by Gina Hamilton
When I was a young girl of sixteen, my cousin Renee asked me to sing a song at her wedding. I did her one better; I wrote a song for her wedding. My coffeehouse singing partner, Susan, and I performed the song in close female harmony -- think ...
Posted Friday, November 27, 2020
by Gina Hamilton
There are a lot of things that are not particularly pleasant about working at home. Trying to keep up with cleaning, cooking, and laundry, for instance, while trying to write columns, news stories, science lessons, and letters, especially when there always seem to be far too many ...
Posted Thursday, March 12, 2015
by LC Van Savage
Time Magazine and other periodicals of that strain have an Arts section where learned men and women expound on whatever art the magazine is featuring that week. These expounders are often experts in their field, thoroughly versed in Renaissance or Dada, Folk or Abstract, Impressionist, Ashcan ...
Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2014
by LC Van Savage
A friend brought daffodils one dark, wintry day
That I put on the table in one long, bright ray
Of thin wint’ry sunshine. That remarkable sight
Caused that dark, cold room to fill with daylight.
I pulled up a chair to sit close to the ...
Posted Thursday, June 5, 2014
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
Dairy farmers depend on having a large animal veterinarian to help them keep their herds healthy and to conduct regular pregnancy checks. Our veterinarian, Simon Alexander, travels one hundred-forty miles from Exeter to our farm in Hodgdon at least three to four times a year to help ...
Posted Tuesday, February 11, 2014
by LC Van Savage
Apparently there’s something very wrong with me. (I know what most of you are thinking, but I’ll forgive you.) The thing is, I can’t get those environmentally “green” health products to work for me. I buy them, people give them to me. I ...
Posted Sunday, February 9, 2014
By Avery Hunt, Special to New Maine Times Every minute, somewhere in the world, a woman dies of a pregnancy-related trauma. By the time you read this, more than 20 women - mostly from third world countries - will be dead. For Judy Kahrl, this horror is something she refuses to swallow ...
Posted Tuesday, January 28, 2014
by Lee-Rae Jordan Oliver
For the first three years of our dairy operation, Matthew and I bought pregnant heifers from a knowledgeable dairy farmer, Dale Hall from Skowhegan, Maine. Within a couple of weeks after their arrival, the heifers would give birth and the milk would flow. By our fourth ...
Posted Tuesday, January 28, 2014
by LC Van Savage
I so well remember the day he called me, well over thirty years ago. His voice was thick and deep and filled with throat gravel and I knew he smoked, and I knew he was a Noo Yawkuh. He told me his name was Chet (Chester ...
Posted Tuesday, January 28, 2014
by LC Van Savage
It's occasionally been said that because an older person's got snow on the roof, there maybe is no fire in the furnace.
Bad, old joke, and of course, not true. We have a beloved relative, who resides in a home for retired persons and ...
Posted Tuesday, December 17, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
In early June, my dog, Blackie, and I were inside the horse barn when the skies opened and dumped hail the size of quarters. My horse, Jazz, content to eat the hay I'd given her, appeared oblivious to the hail pelting against the metal roof which ...
Posted Tuesday, December 10, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan Oliver
Several years ago, an acquaintance stopped me on the sidewalk to admire our first-born son, Walker, who I toted on my back in a baby carrier. She said, “Being a mom is the hardest job you'll ever love.” At the time I did not fully ...
Posted Tuesday, December 3, 2013
A Conversation in Poetry
Edited and Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate
Waking in the morning anxious about troubled dreams he couldn’t trace was not a happy experience for today’s poet, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc of Portland. Yet he “took paper in trade” for it, and the description he ...
Posted Monday, November 18, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
My father is a “fire starter.” Ever since I remember, as soon as the snow melted, Mom and Dad would go outside to rake and burn brush and leaves to beautify their property. When I was eight, Dad showed me what happens when you combine gasoline with ...
Posted Tuesday, October 15, 2013
by LC Van Savage
I often wonder if, when it's my turn to shuffle off this mortal ball, my left-behinds will stand by my bier wailing, gnashing and rending. I really would rather they didn't. I would rather be remembered the way Margaret will be.
That was her ...
Posted Tuesday, October 15, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
Spring calving season has been a roller coaster of thrilling highs followed by stomach dropping lows. Our two-year-old heifers started calving the last week in March when wintry weather still clung to northern Maine. Heifers are young, first-time mothers who often need assistance during the birthing process ...
Posted Tuesday, October 8, 2013
by LC Van Savage
They found him, bemuddied and worn
On a highway, all ragged and torn
They brought him back home
Where he could safe roam
Protected, and fed morn to morn.
He lived with them twenty-six years
His rescuers, his overseers.
They gave him good food
Which he ...
Posted Tuesday, October 1, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
When the sun was melting the snowbanks in early March, my six-year-old daughter, Anna, exclaimed, “Mama, winter's almost over! We're on the edge of spring!” Every year March tests a Mainer's mettle by teasing us with sunshiny days and then walloping us with a ...
Posted Tuesday, October 1, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
A dairy farm is a haven for rodents. Farmers benefit from having feline mousers patrolling the premises. We adopted two professional mousers, “Ben and Jerry,” three years ago. Ben and Jerry are brothers who look like they're wearing tuxedos with their black coats, white chest fur ...
Posted Wednesday, September 25, 2013
by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
My eyes popped open at 5:00 a.m. Outside the west winds pounded against our house, rattling the windows. Wind chill temperatures registered thirty-eight below zero. Pulling the covers up to my chin, I tried to steal a few more minutes of sleep. My heart thumped ...
Posted Tuesday, September 17, 2013
