Yellowjackets are drooling over all the felled and rotting apples. Fake cobwebs are bad for birds but great for kids. The catbirds won’t be here for much longer but they are calling now. Aroostook County had a frost warning the other night. We’ll soon be heating up the old wood-fired hot tub, crossing our fingers that we’ll have at least one last season with this well-weathered friend. I am waiting for an email from an editor I am hoping will not make or break me and sending this missive now as a balm and also so that I don’t have to rewrite this sentence.

hells bells is a reader-supported publication.

New Work in the World: A Family Affair

A few weeks into our relationship, Derek told me about his dad. I can’t remember exactly what he said, though I do remember him describing his dad with a mesh bag over his face, calling himself, “Ham Man.”

When I met him—Jeffery Yorks—he was living in an uninsulated cabin on a picturesque farm overlooking Sakonnet River in Little Compton, Rhode Island where he recorded this album, made jewelry in his kitchen, and on special occasions would “float the duck” (IYKYK).

Jeffery, a (sometimes) itinerant carpenter, spends a (sometimes) inordinate amount of time scouring Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook marketplace for deals. When I last spoke to him, he had just driven down to Exeter, NH, to purchase an old Schwinn.

Recently, I got to write about Jeff and his grandfather for Down East Magazine’s August 2023 issue.1

This story is about Jeff’s attempt to get the 800-1000 birds his industrious grandfather, Frank Kilburn, a former professor at UMaine Machias,2 carved and mounted between 1949–and 1978 back together again. But it’s also about what access to rambling land, old lawnmowers, and slightly aloof grandparents of a certain era could/can do for children. It’s about resourcefulness, resilience, and physical collections as stand-ins for what we can’t, perhaps, ever get back.

Technically, the story is not about the Farmington cabin Jeff built back in 2012 but I am here to tell you it is beautifully constructed with materials he salvaged from previous jobs, perfectly curated, and smells exactly like a cabin should. I’m including some of the outtakes from the beautiful photos Derek took so you can see for yourself.

Down East Magazine said that after the story went live, they were so swamped with messages from people asking how to tell if they had one of Frank’s birds and how to contact Jeff that they couldn’t respond to all of them. For now, these people are being redirected to Derek, who can be reached at derekyorks@gmail.com. If and when there’s ever a follow-up story it will be about the desire to collect, the implications of collections and what happens when you get what you ask for.

NB: Je Suis Available for Hire

My work with StoryCorps’ One Small Step program continues through the end of December.3 Between One Small Step, some work for Down East, and a few other stories, I can’t wrap my brain around accepting any new work at least until November/December or until I’ve placed a few stories that are currently in the hopper (unless you have something stunning to offer me, which I would consider. I like stunning offers. You can send them here.).

but then what

Maybe I will get a real job again. But let’s see how long I can hold off.

In the meantime, if you need someone to write a story for your nonprofit newsletter, review your email newsletter, audit your website, work up some copy, record a conversation with a family member, etc. holler. More on all of this here.

Currents

• Why are we never satisfied? with adrienne maree brown
• stacking wood in the late afternoon
• asters
• Dee Dee Sea + Merce Lemon (this song is really pretty) at Sophia last week
• Reservation Dogs - Season Three
• Crack-a-Geode
• fire

Thank you for reading / subscribing / sharing / commenting / telling a friend / etc.