As I have become busier, I have found myself adding to my list of employees. With the busier list of dates I need to be gone, the two awesome ladies who work for me sometimes take on jobs that I would be happy to do myself, but don’t have the availability in my schedule for.

In 2018, an estimated 10 million American households had chickens. During the pandemic, that number likely grew as more Americans decided to join the local food movement. The benefits of keeping backyard chickens are obvious. From fresh eggs to a newfound pet, chickens are highly entertaining and engaging creatures. I would know. I currently have eight.

Newcastle has been blessed with pictures. Besides the many thousands of photos taken by Ivan Flye and the old pictures of the area he bought at his Pictorial Studio in center Newcastle from about 1945 to 1985 there are the more than 3000 glass negatives of this area that were taken by E. Joseph Leighton between 1900 and 1930.

Well folks, another Fourth of July in the books so to speak. As we look back and think about our Independence Day here in America, we need to be grateful for our freedoms.

It’s been a while but summer in Whitefield seems as good a time as any to contribute a column, particularly with the return of the Fourth of July parade. In all honesty, with how things are going lately it didn’t feel like a time for celebrating but it’s been two years since Whitefield had their parade and I was curious to see what it was like.

There is a place near my house where does often hide their fawns. (No, you can’t hunt there – it’s too close to houses.) When a doe with hollow flanks and a bulging udder hangs around that area, we suspect that she has a fawn hidden nearby.

When I think of my favorite forests, I think of hemlock stands. Of the dense canopy of delicate oval needles suspended by swooping boughs. Of the way the light dances and reflects off the foliage, casting intricate patterns below. Of the rich scent of the forest floor, barren except for a thick mat of needles and moss.