forest farm -maine

Currently trying to finish a (hypothetical/academic) proposal for digitizing and preserving a collection of papers and ephemera belonging to Scott and Helen Nearing -of The Good Life fame. One of the wrinkles is that an important part of the Nearing's legacy are the stone buildings they built by hand (themselves and assistants), on Stratton Mountain in Southern Vermont, and in Harborside on the coast of Maine. As well as being landmarks to the couple, the architecture and slipfrom masonry construction techniques were idiosyncratic; simple and functional solutions, though longevity being questioned now.

Anyhow, we considered a way to represent them in the digital archive and as well as storing high quality digital stills we investigated the process of creating 3D digital models of the structures. Deri Jones & Associates assisted us with some of the pricing and technologies. Not surprisingly the cost of surveying and 3D recording of old houses depends on their complexity and access. The optimum situation is to have a clear traverse around the whole house in about 3 survey stations and clear views through the windows to allow accurate location of the scans inside. An example of this type of scanning is the below project done by Deri Jones & Assoc. on some old houses in Friuli, Italy, taking one day to record. Imagine using the data to rebuild a full size 3D replica at some point in the future... good stuff.

the salt book

Pamela Wood started Salt in 1973 as a folklore & oral history course at Kennebunk High School in Maine. Students conducted interviews, took photographs, and edited the first issues of Salt magazine.

The Salt Book (available from specialty sellers, not expensive usually, ABE features a bunch now for under $20) is a compilation of some of the Salt articles. It is split into two sections; THE SEA (fishing, shrimping, rum running, sea moss harvesting, how to buid a lobster trap, and more) and THE LAND (snowshoe making, flintlocks, stone walls, barn raising, fiddleheads, maple syrup, and more). Pretty fantastic. Limited photos. B&W.





This a case where I wish googlebooks had a scan... Salt has since morphed into The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, based in Portland, Maine. A non-profit documentary school/entity/website/building with a contemporary edge.

in the blood

In The Blood is a film & live exhibit/show illustrating turn-of-the-century Maine lumbermen & river drivers. If you follow 10engines you'll know this is a favourite subject of mine, and have to say this is one of the the best productions of this sort I've seen.

ITB is ostensibly a documentary featuring interviews with retired loggers laid over uncommon archival footage and photos of rivermen and activities in the camp. If you have seen From Stump To Ship it is that on steroids, taking every advantage of technology but respectfully. The filmmaker Sumner McKane, also exhibits the movie as a show with live music; a few left if you live in Maine -check listings.

liberty tool co.

H.G. "Skip" Brack salvages tools from all over New England to resell at affordable prices, in an effort to support his local economy and craftsmen. Further reading

This wentup on ACL yday, and a 10e reader sent it in too. "If we don't have it.." etc.

e b white -one man's meat

Picked this up at our library's book sale last w/e (there were 2 copies actually) and have only just started it - but can see this is going to be a reread for years to come. E.B. White moved with his wife to a farm in Maine from NYC in the late 1930's and among other things wrote a monthly column for Harper's from there. This book One Man's Meat is a collection of those works I understand.

''One Man's Meat'' is too personal for an almanac, too sophisticated for a domestic history, too funny and self-doubting for a literary journal. Perhaps it's a primer: a countryman's lessons that convey, at each reading, a sense of early morning clarity and possibility.
-via NYTBooks

Sidenote; it was in his barn that White began to follow the activity of a certain spider that became the source material for his book Charlotte's Web (1952).

desktop vacation -squirrel island, me

Boothbay from Boston is just way too easy to get to... try Squirrel Island, ME. Hat tip to ACupOfJoe for coining the desktop vacation phrase... good one.

Squirrel Island-Maine from Pete Fullerton on Vimeo.

earmuffs, potatoes and stoves -winter in maine

ACL already noted this series of shots for Life, but did some more digging. American gothic knockout. Taken all over Maine in March 1942 by Bernard Hoffman.



The village library at North Gorham, ME was open one afternooon a week in winter (heating consideration?). It had 3,000 volumes.

michael margolnick -the ladder

Set in Maine, an apprentice cobbler runs till he gets the girl. Song from Margolnick's new/first(?) album Taylorsville. Random find.

paine products -smoke a house

Paine Products from Auburn, Maine apparently use 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of dried balsam tips every week. Local loggers and tree farmers bring in offcut tips from their operations and these are ground down to be put into pillow fillings. The leftover sawdust is used to create the infamous scented sticks that can be burned in the log cabin incense holders (numbers via Mooseville).



These would go perfect w/ those "balsam fir" colored Field Notes you got. You didn't miss those did you?