When I last posted, on February 15, I was planning to trek to town for supplies and mail, my first foray out of the woods since January 11. A winter storm the next day made travel difficult, and I postponed my trip until later in the week. When I finally headed out on the 18th,...Read More

At the end of my last post, I promised to take you, my readers, along on my daily chores. I’ll get to that soon. But let’s wait a bit before we start our work, and go out for a walk instead… Two days ago, the weather was lovely: sunny, with little wind, and afternoon temperatures...Read More

Over the past ten days, I’ve been savoring the wintry weather. Overall, the season has been relatively mild by Maine Woods standards. As of January 28, the temperature on my porch thermometer had not, to the best of my knowledge, dropped to zero Fahrenheit even once. Our warmer weather this year has meant grayer skies....Read More

When I last posted here, Earth had just passed the Winter Solstice. Since then, I’ve made two forays into Greenville, the nearest town, about 30 miles distant. On my first trip, I celebrated Christmas with an Achor Earth Ways board member and his family (with attention to Covid precautions – no sitting around a group...Read More

5:04 AM this morning, December 21, was the Winter Solstice: the moment of the year when the Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest from the sun. Each day since the Summer Solstice, the sun has set a little farther to the south, daylight has grown shorter, and nights have grown longer. On the twentieth of June, night...Read More

In mid-August, I decided that this would be the year to realize a long-cherished dream: I would spend the winter in solitude at my off-the-grid cabin in the Maine Woods. It’s nestled among fir and spruce, birch and maple, on the shore of First Roach Pond, just east of Moosehead, Maine’s largest lake. As the...Read More

The wild is not limited to remote places far from our everyday lives.  Even in towns and cities, the wild is around us, though we often fail to notice it.  Our neighbors include creatures who, though they are not human, are fellow beings nonetheless.  That understanding makes my world feel richer, more alive, less lonely. ...Read More

Last week, I spent a night at Pemaquid Point, best known as the home of the iconic lighthouse featured on the Maine state quarter. I believe it’s also a strong candidate for the best spot in Maine to watch the sun rise above the ocean. A spectacular sunrise depends on clouds: just enough to provide...Read More

On the last day of May and the first of June, I explored a primeval forest in the North Maine Woods: a five-thousand-acre enclave of virgin woodland, the largest contiguous tract of old growth east of the Mississippi. It’s an anachronistic island surrounded by the younger forests typical of Maine today – regenerating woods that...Read More

The shoreline of Achor, my land on First Roach Pond, is fringed with a typical Maine Woods assortment of second-growth trees. Tall, evergreen spruce and fir. Birch and maple that change from the green of summer to the yellows and reds of fall to the bare starkness of winter. An orange-berried mountain ash here, a...Read More