https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog daily 0.75 2024-11-05 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/the-road-not-taken monthly 0.5 2024-11-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/88970be9-d791-46cb-91ab-8520a0d6cd50/IMG_3694.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/3cb40f99-a1f0-4f07-b913-9d89d85b0a02/IMG_3470.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/45724086-0e89-4395-b1b5-913cf57b2fe5/IMG_2964.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/5fb9be7b-395c-4f60-97a1-26c00afdc3a7/IMG_4087.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/e9fff525-4420-4a69-829c-a1bd84277644/IMG_3086.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/819f6a8d-4e21-4c7b-b7d1-3537cceffe56/IMG_4517.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/527126d0-cab0-4442-91d2-95e13bbcf7a7/IMG_4359.jpeg Blog - The Road Not Taken - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/essay-de-necessite monthly 0.5 2023-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/809e9aab-4cdd-4718-b6a9-383ca71281f3/IMG_1731.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/da792dde-d677-4a81-a656-34d604c4cb87/IMG_1743.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/3422e679-ddb8-4dd6-ac07-020857825485/IMG_1741.jpeg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/19687a93-3f83-42bc-979a-d5e9604d7bc3/IMG_1735.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/c15dd0eb-5e36-479e-818f-d695e5161b94/IMG_1737.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/c2b3ccc3-061f-4898-a93c-a7933c2f28ee/IMG_1738.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/520d59f2-0c72-42c9-bf19-8c62da09bd40/IMG_1742.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/e9ab1e9e-8f13-4dd5-91ba-42d030ba4bbb/IMG_1733.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/23c4c19c-3ae3-4227-956d-71d6058141a7/IMG_1975.jpg Blog - Essay de Nécessité - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/handymanspecial monthly 0.5 2023-05-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1a63b595-87ee-48ff-abdd-08ea983ad7ca/70302057651__BF3C21AB-E0F8-4E0F-9451-54AABBD63F4F.jpg Blog - Handy Man Special - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/ffce6422-6049-4798-940e-ed11f7cbe048/IMG_1194.jpeg Blog - Handy Man Special - Another reason I never learned the artful trait of handiness was that I didn't live in a place like where I live now, where it feels like everyone and their mother knows how to do a basic amount of plumbing and electrical work in their own homes. When you live out in the country where your neighbor is a mile down the road, and the nearest substantial town is at least forty minutes by car, these skills can be crucial to survival. No plumber is driving out to you within a day to fix a toilet. You're lucky if the fire department gets to you fast enough to stop your barn from burning. It's good to know your neighbors for many reasons. As I said, they all know how to do some form of home repair. Many could be employed full-time as professional carpenters. I see a college-accredited forester who told me he built his and his mother's houses. You know… just because he could. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/973f49b3-9be7-47e5-9983-6c24324f6c7d/IMG_1196.jpeg Blog - Handy Man Special - Did Barbara consider herself "handy"? We can't know, but we can be sure that as an independent woman at such a time in 1940s-50s America, she was probably told many stories about what she could and could not do with her life. We do have testimony of her initial ignorance about renovating the farmhouse in 1945, fifteen years before the creation of Owl Pen Books. She kept a detailed record of her work on each room of the house we now live in. But for purpose of continuity, let’s look at the next part of Barbara’s story as Mellon tells it in his article: Read more here… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/348f08a9-f722-4649-81e5-b7895031d3ab/IMG_1197.jpeg Blog - Handy Man Special - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/cf9d9221-627c-40ed-a3ea-b8f27003d646/IMG_0754.jpeg Blog - Handy Man Special - And so I'd like to say, without a hint of braggadocio, that I am working on a different story. Over the winter months, I have hung many shelves. There were drills, measuring tapes, screws, nails, saws, and sharp objects. Oh, and many trips to the hardware store. In preparation for the opening of the Owl Pen season, I painted window frames, stained posts and beams, hung artwork, built signs, and wired new lights and speakers. But, for obvious reasons, I am most proud of my shelves. They do hold and display our precious inventory of books. That's nice and all. But the best thing about these gunstock-stained boards suspended across the back wall of our cookbook room is not their mere function or aesthetic. It's a new story I remember each time I pass them. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/a-new-year-for-old-books monthly 0.5 2023-01-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/40506b36-6cc6-488d-a2f6-94b5e331a6c1/BA4285C3-CADF-4DB3-B805-7CD3F62F54B2.jpg Blog - A New Year for Old Books - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/a78cca50-f189-4096-8557-8c1e43a09ce7/IMG_7993.jpeg Blog - A New Year for Old Books People often ask where we get our books and how we keep our inventory stocked. My answer always seems harsh, but it is honest and unadulterated. "Dead people." That's what I tell them. Sydney finds this cringeworthy. She gets embarrassed when she hears me say it, but she would never deny that it is true. Owl Pen Books stocks its shelves with the literary possessions of the deceased. There you have it. Our dark secret revealed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/ef55f0e9-1f89-4b78-ae32-73b4568ca95f/IMG_7994.jpeg Blog - A New Year for Old Books Dolores returned two more times that summer, on each occasion bringing a few boxes of books we could use; each time she came with the dog. As promised, she brought at least two filled with nothing but books on canoeing. We gave her store credit, and she went to pick out one or two mystery novels, but you could tell she didn't want any more stacks accumulating in her house or to refill the shelves she'd been emptying. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/57a3a5ff-c8de-452c-ae80-baba7bcf4b16/IMG_8715.jpg Blog - A New Year for Old Books - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/lights monthly 0.5 2023-01-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/cf0fd032-6293-43f9-ba97-05881a9ebc38/IMG_1887.jpg Blog - Wired for Light - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/fada4d87-b52c-469e-a375-84ea89ba2f28/IMG_1608.jpg Blog - Wired for Light - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/d816420d-c3e7-4370-9f9b-7643a6845260/IMG_1622+2.jpg Blog - Wired for Light And yet, for Sydney and me, the issue of lighting was a non-negotiable matter. The long fluorescent lights that lit our store for decades suggested the less than cozy ambiance of a garage or body shop. Functionally, the bulbs managed to suck up much more energy than the modern eco-friendly LEDs while managing to fall short in providing customers with enough light to read some of the fading titles on the spines of our treasured tomes. A simple shift in lighting can make all the difference in the world. Ask any serious photographer or cinematographer. Ask a social media influencer, whatever that is…But sometimes, the “simple” lighting change, no matter how subtle, takes more effort than what feels necessary. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/8f394921-1460-4171-a42f-59640587bbed/IMG_1891.jpg Blog - Wired for Light - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/c3405f66-4c5e-48e8-94f0-ae3652df8784/IMG_1883.jpg Blog - Wired for Light - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/blog/signs-both-old-and-new monthly 0.5 2022-11-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401502007-8VE8NIF3OC2Q3S1P8OAQ/IMG-1405.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401359967-TVXMJ9RLZDROE9J1E291/IMG-1457.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401119062-BG3SJMHJQA0NSGSWQVWZ/IMG-1543.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New She then relayed to me what they, the stars, had shown and, of course, I said, “Great! You do know that’s a bunch of nonsense, right?” To which she rolled her eyes and replied, “Whatever. You are such a Cancer.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401712718-TZF1K6311AL5MKST1MM4/IMG-1397.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401605293-I5HDJAHJB2BZ1L68TGOS/IMG-1452.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1667401650168-MW67J9U8JYGCKGQ9ALQP/IMG-1393.jpg Blog - Signs: Both Old and New - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/events daily 0.75 2024-08-15 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/events/cheapoldhouses monthly 0.5 2024-05-29 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/events/shakespeareinthepark monthly 0.5 2024-08-15 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/home daily 1.0 2026-04-02 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/about daily 0.75 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650719973072-WIJEPVTR9F24O43KIDGH/File+Apr+23%2C+7+55+19+AM.jpeg About - On a hot afternoon in 1944, a young woman in her mid-twenties was driving the winding country roads of Washington County, New York, where she was visiting from Manhattan, when her car’s radiator began to overheat. She stopped, turned off the engine, reached for the pitcher she kept in the back seat for these occasions, and followed the sound of running water to find a small stream just off the road. After leaning over to brush the swamp grass aside and fill the pitcher, she stood up and saw the dilapidated century-old farmhouse and its accompanying barns and thought, “This is my place.” Within weeks she had purchased the property and begun on what would be her life’s work. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650720892227-TU7W196OIV7HU65WPZ3F/RenoCollage.jpg About - Barbara Probst had stumbled on a dream. And a very specific one at that. But many of us have dreams that are more often never realized. More importantly, what Barbara had was moxie. She decided to uproot her metropolitan life as an editorial assistant for Mademoiselle magazine in New York City and move to the country to renovate a farmhouse built in the mid 1800s and learn to raise chickens and sheep. Trading the cerebral office life of magazine writing for the grueling physical labor of farming, not to mention renovating a long-abandoned old house, this fearless woman taught herself to plane wood, lay brick, sell eggs, and birth lambs, among other things. After the first freezing winters curled up next to the woodburning stove and bundling up to use the outhouse, her new home eventually became modernized with such high luxuries as heat, electricity, and indoor plumbing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650721802381-DQU4GRD0I5OOL1MYSGUN/LittleOwlPenCollage.jpg About - As years passed and the farming life grew more routine for her, Barbara began the second phase of the dream she never knew she had, an endeavor that would require just as much audacity as becoming a chicken farmer on a whim. By 1960, though she had left the magazine business behind, Barbara had never lost her love for reading, writing, and collecting books. Her next bold vision was to be informed by this passion when she opened Owl Pen Books in a small barn formerly used for a hog pen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650721862065-CERVIVZ17F4SCGCSM763/File+Apr+23%2C+8+44+22+AM.jpeg About - A bookstore in a barn on a rural back road, far from any major interstate, would seem like a foolish venture for any sensible person, but as Barbara admitted in the store’s first slogan, she had “more books than sense.” Even so, if you build it they will come, and within ten years, by word of mouth and a little print publicity, Owl Pen Books had become a regionally known destination. Eventually, the books overtook the chickens, and the chicken coop was cleared to become the space that now houses the main bookstore. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650753840597-RBBLLA8DA8TPELJZKLRR/EdieHank.jpg About - Twenty years later, two frequent customers of the Owl Pen, Edie Brown and her husband Hank Howard, a botany professor at Skidmore College, had been trying their hand at book collecting and selling out of their home in nearby Galway and were looking for a barn of their own to serve as a storefront for their business. They had sensed from talking with Barbara that she was ready to sell the now widely treasured Owl Pen and the property she affectionately called Far Away Hill. One day while leaving the store, Hank turned back to Barbara to say, “Whenever you’re ready, let us know.” Eventually she called and said, “Kids, it’s time.” Barbara Probst entrusted the legacy of her life’s work, the dream she never knew she had, to the best possible successors she could have found. For the next forty years, Hank and Edie saw Owl Pen Books through an evolution of the bookselling business in the burgeoning online market and into the digital age, while expanding the inventory and maintaining the charm of the bookstore as a destination for generations of local readers and visitors from all over the northeast and beyond. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650722434343-OHU4MA47UIS6FB1AKFJ1/File+Apr+23%2C+8+45+13+AM.jpeg About - In 2020, after Hank’s passing, Edie decided it was time to retire and pass the torch of a now sixty-year-old institution. Sydney Nichols, a graphic designer, and Eric Kufs, a musician and college professor, had never dreamed of running a bookstore, let alone a bookstore in a barn on a dirt road in rural upstate New York. But after stumbling upon a listing for the property in a Facebook post, the couple, who had just lived through a year and a half of a global pandemic, didn’t hesitate to inquire about Owl Pen. As they learned more about the place, their new dream took shape. Upon meeting Edie, seeing the store up close, and sensing the rich history and the magical surroundings of Far Away Hill, Sydney and Eric were sold on uprooting their lives in California to embark on an adventure, a new chapter for them and their then-four-year-old daughter. They knew, “this is our place.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/621e3f927f78cc6534853932/1650805880985-GAKEDAQXNUSFKBU1LY4K/E9D87FD9-3AD9-4C59-A8B7-DCA3F9FF6D78_1_102_o.jpeg About - Sydney and Eric, along with their daughter Sally Jane, are using their creative skills to draw in the next generation of loyal Owl Pen customers while honoring the legacy that Barbara, Edie, and Hank have built. They know the main thing is to ensure the Owl Pen remains a gem that all types of readers can stumble upon, a place where books and dreams are uncovered. https://www.owlpenbooks.com/visit daily 0.75 2025-11-03 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/contact daily 0.75 2022-11-02 https://www.owlpenbooks.com/sell daily 0.75 2025-10-29