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Northwestern Wilderness Of Maine
Personal Essays
Introduction
Raised on a Maryland dairy, I learned the value of nature. I was surrounded with domestic farm animals. Each morning before sunrise, our antediluvian rooster would climb to the corncrib roof, puff up its sagging chest and wake the neighborhood with early morning calls
Milking the cows wasn't a weekend chore. Each morning before sunrise, you relied on the calls of our antediluvian rooster to get you out of bed on time to milk the cows. It didn't matter if it was freezing cold or snowing a blizzard, the cows had to be milked.
Life on a Maryland dairy was one chore after another. Some of the chores became emergencies. Cows always like to be on the wrong side of the fence, even if it meant standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Getting up in the middle of the night to herd the cows back into the pastures was very common. Repairing fences or trimming weeds that grounded the electrical circuit took several days. This was repeated each month of growing season.
There were always animals to feed or water. In the spring you prepared the fields and planted the crops. In the autumn, you harvested the crops and stored them in the barn or silo.
Farm life wasn't all work, most of the chores were fun. There was a time to enjoy the surrounding nature, time to swim, time to hike, and time to fish.
Farm life came to a halt one early spring day. My parents sold their Maryland dairy and moved to the Northwestern Wilderness of Maine.
Although to this day, I still miss the Maryland diary, moving to the Northwestern Wilderness of Maine was an unbelievable magical time in my life.
It was the first day of spring, the flowers were in bloom, the trees leaves were unfolded, and the birds were singing as we drove out the farm road for the last time. My eyes watched the farm getting smaller as we began our journey to New England.
As time evolves, my essays will share some of these unbelievable magical times.
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