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She doesn't really have a name, she has a number. But I've taken to calling her Queenie nevertheless. Every day for the past three weeks I’ve been milking sheep and making cheese. Since writing our book, Mootopia, Mary and I have wanted to live in a place where we could keep cows and sheep, to have our own supply of raw milk for yogurt and cheese making. Sheep milk is the best milk for drinking, making yogurt, and making cheese – it has superior nutrition and flavor. People e

After arriving back in Maine last April, I reconnected with the farmer network that I grew up with, plus friends from high school still living in the area. I helped Jean Noon muck out a stall and got paid with a truck full of sheep manure. I helped Jordan of Two Toad Farm plant out onions, and met another farmsteader who was also there helping out. Jordan's partner Marybeth organizes the Sanford Farmers Market. Through her we've connected with new local farmers as well. Jean

The dust is clearing and we can start to see ahead, so it's time to give you an update on our progress. I arrived here in April 2025 to help manage some needed work on the farm and to see if the house could be made habitable. During the summer there were several large jobs that happened, plus, I spent several months helping out at YES Books, the Portland literary bookstore owned by my brother Russ. In my few days each week on the farm, I started helping a neighboring farm get

Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half t