Category: Little House

There I was, standing by the side of the road, minding my own business with my thumb in the air when a car pulls up and this blonde orders me to get in. So I do. I don’t know if she’s a guardian angel or a kidnapper, but I figure I’ll chance it. She says her name is Angela, which I take as a good sign… Continue Reading

he French are a strange people. A few weeks ago they all trooped to the polls and voted to turn their government over to the most right-wing group in the country. But in this strange land, you have to win twice to take office, and when they voted the second time, only a week later, they voted to turn their government over to the most left-wing group in the country.

It’s like they decided to say “Je rigole!”… Continue Reading

The first thing you have to remember about Greg Bohlen is that he is the baby of the family, born twenty years after his oldest brother, Bob, and a full ten years after Chris, his other brother. His two sisters, Ginny and Susan, were born between Bob and Chris. So Greg was not only the… Continue reading Young Greg

I made history one cold March dark last week by becoming the first person to survive a night spent in The Cabin.  This ranks right up there with my being the only person in history to have walked out of a supermarket having bought just two items, a jicama root and a box of Fudgesicles.… Continue reading The Cabin

My house, the semi-famous Little House by the Vineyard, is, overall, a great delight to me. No one is ever going to accuse it of having good bones, but it is pleasantly laid out, with a large kitchen, new paint, all my furniture in place and the walls covered with my modest treasures, which is… Continue reading Rescue Flag

Katie Murray’s office sits behind the loading dock of an old mill on the Eno River, in the back on the lower level. To get there, you have to bump down a steep, rough incline. You also have to make sure you don’t turn in six feet too soon or you’ll wind up in the… Continue reading Arts and Farmers

Whenever anyone familiar with this general part of North Carolina asks me where it is I live in Orange County, I have learned to reply, “Do you know where the ice cream shop is?” They always do.             The Maple View Farm Ice Cream Shop is a regional legend, a Nutter family enterprise that was… Continue reading Roger That

Those of you who have been following these columns regularly (thank you) are aware that we have many and varied animals around the farm here at Union Grove: sheep, dogs, worms, bees, chickens, etc. But to date, I have barely mentioned another exotic species that can be found prowling the fields and vineyards.             We… Continue reading Cheerio!

Guy Fricks*, the Bee Guy, grew up in the South Carolina portion of Appalachia. There was no money to send him to college, so he moved on in search of employment and landed in New Orleans where he found work as a boat builder and carpenter. He took a few courses at Tulane and met… Continue reading Plan Bee

When my father got back to Connecticut after serving in WWII, he had a good job waiting for him. But he had something else in mind. He chose to go to Maine and become a dairy farmer. Mother was willing, mainly because she had read there were no poisonous snakes in the whole state. I… Continue reading Choosing to Farm