The Fortin Family Blog

 

May 17, 2026

Pushing Limits with the Fortin Family Park Expanded Pond

and

Greer Seated Dime Plate Coins are in Demand

 

Greetings from Raymond, Maine and welcome to another exciting Fortin Family Blog edition. I must admit that blogging appears to be core to my psyche after the GFRC years of daily sharing with the readership. Thanks for checking in.

Honestly, the retirement transition was simply an adjustment of personal goals and how my time would be allocated accordingly. Gone is the GFRC business and a constant coin centric life style and in with tackling the construction of a full fledge "family park" on a 20 acre parcel,

Back in March, I was already securing Dave Wilkinson's commitment for a week of trail and pond expansion as the retirement kick-off for the summer of 2026. In life, there are ideas/concepts/vision and then there is the practicality of executing those vision in the physical world. Yes, the physical world, or nature, always holds the final cards and has its ongoing surprises. Cutting the new bisecting trail went much quicker than expected since I'm now experience with reading the forest floor and locating the paths of least tree, rock, and boulder resistance. The selecting trail exhibited few rock formations to slow down Dave and his new CAT excavator. The new bisecting trail will be an aerobically hiking challenge given the steep sloop that takes us for back to the homestead while directly connected to the pond.

Now that the preamble is done, let's focus on a few pond images taken immediately after dinner. I took the Polaris Kinetic UTV back to the pond to check on how quickly the silt is settling and then snapped a few mages to share in the FFB. The first pond image was taken at the typical photo angle for the former pond. FYI, the pond size has doubled along with portions of the former pond being dug deeper for potential fish hibernation. This first image does not capture the full expansion as the extra pond area loops to the left around stony outcrop.

 

A different pond perspective is offered with this second angled photographic image. The silt is starting to clear with mild background tree reflection being evident on the smooth pond surface.

 

Today's headline indicates that I'm pushing limits. Why? The following image accurately captures an unexpected clay/mud pond access trail that is heavily saturated and will take weeks to dry out. If you think the image is bad, then seeing this mud pit first hand will really raise the awareness of how challenging this trail construction effort is. Bottom line. this area receives water flow that orignates at the top of Ledge Hill Rdm, theb flows downhill through the Fortin and neighboring Dodson properties and ultimately settling in the pond area. Now I undertand what there are two notable natural spring s about 100 ft apart at the bottom of the hill. I'm expecting weeks of effort and probably 50 yards of 4"-6" riprap stone as necessary for stabilizing the trail and downhill water flow channels. Ultimately, all this water must flow into the pond to exit at the property line and then head southeast.

 

Let's wrap up at this point as I'm heading to bed after a non-stop busy day. I will be back on Sunday to discuss which of the Greer Plate Coins have been sold.

Be well!

 

 

 

May 15, 2026

A Greer Liberty Seated Dime Plate Coin Bonanza to Consider!

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a cold and wet Friday morning here at the Maine homestead. Thank you for checking back!

We knew it was going to happen, right?

Now that I've been working pretty much non-stop on the back acreage park, the rainy day presents an opportunity to jump back into the safe and pull out the remaining raw Liberty Seated dime web-book plate coins and determining a selling strategy. These will be much more appreciate by passionate collectors than yours truly at this time. After giving some thought on how to kick off the sale process, it was decided to start with an eye catching and numismatically historical event. I've gone through my entire raw dime inventory and have pulled all of the Greer plate coins that were employed by Brian Greer for his 1992 Guidebook as published by DLRC Press. This offering encompasses the last tranche of my Greer coins. These must move into sophisticated collections and hopefully their pedigrees will be maintained for future collecting generations.

Following are two group images of the remaining Greer dime plate coins for consideration. The Greer plate coin designation can result from the dime being employed with its full obverse and reverse images at the top of every date chapter page, or was used as a macro image for a die variety illustration. I will indicate the specific usage below each group photograph so there is no question on its legacy significance.

 

Let's review the seven Greer coins in the first group photo. Both 1853 With Arrows dimes were employed for die variety date punched images on page 140 of the Guidebook. The 1876 dime is also a macro image plate coin that illustrates the doubling on the reverse denomination. This is a Top 100 die variety and the dime is 100% original and stunning. Moving to the 1876-S, this is the Type I Reverse plate coin that illustrates the obverse and reverse at the top of page 141. The 1883 dime illustrates the partially broken 3 die variety at the bottom of page 156. Moving on to the 1887-S, this is also a macro image plate coin that illustrates the G-101 S over S mintmark repunched left (F-104) on page 164. Lastly, the 1890 dime is also a macro image plate coin that illustrates the G-101 blundered date, another Top 100 die variety.

This 1891-O lot is quite special and hopefully, will sell as a complete lot. All six coins are featured as date or mintmark variety macro images on page 175 of the Greer Guidebook. The only dime missing from the group is the G-107. Talk about a cool lot for the serious die variety collector that was purchased directly from Brian Greer during March 1993. Please note that Brian's grading was very conservative during the early 1990s with most of his plate coins holdering at or a higher grade based on feedback from GFRC clients for those previously sold.

 

If you have interest in any of these eleven Greer plate coins, please send along an email or text message (207-329-9957) for a quote. These will be fairly priced as finding new appreciative homes is the imperative while raising more money for gravel or 1.5" stone for the Fortin Family Park grand project.

Thank you for the consideration.

 

 

 

May 14, 2026

Fortin Family Park Pond Doubles in Size

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a mid-May Thursday evening.

Dave Wilkinson spent another day on site today with some notable results to report. The long standing small pond is now all grown up after an expansion effort. Following is an image taken at about 3:30 PM with the larger pond taking on a heart or kidney shape. The Maine soil is so saturated that the pond quickly filled regardless of a doubling in size along with being dug deeper. The greenish color is the result of suspended silt that will quickly settle by mid-day tomorrow. The primary spoil of the day was a serious amount of clay used to raise the old outlet by at least a foot. My guess is that the depth now ranges from 5-7 feet once completely full. Come Friday morning, the overflow point will be evident and the clay bank in that location being shaped into a spillway.

The pond expansion brings a substantial challenge as the roughed in full loop trail to the pond is a mixture of wet mud and clay at its lowest point. It is a downright mess! Water is leaking into the trail from the above elevation and pooling up on the trail, which is lower than the pond border. A strategy for draining all this water into the pond will be the next civil engineering project once the wet spring weather is behind us. In the meantime, the full loop pond trail is not passable other than with a four wheel drive ATV or UTV. Also, the idea of connecting the upper spring to the pond has been shelved for the time being as we have an abundance of water to deal with without adding another water source.

 

It is now 8:30 PM and I'm heading to bed after another busy day on the chain saw and Johnny2. Friday bring more rain prior to a stretch of sunny dry weather. I'm certain that the 718 Boxster needs some playtime during a warm and sunny spring weekend.

Thanks for checking in again.

Be well!

 

 

May 13, 2026

Full Loop Pond Trail Has Been Roughed In!

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a Wednesday evening. Thank you so much to the many GFRC Blog readers who have continued to follow the Fortin Family Blog. There is some exciting forthcoming content.

Dave Wilkinson is master excavator operator and is working magic with his new CAT machine. I'm pleased to report that a full loop trail has been cut down to the pond. It was a long day working through rocky and downward sloping terrain along with cutting down a substantial number of trees in the process, By 4:00 PM and working through light rain during the entire afternoon, we called it a day. I'm fairly tired and will be heading to bed early to rest my old body. But first, here are several images that typify what the day was like and the challenging conditions within the pond complex.

This first image accurately illustrates the second natural spring and the amount of water flow. The spring outlet is inside the oval stone wall loop where a tree is current growing. This late 19th century oval loop in the stone wall is quite delicate, therefore we have constructed a protective stone wall in front of the loop as a barrier. We have not probed the spring outlet itself but the water flow under the stone loop is substantial.

 

This image provides insights into how rough the terrain is along with the sharp downward slope. There is a massive boulder in the foreground that took all of Dave's skills to remove and park into the newly created stone wall on the right hand side of the trail. Not only was the terrain rough, but the water table was quite high resulting in an awareness to not sink the excavator into a mud hole. Dave did all possible to locate dirt to build up the trail high enough above the water table to ensure stability as we approached the pond.

 

This final image provides a sense of the boulder sizes that we are dealing with. I was not exaggerating when stating that we were working through a serious rock field for cutting in the full loop pond trail. It took Dave nearly 45 minutes to extract this massive boulder and then roll it uphill into a parking spot on the right high side stone wall under construction.

 

Thursday brings Day 3 of the Fortin Family Park expansion efforts. Our focus shifts to pond expansion as we devised a strategy before calling it a productive day today. More images will be taken and shared as Dave begins digging the pond expansion.

Thank you for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

May 12, 2026

Bisecting Park Trail Has Been Cut!

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a Tuesday morning. We appreciate the readership as I'm enjoying sharing the latest Fortin Family Park expansion activities.

Monday brought Dave Wilkinson and his new CAT excavator back to the homestead for some serious back acreage park expansion work. Not only did Dave purchase a new excavator, but also a new Ford dump truck and trailer for hauling the excavator. This is a bold decision at age 69 but then again, what else do all outdoor soldiers wish to do during their final years? At this point, life is meant to be enjoyed and working outdoors is a top priority for both gents.

It was a perfect weather for working in the park on Monday. Dave and I were able to cut in the full bisecting trail, but also move to the bottom of the Hill Trail and reaching the site of the second natural spring. This spring flows a substantial amount of water and, once tapped, will be ideal for feeding the expanded pond. The second spring is also an important park heritage item as the spring is encased by a special oval loop in the stone wall that allowed sheep from two properties to obtain water from a single spring. The spring outlet is accessible to the neighboring property while the water flows under the stone wall loop and down the edge of the Fortin property. The stone wall design is clever and dates back to the late 19th century when sheep farming was prevalent in the Raymond area. The challenge is that the oval loop in the stone wall is delicate and must be protected from children or any tractor or excavator, else it will collapse into the spring outlet. Furthermore, we have no idea of the depth of the outlet as it is buried with years of fallen leaves. Excavating the outlet is much too risky, therefore I may start with a rake and shovel to explore what is there. Images will be posted shortly.

Here is an image of Dave unloading the CAT excavator for its first job, followed by Dave nearing the bottom of the bisecting trail. I was pretty much exhausted by end of day after spending nearly eight hours on my feet with a chain saw. Dave appreciated that the selected trail location was mostly free of dense rock zones allowing for us to "float" across the surface rather than digging through endless stretch of rock. The new CAT excavator is also a heavier machine which allows Dave to better manhandle the larger boulders in a prompt manner.

 

Today brings a long day on Johnny2 moving 30+ yards of stone and gravel onto the new bisecting trail. The goal is to smooth out yesterday's rough cut in with large protruding roots and rocks being removed following by installing a smooth base for Johnny2 passage along with being an early stage walking trail for the curious.

That is it for today in terms of retirement activities. Life is good!

Take care and be well!

 

 

 

May 10, 2026

A Packed Homestead Utility Room

and

Bisecting Park Trail Excavation Starts Tomorrow!

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a Sunday morning. We appreciate the many old GFRC friends who are gravitating back to this online publication.

Maine weather is unsettled today but still managing to reach into the 60s. There are short periods of sun that are soon eclipsed by heavy clouds and rain. Let's remember that it is spring time in Maine and the rain is always welcomed. The tree budding process is moving along as is illustrated via this coastal horizon image just taken off our back deck. Yes, the cloud cover is thick and appears a bit onerous. The budding process is producing mostly maple induced reddish shades with intermixed greens from the pines. The expansive view of the coastal horizon will soon be muted behind the barn as the tall trees fully leaf out. Yes, the lawn has been mowed and is a rich green due to the consistent spring rain. I am so looking forward to completing the Fortin Family Park entrance sign that will be placed to the immediate left of the stone path at ists crossing point through the original settler's wall. As usual, clicking on the below image will provide access to a higher resolution version.

 

Before we go much further, a shout out to Darrell and Matt for an exceptional GFRC 2.0 auction that closed last evening. An 80% sell through rate is notable but not unexpected given the quality and CAC approved nature of Mike's Liberty Seated quarters. The "boys" are off to a good start. I do miss the die variety notations however.

 

A Packed Homestead Utility Room

With rain on Saturday afternoon and continuing off and on today, my attention shifts to internal homestead projects. The overriding priority was organizing the basement utility room after the installation of the new Bosch oil fired boiler that is seen in the right foreground along with the vertical copper pipes feeding the multiple homestead zones. On the left side of the room, is my trusty bench which dates back to 1987 construction followed by the Tesla Powerwall3 centric battery system that provides the home with a constant 23.0KHrs of electric backup. The solar panel installation is functioning as designed with the Fortins never needing to pay for electricity again. Rather, we are a net generator on an annual basis. Along the back wall is the 250 gallon oil tank and model rocketry stuff. In the center of the room is the old Macy Monster gym that has been rehabilitated and put into use this morning. All of the pulleys and cables were sprayed with WD40 and are moving freely. I was able to transport the Venice HOA clubhouse Hoist V4 gym workout onto this old Macy with the first session taking place earlier in the day.

 

Bisecting Park Trail Excavation Starts Tomorrow!

After several years of planning a new walking trail for the Fortin Family Park, that project becomes reality starting on Monday morning. Dave Wilkinson arrives early with his new 9 ton CAT excavator while I will have a nicely sharpened chain ready on the Husky saw ready to go. Dave and I have cut enough trails to understand the process and required equipment. The weather forecast is calling for a sunny day with temps in the high 50s, an ideal situation given the emerging black fly population. Once temps get above 60F, these insects will swarm you and target the head and upper body if not wearing covering. Since I will be manning the chain saw for the entire day, my helmet and chaps will keep me well protected from any black flies that do appear..

That is about all she wrote for the time being. I hope that you've enjoyed this edition.

The next blog post will probably take place on Tuesday evening after Dave and I have spent a full day cutting the bisecting trail on Monday followed by my using Johnny2 to fill in the rough disturbed ground with stone and gravel starting Tuesday morning. There are roughly 30 yards of material to cover Monday's trail cutting, so I should be in good shape going into Wednesday when Dave returns for Day 2 on his excavator. By Thursday, the bisecting trail should be fully cut with our attention shifting to extending the steep Hill Trail down to the pond. This effort will be most challenging as we are attempting to build a trail through a dense rock field.

All I can say is that I am loving retirement.

Please keep checking back at the Fortin Family Blog as I am planning to go through my Liberty Seated dime raw web-book plate coin 2x2 box and will pull all of the remaining Kam Ahwash and Brian Greer plate coins as the next liquidation effort. I'm still capable of photography and posting these dimes in a traditional gallery format with offer prices.

Thanks again for the visit. Be well!

 

 

 

May 8, 2026

Wonderful Maine Spring Weather

and

Baselining the Back Acreage Park

Greetings on an early May Friday morning and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. Thank you for checking back!

Firstly, I am most excited with the opportunity to reconnect with past GFRC clients and friends during the recent few days. Six individuals have confirmed that they are regularly checking the Fortin Family Blog for new postings. With this knowledge, I'm going to try to publish updates every third day as there is much taking place at the Maine homestead starting next week.

Secondly, a few words about retirement. Frankly, I am having a great time and thoroughly enjoying myself as each day flies by. Worries about boredom were completely unfounded as the list of things I wish to do far exceeds the available hours in a day. Of course, the Fortin Family Park project is a massive undertaking that will consume me for years to come. I awake each morning faced with what aspect of the park will receive attention today. So you know, a coffee maker machine has been installed in the barn so that I can enjoy a post lunch brew while hanging outdoors. Come 4:30 PMish, a pre-happy hour drink arrives in the gazebo before heading back to the homestead for the official Happy Hour with Diane. Life is great as honestly, I don't miss the GFRC business or coin collecting at all. This attitude may shift come December 2026 when returning to our Venice Florida condo.

Finally, Diane and I have just made arrangements to attend the Pittsburgh Summer ANA show during late August. We will be at the GFRC 2.0 bourse table on Wednesday and Thursday, then flying back to Maine on Friday. It will be fun to be back on a bourse floor and hanging out at the GFRC table with only greeting and showing coin activities.

 

Wonderful Maine Spring Weather

So far, April and May have presented ideal weather conditions for working outdoors. Each day starts in the low to mid 40s and peaks into the mid 60s. We've had just enough rain to turn the lawns a bright green though the weather bias is towards sunny or partly cloudy conditions. Given Raymond's latitude at 43.9N, we are still in the midst of the tree budding and leafing process. Leading the way are the bright yellow forsythias that announce spring's arrival. Gaining momentum are the maples while the oaks are still attempting to wake up. Of course, being spring time in Maine, the black flies have appeared. The solution for dealing with black flies is straightforward when working outdoors. One must wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, and head covering. In my case, I simply wear the orange tractor helmet with hearing protection. If the black flies are really onerous, then the chain sawing visor is deployed. One helmet covers all basis when working outdoors.

 

Baselining the Back Acreage Park

If striving to publish a blog edition every third day, then I need to starting thinking about taking pictures towards sharing the park improvement projects. Today brings several baseline images that were snapped yesterday. This initial image showcases the gazebo, barn and homestead and adequately captures the sharp downhill slope that the Fortins deal with on an everyday basis. Hiking up and down this slope is great exercise and contributes to my ideal 130/80 blood pressure.

If checking this image closely, one will note that the tall trees, behind the barn, still lack their leaves at this point. The many rock walls are self evident with the large retaining wall south of the barn being apparent. In the image, the gazebo appears to be resting on its special elevated mound, which is certainly as constructed. Can you believe that the gazebo area was previously a burn pit that was dug 6' below grade? The transformation took several years of effort.

 

This image presents a view into the barn and the important tools for managing the Fortin Family Park. I was told early on, during the barn construction phase, to build the structure as large as possible as the space will be easily consumed. That wise advice was heeded as best as possible given the downhill sloping conditions and the need for a tall retaining stone wall and many truck loads of fill. At this point, the barn is full with just Johnny2, the Polar cart, and the Polaris Kinetic Ranger, a wonderful electric ride for the site. Not shown in the image is the John Deere X300 series lawn tractor that is also an essential part of the property management tool suite.

 

This final image is a baseline of the current pond and its surrounding moss covered boulders. This innocent looking water hole will see a substantial expansion effort this summer consistent with the Fortin Family Park emblem that was shared a few days ago. Once the expansion is completed, a solar powered aerator will be installed to keep the algae growth under control. We are planning to remove a substantial amount of those background trees as the pond will be expanded towards the upper left as shown. While in Venice, I worked with AI Copilot to design the linkage of the higher and more active spring into the expanded pond. The plan is in place, but first a bisecting trail down to the pond must be constructed as I wish to preserve the integrity of the existing perimeter walking trails.

 

Next Monday (May 11) brings Dave Wilkinson back on site with his new CAT excavator. Dave has committed four days of excavator work which will be sufficient to have a huge impact on the Fortin Family Park trail expansion. The top priority will be cutting the new bisecting trail down to the pond that will speed up material and equipment transfers. I will make sure to take a fair number of images to keep the readership updated on progress. As reference, below is the park trail map with the new bisecting trail illustrated. This trail will also add more surface length options to our daily health walks as walking the perimeter trail every day can get boring. My guess is that it will take three days to fully install the bisecting trail, not counting the transport of gravel and stone to layer over the new trail. A fourth day will focus on the new pond access trail that is also marked on the park trail map.

 

That is all she wrote for today. Thank you for the visit and remember to be well! The next blog post will most likely take place on Tuesday morning with a bisecting trail update and images.

 

 

 

May 5, 2026

Back at the Maine Homestead

and

Fortin Family Park Emblem or Commemorative Coin?

 

Greetings and welcome to the first May 2026 Fortin Family Blog edition. Thank you for stopping by and staying current with the Fortins and their retired life.

It is a wonderful spring Tuesday morning here at the Maine homestead with clear blue skies and temps in the low 70s.

The return three day drive from Venice, Florida to Maine was not great. Could driving from Florida to Maine twice in three weeks have been a factor in my attitude concerning the weekend trip? Probably, but let's go through the trip day by day starting with Friday. We left Venice at 11:30 AM all packed up in the new Acura MDX with an anticipated 4.5 hour drive to Dan and Patti's home in Fernandina Beach. The I-75 traffic congestion was bad. First, in the usual Sarasota choke points, then coming into Tampa. However, the drive into Ocala was just miserable with bumper to bumper traffic for 8 miles before exiting into Rt 326 and then Rt 301 north. Even Rt 301 was busier than normal. We finally arrived at 5:00 PM and an hour late for a Shrimp Festival that was taking place at the nearby yacht club. Visiting with Dan and Patti is always some much fun. Come the June timeframe, Dan and a friend will be driving their 50' cruiser from the Fernandina Beach mooring to Long Island. There are plans to continue the journey to a Portland, Maine stop for a visit to the Maine homestead.

Saturday brought rain for nearly 8 hours along with the usual crowded lanes within South Carolina's I-95, and the ongoing construction in North Carolina. The skies turned sunny when reaching Virginia. We stayed on I-95 until overnighting just south of Alexandria in Lorton VA. Sunday saw an early breakfast and another day driving towards the Maine homestead. All was smooth until reaching the Garden State Parkway exit onto I-287 which was in its usual crowded condition. I-84 in Connecticut was bearable and we finally arrived home at roughly 5:00 PM. My first action after unloading the MDX was 30 minutes in the basement sound room with a well deserved glass of tequila after being the sole driver across three days. Let's just say that driving the 718 Boxster through the western mountain route was a long more fun for multiple reasons!

 

Fortin Family Park Emblem or Commemorative Coin?

During the past several weeks, Renee has been working with chatGPT to design a custom Fortin Family Park emblem that will be incorporated into a state park quality sign design that will be placed at the opening of the Fortin Family Park. We have selected VackerSigns as our supplier as they offer routed plastic sign panels that can incorporate special emblems. This same firm will be employed for a trail map sign and various vertical signposts within the park that will capture the grandchildren trail names. After five years of trail and stone wall construction, why not dress up the park with some classy signage?

Below is the result of a long back and forth effort with Renee at the chatGPT controls. We finalized the design on Sunday and we could not be more proud of the outcome. This circular emblem captures the core elements of the Fortin Family Park including the stone walls, evergreen and oak trees, the wood chip covered trails that lead to the forthcoming expanded pond. It is a piece of art that was generated with AI and considerable fine tuning by Renee and yours truly.

We also plann to employ the design for T-shirts and a custom park flag, once the flagpole is selected and installed. Then it struck me, the design could also be employed to strike silver commemorative coins as the artistic rendering are consistent with other commemorative efforts. Who knows where all of this will lead....

 

I'm uncertain as to how many former GFRC clients are reading the Fortin Family Blog at this point. If you are a reader and enjoy the new Fortin Family Park emblem design, please let me know via email.

Let's sign off at this point as I'm heading back to the park to chain saw a host of smaller downed logs into firewood. The firewood pile, in the garage, has been quite depleted due to the family spending Christmas in Maine this year along with my usage during the earlier April arrival for several weeks. Afterwards, the lawn will see if first mowing of the year.

Thank you again so the visit!

Be well!

 

 

 

April 29, 2026

A Maine to Florida Round Trip

and

Homestead Spring Projects at Tied Off

 

Greetings and welcome to another Fortin Family Blog edition. Thank you checking back in.

The several April weeks at the Maine homestead have been a wise time investment on multiple fronts. The 718 Boxster was relocated to Maine without the use of a transport firm. Once home, three on site local contractor meetings were held towards lining up a quick start to the May homestead and back acreage park improvement season. Sadly, my brother-in-law's father passed away resulting in Lewiston trips to a funeral home and my childhood Holy Family church for the funeral. The new Bosch oil furnace boiler installation, on April 20 when smoothly for a week followed by two consecutive boiler failures this past week. How I hate to awake with no hot water for a shower. Hopefully, a replacement control unit and oil line pump will solve the matter on a long term basis.

So here we are on a Wednesday morning waiting for a Uber transport to the Portland Maine airport and return flights to Sarasota, Florida. The Florida stay will be limited to two days for closing down the condo for the summer and autumn seasons. Come mid Friday, we start the long road journey back to Maine with a stop at Dan and Patti's place near Amelia Island for an overnight stay followed by two 10 hour driving days on I-95. It seems like just yesterday that I was driving the Porsche on a three adventure through the NC, TN, VA, PA, and NY mountains.

While most of the United States east seaboard has experienced the spring season and fully leafed trees, spring arrives late at our northern latitude. Following is an image of the coastal horizon view taken from the back deck as a reference point on April 27. Maples and birches are in the early budding phase, thought a walk in the woods still reveals a barren landscape.

 

Three substantial homestead projects are in the queue for the May and early June time frame. The first arrives on the week of May 11th with Dave Wilkinson returning for four days of trail cutting. Dave reports purchasing a larger Caterpillar excavator which should increase the rate at which can dig out boulders and larger stumps. Of course, there will be a new learning curve with this machine that needs to factored into the equation.

Another project is a 500 sq ft stone paver patio under the back deck and sun room as I've reached an agreement with Wicked Hardscapes here in Raymond as the contractor.

OK, time is running out as my Uber ride is just 10 minutes away. That is all she wrote for today!

Thanks and be well!

 

 

April 20, 2026

Emerging From a Long Quiet Period

and

Back at the Homestead for Spring Projects

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. Thank you for returning after a long self imposed hiatus!

After transferring the GFRC platform to Darrell Low and Matt Mayers, I promised myself the opportunity to "go dark" and take a much needed break from the daily blogging chore. For over six weeks, the peace that should come with a full retirement was realized. Each retirement day started in a relaxed manner via cooking breakfast and enjoying YouTube videos before Diane and I took our routine 8:00 AM health walks. Once back from walking, the days quickly filled with clubhouse gym activities and yet another afternoon stroll. I was to the point of walking 4-5 miles a day on a continuous basis along with time in the gym. Progress with lower back pain could be felt as the exercising strengthen the body.

A 718 Boxster road trip arrived during the final week of March and into early April with an overnight stop in Key Largo and several nights in Key West. The overall journey allowed for new explorations including a drive on Rt 41 through the Everglades down to Rt 1. Crossing the many bridges and keys from Key Largo to Key West in a top down Porsche was fun to say the least though the speed limits translated into a thoroughbred simply strolling along. Top down Mustangs were omnipresent with only a handful of 718 and 911s seen during the entire trip. Honestly, Key West felt too touristy for my liking, especially Duval Street. The most memorable stop was at the Truman Little Whitehouse for its historical flavor and content along with strolling through the Truman Annex and its military constructed and maintained structures that were a cut above all else on the island. The Hemingway House was OK but just too crowded to be fully enjoyed. The Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, adjacent to the Southernmost Point, was a strong second to the Truman Little Whitehouse. Thanks to AI Copilot, we stayed at a lovely B&B on Grinnell St with residential like parking for the Porsche. Evening Cuban and Haitian local fare was also memorable. We decide to return to Venice via I-75 and its famous Alligator Alley where the Boxster was able to play for several hours.

Rather than having the Porsche transported back to the the Maine homestead, it was decided to "kill two birds with one stone". On April 12, I departed for a solo three day drive to Maine and explored the southern mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee via US 23 and I-26 before reaching I-81 and moving into western Virginia. The following image was taken at an I-26 scenic overlook on an early April 13 morning. How I relished this retirement moment given the solitude and view.

 

I was finally able to truly appreciate and comprehend why six figures were spent on the 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 during the three day solo drive without a speeding ticket though there were many moments when fully warranted. Driving through mountain passes and sharp curves was exhilarating to say the least. The Sport mode allowed for engine braking when traveling down steep grades without touching the brakes. Time at the Hallett Race School taught me to accelerate through those sharp curves to maintain weight transfer on the rear wheels. Of course, with a premium sports car, there were some downsides including the constant focus on avoiding potholes and driving behind trucks without mud flaps. On several occasions, others on the road felt a need to "race"with me and after demonstrating how quickly the Porsche can climb from 70 to 100 mph, I let then go along their merry way with a conversation point. Rest stops typically brought "nice car" comments though I always tried to park away from the crowd.

The final road trip day took me from a bit south of Wilkes-Barre PA to Raymond. It was a warm and utterly beautiful spring day to the point where I went top down from the New Hampshire Wine and Liquor Outlet on I-95 until arriving home. The Porsche is now resting in the garage as my focus promptly shifted to homestead opening tasks and meeting with Dave Wilkinson and Chris from Tip Line Tree Service towards staging mid May back acreage park projects. My desire for speed has been saturated for the time being along with the Boxster needing a wash to remove all the front end bug splats before taking her out on Maine roads.

Getting back to "killing two birds with one stone", the second reason for the early drive to Maine was to secure a head start on spring clean-up tasks along with staging May park building projects. Unfortunately, summers and autumns in Maine move along much too quickly and even adding several weeks to time at the homestead is a big deal! For example, today brings Atlantic Heating on site and the installation of a new oil furnace upgrade with a large boiler and modern electronics. I'm a huge believer in being proactive and this is an example given the time that the homestead is unoccupied during the frigid Maine winters.

Another initial homestead project was upgrading an old Netgear router with a current technology TP-Link Deco BE63 Mesh router three pack. The advancement in router technology is profound along with the cellphone app. The Fortin homestead is now bathed with a strong wireless signal that extended down to the barn and gazebo.

Let's shift attention to the homestead back acreage park that now becomes my primary focus during the forthcoming May and June months. The park will be officially titled the "Fortin Family Park" with individual trail being named after the grandchildren. The overriding goal is the creation of special Fortin family retreat for the adult children and our children being constantly welcomed to visit and enjoy nature. One of the many May projects is cutting a new bisecting trail down to the pond for multiple reasons. This trail will become the primary construction access road for the planned pond expansion. Heavy excavator equipment will be limited to this trail allowing me to complete the wood chip surfacing of the perimeter trails. Yesterday, I spent the morning physically marking the new trail through the trees followed by documenting all of the trail locations via Google Maps and a screen capture image printout via Google Earth. This map will become the Fortin trail directory signage upon entering the park. Following is that baseline map for Renee, Matt, and Diane to reach consensus on trail names. I've reserved one short trail segment for myself and entitled "Grandpa Way" given the early settlers' agricultural stone wall that is so impressive and has become my favorite park location.

 

The forthcoming summer months and early autumn months will be quite busy. July is nearly fully booked with the Yamatin family spending the first two weeks at the homestead followed by Renee and family visiting during the final week of the month. August brings a trip to Pittsburgh for the Summer ANA World's Fair of Money event followed by IBM friends Dan and Patti driving their 50ft cabin cruiser from Long Island to Maine for a visit. The first week of September brings the arrival of Blake Gibb and Meliza for a stay and touring across coastal Maine and into the NH White Mountains. With all of these planned visits or events, May and June are the primary two months for making substantial progress on the additional bisecting trail and pond expansion goal, thus the need to work through winter property clean-up during late April as a head start.

What about Liberty Seated dimes and my plans to sell the remaining web-book plate coins? Those plans are on hold and will probably remain in that state until our return to Venice come mid-November. There is zero energy or desire to photography and market raw Liberty Seated dimes at this time. After spending over a decade working 10+ hours per day seven days a week focused on the GFRC business and its host of clients, my mind has shifted 100% to spending time in the woods building yet along long term legacy.

Finally, many Blog readers are probably wondering where I am with respect to gold and silver precious metals. To keep it simple, I am holding on to all previously sourced physical inventory along with my equity positions. There is a belief that both metals will re-enter an appreciation phase once the Iran was comes to a conclusion. $4800 gold and $80 silver is still a noble appreciation from one year ago with more war time money supply increases forthcoming. Honestly, I can't think of a more opportunistic avenue for the proceeds if selling those positions along with tax implications.

Let's stop here for the moment as I plan to continue blogging later today or tomorrow concerning back acreage park news.

Thank you for the visit and please remember to be steady and well health wise as our truly more precious aspect of life.

 

 

March 3, 2026

Rebuilding an Office Body - First Update

and

Whitman Baltimore Show Insights

 

Greetings again from the Fortin Venice Florida condo and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog second edition!

Let's make one point perfectly clear! Retirement was long overdue and is clearly underrated IMHO. Each day is lived at a much slower and enjoyable pace with business "stress" being eliminated. For years, I lived on a repetitive daily schedule that started with the Daily Blog followed by morning GFRC shipping, customer correspondence, and long days at the laptop processing images and writing product descriptions. On many a day, I worked after dinner to prepare offer prices for the following morning's Blog gallery showcases. The pace spanned seven days a week including some holidays. The consignment backlog infrequently cleared as the ongoing stream of consignment requests kept me occupied for years on end.

Once the Gerry Fortin core Liberty Seated Dime Collection was completely sold, along with the Newtown Liberty Seated Half Dollar Collection, plus the Massachusetts Liberty Seated Dime Collection and Tenafly's CAC approved collection, I was ready to mentally tune out and shift into retirement. This quick transition was not to be as the sale of the Gerry Fortin Rare Coins platform to Darrell Low and Matt Mayers brought yet another project that needed to be faithfully executed along with dealing with the sale of residual consignor coins. During the final two months of operations, consignment requests from loyal clients still arrived and I could not decline. I'm just that type of person who believe that loyalty is a two-way street leading to long term relationship. Finally, the day arrived when Darrell and Matt flew to Sarasota to retrieve the balance of the GFRC inventory. Afterwards, residual shipping was slowly dealt with and full retirement was a reality. Now I ask myself the question of why did I wait so long since turning 70 in a week's time?

Let's jump into today's Fortin Family Blog topics, shall we?

 

Rebuilding an Office Body - First Update

My number one priority for the first stage of retirement is reversing muscle loss and rebuilding a weak body that slowly decayed during years of sitting at the GFRC desk. There were daily morning health walks which simply were not sufficient to mitigate sarcopenea, the natural loss of muscle mass as we age. My upper body was becoming weak along with lower back pain due to shrinking core muscles. This fact was outlined in the initial February 23 blogpost.

Fast forward to today as I've made rebuilding my body a nearly full time job. Each early morning starts with 3.5 miles health walk from the condo to Capri Island Rd along a lovely golf course on that road. I'm back home before 8:00 AM which provides time to relax and shower before catching up on the Iran War, gold &silver pricing, and other stimulating YouTube topics. By 11:30 AM, an early salad lunch is consumed followed by heading the Auburn Lakes HOA clubhouse gym room. You will find me every day working out at 12:15ish with alternative upper and lower body programs along with specific exercises to strengthen the core muscles. I'm slowly adding exercises and increasing weights towards slow reps that lead to reasonable muscle fatigue. Afterward, I'm back in the former GFRC office working on Tidal playlists for the upcoming mid-April Porsche ride back to Maine. By 4:00 PM, the focus shifts to grip strength exercises for 30 minutes followed by walking another 1.5 miles to close out the day's health focus. Happy hour arrives after the second walk of the day is completed followed by grilling dinner and relaxing afterwards. Bedtime is typical 8:30 - 9:00 PM to secure a full 7+ hours of sleep to allow the body to recharge from a busy day.

It has only been a few weeks where I have been seriously holding to the schedule including a three day trip to the Whitman Baltimore show last week. Already, I can feel the improvements with upper body strength and longer lasting legs. The lower back pain is subsiding with residual pain probably due to the walking and weight room visits. I'm confident that the body will be in a much better place come May when park construction work begins back at the Maine homestead. The challenge will be to maintain the Venice Florida schedule on different exercise equipment and a hilly terrain as compared to the flat cement walkways here in Venice.

 

Whitman Baltimore Show Insights

The Spring 2026 Whitman Baltimore show was pretty much as expected. Thank goodness that I flew instead of driving those onerous 14 hours on a Tuesday only to arise on Wednesday to immediately head to the dealer trading rooms. In hindsight, this prior behavior is incomprehensible now that I've savored the retirement fruit. What was I thinking? Honestly, to operate GFRC on a competitive level with other national dealers, there was no choice but to suck it up and do what was necessary. Call it gritty determination as failure is not an option in the Fortin playbook.

I arrived early in Baltimore on Wednesday morning via a smooth Southwest flight. Let's remember that point. Once on the ground and traveling without coins, the light rail from BWI to the convention center was taken for a $4 round trip ticket. This rail has improved since last riding it back during 2014-2015. I immediately went to the convention center to check on the dealer rooms out of habit, but let's face, there was nothing else to do until hotel check in. Walking around and chatting dealer friends kept me occupied followed by checking into the Renaissance Hotel at noon. This was the first time selecting the Renaissance and what an nice alternative to the overpriced Hyatt and the rundown Days Inn. I just can't bring myself to stay at the Days Inn anymore. Life is too short and one needs to respect oneself when traveling. I have a long history with the Marriott international chain during the semiconductor days with retirement bringing me close to that brand again.

Darrell and Matt had a strong show given the weak Friday attendance and not attending Wednesday's dealer session. Anytime that I could walk out of a Baltimore show with six figures in sales, it was deemed a victory as this venue can be erratic for retail traffic. GFRC has a reputation for handling premium coins at retail numbers, therefore selling to other dealers was tough. If having a decently aged consignment inventory that can be sold around bid, then the show could be made with some wholesale business. One needs to adapt strategies based on the type of on hand inventory.

I believe that Darrell was spot on when suggesting that my presence at the Baltimore show was "critical" in the regular GFRC Daily Blog. Since dealing with other professions and their own working styles, I could not take charge but rather played the role as an assertive adviser and cleared up stuff that was hampering their bourse table efficiencies. One needs to have all coins sorted and loaded into double row boxes for a quick transfer to the cases so that other dealers and view the product during Wednesday setup. This was not done during setup. I re-organized the bourse case layout creating two cases dedicated to a silver bullion deal that the boys bought immediately before the show. Finally, a table space was created for viewing walk up coins from other dealers. Lastly, the back table was organized providing Darrell with a bourse office to work with the COIN database and an unencumbered security case. Darrell also recognized the need for a faster laptop for coin shows! The afternoon was spent as a former owner chatting with several local clients that resulted in purchases. Darrell and Matt might not have noticed, but I was also providing background security as it is a natural reflex once in a bourse corner booth. There were also several strategy feedback sessions, no details here, that seemed to be well received.

Friday brought a slower day as silver spot dropped with Matt Mayer being primarily focused on moving junk sell and other silver products to larger dealers. GFRC enjoyed a decent amount of retail traffic on Friday with a moderate walkup yield. My Venice return flight, again on Southwest, was at 8:40 PM so there was plenty of time to take the light rail back to BWI. Around 3:00 PM, I thought to check on my flight status and was annoyed to learn of a delay past midnight. A quick good-bye to Darrell, then I was off to the airport to try to fly standby on other flights to Ft Meyers, or Tampa. Once at BWI and checking the departure boards, it was obvious many flights to the Florida area were delayed along with flights being fully booked on a Friday evening. Everyone wants to get home. Long story short, my flight was delayed until 1:15 AM arriving into Venice a tad before 4:00 AM. Poor Diane was a kind sole to come get me that early.

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

I'm uncertain when the next Blog edition might be published but with Diane going to Austin for a week this coming Friday, I will want someone to talk to and the Blog is ideal. There is a piece of important Fortin Family news forthcoming. So stay tuned.

Thanks for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

 

 

February 23, 2026

Rebuilding an Office Body

and

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

 

 

Greetings from the Fortin Venice Florida condo and welcome to the first edition of the Fortin Family Blog! It is great to be back in the blogger's seat after taking some much needed time off.

So what is the Fortin Family Blog all about?

Simply said, the Fortin Family Blog will be a sharing of personal highlights and interests that are entirely on a non-numismatic basis. The Daily Blog 2.0 is now being published by Darrell Low and Matt Mayers and I have no desire to interfere with their efforts to take the Gerry Fortin Rare Coins business to new heights. Rather, I'd like to maintain contact with the former Daily Blog readership via a platform that focuses on what I am current exploring in terms of new pursuits, hobbies, and of course, the Raymond, Maine back acreage park developments along with Fortin family activities. Perspectives of the current gold and silver market will also be shared given that I'm staying very close to those topics in light of what appears to be chaotic geopolitical developments.

Today's debut of the Fortin Family Blog will focus on two topics. Therefore let's move forward with these ramblings.

 

Rebuilding an Office Body

Operating GFRC from 2014 through early 2026 required a huge amount of effort and commitment that most collectors could not come to understand. The daily discipline of client correspondence along with processing coins through photography, image editing, COIN database loading, and description generation translated into long hours sitting in a desk chair at a laptop. Prior to launching GFRC, my daily routine was quite similar in that much time was spent in a Fairchild Semiconductor office working at a laptop or attending meetings. The commonality is sitting with a hunched posture at a desk. Over decades, that situation translated into spinal deformities resulting in lower back pain. The constant typing or mouse usage also overworked hand tendons resulting in inflammation in my joints. Though not explicitly discussed in the Daily Blog, as I don't wish to complain about health matters, operating GFRC was taking too much of a toll on my body starting around 2023. Lower back pains were starting to appear and grow more serious during 2024. By late 2024, it was becoming clear that the office work had to be dramatically reduced to mitigate the ever increasing lower back pain. Health beyond the age of 70 became an overriding reason to sell the Gerry Fortin core Liberty Seated Dime collection as the final act before dismantling or selling the GFRC business. Daily Blog readers have witness how 2025 brought about the necessary steps to free myself of the ongoing office setting.

Now that the GFRC business has been successfully transferred to Darrell and Matt, my focus immediately shifted to dealing with the lower back pain issue. I had seen a Venice doctor during early 2025 to confirm that indeed, there was some compression in several lower discs and my back was slowly rounding due to core and upper body muscle loss. Let's remember that turning 70 translates into a slow natural body degradation if counter acting steps are not taken. The muscle loss and lower back issues would only accelerate if I did not get serious about weight and strengthening exercising and staying active, especially while in Florida for the winter months.

Starting last week, I've spent hours watching YouTube videos on aging, muscle loss, and spinal deformities. Let's just say that I've become my own doctor or therapist in the process of what had been happening to my body during all these years of office work. I learned that spinal deformities can be reversed by increasing muscle mass in the right areas. Armed with that conclusion, I then turned to AI Copilot for help in designing the appropriate exercises for rebuilding my upper back, shoulder, and arm strength as a first step. Next came specific exercises to strengthen the core muscles. All that was left at that point was execution and turning my GFRC discipline into a personal body rebuilding initiative.

 

Luckily, our Auburn Lakes Condo HOA made a decision to replace the antique exercise equipment in the clubhouse in lieu of modern exercise machinery during December. The centerpiece of the new exercise equipment is the Hoist V4 weight training system that I've begun to utilize during the past two weeks. Every other day at noon time, or so, you will find me in the clubhouse exercise room working out on the Hoist V4. On top of the exercise room activity, I am now walking twice per day and averaging 14,000 steps across 2+ hours. This is not casual walking, rather moving along at a quick pace in the morning with Diane, and a second solo session in the afternoon. For example, instead of driving the Porsche to the nearby Publix supermarket, I am now walking to the store and carrying the groceries back for a nice to/from one hour walking session.

Furthermore, to counteract the inflammation in my fingers, I've instituted daily grip improvement exercises as designed by AI Copilot.

My near term goal is to bring about relief of nagging lower back pains and increasing strength prior to returning to Maine in mid-April. Once at the Maine homestead, the Hoist V-4 exercises must be translated to an old Macy workout gym in the homestead utility room. If they cannot be effectively duplicated, I will probably remove the Macy exercise machine and purchase my own Hoist V4 as a strong and healthy body is priceless in the grand scheme of life.

 

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

As today's debut Fortin Family Blog edition is being composed, gold has rallied back to $5217/oz while silver is trading at $87. The sharp "crash" in the precious metal sector is now behind us. The "crash" was a manipulation event that removed excess speculation from the precious metals markets in both the US/England and in China. In the west, the major bullions banks, and supposedly the Federal Reserve, held short trading positions that were becoming unbearable as the metals continue to run higher. In China, a new "long only" silver ETF was being heavily subscribed by the Chinese citizenry as their sole option for participating in the silver price rally other than purchasing physical. That new ETF became excessively over bought and was one of the primary reasons that a substantial silver pricing gap emerged between the China silver price and that of the COMEX and LBMA. The "crash" on January 30th was necessary to clear out the accrued over speculation allowing price discovery to operate normally again. The "crash" also allowed the major bullion players with short positions to exit their shorts at much lower prices.

Fundamentally, the geopolitical environment that was present prior to January 30th still remains today and continues to be bullish for all the precious metals. I hope that Daily Blog readers listened to my advice and ignore the sharp price drop. Here we are several weeks later returning to those price levels in a more orderly manner now that excesses have been removed.

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

Thank you so much for reading through the debut edition of the Fortin Family Blog! This blog will be published when there is a need to communicate towards maintaining awareness of what the Fortin family is up to in the coming months. I hoped that you've enjoyed this first edition.

Be well!