This week the Environmental Issues Class took a field trip to the Verso company’s Androscoggin Paper Mill Plant which makes paper for some of America’s biggest magazines. In addition to the perk of being able to wear construction hard hats for three hours—we also got to get off campus and learn more about the topic we had been studying in class for a month now: logging and Maine’s larger than life wood industry. As we pulled up to the mill we could see the steam puffing out from the industrial Read More

I wake up at six a.m. to Kanye West playing from Maia’s speakers: the current wake up selection. Any other morning I would roll over and try to sleep for a couple more minutes before forcing myself out of bed, but this morning I wake up and am ready to leave in ten minutes. For some reason, the prospect of getting to turn the compost draws me out of bed, and I cant wait to get to the farm and begin. As Yona and I leave the cabin to collect the full buckets from the kitchen, we are both Read More

Pachyella Clypyata? I examined the brown, slimy fungus that had spread itself over this tree branch. I thought back to the night before when I made up a creative way to remember the Latin name for what we called “moose boogers.” I quickly scrawled the name down and moved on to the next species. While still avoiding the decidedly tricky deciduous twigs, I made my way toward the more friendly Conifer samples taped along the white board. I dragged my fingers across the needles of the Yew twig Read More

Tonight’s my last night on Wilson Pond and our group of eight is swaddled up in puffy down jackets, gators, Sorrel boots, and mittens. We encircle our sculpture: a packed-snow base stabbed with long, knobby icicles like candles on a cake. They glow by the light of a small candle centerpiece. We gather around the warmth and light as creatures have forever. Grady takes a bite of one icicle, then Doug, then I do too. They’re smooth and glossy as they melt under the stars. The flame flickers in Read More

Right now I sit facing the window of the library. It is snowing fairly heavily and, if I stare at it long enough, I become mesmerized by the snow cutting diagonally across the sky. Yesterday everyone got back from wilderness trips. I was on Umbagog One, and, before I overwhelm everyone with details, I want to say that it was one of the best experiences of my life. The camping and beauty alone would have been amazing, but to be able to share it with such a great group of people made it all the Read More

I woke up 9:00 am Wednesday morning in a yurt with a cold sweat. This started my first full day on the Woodcove Wilderness Trip. I was on the bottom bunk with two down sleeping bags, long underwear, cotton sweatpants, two long sleeve tee shirts and woolen socks on. The tip on nose was so cold that I submerged my head in the sleeping bag as well. We walked down an incline to a warm cabin that smelt of pancakes. After a big breakfast of pancakes and oatmeal we got on our snowshoes and headed Read More

It took us about two hours to hike from where we parked the van to the cabin-- after hiking through snowmobile campgrounds, meadows, a few trails, part of a road, and across the pond. We were all exhausted, and spent the rest of the day getting settled in and shoveling everything in sight. We sat around the fire for a good amount of time, laughing and telling stories, to the point where no one wanted to get up to make dinner. That evening we split up, and half of the group trekked up the hill Read More

6:00 AM: Disney music began to play from my alarm clock at exactly six-o-clock and all the Ranch House girls grumbled as we climbed out of our nice warm beds. Although the morning bell wasn’t going to ring for another thirty minutes, our cabin was the first one assigned to farm chores, so we got to wake up in the pitch black and head over to the farm before anyone else was awake yet. This may sound miserable, but if you ask anyone of the girls in my cabin what there favorite part about life at Read More

Safely ensconced in my fortress of blankets from the penetrating cold, I hear my small watch alarm go off. After slowly rousing myself, I fumble around with my hand until I can hit the button and turn off the alarm. 6:05 a.m. Another day at Chewonki begins. Along with my cabin mates, I dress myself in long underwear and many other layers to prepare for morning farm chores. Having prepared ourselves to face the chilly 12 degree weather, we trudge out to the farm through the snow. As I walk Read More

Last night at Chewonki, our Saturday evening activity included the classic game popularly known as Sardines. For those of you that are not familiar with this superb form of entertainment, Sardines is essentially Hide and Seek, except one person is hiding and when they are found, the finders have to hide with the hider until there is one person looking for everyone. That one person is then the loser. Last night we played in the Allen and Wallace Centers. I thought, after having been at Chewonki Read More