Almanack Contributor Justin A Levine

Having grown up in the southern Adirondacks, Justin has always been at home in the mountains of New York. After graduating from Paul Smiths College, he began his career in the environmental field working for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. After a brief five year detour to Florida, Justin returned to the Adirondacks to live off the grid in a small cabin with no running water or electricity.

Justin continues to work and play in the outdoors, and maintains a blog about living off grid, hiking, and being outside in the Adirondacks called Middle of the Trail.




Sunday, August 12, 2012

Cabin Life: The Joys of Solar LEDs

Never in my life have I ever been this excited about buying light bulbs.  Seriously, I told everyone about it.  This is a great day in my life.

Don’t get me wrong, when I’ve bought lights in the past, it’s been a joy.  But ordering strings of solar-powered LED lights was new high.  These lights will make a big impact in my existence, especially during the long winter when the sun goes down at four in the afternoon.

My original plan for this summer was to get a small solar panel and a battery to wire so that I could run some Christmas lights in the cabin.  Nothing much, but enough so that I didn’t have to wear a headlamp for six months.  That got real old last winter.  But after shopping around and realizing that I would have to spend several hundred dollars to get a suitable setup, I was relieved and delighted to find the lights I just ordered. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Cabin Life: A First Bee Sting

I like bees.  They really don’t bother me that much.  It’s not like I want to get stung, but they tend to leave me alone, maybe because I don’t freak out when they fly near me.  I understand those who are allergic or just don’t want to get stung, though.

I remember vividly the first time I got stung by a bee.  It was at our house on 5th Ave in Gloversville, and I was already strapped into my car seat in the back.  Mom was locking up the house or grabbing something from inside, and when I shifted in my car seat, the bee stung me right on the butt.  I don’t know if I started screaming and I don’t remember the aftermath, but the sting itself is clear as day. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Cabin Life: My Garden Is A Joke

My garden is a joke.  I tried, but the spot is just not very good.  Too little light and mediocre soil make a great combination for disappointment.  The peas are doing alright, and the lettuce is coming along, but the basil and carrots are struggling.  Even my tomatoes are pathetic.

It’s a small raised bed made with flat stones.  I didn’t do any real prep to the spot though.  There was a rotten tree trunk in the middle and I pulled that out and added a little top soil, but not nearly enough.  I weeded and turned the soil.  I should have added more soil and some composted manure to help.  What the garden really needs is to have a few trees cut down. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Cabin Life: The Company of Osprey

The baby osprey are getting big.  They poke their heads up above the lip of the nest and look down on us.  The chatter they make is for food, though, not because I’m standing about twenty feet below their nest.  The people and the cars and the bikes don’t seem to bother this particular family.

Their nest is built on top of an electric pole right behind the entrance booth of the campground.  It’s about three feet across, sits right on the electric feed.  It stinks pretty bad right now, as there hasn’t been any rain to wash the area in and below the nest.  The shrubs and pavement are splattered white but amazingly no one has gotten hit. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Cabin Life: Of Cats, Mice, and Men

I was watching the sun come up over the Vermont mountains, listening to my dog Pico splash in the lake and really appreciating the bug free morning.  The haziness of the air made for a nice sunrise, all pinks and purples.  Pico loves the water, even though I have to give him a warm-up throw or two of the ball to get him to really swim.  But once he’s in, he loves it.

My cat Ed caught a mouse last night.  At three in the morning.  And he wouldn’t kill it.  He just walked around for half an hour with the poor thing in his mouth.  Every couple of minutes Ed would drop him just to catch him again.  He was growling at Herbie and Pico and me.  Finally I just picked Ed up and carried him outside, where he dropped the mouse and it ran off.  » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 8, 2012

Cabin Life: The Fire and The Heat

Camp FireI was slapping myself stupid trying to get all the mosquitoes.  There was a nice breeze coming off the lake and the fire was helping keep them down a little, but I was still getting eaten alive.

I threw another piece of wood on the fire.  It was some leftover wood from last year’s hurricane that had blown down during the storm.  The red pines that came down around here were huge old trees, but growing in sand a lot them just tipped over.

Back in the cabin, the woodstove hasn’t been used in months.  I think back to all the winter nights when I really would have liked to see the fire.  But my stove doesn’t have any glass in it, just a big black box.  A little bit of light is nice when the sun goes down at five in the afternoon. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 1, 2012

Cabin Life: The Best Meal Ever, And The Worst

A cast-iron pan, a quart pot and a tea kettle.  It’s hard to believe that I spent six months pretty much just using those three utensils to make all of my meals.  And it’s not that I had been eating out a lot or eating unhealthy meals, but with only a little propane stove to cook on, I got by with the bare minimum of dishes.  Plus it was really hard to wash dishes with no running water.

Another writer told me to use spray bottles to do the dishes.  Put warm, soapy water in one and clean in the other to save on water, since I was filling a five-gallon jug every couple of days and hauling it to the cabin.  It was a great idea and definitely saved on water, but I found that using the spray bottle to rinse was just not effective.  The wash bottle was great, but I still just ran the spigot on the jug to rinse. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cabin Life: Escaping The Heat

I’m sure there’s been plenty of people in my life who wanted to tell me to go jump in a lake.  Well, for the last two days, I’ve had to do just that.  The temperatures have been well into the nineties, hot, hazy and humid.  It’s exactly the type of weather I left Florida to avoid.

Around ten last night, I took Pico down for a swim.  As hot as I was, I can’t imagine how hot a dog could be in weather like this.  After throwing a stick a few times, I let Pico chew on his temporary toy and I just sat in the water.  The lake was calm, with no breeze to speak of.  Even though it was hazy, some stars were out and lights from Vermont were reflecting on the almost-glass surface of the lake.  The mosquitoes were bad, so I sat in water up my neck and was glad that the horseflies had at least taken the night off. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Cabin Life: Pico’s Adirondack Journey

Pico.  What a lucky mutt.  As far as anyone can tell, he is half border collie and half Australian shepherd.  Seems good to me, and he really doesn’t care what you call him.

A couple of weeks after I moved to Florida, I realized that living with my brother was the first place I had ever lived where I could have a dog.  So I went out and got a dog.  I checked the local shelters and there were no border collies, so, I went on to Petfinder.  There were border collies galore on the site.  Most people think they want a border collie until the dog begins outsmarting them and gets bored and starts destroying things. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Cabin Life: An Unforgettable Encounter

A grackle got stuck in the porch yesterday.  A few friends and I were playing horseshoes, and I went inside to grab a beer.  In the twenty or so seconds that I was in front of the fridge, the bird flew in through the open door and was completely stymied by the wall of glass windows.  Those windows are nice for me, but not so nice for an animal that has limited reasoning skills.

I watched the bird from inside for a minute or two, hoping that he would find his way back out the door.  The black body and iridescent head of the grackle are beautiful in the sun, changing color as the bird looks around.  I see them all over the campground, and the flashes of color off their seemingly black feathers usually brighten up the day.  But this one was clearly in distress.

Its beak was open like it was panting for air, and it kept fluttering around in the middle of the porch, surrounded on three sides by the outdoors, but blocked by all that glass.  He perched on one of the chairs for a rest, then dove headlong into the middle window down at floor level.  He dove at this particular window several times, apparently convinced that this was the way out.  It was not. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, June 3, 2012

Cabin Life: The Rewards of Trail Work

Memorial Day weekend is over.  It was beautiful weather, the campground was full, and I’m exhausted.  After working three fourteen hour days in a row, I’m glad the campers are gone, even though we didn’t really have any problems with the crowd.  Lots of guys talking about fishing, wondering where to get ice and firewood, and wondering how long they can extend their weekend.

I like working in the campgrounds, even though dealing with the public is often unnecessarily stressful.  Drive slow, be quiet and keep your dog on a leash.  It’s not that much to ask, but many people find it difficult to follow those simple rules.  But what I love about my job is the chance to be on the trail crew.  They pay me to hike, and I have to pinch myself every time. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, May 27, 2012

Cabin Life: Wonders of Wildlife

There was a loon swimming off the beach this morning, its haunting call reminding me of years past.  In college, I lived on one of the several Loon Lakes here in the Adirondacks.  It was great until the loons showed up, all six pairs of them.  They wouldn’t shut up all night.

I know from experience that loons are smart animals.  As large as a goose, but barely able to walk, their black and white body with red eyes are an iconic part of the Adirondacks.  I used to monitor banded loons and their nests, and after a few weeks of kayaking around them, I was often treated to the loons swimming under my boat and tagging along on the weekly paddles. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Cabin Life: Back to Work

I’m sitting on a picnic table on the shore of Lake Champlain. Valcour Island is in front of me, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping.  Tonight is the calm before the storm so to speak, as the campground opens tomorrow.

Paved roads, electricity and hot showers are now plentiful, as is the wildlife.  There are three osprey nests within a half mile of my new cabin, and of course, the raccoons are around a lot.  Pico has been marking the yard, and that’s keeping them away for now, but the cats still aren’t going outside. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Cabin Life: Life During Springtime

Life is definitely easier out here now.  Most of the trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming and the woodstove has been idle for almost two weeks.  And tonight I’ll be having fiddleheads sautéed with garlic.

The work season has begun, and I’ll be starting off the season on trail crew again.  After a week or so of clearing trails, I’ll be moving out to the campground I work at.  There’s some positives and negatives to this:  I live at work, I don’t have the freedom that the cabin offers me, but there’s indoor plumbing and the commute is great. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, May 6, 2012

Cabin Life: Snow on Grass

Big fat flakes of snow are blowing around outside. They seems to hover just before hitting the ground, then linger there for a few moments until they are just a plain old drop of water or two on a blade of brown grass.

Its nights like last night that make me wish I had a better camera. The sliver of moon was visible in short glimpses through dark and gray, wispy clouds. The kind of shot that your eye can see, but that my cheap digital camera would capture as a small blurry light in an otherwise black screen. No hint of clouds, no depth to the picture, and most importantly, no sense of the natural beauty that my own eyes can see. I don’t get upset when I can’t get these shots with my camera. Most of the time it’s enough just to witness the scene, but I do desire to share some of these moments.
» Continue Reading.



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