Porch maintenance and righteousness.

Sitting in a demoralizing screened-in porch.

A "connected farmhouse'' in Windham, Maine. The barn dates from the late 18th Century. The house itself was built in three stages during the 19th Century while the unconnected garage was a 20th-Century addition. All doors of the structure are visible in this view from the south side, where sun would melt accumulated snow and ice. Following the 20th-Century outbreak of Dutch elm disease only one American elm remains of the line that provided summer shade along the southern and western sides of the building.

"Yankees traditionally build porches that will sag after a decade, and tack them onto houses built to stand a century. …New England is a harsh climate not only for crops but for neighbors and porches as well. Any flagging of morale – any passing of days skulking indoors in a state of depression…any slacking of righteousness – and down goes the porch.''

-- From Three Farms, by Mark Kramer