Why Shop? In #Maine, the #LibraryOfThings Has It All (Almost).

One town’s effort to make pricey items accessible and encourage people to buy less stuff seems to be catching on.

By Cara Buckley, Aug. 20, 2025

"Here’s a short but by no means comprehensive list of items that patrons of Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine, can check out for free: A dumpling steamer. Cannoli-making tubes. A ukulele. A heated leg massager. A Happy Birthday sign. Easels. A foam ax throwing game. A KitchenAid mixer, in chrome or red.

"Mary Gerber, a retired schoolteacher, borrowed hula hoops and a cornhole game for her son’s 2022 backyard wedding, and, more recently, a spiralizer for her homegrown zucchini. Betty McNally, a retired bookkeeper, routinely borrows a loom and a drop spindle to hand-spin yarn. In late July, she checked out a root slayer to tackle the overly abundant hostas in her yard. She’d had it on hold, because there was a waiting list.
'It feels revolutionary,' Ms. McNally said. 'I’m not buying it and storing it and the great thing is it’s really useful but I’m probably only going to use it once or twice. This way, other people can use it. It’s perfection.'

"The Library of Things at Curtis Memorial Library was founded in 2018 to make pricey items accessible and encourage people to buy less stuff. It now has more than 1,500 items, all tailored to meet the needs of the roughly 22,600 people who live in Brunswick, as well as nearby #HarpswellME, which has a population of just over 5,000.

"There’s a driving kit with miniature street signs, a lesson book and a sample test to familiarize new drivers and migrants with the rules of the road. #FoodCanners, fruit tree pickers, molds for homemade Popsicles, a #FoodDehydrator and tomato strainers are offered to help people make their own food.

"Items in high demand can be checked out for only a week, and include a #GrainMill for grinding fresh flour, a nut wizard to gather acorns and other nuts, and, this being Maine, a #BlueberryRake."

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/climate/maine-library-of-things.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/yoxBx

#SolarPunkSunday #CurtisMemorialLibrary #BrunswickME #LibraryOfThingsMaine #BorrowDontBuy #PreservingTheHarvest

We got a new Monster grain mill for homebrewing, and it towers over our old flattened Barley Crusher. 😳

It also attaches to a power drill and mills the grain in two minutes flat. 💪

#homebrewing #beergrains #grainmill #beer

@wfpb @vegan @homemade @vegancooking

So far, we've made the following with our WonderMill Junior:

* Lentil flour and rice flour (used to make Ade Dose (ಅಡೆ ದೋಸೆ))
* Chickpea flour (used to make fritattas)
* Almond butter
* Peanut butter

We ordered the drill attachment so that we can make this kind of stuff with less effort in the future 😅

#homemade #wfpb #vegan #wondermill #grainmill #vegancooking

Since I #BelieveInFilm and its #FilmFriday here is a low quality jpeg of a #black&white scene from #rural #Alberta #landscape by a #grainmill shot on #Kodak #TMax #400ISO film with a #Minolta a7 sometime last winter

And because I'm at work its completely unedited, enjoy!