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Beyond the Homestead | Life in the Kingdom
Ben Hewitt with sons Fin, center, and Rye. The boys have grown up on a swath of rural Vermont land that’s been school, work, and home to them.Penny Hewitt I moved out of my parents’ house when I was...
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Scenes from Winter in Stowe, Vermont
The town of Stowe, Vermont, straps on its ski heritage with gusto. Inns, shops, and restaurants all proudly display their own private cache of memorabilia. On Main Street, the old meetinghouse is now...
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5 Ways to Recycle Christmas Trees
Rather than simply throwing your Christmas tree out when the season is over, why not try something different this year and have a little fun? Here are 5 ways to recycle Christmas trees that will keep...
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Historic Amesbury, Massachusetts | A Small-Town Community in the City
Historic Amesbury, Massachusetts, is a complex place, where country roads meet historic landmarks from the industrial age. Once labeled “The City known as the Town of Amesbury,” this municipality...
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Rough Cut | Life in the Kingdom
In early March, I drive a dozen or so miles east to P&R Lumber, the small sawmill and lumberyard I’ve been frequenting for longer than I’ve held a driver’s license. This is no exaggeration: I...
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How to Make Maple Syrup in Your Own Backyard | Maple Syrup Supplies
As a kid growing up in rural New Hampshire, I could gauge winter’s impending end by the arrival of an old farmer friend who tapped our sugar maples. The maple syrup supplies that he set up on our land...
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A Father’s Gift
By Erin Rhoda When I picture my grandfather, he is refilling the wood stove on his farm in Milo, Maine. He is turning over a row of potatoes with a potato digging fork. When the Piscataquis River...
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Something Lost, Something Gained | Life in the Kingdom
Sometimes I worry New England will become overly reliant on our collective nostalgia, while retaining just enough of what we’re nostalgic for to remind us to be nostalgic for it. John Clark Olson In...
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Foundation for the Future | Life in the Kingdom
It has been a dry summer, and although northern Vermont has been spared the worst of the rainless days gripping the region, we’ve been living for months on the cusp of drought. By early August, even my...
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The Poet’s Son | Life in the Kingdom
When I was a young boy and my family still lived in the northern Vermont cabin I’ve previously described here, my father built a small writing shack in the forest just a few hundred feet from the...
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Snow Man | Life in the Kingdom
Snow ManIleana Soon When it snowed in early November, we were not surprised. There is often sticking snow in early November, or even in October, when the stubborn remnants of foliage cling to the...
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The View from a Distance | Life in the Kingdom
The View from a DistanceTom Haugomat On the morning of March 24, 2020, we awake to eight inches of new snow. The ground, which had only just begun to emerge in tawny patches from beneath a winter’s...
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Mel Allen’s Letter from Dublin: Signs of the Times
In 2020, the arrival of spring coincided with the rise of an unprecedented American public health crisis. As it did in other nations fighting the coronavirus, life here profoundly changed — and for how...
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Small-Town Matters | Life in the Kingdom
Small-Town MattersTom Haugomat Even here in the rural northern reaches of Vermont, the pandemic has disrupted many things, not the least of them Town Meeting Day, which in these parts is typically held...
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How Invasive Pests and Plants Are a Threat to Fall Foliage
Note: In 2021, the name gypsy moth was replaced with LDD moth (for Lymantria dispar dispar) in most entomology circles, as well as in the press. The LDD moth has long been a dreaded sight during...
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Cord Values | Life in the Kingdom
Cord ValuesTom Haugomat I built a woodshed. This is very exciting to me, because for years our firewood has been covered by sheets of rusty roofing tin held in place by old truck tires and the...
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A Homesteader’s Tool Kit | Life in the Kingdom
A Homesteader’sTool Kit Photo Credit : Illustration by Tom Haugomat My favorite tool is a six-foot-long rock bar that our family has owned for better than a quarter century. It’s made of solid steel,...
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The Perfect Day | Life in the Kingdom
The Perfect Day Photo Credit : Illustration by Tom Haugomat The most perfect day of the year will most likely arrive in late September, though it’s also been known to come sometime in October. Last...
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40 Cozy Fireside Experiences in New England
Few things are as cozy and inviting as a crackling fire on a cold New England winter night. Looking to add a fireside to your next dining or getaway experience? These forty spots will spark your...
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