Letters to the Editor

Insure Your Home for Replacement Value

On February 9 we lost our newly-renovated home and two of our precious cats to a sudden and inexplicable fire. We were left with our cars and the clothes we were wearing. Since that day we have been embraced by our communities (Lincolnville and Camden) and our colleagues at work and in some of the groups to which we belong, including friends who are farmers and gardeners, tradespeople, therapists, educators, yoga practitioners and so on.

The Lincolnville Town office and the Red Cross assisted. Our families have given us shelter and arranged a benefit to help us with our rebuilding fund. Russell Libby wrote to us right away. MOFGA members Heather Spalding, John Bunker, Mark and Paula Fulford, Eric and Alison Rector and Bonnie Miller were at the benefit, and John spent the entire day there organizing the auction. Ernie Glabau helped prune some of our trees.

Help Rebuild Sewall’s Orchard Farmhouse Many MOFGA members have enjoyed cider produced by Sewall’s Orchard at the Common Ground Fair. Lots of us benefited from the many years that Bob volunteered on the MOFGA board, including the years he served as president. Now it’s time to help Bob and his family! If you would like to help rebuild Bob, Mia and Samantha’s house at Sewall’s Orchard in Lincolnville during the month of June, please email the family (sewall@midcoast.com), describing the type of help you can provide so that Bob can schedule that help. Those who would like to donate to the Sewalls’ building fund can make checks out to Sewall Fire Fund and send them to Camden National Bank, Elm Street, Camden, ME 04843.

One happy person at our auction won a MOFGA "package" donated by the organization. Lorie Costigan wrote a front-page piece for the ***Camden Herald*** (February 12), which outlined the fact that though we were insured for so-called "full coverage," we were not insured for "replacement value." This explained the disparity between what we will be paid by insurance and what it will actually cost to rebuild the home and replace all contents. ( The coverage equaled half the value.) We are told that people all over town phoned their insurance agents to check their policies, and many people made changes in order to obtain more extensive coverage. Our agent and adjuster from Farm Family Insurance, Jane Crabtree and Tom Preble, have been helpful and efficient throughout.

Trying to juggle rebuilding a home and running a farm will be daunting. We are going to try to be back on the farm before harvest season. We thank you for your support as we begin the process of rebuilding.

--Bob Sewall (past president of MOFGA), Mia Mantello, Samantha Sewall
Lincolnville, Maine

Chanticler Chicken Breed Endangered

Attention Editor:

Hello. I was reading your lovely publication and noticed an error. On page 43 in the ad for the Common Ground County Fair is a picture on a Golden Sebright Bantam hen identified as a Chanticleer(misspelled) chicken. The Sebright is a miniature (bantam) breed of chicken with a mulberry colored rose comb and distinctive golden colored feathers with a black lacing around each feather. The Chantecler is a much larger breed weighing between 5.5 and 8.5 lbs (that is, seven or more times the size of a Sebright). They do not come in a laced variety but rather are usually white in color or Partridge (a combination of greenish-black, red and brown). The Chantecler has a cushion shaped comb that does not end in a spike, like found on a rose comb, but rather is round in shape.

On our Conservation Priority List, the Chantecler breed is critically endangered (fewer than 500 breeding birds in North America, with five or fewer primary breeding flocks of 50 or more birds) and can use all the positive publicity it can receive. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Don Schrider
Communication Director
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
P.O. Box 477
Pittsboro, NC 27312
(919) 542-5704
editor@albc-usa.org
www.albc-usa.org