CHARLIE BASSETT

Staff photo and caption by Gregory Rec

On a sun-drenched morning at a Kennebunk farm, Charlie Bassett slings bales of hay onto an well-used pickup truck parked inside a barn. A shaft of sunlight angles in the door, catching floating bits of hay and momentarily spotlighting Bassett's face and hands as he throws a bale on the truck. The hard light exposes the lines of his face, weathered by years of working the land. His fingers, curled tight around the twine of a bale, seem like leather gloves.

The hay is destined for Bassett's Belted Galloway cattle that he raises on his Arundel farm, a 600-acre spread where he also runs a logging business. He calls the cattle a pastime - and says the real bread and butter comes from timber sales.

He and his assistant Scott Hamilton thin the forests on Bassett's land, selling the hardwood as firewood and the softwoods to local lumber yards and pulp mills. For two months before Christmas, he tips Douglas firs and sells the ends to local wreath-makers.

At 73, Bassett says he doesn't think of retirement. "I wouldn't know what to do with myself," he says. There is plenty to keep him busy. Timber needs to be marked and cut. Seedlings need to be planted. Fences need mending. Cattle need to be fed and moved.

In the barn at the Kennebunk farm, all the bales are loaded and Bassett climbs back into the truck, oblivious to all the strands of hay clinging to his clothes. He sticks his well-chewed cigar back into his mouth and pulls the pickup onto Downing Road, making slow but steady progress through Arundel back to his cattle, his trees, his land.

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Peter Bloom


Judy Nisbett


Merrill Currier


Amy Cote


Caleb Farnum


Kevin Soucy


Abby Freeman


Russell Thompson