Poor Wakana... again! She has put in numerous hours clearing the brush between our house and the one in front of us. That house was occupied by old man Rice when we moved in. Shortly after we moved in he disappeared. It turns out he had cancer and had moved in with his family during his treatments. He died a few months ago. Now his house is being cleaned up and retrofitted with good windows. The people go in after work and labor in there until about 9:00 every evening.

And yesterday they clear cut the area that Wakana has been caring for. Her lemon tree is gone. The pumpkins are gone. We now have a clear view of their backyard, in fact the back yard now runs up to ours! Wakana is shocked and heartbroken.

On the plus side her work in our back yard is going well. She claims to be making a nature trail. If that is a trail then so is a four lane highway. But from where I now sit I can see tree trunks where before all I could see was bushes and sword grass. We will build a set of steps running up the bank to the upper area using old tires and gravel. That was her idea and it is a good one. Gordon likes it but then he likes anything that is cheap and only requires hard labor. Never saw anyone work like that man does.

Well, actually I've seen plenty of men, and women, work like that. It is the only way to survive in Maine nd the other northern tier states, and Canada, and, actually, anywhere in the cold when you live closer to the traditional lifestyle. Work is part of the routine. You cut, split, and stack your firewood and then carry it into the woodstove, clean out the surplus of ashes and add them to your compost heap or scatter them on your driveway, dig up your garden in the spring and plant it in neat rows that you weed and hoe and water, and tend it all summer while fixing your own cars and repairing your home, and cutting your firewood that you split and stack as you harvest your garden, can the surplus, and reap the benefits of all that hard work. Of course all that is done while working a full time job and tending to the children. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Much more has to be done to keep body and soul together.