prey to owls and hawks, but jays are often emboldened in the daytime when owls are off the clock.