Backwoods Blog .80

MOTHER’S DAY Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Since Mother’s Day is this weekend I thought I would share a few photographs of the women on my mother’s side of the family. Of course once you start to…

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Backwoods Blog .78

SCOTT NEARING Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Through decades our New England homesteading has given us a compelling interest in everyday life, helped to maintain our health, provided year-round health-giving food and shelter on use-economy basis, with chores suited to…

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Backwoods Blog .77

THE FIELD TRIP Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… This faded image is one of the few photographs we have of my father before the age of ten (and a double exposure at that). He’s sitting on a bale…

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Backwoods Blog .76

HENRI NOUWEN Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… The word solitude can be misleading. It suggests being alone by yourself in an isolated place. When we think about solitaries, our mind easily evokes images of monks or…

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Backwoods Blog .75

SLIDE CAMERA Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… One of the valued keepsakes in the family attic is my father’s gray metal storage box of slides that he took years ago in his picture-taking days. From what I can tell,…

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Backwoods Blog .74

NEW NAME Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… It’s hard to believe that it has now been two years since the coronavirus pandemic changed the world as we knew it. When I reflect on those early days of…

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Isolation Blues .73

WINTER TRIP The Isolation Blues; reflections during covid-19 My father told me a story years ago about the time he took a load of grain to the grist mill in Houlton during the 1920s on a cold winter day. I wrote the story up at the time,…

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Isolation Blues .72

COFFEE & GASOLINE The Isolation Blues; reflections during covid-19 When I’m on a long road trip I gotta have a good coffee plan in place. Since I can’t afford to let my caffeine levels drop too far below my daily norm…

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Isolation Blues .71

DUMPING POTATOES The Isolation Blues; reflections during covid-19 When my father was once asked if he was a gambling man he responded by saying, “Well, I’ve never been to Atlantic City or Vegas but I play the mercantile exchange every day.” As a business…

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