Hidden away on Ross Road is a medium-size farm behind a big business. Started in 1992 with a few dozen animals, Bayley Hill Elk and Deer Farm now has 1,200 head of Rocky Mountain elk and red deer serving several different markets.

Owned by Fred and Kathleen Bayley, the farm is open to visitors through Christmas Eve, and when families buy a tree at Bayley’s Campground on Pine Point Road, they get a free bag of apples to feed the elk and deer on the farm just down the road.

Many families come back year after year, Farm Manager Nick Richardson said. “It’s become a tradition.”

Behind the scenes, the farm is a serious business.

One big market it serves, according to Richardson, is producing velvet, or new growth antlers for an arthritis supplement the farm sells as nearby as Lois’s Natural Marketplace on Route 1 and as far afield as China. “China is starting to look at buying a lot,” Richardson said.

Cape Elizabeth has joined forces with two school districts, one in Missouri and one in Pennsylvania, and is looking for as many as four more “like-minded” districts to form a national consortium of schools seeking to be “world-class.”

At a two-day meeting in Portland in November, Superintendent Tom Forcella, curriculum coordinator Sarah Simmonds and School Board Chairman Marie Prager met with superintendents and assistant superintendents from Clayton, Mo., and the Palisades School District, north of Philadelphia, Pa.

One skunk has tested positive for rabies and a second, believed to be rabid, remains on the loose in Cape following two encounters with pet dogs on Fowler Road and Patricia Drive.

Three dogs have been quarantined, due to concern about contact they may have had with rabid skunks. On Fowler Road, a skunk tried to enter a wire kennel sheltering two dogs. The homeowner put down the skunk himself, and the animal was later found to be rabid.

On Patricia Drive, a skunk was seen circling a dog, but did not successfully spray the dog, which is unusual, Leeman said. Most skunks don’t miss, unless they’re sick. Avet who examined the dog, Leeman said, did not find any puncture wounds.

The median price for a home in Cape Elizabeth is now up to $280,000 and in Scarborough it’s $237,600 – making it out of reach for someone making a moderate or even mid-level salary.

That’s what is driving Scarborough Town Councilor Suzanne Foley-Ferguson to lobby her fellow councilors to do something about affordable housing. She is not talking about public housing built for those with the lowest incomes, but housing that could be affordable to a family just starting out, or a teacher, or police officer – housing that could be affordable to an individual or families that rely on only one income.

Foley-Ferguson told the Current this week that she would be pushing the council to adopt the creation of more affordable housing as one of its goals over the next year. She is also hoping to get the council to pass a formal resolution supporting that goal, similar to what the town of Falmouth did last October.

“In my opinion this is one of the first things I would like the council to do – maybe as early as January or February,” Foley-Ferguson said.

Local retailers report that the Christmas shopping season opened with strong numbers last weekend, riding on the shoulders of customers like Pamela Whitten of Scarborough.

It was only 10 a.m., and Whitten had already put in a full day of bargain hunting Friday, starting first at Wal-Mart at 6 a.m. then moving up to the Maine Mall.

“I’ve found some great deals,” Whitten said, taking a break from some fierce Christmas action to have a cup of coffee in the food court. “I was able to find a bike at Wal-Mart for $25!”

Whitten was not alone Friday morning. Hundreds of pre-dawn shoppers flocked to the mall and Wal-Mart, eager to take advantage of aggressive holiday discounts.

In fact, the 11,000 Wal-Mart shoppers Friday set a single-day sales record of $603,000 worth of merchandise for the store, according to store manager Rich Bourget.

“Friday was just a great day for the store and the whole company,” Bourget said. “At our store, it was our best day ever. It was way above average, even for this time of year.”

Almost 100 people showed up to view the lighting of the town Christmas tree and meet with Santa in Scarborough in this file photo from the issue of Dec. 5, 2002.