HERE AT THE CABIN-IN-THE-WOODS, we are prevented by exigent circumstances from following the national news on a minute-by-minute or even hourly basis. Or sometimes even daily. These circumstances involve the feeding of birds (and sometimes deer and raccoons while also trying to prevent the deer and raccoons from getting into stuff we don’t want them getting into and… well, nevermind).
WE KNEW about the old (1932) cabin in the woods for 17 years. To ever own it and live there seemed about as likely as a trip to the far side of the moon. It was empty most of the time. I used to come out to ‘explore,’ to study birds and trees and plants. Then, somehow, the impossible happened,
IT IS APRIL at the cabin-in-the-woods. ‘Good Friday.’ But it looks a bit more like January. Still, all is beautiful. The soundscape is alive with the yodeling of loons from the river (no, they don’t stay through the summer, so it is a joy to hear them!) Tundra swans’ high voices echo through the sky as they fly overhead, arrowing
MARCH HAS COME to the cabin-in-the-woods, and with it open ground. The whistle of duck wings over the frozen river—indicating there is open water downstream, near the island. The pileated woodpecker has been hammering a hollow tree all afternoon. The little lane has given up most of its snow and ice, in favor of pond-size puddles. At an hour where
HERE AT THE CABIN-IN-THE-WOODS, even in difficult times, good things abide. And it is part of our job, living in balance, to notice them, remember them, appreciate them. That is true wherever we find ourselves. From the old cabin in the piney woods, here are a few…
ARRIVING HOME from my last Road Scholar trip of the season (they were all great!) I found this monster parked by the cabin. I knew what was up. The old (94 years?) chimney has been leaking and needed to be redone. ‘Tuckpointing’ it is called. Lots of new mortar, a whole new cap, etc. It is not easy to find
HERE AT THE CABIN-IN-THE-WOODS, I am waiting. And watching. I’m watching the old rock wall I built long ago. I’m watching the sides of the gravel lane, and along the paths I like to wander. And sometime soon I will see what I’m looking for. The first little hints of white. The first tightly clasped blossom around a green stem,
THIS SMILING, HANDSOME FELLOW is Bob Heim. We’ll get back to him in just a moment… Here at the Cabin-in-the-Woods, in the grove also known as the Church O’ The Pines, Kathy and I feed the blue jays. And crows. And red squirrels and gray squirrels. And nuthatches and pileated woodpeckers and other feathered friends. And deer. And a whole
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL MORNING at the cabin in the piney woods. The chickadees and jays and red squirrels are all proclaiming its virtues. And their own. But today I will be traveling. Appearing at the Detroit Lakes MN Public Library at 2pm. And later at the Bagley Library at 6pm. I suspect we may talk about books! Perhaps play
In our cabin in the woods, a 100 year-old Steinway piano resides. My mother, the best teacher I knew, taught lessons on it for over a half-century. Now my wife, Kathy Ann, the best teacher I know, teaches lessons on it. From my book, ‘A Wild Path’, this is the story of that piano, of the people who love it,