The Fortin Family Blog

 

June 26, 2026

Working Through a Pond Aeration Strategy

and

Updating/Selling 1853-1855 Web-Book Plate Coins

 

Greetings on a wet Thursday morning here in southern Maine and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. I'm always glad to know that the readership is staying current with the park's pond project.

Wednesday brought more progress with finalizing the Pond Loop trail and while moving what feels like endless loads of field stone, rip-rap, and crushed stone down to the pond, I was mentally focused on the next step for installing a pond sub-system that will eventually enable the stocking of fish. That sub-system is aeration to ensure a stable water temperature throughout the pond depth along with minimizing algae growth. The pond is roughly a 25x50 kidney shaped body of water with an average depth of 6' and a bit deeper in two locations. Online research of pond aeration company websites revealed mostly larger pond solar powered solutions. As I brought bucket loads of material down the trail between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM, the sun's overhead position was being noted towards deciding where solar panels might be located. I quickly reached the conclusion that an exclusively solar powered aerator strategy would not work as the trees surrounding the pond at too tall and form a natural forest canopy over the pond. Yes, there will be some tree clearing in the future, but the pond is so close to the property line that my neighbor's trees will impede solar expose as soon as late July once the sun starts dropping in the sky.

Once the realization came into place, the aeration strategy became clear. I needed to find a swallow water system with a low wattage air compressor that could be driven by a 2000 WHr portable power station. The online search brought me to the PondGuy and their Airmax SW20 air pump that only consumes 50 watts and supports two diffuser units in the pond. The PondGuy solution is housed in a faux rock enclosure with internal cooling fan and 115V outlet. As of this morning, that unit has been ordered and will arrive next week. Next came the interconnection strategy for safety near a body of water. A Dewwnwils 3' GFI extension cord will be placed between the Airmax SW20 and the 2000 WHr power station. The power station strategy also provides an option to add a 300-400W solar panel in the future, lengthening the amount of time between transporting the power station to the barn for charging. After careful research, I've decided to purchase the Jackery Explorer 2000 portable power station as one of the most highly rated options on the market. What clinched the decision was a low 39.5 lbs weight and carrying handle. Other power stations in this wattage range a typically 48 lbs and built in a bulky cabinet.

In summary, a solid plan is sequencing this project exactly the way a seasoned engineer would. Get the aeration online, stabilize the water column, then introduce forage fish once the pond has a dependable oxygen baseline. Clearing selective trees later for solar access is the right long-term move, but there’s zero need to wait on that before getting the Airmax SW20 running with a rechargeable power station. At this point, the first critical subsystem in place. In the matter of two weeks, a raw woodland excavation starts becoming a living, self-sustaining pond ecosystem. How cool is that!

 

Updating/Selling 1853-1855 Web-Book Plate Coins

Given the rainy day, it was decided to go back into the GFRC 1.0 safe and research the next round of web-book plate coin offerings that also require new photography and update images. As as worked through the 2x2 box, it became apparent that many of the web-book images dated back to the late 1990s and early 2000 time frame and needed to be refreshed. This is also an opportunity to offer these coins for sale to those collectors that may wish to have these placed into CAC holders with the Fortin Reference Coin designation. Following is a group shot for your consideration. These will all be priced mid-way between CDN bid and ask if curious as to the offer prices. Bottom line, I need to find new homes for these dimes after the images are updated.

 

The rain has stopped as lunch time approaches which means that I am heading outdoors in about an hour's time. I've got to keep at the Pond Loop trail and get that portion of the park done before the Yamatin family arrives.

Thank you so much for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

June 24, 2026

Yamatin Family's Expat Gig in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia!

and

Pond Loop Trail Ready for Hiking this Weekend

 

Greetings on a June Wednesday evening and welcome to the another Fortin Family Blog edition. We are pleased with the growing non-coin centric readership.

Man oh man! The summer of 2026 is just screaming along as there are so many projects and forthcoming family events in the next 30 days. The huge news event for this blog edition is the announcement that the Yamatin family is relocating to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia come early August. This is a substantial change of events and I'm certain that readers are asking why?

The long and the short is that the Yamations are a very international family with a new career opportunity appearing for Chikae via her professional educator's network. The opportunity is a teaching position at the King Abdullah University's International School in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. A little background is in order. The King Abdullah University hosts 9000 students and faculty and is the top rated university within the Saudi Kingdom. A special K-12 International School is co-located with the university to support educational needs for staff dependents given the international expat population. Chickae will be teaching multiple 9 and 11th grade mathematics classes starting in September.

What about the rest of the family and their reaction?

I've held back this announcement until Matt worked out his situation with Thermo Fisher Scientific. After working at TMO for five years and biking daily from Brookline Boston to Waltham, Matt was ready for a change and looking forward to a slower professional pace until a new opportunity appears. As for the grandchildren, Natsumi and Ayumi, they are favorable to living in another country and being associated with a top end university. Ayumi is only 3+ years old and will adapt once settling into her new university supplied home. Natsumi is already well round after years of living in Beijing and then adjacent to Boston University. The Yamatins are holding on to their condo in Brookline and have already found a family to lease the condo. Personal items not shippig to Jeddah will be stored at the Fortin homestead.

Though Diane and I are excited for the Yamatins, the reality is that staying close to the grandchildren will require more effort. Already, we are planning a trip is Istanbul and then Jeddah during the summer of 2027.

We wish Matt and Chikae all the luck in the world as they are working through the health and medical screening requirements towards securing a Saudi work visa. Their upcoming August 30 and July 20 week long visits will be an important time for Granda and Meme to enjoy Natsumi ans Ayumi before their transition overseas.

 

Pond Loop Trail Ready for Hiking this Weekend

We are close to the finish line concerning the Pond Loop trail! Only several more days are necessary to fully connect this trail extension down to the pond and out through the prior (and only access point). It is getting late on Wednesday evening and best to cut the pre-amble short towards an insightful illustration of the property. Here goes....

 

After working diligently on the this project during the past week, I'm pumped that the end is in sight! If all goes to plan, the trail will be open to hikers this Saturday or Sunday. I'm projecting that another 12 or more rip-rap and brick gravel tractor loads to complete the loop. These material transfers can be easily handed across two days. Another long term vision will be turned into reality after considerable effort. The next priority is selecting a solar powered aerator to minimize algae growth followed by bringing back TipLine Tree Service in August or September to clear out nearby trees and opening up this location to more overhead sunlight. How about adding a tenting platform come 2027?

Be well!

 

 

June 21, 2026

Happy Father's Day and Another Park Update

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on Father's Day 2026. I hope that all the fathers among us enjoyed their special day.

My Father's Day highlight took place on Saturday when Diane and I made a trip down to Boston to spend time with the Yamatin family. Natsumi is wrapping 6th grade shortly and is now taller than Diane. Three year old Ayumi bonded with Grandpa throughout the day, much to my delight. She is a rough and tumble girl who loves to climb and sing. Her language skills are mostly Japanese at this point, but the English will come shortly. Come Tuesday, I will be in a position to share a very special announcement concerning the entire Yamatin family. We we certainly looking forward to their June 30th arrival and week long stay followed by a return visit starting on July 20th (along with Renee's family).

So how did I spend my Father's Day?

It was a lovely morning with cooler temperatures before late afternoon thunderstorms were due to arrive. I spent three hours cleaning the front yard landscaping including the heavily mulched area that meets Valley Rd. The mulched area was raked and weeded making for a lovely presentation when turning into our driveway. Prior to lunch, I was back on Johnny2 and moving rip-rap and 1.5" crushed stone down to the pond trail. I'm thrilled to report that the last of the pond dam leaks appears to have been isolated and corrected as the water level is within a few inches of the top of clay dam outlet. The pond is holding its water with increasing depth as we experience more rain. Overall, the older pond has been transformed into a water body with a 6-7' depth, maybe more when the clay dam is built up further. This is not a kiddie pond as anyone falling in will be immediately over their heads. I'd adamant that fish will be introduced later this summer or early in 2027, when back from Florida.

The pond trail construction is moving along well and will be completed prior to the Yamatin family visit on June 30th. Now that I've reached the final trail section above the pond, the application of field stone, rip-rap and 1.5" crushed stone is moving along quickly. Since this trail segment is flat, there is minimum need for gathered field stone. Instead, we are placing an initial layer of coarse brick gravel as a barrier to the underlying clay followed by rip-rap and the final crushed stone coating. Following is an image taken this afternoon around 3:30 PM before the thunderstorms arrived. Johnny2 is resting at the end of the completed pond trail with not that much more to go for a full loop hiking opportunity

 

I'd also like to share a second image of the Pond Loop trail taken at a higher elevation and looking down towards the pond. This picture finally presents an adequate illustration of the crushed stone pathway leading down to the pond along with large boulders to the left. The resemblance to the Fortin Family Park emblem is starting to materialize and will be even more impressive come end of day Monday. The left side boulders are massive required some Johnny2 backhoe finesse for twisting them into place along the trail. If the pond area appears to be crowded in this image, it is, with a host of trees to be removed by TipLine Tree Service come late August or early September. More sunlight and a solar power powered aerator is the tree thinning goal along with the reduction of leaves that inevitably find their way to the bottom of the pond come October.

 

Monday's weather forecast calls for rain starting at 4:00 PM with heavy downpours during the overnight. Up to 2" of rain is expected by Tuesday early morning. With this much rain in the forecast, my plan is to be down at the pond by 8:00 AM to add more crushed stone to the prepared area along with digging a drainage trench that will channel trail run-off direct into the pond. That trench must be lined with some brick gravel followed by several rip-rap bucket loads. Key is leveling the trench rip-rap above the highest anticipated water level so that the pond does not back-up into the trench. Once this drainage system is in place, my attention will shift to the clay dam and attempting to add another 3-4" of height at the outlet. The deeper the better for the pond as more water will be stored providing a deep survival location for the fish if the pond does ice over. Since fed by a natural spring, the pond has never frozen, even last winter when we experience days of sub-zero temperatures.

If all goes to plan the full Pond Loop trail will be ready for hiking come June 30th, a milestone that I though to be impossible to attain just several weeks ago.

There is little else to share other than I am very pleased to hear from long time GFRC 1.0 clients who have found the Fortin Family Blog and a checking in with personal life updates. Please keep those coming as I do miss the social aspect of the GFRC business.

I hope that you've enjoyed this edition. Be well!

 

 

June 19, 2026

Rain Brings a Park Construction Break..

 

Greetings on a Thursday afternoon as the second half of June is upon us. I will continue to lament how quickly the Maine months are passing by as I am having way too much fun working on the park project. Let's get on with some ramblings.

As this edition is being composed, high winds and intermittent heavy rains are the weather phenomenon for the day. The roadside tall oaks are swaying in 20+ mph winds along with a tornado watch being active for southern New Hampshire and Maine. It is that kind of day, but frankly welcomed. To sustain the homestead landscaping at a consistent bright green, we need a rain event every four to five days and I'll take them as they appear. The rain also brings a break from the ongoing park construction and an opportunity to wire in a barn ceiling light. I'm old fashion and rather then running wires for a light switch by the barn door, I went with a simple pull chain light socket. The garage door opener also has a ceiling light function therefore no need to add a duplicate circuit with the door opener immediately by the side entrance door.

Hanging in the barn has become a new part of my lifestyle, especially morning or post lunch coffee. One can easily find peace down at the barn sitting on a chair and sipping a warm brew. It is becoming a habit which I will greatly miss once heading back to Venice for the weather. The barn is an ideal "man cave" with a water dispenser, coffee maker, and John Deere/Polaris equipment. I just thoroughly enjoy the green landscape and solitude during work breaks on warm days. Then there is the gazebo, not considered a "man cave" but rather a pre-Happy Hour rest area with a small bar in a Coleman cooler. The gazebo provides an intimate view of the many stone walls along with the homestead high on Ledge Hill. As the property manager, seeing the landscape from alternative view points aids with maintenance planning and envisioning new improvement projects. From the barn, my view is to the north and the new Dodson home along with the gazebo. You've seen enough coastal horizon photos from the back deck, another important property perspective and most often seen by visitors.

At this point, I'm rambling a bit, but there is one cool story to tell about life in the Fortin park. I had just wrapped up for the day on Wednesday and headed to the gazebo for an early happy hour treat. The adult beverage was poured and then there was a commotion under the gazebo and out pops a fox. Yes, this was the same fox that I've seen recently strolling through the yard. What a surprise as the fox bounded off towards the Dodsons, our neighbor's back acreage. It was not long before the fox triggered the locate band of crows into a warning serenade that lasted over 30 minutes. One has to be observant of the natural surroundings along with favorable timing to enjoy surprise events as this.

Shifting back to today's rain, we are seeing periods of heavy downpours that will be the first wash out test of the new bisecting trail and the Pond Loop trail. I'm not the least bit worried about the latter but wish I could be down at the pond to observe the water channels. The Pond Loop trail has been built like a tank and will not move. The bisecting trail may have some erosion in a few spots that can easily be repaired with 1.5" crushed stone. Fortunately, David Wilkinson was by this morning with two new loads of material, enough to conduct any repairs.

Lastly, just a quick note that strong progress is being made down at the Pond Loop trail as we have reach the straightaway above the pond. Construction speed has improved as I've been able to pull a reasonable amount of field stone from the sides of the trail rather than hand picking off other trails and transporting. This leaves only the movement of rip-rap to fill in the gaps followed by the overlaid crushed stone to lock the material in place. Life is good!

Thank you for staying close to the Fortin Family Blog and remember to focus on personal happiness as much as possible once at a retirement age. Again, time moves along much to quickly.

 

 

 

June 16, 2026

Mission Accomplished!

 

Greetings on an early Tuesday morning here in southern Maine. Honestly, the month of June is moving along much too quickly, but park expansion goals are being met. Today's blog edition addresses the latest park milestone with some images as an illustration!

Every day starts the same way. I'm up at 4:30 AM followed by cooking a two large egg breakfast with left over protein from the prior night's dinner. Breakfast viewing is the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankee's prior daily game highlights, followed by a shower and then heading outdoors for another day "in the woods". Diane hits the trails at 8:30 AM and flies through her 2.5 mile routine with three hikes up the side of Ledge Hill. I've walked with Diane and she is tough to keep up with. So, I digressed a bit...

TipLine Tree Service returned to the park on Monday to wrap up their two day coastal horizon clearing project. Once the wood chips settled and the oak logs were neatly stacked, the homestead coastal horizon saw a substantial improvement. I could type on and on about the details of driving the electric Polaris Ranger multiple time up to the house to check tree clearing progress from the back deck. TipLine cut all the requested tree and then some. Following is the new coastal horizon status as taking with my cellphone at 5:00 PM.

 

To refresh everyone's memory of the former coastal horizon view as shared on June 9th, here is that image. The expanded horizon on the right should be evident.

 

So what does the "on the ground" impact look like to open up our coastal horizon view? Again, images can relay the amount of cleared land and spoils much more succinctly than a long typed description. So here goes!

First up is an panoramic cellphone image of the cleared area in front of the Crossing Trail that we specifically cut to provide access to the coastal horizon blocking trees. Look carefully and you will see Johnny2 and multiple piles of wood chips that are at least 7' tall. The wood chips are just off the Crossing Trail while my John Deere tractor is parked on the trail. TipLine cleared the area between the Crossing Trail and where this image was taken. The oak and maple trees in the background should provide an idea of the scale of the two day cutting task to accomplish the latest horizon clearing event.

 

A commercial wood chipper as employed by TipLine has a maximum log width of 12" to 15". Any log that is wider will be set aside for fire wood. Here is an image of the cut logs that could not be chipped. The park log inventory is substantial with an estimate of 5-7 loads for a trailer towed behind 4WD pickup.

 

Today's park activities are twofold. First is cleaning up the Crossing Trail and other adjacent trail segments that were disturbed by the heavy equipment. Second is getting back to the Pond Loop Trail and making incremental progress before the Yamatins arrive on June 30th. This is the best possible retirement in the world!

 

That is it for today. I'll be back at some point this week to discuss the Raymondtown book by Ernest Knight as to the history behind the naming of the Raymond and Casco towns along with what life was like during the 1840 through 1860 settlement period.

At some point, I need to share my thoughts on gold and silver. Now that the Iran War is over and stability returns to the global economies due to lower oil prices, central banks can now focus on adding more gold reserves rather than using their foreign reserves to purchase oil at elevated prices. This discussion is for another day.

 

As always, thank you for visiting this non-coin centric blog. If you like the content, please share your thoughts via email.

Be well!

 

 

 

June 13, 2026

More Progress at the Fortin Family Park

and

Local Wildlife Returns

 

Greetings on a gorgeous early Saturday morning and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. It is difficult to believe that mid-June is nearly upon us! I hope that readers are also enjoying their summer of 2026.

News has just arrived from the Yamatin family as they have moved up their Raymond visit to June 30th and will be staying for a week. Diane and I are so looking forward to having Natsumi and Ayumi hanging out at the homestead.

The past week just flew by as I've been consumed with multiple park projects. The beauty of constructing a 20 acre heritage park is that the enhancement options are endless. There is never a dull moment during retirement, rather an issue of what project do I work on today given the forecasted weather conditions. Between park maintenance and development, there is little time left for much else in terms of hobbies. Being outdoors is a blessing as I can stay active without time in the basement gym. Rock hauling, stone raking, and constantly on and off Johnny2 augments the daily health walks. Speaking of health walks, Diane is quite pleased with the new bisecting trail and using the path as an alternate for hiking up the side of Ledge Hill. She can definitely outpace me when we walk together.

Let's dive into the Fortin Park progress during the past few days, shall we?

 

More Progress at the Fortin Family Park

Completing the Pond Loop trail prior to the family visits has been my overriding priority. Realistically, the goal is not going to be not met now that the Yamatins have moved up their visit to June 30. Progress is measured at a feet per day rate given the amount of material that must be transported to the site. Adding 10 feet of finished trail in a single day is the goal and requires morning and afternoon work sessions. The hours are piling up on Johnny2, and before long, it will be time for an oil and hydraulic fluid change.

As mentioned previously, the trail surfacing involves three layers of material. First is the field stone which is hand selected and loaded from the various finished trails in the park. These rocks are typically 1.5' to 2.5' in size and will be loaded into Johnny2's bucket by rolling the stones. Once at the trail site, they are dumped into the clay muck to form a stable base. Arranging the stone is done with the backhoe. Next comes front bucket loads of 4" to 6" rip-rap to fill in around the field stones. The final step is transporting 1.5" crushed stone. to lock the prior layers in place along with the beautification role. All of this aggregate movement and placement takes time.

Here is an image of the Pond Loop trail as we are turning the final corner and approaching a straight run adjacent to the pond. If you stop for a moment and visualize the muck being covered in white stone, the view is eerily similar to that of the Fortin Family Park emblem. Once the stone path is completely, one of the next projects will be to clear the trees surrounding the pond to allow more sunlight and the installation of a solar panel power aerator. Stocking fish is still a long ways away....

 

Thursday brought TipLine Tree Service on site for a coastal horizon clearing session. I've come to know Chris (the owner) well and he sent his two young men crew alone with the TipLine excavator, tractor and commercial chipper. Both young men were very professional and did a great job clearing previously marked trees designated by Chris and myself. Unfortunately, a sudden death in the family required the crew and equipment to leave the job site mid-afternoon. Speaking with Chris, his team will be back on Monday to cut seven tall oaks to complete this job.

Following are two images of the Thursday job site. The first is the cleared area with the pending oaks to be cut on the upper left. The second image should be named, "Got Wood Chips?" The crew did a great job is organizing the wood chips into orderly piles that are easily accessible with Johnny2. Yes, I will have a nearly infinite supply of wood chips to line the trails and areas surrounding the barn and gazebo after this cutting event.

 

An updated coastal horizon view will be shared come the middle of next week once TipLine is done cutting the remaining oaks. I hope that readers can understand the challenge of coastal horizon view expansion and the amount of trees that must be removed along with the large amount of wood chips and logs spoils that are generated.

The final highlight of the week arrived on Thursday when Renee and I settled our Fortin Family Park signage order with VackerSign. The invoice has been paid and the sign proof was approved for production. Their lead times are typically 4-6 weeks but I asked for special help to have the sign delivered by the week of July 20th. That week brings the entire family to the homestead and an ideal time to install and celebrate Renee's artistry. Here is the proof that was approved. The sign measures 4' wide and 2' tall including the circular emblem that protrudes on the upper left.

 

Honestly, I could not be more proud of Renee's effort to commemorate the park project with a strong family theme. Her emblem design has been digitized by Vacker and provided in the event that will we will need to re-use the image. Of course! Renee and Diane will have T-shirts printed for the grandchildren come the week of July 20th visit.

 

Local Wildlife Returns

Let's close today's ramblings with an update on homestead wildlife. It had been fairly quiet until June started. The chipmunks are back in the wooded areas including the stone wall between the house and barn. As of today, they have not migrated to Diane's entrance flower garden. If they do, then it is hunting time.

Last summer, a jolly old groundhog settled into the backyard surrounding the barn and making a home in the stone wall. Since there are no produce gardens to worry about, the groundhog is welcome to hang out and enjoy the property. I'm pleased to report that he/she is back for the summer.

Thursday brought a lovely red fox strolling up the stone path and through the yard to the top of Ledge Hill. The turkeys are also starting to appear again and a non-issue as there is no freshly planted grass seed this year.

We are waiting for a deer sighting and I might just head to Tractor Supply company for a deer feeder and bag of corn.

 

That is it for your Fortin Family activities on a Saturday morning. I'm off to Lewiston to Central Maine Power Sports to retrieve a poly roof for the Polaris Kinetic Ranger along with some clean diesel fuel for Johnny2. The local Irving diesel in Raymond and Gray is marginal as Johnny2's exhaust filter becomes saturated quickly and needs a regen cycle nearly every other day with substantial usage. Low RPM backhoe work is particular bad for building up soot in the filter.

Thanks again for the visit. Be well!

 

 

 

 

June 11, 2026

Fixing an Expanded Pond Leak! Is There More?

 

Greetings on a late Wednesday evening and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. So far, the feedback concerning non-coin centric discussions has been positive as life is not solely about numismatics...

The days are flying by as the park is both a development and maintenance endevour. Of course, my heart is always focused on expanding the trail and the pond area to a heighten level for family retreats. Aspirations and ideas always experience a reality check when the execution phase kicks in. Such is the case for the Pond Loop Trail as I continue to add 6-10 feet of finished trail per day. The pace is so slow but the methodology is sound as once installed, the trail will not move or sag under ongoing Johnny2 weight.

Steve Crockett was on site yesterday and hauled way two trailer loads of maple and oak logs. I was thrilled to load this wood and see it find a useful new home as firewood. As you can imagine, I have so much downed firewood on the property that would sustain several families during the winter months. The issue with fire wood is the amount of labor to transport, cut, and split the wood followed by stacking in preparation for the frosty winter months.

As today's headline indicates, my attention shifted to the expanded pond during the past 48 hours. The pond was not completely filling to capacity which implied a leak at the lower clay dam. A careful inspection of the clay dam revealed that there were leaky paths through jagged stone. Therefore, I dug out that portion of the dam with only hand tools and two crowbars. The crowbars were essential for lifting the rocks out of the wall. Once the four stone were removed, I spent 1.5 hours moving firm clay, by the shovel load,. into the dam wall and packing with my feet. Following is a not so good image of the rebuilt clay dam and those pesky four rocks that were causing the leak. This picture was taken after 5:00 PM with the long tree shadows evident on the lower right side of the image. Afterwards is an image of the water level as of yesterday. It is a nice pond and I'm so pleased that we made the expansion decision. In the upper left background of the second image, the unfinished Loop trail is visible and a question mark as to whether it will be fully ready for hiking come the July family visits.

Pond dam leaks are an ongoing issue for a host of individuals to who attempt to build a personal body of water on their property. I'm in the same situation with at least one corrected pond leak, but there being a chance that a second leak is also present. Don't worry as the pond will not go dry due to leakage, rather the issue is raising the water level to the maximum height as designed, and best suited for stocking fish. Steve Crockett has promised to share some of his minnows from his pond once the Fortin Family pond is stable.

Where do we stand with the pond as of this evening? There are more questions than answers currently. I'm plannng a dissolved clay test come tomorrow to determine if there are incremental leaks. A dissolved clay test is nothing more sophisticated as taking a 5 gallon pail and filling half way up with water along with slowly dissolving clay into the water. The outcome is a dense clay solution that will be placed into the pond on the newly suspected leak points. If the clay solution finds its way to the streaming water downhill behind the pond, then we have confirmed a leak. If not, then the pond is stable and predictably holding its water.

Chris and the TipLine Tree Service crew are on site today with clearing the next tranche for the long term horizon recovery effort.

Sadly, the 718 Boxstet is not securing any attention as I'm so focused on the park and upcoming family visits.

That is all she wrote on a Wednesday evening.

Be well!

 

 

 

June 9, 2026

A Forest Management Week!

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a June 9th Tuesday morning. We are live from the Raymond homestead and the ongoing adventures in the Maine woods. Thanks for checking back given that I've gone non-coin centric with these ramblings.

It has been three days since my last blog edition with Diane and I fully engaged with our retired lives. Let's be honest here, retirement life is wonderful if you can maintain an active lifestyle. I've probably taken the "active" descriptor to the top end of the spectrum with a passionate push to complete the Fortin Family Park expansion before our adult children and grandchildren arrive starting July 2. That goal is noble though doubtful it will be achieved. Ongoing process is being made with the Pond Loop trail though measured in limited feet per day. Road building in clay muck is being mastered. It just take time to move and stage the materials to form the multi-layer aggregate path.

Diane is also staying active as she is leading a new project to install a 500 sq ft paver stone patio under our rear deck and sun room. Of course, she is the social coordinator and diligently maintains contacts inside our family and with close friends.

Let's wrap up today's preamble to move to the latest Fortin Family Park news!

 

A Forest Management Week!

Tree and wood management are the scheduled activities for this week, actually starting this morning at 9:00 AM.

Managing 20 acres of primary hardwood tress with interspersed white pines is straight forward if maintained in a tree growth mode and harvested every ten years. The Fortin acreage, unfortunately, was not actively managed between our 1985 acquisition until 2015. Those barren blue berry fields turned into a hardwood forest during those thirty years. One of the outcomes become the loss of the coastal view as the tall maples and oaks reached the point of blocking the horizon. During the past two years, Chris and the TipLine Tree service crew have been on site to methodically clear segments of those trees blocking the horizon.

Come Thursday and Friday, Chris will be at the homestead for a third cutting and wood chipping session. Rather than try to describe the amount of coastal horizon that we hope to uncover, let's check the following image that highlights the expected viewing gains between the left and right arrows. The distant may seem limited, but believe me, the number of tall maples and oaks to be cut is substantial and yields more logs and wood chips that will be excess to that already on site. Fortunately, there is good news on the wood log matter, while wood chips can always find a home on the trails of other landscaping need. Let's move on to the good news, shall we?

 

This morning brings a long time friend to the homestead to haul away accumulated logs. Diane and I have known Steve and Joyce Crockett since our children were together at Jordan Small Elementary School here in Raymond. Raymond is a small town with less that 5000 year round inhabitants with everyone pretty much knowing each other within the education and sports social circles.

Steve is retired as I am but has two passions. He first is boating on Casco Bay and second, is building his Raymond park on a land parcel equivalent to our. His location is closer to the old town center with reports of a blacksmith operating in the 1840-1860s on Steve's lot.

Come 9:00 AM, I will have placed the grapple on Johnny2 so that we can load current wood piles onto Steve's trailer. Steve has decide to take me up on a offer for free wood. In this way, he does not need to cut trees on his lot and deal with residual brush issue. I'm more that pleased to seeing the wood piles going to a good home.

Here is an image of one of the three wood piles that are available to Steve. These are serious heavy logs and not for the faint of heart!

 

So ends today's updates from the Raymond homestead. Honestly, I can't believe that it is already June 9th with close to one third of the month already in the history books. There are topics that I hope to discuss in the coming days including a wonderful 1974 historical reference by Raymond Selectman Ernest Knight entitled, "The Origin and History of Raymondtown" which has established that the homestead settler's stone walls date to the pre Civil War period of 1840 through 1860. How cool is that?

Be well!

 

 

June 5, 2026

Converging on the Expanded Pond!

 

Greetings on the first Friday of June 2026 and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. I hope that you are enjoying the step by step illustrations as the Fortin Family Park continues its expansion phase.

June is turning out to be a very busy month. How in the world was I able to operate GFRC in the past is beyond me given the time and energy that is going into the back acreage park. During the summer months in Maine, I would allocated two hours in the afternoon towards working outdoors before heading back for Happy Hour and then an evening in the GFRC office. Now, I have the freedom to work outdoors at will and to deal with my stable of local contractors with little scheduling notice. For example, I just received a text message that Chris at TipLine Tree Service will be on site next week for the next horizon tree clearing installment. We have already marked the targeted trees back in April. Key is that Chris unloads his excavator down in the park and not on my beautiful lawn! He is bringing his commercial chipper which will consume all the brush and leaves from this clearing effort. I will therefore have another massive pile of wood chip for covering the park trails. Unquestionably, wood chips are the best for covering walking trails.

I spent nearly all of Thursday in the woods working on the Pond Loop trail with progress being made. Rather than write a long description of what was accomplished, here is a cool panoramic image of the pond and how the two trails will be converging shortly to form the Pond Loop trail. Yes, the expanded pond is obviously heart shaped when viewed uphill. On the right hand side is Johnny2 taking a break from clearing the wet clay from behind the legacy older pond section. That effort is going well as there is a solid clay base under the water logged top layer. The tractor is able to scrape off the wet layer without getting stuck. The resulting depression will be filled with rap-rap and 1.5" crushed stone to form a solid layer that can easily accommodate Johnny2's weight. On the right side of the image is the expanded pond section and the downhill sloping trail that I've been working on during the past two weeks. Look carefully and you will find the white crushed stone path as it makes its way down to the pond.

Finally, the pond is nice and clear with the bottom rocks being easily noted in this image. Since I've merged two regular cellphone images together, please click on the below image to secure access to a high resolution 2165x575 image for closer inspection.

 

 

Sorry, there is no coin or precious metal talk today. My focus is entirely on the Fortin Family Park project and having the Pond Loop trail ready by the time that the adult children and their families arrive starting on July 3rd. This is serious stuff!!!

Thanks as always for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

June 4, 2026

No Chipmunks, No Hawks

and

Odds n' Ends at the Maine Homestead

 

Greetings on a mid-week early June Thursday morning and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog. We appreciate all of our past GFRC clients and friends who are staying close to these ramblings.

Let's open today edition with a lovely coastal horizon image taken on the Fortin back deck at around 5:00 PM Wednesday. The coastal skies are a pristine sky blue with no clouds in sight. At this point, the homestead foliage has fully bloomed and we will hold this natural setting until late September when autumn color changes begin in earnest. The lawns have just been mowed in the past 48 hours while the primary stone layered access path is well maintained. I hope that Blog readers can appreciate the amount of ever growing maintenance work towards keeping the Fortin Family Park in its tip top condition while still primarily focused on adding new trails.

 

No Chipmunks, No Hawks

Each spring season is predictable in terms of nature. By early May, the chipmunks appear in the front yard landscaping and begin to dig their burrows by the homestead entrance. This is an unwise move on their part since the area is also Diane's flower garden. Therefore every spring brought the chipmunk hunting task, either with my father's 0.22 long barrel pistol (and shot shells) or a high powered air rifle. A typical year would bring six to ten kills while walking the back acreage trails brought ongoing appearances. The spring of 2026, however, brought an unexpected surprise. There are no chipmunks in either the front yard or down in the woods along the back acreage trails. Usually by this time of summer, the chipmunk populations is expanding and always appearing in the front yard with a reminder by Diane that she wants the creatures gone. The lack of chipmunks leads to another observation, namely the lack of hawks drafting overhead since my arrival in mid-April. There are always hawks hunting over the back acreage, but not this year since their food source is gone.

Another curiosity is the fact that our two old apple trees, to the left of the barn, have not shown any flowers for two years in a row. I don't know what to make of this.

It has been a nearly a 10,000 foot step day between walking the trails with Diane, followed by spraying the homestead foundation with commercial ant killer and other projects. We should be all set at this point in terms of ant control and other pests. As a point of reference, 10,000 steps translate into close to 5 miles of active walking.

 

Odds n' Ends at the Maine Homestead

Each day at the homestead brings an outdoor activity. Recently, I've been focused on completing the Pond Loop Trail though the size of the project in terms of transported stone feels overwhelming. Mitigating a roughed in trail that is wet saturated clay is new civil engineering ground for me. The trail must be finished in a robust manner towards supporting the back and forth movement of Johnny2. Within the June 2 blog, I've outlined how that mitigation is being handled with three separate layers of rock packed on top of the underlying clay. The core issue is the amount of loading and transport time required to complete a short section of trail. Here is an image of Johnny2 with a full front bucket load of rip-rap. For readers who own tractors, there is an understanding that driving a tractor into a rip-rap pile is difficult for securing a full load. Instead, a partial load is secured followed by manually positioning the rocks within the bucket so that the load is stable during transport on bumpy trails. This image is an example of a well positioned rip-rap load.

 

Let's end today's Blog at this point as it is already 7:30 AM and time to head outdoors before the temperatures become too warm. We will give the Pond Loop Trail another go and hopefully can advance the usable length by another 6 - 10'.

Be well!

 

June 2, 2026

Second Natural Spring Accessible Via Park Hiking Trail

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog as we begin the month of June 2026. As always, thank you for checking back for the latest news.

I've spent most of the past three days working on the Pond Loop Trail as the surfacing challenges are considerable. The overriding challenge is a layer of stagnant water sitting on top of a clay base with no where to go. Sunday's rain storms only made the situation worse as more water has accumulated in this area. It would take several dry weather weeks for evaporation to take its natural course. However, I don't have several weeks to sit around and hope for favorable weather to dry out this mess. Instead, I've devised a trail building method that is essentially what road building employ. The key is having a stable base layer that will support the finishing layers. In my situation, the stable base layer has become large 1 to 2 feet field stone rocks. Flat rocks are preferred as they provide the most direct coverage of the wet muck when pressed downward by Johnny2's weight. The Fortin back acreage does not suffer a lack of large field stones as they are located along every park trail. The issue is manually loading these large pieces of granite into the tractor's front bucket. I've resorted to rolling these heavy stones off the sides of trails and into the tractor's bucket using manual labor and care to not strain my back. Ultimately, there is no other choice for assembling a strong trail base that can withstand the constant back and forth movement of Johnny2.

To further stabilize the Pond Loop Trail, I am digging a center trench and backfilling with both field stone and rip-rap. This center trench can act as a water conduit while also providing more trail stability. With a center line of continuous stone, there is no place for the compressed left and right sides of the trail, by Johnny2's weight, to move towards. So far, the plan appears to be working based on Sunday and Monday outcomes.

Once the field stone base is installed, next comes a layer of rip-rap stone followed by an additional layer of 1.5" crushed stone. The final layer of stone nicely locks in the lower field and rip-rap stone into place. This surfacing process is tedious to say the least as three Johnny2 back and forth trips are required to surface roughly 4 to 5 feet of trail length. Rome was not built in a day and neither will the Pond Loop Trail be resolved without ongoing effort during June. My goal is to have the trail completed before the July 4th weekend.

Trail surfacing progress was notable on Monday as I have finally reached the second natural spring. Diane has never seen the second spring in person though I have been discussing this actively flowing spring for several years in the blog, It is with considerable pleasure that the second natural spring is initially showcased this morning. The spring outlet is clearly visible at the lower left and is larger in person than what is captured in the image. The expanded pond is straight ahead of the trail surfacing effort. It is difficult to see via the image, but the combination of the field stone base, followed by rip-rap, and then 1.5" crushed stone results in a total trail vertical height of about 1.5 to 2.0 feet.

 

The 8:00 AM health walk time frame is quickly approaching, therefore I need to head to the shower before starting another day working in the back acreage park. Let's end today's Blog edition at this point.

Be well!

 

 

 

May 30, 2026

Announcing Fortin Family Park Signage Design

and

Moving to the Onerous Pond Loop Trail

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a cold and wet Saturday morning as we close out the month of May 2026. Thank you for stopping by.

Sometimes the weather people get their forecast wrong as was the case on Friday. Rain was due to appear late morning. However, their miscalculation was a benefit as I was able to secure a full day working on the Fortin Family Park project. Given the amount of forecasted rain for Friday and Saturday, the imperative was to begin surfacing the top portion of the Pond Loop Trail. This trail is steep and could easily wash out in the event of heavy downpours.

But before sharing images of the onerous Pond Loop Trail, we are pleased to share the next step in the design process for our FFP signage. Renee continues to coordinate with Nicholas at VackerSign along with generating AI models for family review. VackerSign (vackersign.com) is a firm that specializes in the creation of all types of signage and trail markers for parks. We have settled on a 24" x 48" sign that incorporates the Fortin Family Park emblem that is showcased at the top of our blog. After several rounds of proposals from Renee, the final design goal is illustrated next. Honestly. it is a wonderful design that I am so pleased to be sharing today.

The current plan is to take delivery of this sign by the end of June with an installation celebration with the entire Fortin family once they are at the homestead in July. A nature park dedication should be a major event in a life, especially for the grandchildren. It is one thing to take a vacation to a state or national park, but a completely different situation to have a personal nature park that can be explored on a private basis. If the grandchildren lived locally, just imagine what might be possible for Halloween!

 

Moving to the Onerous Pond Loop Trail

"Onerous" is the operative word for the challenges we are facing with the Pond Loop Trail. Raymond is well known locally for its glacial till deposited by the Laurentide Ice Sheet that peak about 20,000 years ago. For some reason, Raymond has an abundance of granite rock. Less well known, is the amount of subsurface clay that became readily evident when conducting the pond expansion. The pond area is nothing but a massive clay region when excavated. The issue with clay is that there is no vertical surface drainage. Water accumulates in surface depressions and just stays there until evaporation. Following is an image of the Pond Trail Loop taken yesterday with the pond being slightly visible at the center. I've marked the pond location for your viewing ease. The entire trail from my photography vantage point to the pond is a mosquito breeding wet swamp sitting on top of clay. I would not dare move Johnny2 into this area for digging drainage trenches as the tractor would sink into this muck.

 

The obvious question is how will I "fix" this area and turn it into a regular hiking and Polaris Ranger UTV riding trail? The response is simple! Namely, very slowly and methodically with a huge amount of Dave Wilkinson sourced rip-rap and Fortin field stone employed to build a solid base on top of the clay. This approach also requires the digging of drainage trenches to channel the water off the trail either into the second spring's downhill flowing outlet or into the pond. Well, that is the current plan and readers will need to keep checking back at the Fortin Family Blog for progress reports.

There is hope for a success project outcome as this next image captures the work done on Friday at the top of the Pond Loop Trail before reaching the wet area. For much of Friday, I was hauling alternate rip-rap and 1.5" crushed stone bucket loads via Johnny2. The outcome is a solid base that easily supports Johnny2's weight along with protecting against downhill sloping trail washout during heavy downpours. Will this same strategy work once reaching the fully saturated area sitting on top of clay? One way or another, a solution will be found.

 

That is it for today's content. If the rain persists throughout the day, I will most likely move back to the Liberty Seated dime web-book plate coins in the safe and prepare another lot for offer via this Blog. I'd like to rechannel the value of these coins in the aggregate materials required to finish the Pond Loop Trail.

Thank you as always for staying close to my Fortin family adventures and how one person is tackling full retirement.

Be well!

 

 

May 29, 2026

Bisecting Trail Is Ready for Hiking

and

Rain and More Rain

 

Greetings and welcome to the Fortin Family Blog on a Friday morning. Thank you checking in. The readership continues to grow as former GFRC 1.0 clients discover that I am still blogging.

I'm pleased, and also relieved to report that the new bisecting trail has been completely surfaced and is ready for regular hiking and Polaris Ranger UTV rides. Key to completing this trail is Dave Wilkinson promptly delivering 16 yards of of rap-rap and 1.5" crushed stone on Tuesday. Let's start with an image that illustrates what 16 yards of rip-rap stone actually looks like. Don't try this at home unless having a capable tractor to move this type of material. Even with the power of Johnny2, I must move into this pile with 4WD enabled followed by manually fixing the final load into the bucket to ensure that rocks don't fall out while be transported on the bisecting trail. The beauty of rip-rap stone is its ability to bind with a soft or spongy soil. Once compressed into the soil with the tractor, a steady base is fabricated. At this point, I will overlay the rip-rap with 1.5" crushed stone as the final step that leads to a solid hiking path.

 

Now let's take a look at how the wet bottom of the bisecting trail that was completed yesterday.

Since Tuesday, this trail section has a opportunity to dry out a bit due to warm weather and no rain. Four rip-rap bucket loads were transported and hand placed into the trail. Why hand placing? Rip-rap stone has jagged edges that requires each stone being placed flat on the ground. It is best if tractor tire track depressions are present so that those low spots can be targeted with a patchwork of flat stones. It is not advisable to place rip-rap in the center portion of the trail that does not receive any pressure other than footsteps. The goal is to have a firm base under the tractor's wheels. Once the rip-rap is carefully placed, then the stones are rolled or pressed into the soil with the weight of the tractor. Afterwards, the rip-rap is covered with 1.5" crushed stone and again rolled with the tractor's weight. At this point, the trail surface is very stable and will withstand heavy rain.

The contrast from Tuesday's wet mess to the finished product is quite remarkable if one understands how to work with these materials. There is considerable labor involved, but since being fully retired, I have the time to execute these projects in a slow and high quality manner.

Diane is now walking the bisecting trail which tells me that I've done a satisfactory job. This trail was roughed in on May 12th in a single day by Dave Wilkinson and his excavator along with Gerry on the chain saw. As of May 28th, the trail is ready for daily usage. That is a quick turnaround with a cost of roughly $3000 in excavator time and material, not counting my time and Johnny2 wear and tear.

 

Now that the bisecting trail is operational, my attention immediately shifts to the full loop trail down to the expanded pond. Surfacing the pond full loop trail is a massive undertaking given the very wet clay soil conditions with water puddling on the surface. My strategy will be that of bringing down rip-rap and 1.5" crushed stone towards building an approach to the wet clay area that could easily swallow Johnny2. Working from a solid base, drainage trenches must be dug and filled to start draining the puddled water. Making matters more challenging is that the wet conditions are a breeding ground for mosquitoes. While working in that area, I must be covered from head to toe to protect myself.

Rain is in the Raymond forecast starting later this afternoon with 1-2" projected through tomorrow morning. The next five days are forecasted to be wet with ongoing rain and showers. These are not the weather conditions that I was hoping for when tackling the full loop pond trail.

Please keep checking back at the Fortin Family Blog as I will try to keep everyone updated with the challenges and progress via images. The goal is to have the full loop pond trail somewhat operational by the beginning of July. Both the Yamatin family and Renee's family will be visiting the homestead during July, therefore, I'd like to be able to showcase the expanded pond to the grandchildren. Dealing with the mosquitoes is also paramount by removing standing water and also seeding mosquitoe larvae killing products in the area.

That is it for now. I'm heading to the shower followed by starting to move some rip-rap stone to the full loop pond trail to ensure that the top section does not wash out in the event that we experience heavy downpours during the overnight.

Wish me luck!

Thanks again for checking in.

Be well!

 

 

May 26, 2026

Bisecting Trail Progress and Images

and

Two Seated Dime Web-Book Plate Coin Updates

 

Greetings and welcome to another Fortin Family Blog edition on an early Tuesday morning. Thank you for returning to these homestead and Liberty Seated dime ramblings.

 

Bisecting Trail Progress and Images

Let's get right to the point of today's edition, namely a progress update on the new bisecting Fortin Family Park (FFP) trail. The rain cleared during the Memorial Day morning hours which facilitated a few hours on Johnny2 to continue working on this near term project. Completing this trail is critical as it will be the primary construction route for moving rip-rap stone to the newly carved pond trail and very wet pond area. This bisecting trail must be robust as it will see constant tractor and Polaris Ranger traffic.

Monday's focus was on beefing up low spots in the trail as a result of rutting by Johnny2. When first applying crushed stone gravel and pure 1.5" stone to the roughed in path, I do my best to level off the holes and divots. That best effort is not precise and after 30-40 back and forth trips by Johnny2, the low spots are easily visible, and worst, create a bumpy ride especially when transporting a full front bucket load of aggregate. So Sunday brought some much needed maintenance to the newly established trail along with a few bucket load of stone and rock into the wet area.

At the end of the day, I made a point of taking a few images to share. We open with a view of the top of entrance of the bisecting trail, The downhill slope is more severe than is illustrated with a curve to the right. The 1.5" stone and gravel is intermixed to prevent a washout during heavy rains. I've learned over the years of trail building that gravel is best for flat sections while crushed stone breaks up water flow on downhill slopes. On downhill slopes with just gravel and mixed in stone, the water flow will wash away the gravel leaving only the stone in place.

 

OK, Diane and I are back from the morning routine, which is quite invigorating to start the day. Climbing the southeastern side of Ledge Hill twice in 45 minutes definitely gets the blood flowing. The insects were not that bad today though we wear long sleeve clothing and bug spray on our hats.

Back to the new bisecting trail...

Before we go further, let repost the FFP trail map so everyone can gather their bearings. The northern trail entrance image was taken at the four-way intersection with the marked "Sadie" trail in pink. Sadie is the Dodson's granddaughter with that short access being named after her as a courtesy. The next trail image was taken approximately half way down the trail. This is a somewhat level area that provides hikers with some rest time before again scaling the side of Ledge Hill. The scenery is quite pretty without a host of trail side boulders.

 

Now we arrive to the bottom of the bisecting trail as it joins up with trails that head down to the pond. The 30' area immediately in front of Johnny2 is the problem child as being very wet and soft. It is difficult to see, but I sank the tractor wheel tires nearly down a foot in one spot. This entire area is spongy and will need a rip-rap layer to establish an initial base. To permanently correct this area, I will be digging a drainage channel on the left hand side of the trail that will guide the water into the untouched woods. But first I must install a base by which to move around with Johnny2. Right now, I am dependent on Dave Wilkinson and his delivery of a 16 yard load of rip-rap stone.

 

Two Seated Dime Web-Book Plate Coin Updates

Following are updated images for the 1876-S Type 1 Reverse F-111 and 1887-S F-105 Liberty Seated dime web-book plate coins . These were dimes that have been sold this past week with this being the final opportunity to generate high quality images prior to shipping to our client. It appears that I still remember how to photograph and process quality dime images after all!

  1876-S Type 1 F-111 AU50 10C Plate Coin                                       1887-S F-105 AU50 10C Plate Coin         

        

 

Well, that does it for today. Thank you for remembering to visit the Fortin Family Blog for the latest updates on park construction, Liberty Seated dime web-book plate coin sales, and precious metal commentary once the Iran War gets settled.

Be well!

 

 

 

May 25, 2026

Ramblings on a Rainy Memorial Day 2026!

 

Greetings from Raymond, Maine and welcome to another Fortin Family Blog edition on a rainy Memorial Day 2026. Thank you for checking back.

Yes, Diane and I are fully recovered from our recent food poisoning bout though my short relapse set me back a bit. Being able to eat a regular diet goes unappreciated until that fundamental aspect of existence is disrupted by a mystery event with contaminated food. The likely culprit was a bad piece of salmon which I though was well grilled.

Moving on to current events, the Fortins celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary on Sunday with a superb dinner at the Sicilian Table in Falmouth, Maine. The years continue to steadily move along as we are focused on a host of home improvement projects and staying connected with family. In just a month, the Maine homestead will be hosting the Yamatin family for several weeks followed by Renee and family arriving during the second half of the month. This leaves only the month of June to prepare the property and back acreage park for our visitors. Since being fully retired, I've been able to substantial commit time and energy to further fleshing out the Fortin Family Park on nearly a daily basis. Little by little, and inch by inch, the park see improvements though the sustaining and maintenance requirements also expand consistent with my aspirations for a special family and visitor retreat.

The 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 has become primarily a fair weather car with most of its Maine time being parked in the garage. Come Wednesday, the Porsche will come out to play as we are heading to the NH Wine and Liquor Outlet in Portsmouth for a meeting with my decades long collecting buddy, Tom Coulombe. Tom made a substantial number of U.S. gold purchases during the waning GFRC 1.0 days with proceeds from the sales of his Liberty Seated dime set. This trip is a hand delivery of those purchases along with a chance for Tom to secure a top down Boxster demonstration. While at the NH outlet, this brings an opportunity to stock up the homestead and gazebo bars for the summer months. Yes, there is a small bar in the gazebo and a coffee machine in the barn! I can't stress enough how wonderful retirement life has become.

During the past three days, I've been wholly focused on cleaning up the newly cut bisecting trail down to the pond and just about completed that project on Saturday. Unfortunately, I did not stop to take images of the new trail before hitting a nasty wet area about 50 ft from the finish line. When attempting to traverse that wet area with Johnny2, the back wheels sunk into the murk over a foot deep. That area is now a full fledged candidate for bucket loads of 4"-6" rip-rap stone that will be delivered shortly by Dave Wilkinson. The access paths down to the newly expanded pond are wet, really wet, and could easily swallow up Johnny2 if I'm not careful with building a firm base before proceeding the next step down the hill. I suspect that 16 yards of rip-rap will not go that far given the conditions, but this is the only weapon in my arsenal other than collecting large granite stones on the paths and using those to fill in the really wet spots. Ultimately, drainage channels must be constructed to steer the water out of those wet areas. Those drainage channels will require a serious amount of large rocks sourced from existing paths along with the Wilkinson rip-rap.

As a side note, I spent Sunday afternoon researching options for aerating the newly expanded pond. After looking at multiple options, I'm probably not going to go with a solar powered solution as the tree canopy in the pond area is still substantial. The issue with a solar driven fountain or diffuser approach is that solar power must be fairly constant throughout the day. This is not the case with the number of remaining trees that must be cut down. That possibility is nil as the wet ground conditions would scare away any tree service company. Instead, I'm looking at a Oase 1/4 hp motor driven fountain powered by a 2000 WHr portable power station. The Oase draws only 130 WHr and could operate for over 12 hours on a single power station charge. With excess power at the barn from the large solar panel installation, I could easily move the 2000 WHr power station back and forth between the barn and pond for recharging via the Polaris Ranger electric UTV. Algae growth for the balance of this summer is not a big deal as the pond has been freshly dug without any significant organic matter to deal with. This situation will change come 2027 as the upcoming autumn season will deposit downed leaves in the pond. Finally, I have la local friend, also with a pond, who has a large amount of minnows. He has offered some of his stock to help begin stock my pond. The possibilities are huge, but the wet access conditions must be resolved during the month of June.

Shifting to my remaining raw Liberty Seated dime web-book plate coins, the first offering has gained some traction along with a private offering of more coins to one of the buyers. Below is an image of the remaining Greer Plate coins with pricing stickers. These must sell as I'm going to be needing multiple loads of rip-rap. Best to rechannel these dimes into aggregate materials for the new major project in a lifetime. These dimes are doing no one any good sitting in the office safe. I'm open to offers for multi-piece purchases. Come the 2006 Summer ANA, I will probably bring 40-50 dimes to sell to dealers who specialize in this type of material. Now is the time to gain first shot on this web-book plate coins as I will work privately with those that have interest.

Here are the remaining Greer Plate coins for your consideration. If wishing to be privately offered my residual web-book plate coins, we can also engage in this discussion.

 

That is about it for today other than a brief comment about the precious metals....

Gold and silver prices have been under pressure due to the Iran War and higher oil prices. Obviously, the gold and silver miners have been impacted by $100/bbl oil as energy is one of their primary mining expensive along with sulfuric acid for leaching the metals out of crushed bedrock. If Trump can cement a "deal" in the near term, oil futures will fall and the financial pressure on non-producing oil nations will mitigate current demands on their foreign reserves. I've remained steady with current gold, silver ETF holdings along with a host of mining stocks and believe that silver will break out first to the upside once there is a "deal".

Thank you for the visit.

Be well!

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2026

Sick Leave Absence

 

Greetings from Raymond, Maine and welcome to a delayed Fortin Family Blog edition. Thank you for the returning visit.

This has been a not so great week due to a bad case of food poisoning that hit both Diane and me on Sunday. My bout started later than Diane and ran into Monday forcing me to cancel blood work on Monday morning and rescheduling to this past Wednesday in Lewiston as the NorDx center in Windham, Maine was fully booked. The urgency is my annual physical on May 26th. While driving the Porsche to Lewiston early Wednesday morning, an engine control fault occurred requiring a visit to Falmouth Porsche this morning to have the fault diagnosed and corrected. As I am learning, Porsche engine control electronics are sensitive. In my case, an engine cooling fan did not start up quickly enough and caused the fault. Last evening also brought another bout of food discomfort though not severe enough to be considered poisoning. I was useless from dinner onward and back to bed early. Overall, my plans for the week have been derailed with unexpected issues along with a longer than normal recovery from the Sunday/Monday food poisoning event. Aging does bring a slower recovery to matters that we would quickly bounce back from when in our 30s and 40s.

There were no energy to deal with coins and working in the Fortin Family Park so far this week. I'm starting to feel a bit better today and will spend some time outdoors this afternoon along with sorting out a few more raw Liberty Seated dime web-book plates to sell as the first Greer plate coin lot has seen five pieces sold. No one has requested the Greer 1853 WA and 1891-O macro image dimes and those are still available.

I've received two requests from collectors to start performing Liberty Seated dime web-book updates for incremental die varieties being located. Honestly, my Maine summertime is precious and the last thing on my list of activities is sitting at a desk and working on web-book updates. I'm sorry about this and will consider web-book updates starting after Thanksgiving once back at the Venice condo and needing something to do. While in Maine, the Fortin Family Park construction is my primary mission in preparation for family visits starting in early July.

That is the current update for now given there are no new images to share.

Be well!

 

 

 

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!