My Grampa's Woods, The Adirondacks

Rating:
Summary: A review of "My Grampa's Woods: The Adirondacks
Review: Even though I never actually visited the Adirondack State Park, after reading Larry Beahan's new book, "My Grampa's Woods: The Adirondacks," I feel that I enjoyed a wonderful trip to the woods of long ago. Larry Describes life in a lumber camp in the Adirondack woods of 1900 in an honest an intimate way, so that you hear the noise of the loggers talking at breakfast, taste the hot cakes covered with maple syrup, and smell the horses as they sweat and strain at pulling the logs across the snow-ccovered forest floor. Life was hard then, and Larry doesn't cover over the hard part. There was loneliness and poverty. A dollar was always hard to find. Sometimes someone had to sell their horse to get the fixens to visit relatives at Christmas. And this was in the dayswhen some people depended on the horse not only for transportation, but needed the horse to help them earn money. Mr. Beahan writes about all of these events. There are no kings or queens in Larry's stories of the 1900's, just a lot of average folks struggling to make a living. When I was a boy I saw a two-man crosscut saw, and I also saw a two-bitted axe. Larry's descriptions of real men using real saws and real axes to felll real trees brought these humble tools to life. These wern't just decorative antiques. Real people, often young people, used these tools every day, scratching a living in the woods. Last weekend I read Mr. Beahan's book straight through, non-stop, until I was done. Afterwards, I felt that my trip to the Adirondacks of 1900 had ended too soon. I wanted to hear more about the loggers, their wives and girlfriends, and their life in the woods. It was a fascinating world to me, and now it's gone.

Rating:
Summary: A review of "My Grampa's Woods: The Adirondacks
Review: Even though I never actually visited the Adirondack State Park, after reading Larry Beahan's new book, "My Grampa's Woods: The Adirondacks," I feel that I enjoyed a wonderful trip to the woods of long ago. Larry Describes life in a lumber camp in the Adirondack woods of 1900 in an honest an intimate way, so that you hear the noise of the loggers talking at breakfast, taste the hot cakes covered with maple syrup, and smell the horses as they sweat and strain at pulling the logs across the snow-ccovered forest floor. Life was hard then, and Larry doesn't cover over the hard part. There was loneliness and poverty. A dollar was always hard to find. Sometimes someone had to sell their horse to get the fixens to visit relatives at Christmas. And this was in the dayswhen some people depended on the horse not only for transportation, but needed the horse to help them earn money. Mr. Beahan writes about all of these events. There are no kings or queens in Larry's stories of the 1900's, just a lot of average folks struggling to make a living. When I was a boy I saw a two-man crosscut saw, and I also saw a two-bitted axe. Larry's descriptions of real men using real saws and real axes to felll real trees brought these humble tools to life. These wern't just decorative antiques. Real people, often young people, used these tools every day, scratching a living in the woods. Last weekend I read Mr. Beahan's book straight through, non-stop, until I was done. Afterwards, I felt that my trip to the Adirondacks of 1900 had ended too soon. I wanted to hear more about the loggers, their wives and girlfriends, and their life in the woods. It was a fascinating world to me, and now it's gone.

Rating:
Summary: Adirondack Mountains
Review: I thorougly enjoyed the book because it is a good handbook for hiking the beautiful Adirondack Mountain area, tells with humor some adventures of the author and his family, and tells about the Beahan family dating from the early part of the 20th century. If you like to hike and camp, if you live in upstate New York or if your name is Beahan, you will especially enjoy the book.

Rating:
Summary: Adirondack handbook
Review: My Grandpa's Wood's is a great handbook for someone who wants to learn about hiking in New York's wilderness treasure, the Adirondack Mountains, about some of the history of the logging days of the area, and about the people who made their living in that area. It was good reading.