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.

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