Life in the Kingdom: The Yankee Archives

In Yankee’s January/February 2015 issue, the editor’s letter made note of a new column that was slated for a one-year run in the magazine. Called Life in the Kingdom, it would chronicle the daily life of author Ben Hewitt and his family on their 40-acre homestead in northern Vermont. As Yankee put it back then: “The turning of the seasons on the Hewitt land means ever-changing work and play—and, as readers will discover, the two blend seamlessly in the family’s life.” In fact, the column would continue long past 2015, and explore topics both on and off the homestead with wit, heart, and graceful prose.

Life in the Kingdom 2025

• Taking Stock (2025): A one-year-long column about rural living grew into more than a decade of storytelling. And now, writing the closing lines doesn’t come easy.
• Due East: Sometimes the best part of an adventure is the chance to return home.
• Hammer On: Sometimes the most essential thing in your tool kit is the willingness to learn and to try.
• Shaped by Land: Some places we never leave, but instead carry with us all our lives.
• Force of Nature: What you can’t control, you have to survive.

Life in the Kingdom 2024

• Winter, Fast and Slow: Finding that rare moment to pause in a season that urges us to hurry up, hurry up.
• Change Happens: What stays constant is the love of the land.
• Remote Learning: Thinking of moving to rural Vermont? Here are the 10 things you need to know.
• Origins: Taking a parent back to her childhood home reminds us that every town is special to someone.
• Seasonings: Each year winter and spring do their dance, until one finally lets go and the other one moves ahead.
• Best-Laid Plans: Embarking on a family trip can bring unexpected obstacles—and revelations.

Life in the Kingdom 2023

• After the Rains: Another once-in-a-century flood hits home.
• About a Boy: A chance encounter on a country road brings back childhood memories.
• Heavy Lifting: As time passes, staying fit for farm chores can be a job unto itself.
• The Cusp of Summer: After a long winter comes the reward of new life.
• An Ode to March: Plans and memories merge when winter slides into spring.
• Taking Stock (2023): Keeping animals means endless chores, and moments of contentment.

Life in the Kingdom 2022

• The Perfect Day: Sometimes contentment comes from knowing how special the ordinary can be.
• A Truck for Rye: On the hunt for new wheels, a father ponders how his son will navigate today’s world.
• A Homesteader’s Tool Kit: In rural Vermont, happiness can be found in hard work with a trusty friend.
• Rules of the Dirt Road: Where the pavement ends, both community and self-reliance begin.
• Mixed Blessings: When rural land is worth more than ever, what of those who value it most?

Life in the Kingdom 2021

• Cord Values: On the necessity of building a home for the wood that heats yours.
• Easy Rider: There’s no better way to start the day than by pedaling down a back road.
• Small-Town Matters: A community is stitched together by timeless rituals.
• A Cow Named Apple: Sometimes, animals that prove hard to keep can be even harder to let go.
• Sharing the Land: An invitation to trespass brings neighbors to a special place.
• The Lottery: A son’s love of hunting is both a mystery and a wonder to his father.

Life in the Kingdom 2020

• On the Cusp of Winter: A time for slowing down, settling in, and taking stock of the important things.
• A Return to the Old Ways: On re-embracing the business and blessings of homesteading.
• The View from a Distance: Animals to tend, wood to cut, and outside the window, a fast-changing world.
• A Change of Seasons: Spring arrives with fresh chores and the realization that life moves on.
• The Fix: On getting water from a well without digging too deep into one’s pockets.
• Snow Man: When you love plowing snow, it’s easy to get in over your head.

Life in the Kingdom 2019

• The Poet’s Son: Finding meaning in the margins of a writer’s profession.
• Foundation for the Future: The Hewitt family embarks on a new kind of building project.
• Something Lost, Something Gained: At midlife, a Vermonter tries to reconcile memory and change in the community he loves.
• Rough Cut: In rural New England, the sawmill and lumberyard connects the forest to the homesteader.
• Beyond the Homestead: As his sons grow into young men, the author ponders a future without them nearby.

Life in the Kingdom 2018

• Time Alone: With family away, life during a cold snap is distilled to the pleasure of chores, the warmth of cats, and a ski trek across the land.
• Lessons from the Scrap Pile: Compression wood inspires a meditation on the gifts of resilience and being OK with imperfection.
• The Truth About Meat: A pig tale about homesteading and hard choices.
• The Memory House: A father-and-son camping trip to a long-ago family homestead stirs up the past.
• Back Ta Willey’s: A great country store offers far more than just things to buy.
• The Change That Never Came: Empty promises left residents in this part of Vermont with what they’ve always relied on: themselves.

Life in the Kingdom 2017

• Transitions: The changing seasons offer a reminder to treasure every gift while it lasts.
• The Hurry-Up Season: As the days get shorter, the list of chores grows longer.
• First Harvest: Moving a homestead also means planting in new soil.
• Good Well Hunting: When a sulfur-spewing spring makes life unbearable, a dowser is a good person to know.
• Moving In: As winter slides into spring, maple sap flows and a comforting ritual says welcome home.
• The Wheel Deal: Vermont claims a state bird (hermit thrush), a state flower (red clover), and a state mammal (Morgan horse), but its truest symbol may be its unofficial state automobile, the Subaru.

Life in the Kingdom 2016

• Settling In: Moving is always stressful. But what if it involved multiple animals. And, oh, by the way, your new home has neither front door nor floor.
• A Bittersweet Autumn: As the Hewitts get ready to leave their homestead of nearly 20 years, small details bring back memories.
• Sleepless Thoughts: Building a homestead taxes both body and mind.
• Pure Vermont: If you want to see an unfiltered slice of rural Vermont, hang out a while at The Chainsawr, chainsaw store and repair shop.
• Starting Over: Nobody who knew the Hewitt family could believe they were leaving.

Life in the Kingdom 2015

• Stick Season: In northern Vermont, “stick season” is the time between the leaves’ dropping and the first snow that sticks—a time that brings its own stark beauty and rituals.
• Eating the Sun: The Yankee work ethic is alive and well on the Hewitt homestead.
• Spare Parts: In rural Vermont, finding what you need isn’t always about what’s easy and efficient.
• When Everything Seems New Again: Spring comes to the Hewitt homestead, at first gently, then in a torrent, as the land turns green in pastures and forests.
• A Fine Season: Lingering cold, slow-running sap, mud up to your ankles … How could life be better?
• A Hard Winter: A homesteading family creates a world unto itself in northern Vermont. First in a year-long series.

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