The vegetable garden is thriving under the loving care of two part-time garden interns, and the plentiful produce is gathered each Wednesday and donated to the Tree of Life Food Pantry in Blue Hill. It is once again planted in the manner of the Nearings (weeds and grass take note - you are not welcome within the garden walls!) A grape arbor damaging the garden’s stone wall was removed and the wall repointed by a stone mason.
Restoration of the garden and buildings at Forest Farm is continuing, and a fund has recently been established for the conservation and preservation of their extensive library of books. Donations are appreciated and needed. For more information, phone The Good Life Center, 207-326-8211 or visit www.goodlife.org.

Summer visiting hours continue on Thursday through Monday, 1-4 p.m., closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, until Labor Day, and we will be open weekends in September.  Visitors can see the beautiful stone home, stone greenhouse, and stonewalled garden— hand-built in the early 1980’s by Scott in his 90’s and Helen in her 70’s. A short film about them is shown, gardeners and volunteers will answer questions, and Nearing books are available for purchase. Visitors are welcome to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the view of the Camden Hills.

Larry Dansinger - Consensus and Conscious Communications in Our Daily Lives

Mr. Dansinger’s interactive program will examine consensus as a process for discussion and decision making. Larry has given workshops on consensus since 1980, been a member of the Good Life Center’s Group of Stewards, and worked with Helen Nearing to organize several programs on simple living. He lives in Monroe, Maine and works with the nonprofit Resources for Organizing and Social Change to promote nonviolent action and community organizing throughout Maine.

August 24th, 2009

Live Simply and Pay As You Go: Simplicity and Frugality as a State of Mind

A panel, including Beedy Parker, Joan Cheetham, and Emilie Hermans, will offer personal experiences, insights, and tips based on two Nearing precepts: Live Simply that Others May Live (Helen) and Pay As You Go (Scott). The Nearings’ message is more pertinent than ever in these times of economic crisis, global warming, and increasing pressure on the world’s shrinking resources.

Thursday, July 23rd - Rebecca Gould’s talk is entitled “Sacred Natures: The Nearings, Homesteading, Localvores and the Way Ahead.”

Thursday, July 30th - Elka Schumann will offer “A Granddaughter’s Recollections.”

Thursday, August 6th - Greg Joly will reflect on “Scott and Helen Nearing, Pikes Falls, Vermont and Social Pioneering.”

To conclude the series on Sunday, August 9th (3 to 6 pm) the Folklife Center will sponser the First Forest Farm Open House at Upper Taylor Hill Road in Winhall, Vermont! Greg Joly will give a talk on the history of the Nearing Vermont time and the Forest Farm buildings. It will be a potluck gathering, so please bring a vegetarian dish to share. Music will be provided by Jessie Lepkoff. For more information on this open house call Darlene Palola at 802-297-2810.

Visit the Vermont Folklife Center’s website at www.vermontfolklifecenter.org

July 20 Richard Garrett - Nearing Photographer and Documentary Linguist

Mr. Garrett will present a slide show of Nearing images dating to 1970 and featuring photographs from their out-of-print Stone Greenhouse book and images chronicling the construction of their last hand-built stone home in Harborside. He will read from  correspondence covering his twenty-five year relationship with Helen and Scott. The second half of Garrett’s program will focus on his documentary linguistic work with the Penobscot Native Americans in Maine. Garrett lives in Wellington, Maine and is a founding Steward of the Good Life Center.

The Good Life Center buildings will remain closed to the public until the necessary excavation and ground work is complete. We hope to have the gardens and grounds open for summer tours in July and August and to have the farmhouse ready for new stewards in the fall of this year.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this period. Any contributions of time, money or materials toward the completion of these renovations would be greatly appreciated. We want to thank all stewards and friends who have already lent a helping hand. We want to especially thank Johnson’s Arboriculture of Camden which this week completed necessary tree work and will be developing a tree preservation plan for the property. We will be posting progress reports as the building renovation work proceeds.

From this basis Scott Nearing begins his scathing analysis of how the business class, represented by J.P. Morgan and company, gained control of the inner workings of the United States government and were thus able to meld nationalist patriotism into a military preparedness which finally leads to an open declaration of war.

Nearing methodically unravels the toils of plutocratic self-interest and as Tom Wirth observes: “Nearing’s consistent reaffirmation of purpose—connecting American business to the perpetuation of war and the disenfranchisement of the American worker—gave his discourse an uplifting quality, a ‘progressive’ tone which suggested the unlimited potential of the human being.”

Due to the outspokenness of his pamphlet, Nearing was trialed by the Federal government on charges of attempting to cause disloyalty and mutiny in the military forces during war time.

This fully annotated text by Greg Joly of “The Great Madness” will give the reader a sharper sense of this era and Nearing’s principled anti-war stance. Tom Wirth’s concluding essay will further enlighten the reader of Nearing’s historical importance. As Nearing said at his trial: “The destruction of life and property is incidental. The destructive forces that that puts into a man’s soul are fundamental.”