Rick Smith has been busy for the last two days after he first cut down a willow tree, dug out the stump area, used a hand saw to cut up stump, chopped pieces with a splitting maul and finally attached a tool to pull out the stubborn stump at his home in Oakland on Wednesday.

Tommy Liebel plugs together sections of lighted circus ring on Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center. There will be two rings set up for the annual Kora Temple Shrine Circus this weekend. Shows are at 2 and 7 p.m. on Friday and 9:30 a.m., 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Wyatt Rush, 18, of Farmingdale, casts a nymph Thursday in a Hallowell stream while learning to fly fish as part of his senior project at Hall-Dale High School. Rush said he had to study the history of fishing, the science of tying flies and practice casting with the hope of catching a few trout. “I’m still pretty new to this,” Rush said while roll casting his line.