Any other spring, Lary Funeral Home would be busy organizing graveside services for people who died during the winter and couldn’t be buried in the frozen earth. Now, the dead rest in tombs, and mourning rituals have to wait as the pandemic upends life across Piscataquis County, which on Sunday became the last Maine county to confirm a case of the coronavirus.

The Maine Warden Service, working with the Maine Border Patrol, Maine Forest Service, West Forks Fire and Rescue, Upper Kennebec Ambulance and civilian volunteers, rescued an injured hiker who had to be Lifeflighted after he slipped and fell 30 feet down an embankment into Moxie Gorge on Monday.

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to use a Korean War-era law to help a Piscataquis County company increase its production of the medical testing swabs that are necessary to confirm cases of the coronavirus. 

The SeDoMoCha School recently received a $7,350 grant from the Maine Community Foundation to rebuild a nature trail. In the 1970s Dorothy Warren built this trail for students to learn about nature.

Two local long-term care facilities now have the opportunity to connect residents and their families who have been restricted from visiting due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Thanks to a gift from The Commons, the Hibbard Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Hilltop Manor have new iPad 4 tablets to help residents see and talk to family using Zoom or other technology platforms.

Private ponds that are stocked with trout provide multiple benefits for landowners and their families. This is the time of year to order trout to stock your pond! The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District’s 2020 Trout Sale pick up will be held on Wednesday, May 20. Customers must pre-order and pay for all brook trout by Monday, May 18.

It has been a challenging and emotionally draining last several weeks. We’ve been encouraged to stay at home to keep each other safe and many of us have been relegated to that same (in my case tiny) space for work. Day after day. It got old. Quickly. I had no idea how much it had dampened my outlook on things -- until I went fishing.

Piscataquis County may not be at the epicenter of Maine’s battle against the COVID-19  pandemic -- as of Sunday there is only one positive test among its 16,800 residents. That’s not to say the impact of the coronavirus stops at the county line, including the food insecurity that comes with rapidly expanding unemployment around the state.

More and more, the government’s nationwide COVID-19 mitigation measures are resembling a fictional nightmare from the pages of “1984,” George Orwell’s dystopian novel about oppressive government run amok.

All 16 of the state’s counties have confirmed cases with the first case confirmed in Piscataquis County on Sunday. It was last Maine county to report a case.