Backwoods Blog .130

A1 DINER Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… A1 Diner in Gardiner, Maine Linda and I were on a road trip to southern Maine last week and we happened to stop at one of our favorite eateries…

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DISTRACTIONS Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… “endless”   photo by my nephew Garrett Crawford “To perceive the truth, there must be a focusing of attention. This does not mean turning away from distraction. There is no…

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CONTINUITY OF CULTURE Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Parade in Houlton’s Market Square With the dissolution of physical and social community comes the deterioration of the human spirit. The fragmentation and isolation of modern American life compels…

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MONTICELLO WATER COMPANY Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Monticello Water Company  The above photo appears in the Monticello Sesquicentennial Booklet published in 1996 as part of the town’s celebration. My classmate, Wendell Harvey, along with Debbie Melvin and…

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THOREAU JOURNALS Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… I catch myself philosophizing most abstractly when first returning to consciousness in the night or morning. I make the truest observations and distinctions then, when the will is yet wholly…

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STITHAM GENEALOGY Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Ralph and Laura Stitham were my grandparents on my mother’s side of the family, the fifth generation of Stithams in northern Maine. The Stitham family story begins during the Revolutionary…

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QUIZ SHOW SCANDAL Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… To a nation since grown accustomed to public deception it may be difficult to understand the public outrage provoked by the television quiz show scandals. But we were…

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RANDOM SAMPLES Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… When I head to the woods the arguments I have with myself tend to involve the technology that I take or decide not to take. These days my smart phone allows me…

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MONK & CAMERA Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… The great temptation of modern man is not physical solitude but immersion in the mass of other men, not escape to the mountains or the desert, but escape into…

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Backwoods Blog .121

SNOW LOAD Backwoods Blog; in the woods and on the road… Last week it was time for annual backwoods winter maintenance, which translates, “Get the damn snow off the roof…”  If you want more specific details, check out backwoods blog entry #69 from last…

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