It’s come to my attention that not everybody can read the captions to Penny’s photos. So here’s the caption for this one: Scouting.
The snow is mostly gone, reduced to crusted patches. I crunched through them while driving Pip down to the barn this morning, my gaze focused on the town church, now fully visible for the fallen leaves. It’s red-and-yellow and there’s a big wood stove inside. No electricity or plumbing. There’s a picture of it here, where you’ll also find this delightful quote about our town:
In this scattered rural settlement buried in a mountain wilderness farmers struggle to wrest a living from agricultural pursuits under adverse conditions. A white schoolhouse, and the tan and red Methodist Church and a farmstead are all that mark the center of this farming community. The region is wild and primitive in the extreme, vast forested uplands stretching away on all sides. Many of the farmhouses are unacquainted with electric lights and other conveniences, and life here is in a crude stage.
Life here is in a crude stage.
Well. At least we got that going for us.
Ben Hewitt 
You forgot to say that quote was from 1937 but then if people go to the page to see the church (so pretty!) they’ll see the quote and presumably get it.
Crude is good if crude be simple. IMHO
Yeah, I figured folks would understand that quote wasn’t entirely current. Heck, we got high speed internet, now.
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You need to hunker down, tall boy. And replace the red cap or add some maple leaves. Your profile is high above the grass. The boys are better disposed to camou 🙂
What is good that is sophisticated if not subsistence farming?
Crude? Have they ever seen where Trump lives? Or Tom Brady? or…
To have your confessional padded with golden straw, and your priestess who takes in your sins, warms your fingers, and then instead of 20 Hail Mary’s she gives you a bucketful of milk – that is LUXURY if you ask me! To have your food grow right outside your front door, that is LUXURY! To have neighbors who are willing to help, to have live breathing moving art all around you day and night, to listen to music of streams and rain, that is all LUXURY so many long for.
Now that hat, on the other hand, Penny may have a case, is a bit crude. 🙂
Like!
Yup, like too!
hey, now… I LOVE that hat.
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Love it, Bee!
Hi Ben. I just started reading your book, The Nourishing Homestead, and I am already in love with it. As someone born and raised in Southern CA, I have always craved living a more natural life. We do not have much nature here in Los Angeles and we barely get to experience a difference in seasons. I am planning to move to New England (VT, NH or MA) within the next couple years. My boyfriend is from RI and he would like to be closer to his family and we both would like to be more connected with the natural world. We will bring our large group of farm animals with us and I am a bit worried that they will have trouble adapting to the weather. But, I believe they will be able adapt well as long as we have good housing for them. And I know they will love being able to graze instead of living on dirt as they do now. I would appreciate any input you can provide on helping the animals adapt to the change. And any other input you may have for us regarding making such a big move (I am a bit nervous about the winters myself). Thank you for showing us a more authentic way to live. And thank you for providing us with so much inspiration!
Great words! Love the quote!
I was forced to go to the dirty midwest this past week (when I say dirty, I mean like a big nasty oil field with smoke billowing out and kids in the surrounding area getting cancer), and I realize how the areas that are like where you live, are getting smaller. When you fly and look down at all the mono cultured fields, cities, factories, etc. it makes you think about stuff. When I’m ready to die, I plan on crawling into a moss forest and falling asleep with the mushrooms. I wanna die crude!
Why not live crude?
I live as crude as I can in a small city:} We would like to move someday Bee, takes time though (and $). I wish that it was enough, but I need more than this.
Let the stars reach out their helping hands on your joirney to crude.
Coming from a town in north central Massachusetts describe pejoratively by one of our town administrators as ” a town in the middle of nowhere” I hear you and say Amen. Lets hear it for the crude , the places that were left behind. At least life here is real. And I think the “new economy” I keep hearing about is going to come from towns like mine and perhaps yours, because people have no choice but to be self-sufficient.
That picture looks like a painting. Great picture. It tells a story…
I can feel the wind coming off the water and hear the rustle in the grass. That photo is a blog post in itself.