Yes, there is a garbage barge. You *can* commission it to bring larger/heavier loads over but apparently that is expensive. Residents are encouraged to compost, to burn burnables (just about everyone has an open fireplace or stove to heat their home), and to take recyclables to the council recycling bins in the village across the water themselves.


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Thanks, fargon! I didn’t know that!


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How is drinking water and sewage managed?

One of the dirty little secrets of a lot of the islands in Maine is that they have a pipe that goes a few hundred yards out into the ocean, and the sewage just gets drained untreated into the ocean.

Right where the lobster boats operate? :yelsick:

Drinking water is piped over from the mainland (200 yards away, undersea pipeline I believe).
My house has a septic tank and soakaway, so I expect every house does. I have the same here on Arran, and I’ve not had to have the tank emptied in 17 years so I must be doing something right in managing it ....


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The lobster boats are a little further out, but you get the idea.

One time I was standing on the wharf of Monhegan Island and saw a big bubbling foam blob pop up out of the water and disperse. I wondered WTF, and then as I looked around, I saw them. A handful of rusty cast iron pipes that blended right in to the brown rocks, dipping down into the water. They came from every building on the edge of the water. The coast is so rocky there, you can't have a functioning septic system. Not enough soil.

There must be some sort of grandfathering in of older buildings or different rules for different sized islands, and maybe some of the more populous islands near Portland have big pipes that go to the mainland and pump the sewage to be treated, but the small ones, like Monhegan, just try to be quiet about it. It's a big ocean, and it's biodegradable.

Edit: And my "Pipe that goes a few hundred yards out into the ocean" comment earlier is an exaggeration. This is individual houses doing it and it's only a hundred feet or so.

And it is, naturally, referred to as "the garbarge," correct? If it is not, your neighbors are doing something wrong and should be ashamed of themselves. Please rectify post haste. ;)

Semi-educated guess: drain field?

Trashy McRubbishface

I must be getting slow...

:D

I got two questions;
1) What happens if you come home late, 3:00 Am after a nite of carousing, how do to get home?
2) Do you Pay the Ferryman before you get to the other side?

But this is Scotland, rules, even customs of the world, don't count. :lol:

It says "Bewaur Ye Who Crosses Wi Me" on my Claymore.

I think it's Who, but the engraving is damaged there. Pretty sure it's 3 letters and the first is w but there's a "dot" like an i would have between letters.

Me too!

Sent by magick

I asked that first question. You can arrange a late ferry on a Friday or Saturday night (11pm I think) but it has to be booked 24 hours in advance and is at the ferryman's discretion. Or you make arrangements to sleep elsewhere (hence the move towards a campervan).
You pay the ferryman before you get back to the first side (on the return journey).

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But... the campervan can't fit on that little ferry... I guess it's parked permanently somewhere on the opposite shore?

Exactly. All vehicles are parked “over there”. So if we get stuck over there we’ll have a place to sleep.


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