I cheerfully acknowledge that mine is not Approved Behavior for men my age. Men my age are supposed to have a boat and cruise around on the lake, wearing sunglasses and radiating superiority. They bear the required goatee and mandatory debt. They do NOT dive into the lake with the dog. They do NOT swim …

It’s been pretty warm around here. If you live in Tucson or Manhattan you have my condolences, but “pretty warm” for us is above 90 degrees, with 70% humidity or higher. Our SIP house stays delightfully cool, and when it’s hot I’d rather be inside. We leave all the windows wide open all night, and …

I had prepared a tirade against television yesterday, but a) I saw that it was too abrasive (someone might conceivably have found some use for television, somehow, perhaps) and b) I’ve already tiraded against it, in a somewhat more equanimous tone. But I did want to post this image, which I created with help from …

Maybe I should start marketing pictures of our Romaine lettuce (I think that’s what it is) to seed catalogs this year as champions of Romaine-ness. And if you steal a copy of this picture to represent as your own lettuce, I wouldn’t blame you. I don’t think anything we’ve ever grown has looked that healthy. …

Okay, a few more pictures of our hike.
Here’s Becca on the tippity-top of Chicago Peak, shooting the opposite direction of the image I posted yesterday. This one gives a better sense of altitude.
Here we are on the trail, heading out. The ridge above leads to Chicago Peak, so named (I assume) because the jagged blocks …

Well it doesn’t look like it here, but it was quite a climb to get on top of this peak in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. This is the only way I could situate the camera to take a picture of all of us while still giving a sense of the terrain. From the left it’s …

Well, I’ve decided to take the plunge and release myself from anonymity. With this post I’ll link this blog to my website and let the minute portion of the world who cares learn much more about me and where I live. Don’t get too close; I’m trained with my guns.
For the last few …

At some point, when you’re a grown-up, you run out of plan.
When you’re a kid, you always know what you’re going to do next. Go to kindergarten, go to school, get out of school for summer vacation, go back to school. Elementary, junior high, high school, college, mission, college, marriage, kids, career.
Then what?
That’s what I …

Did you ever perform this summertime ritual–lighting sparklers on the Fourth of July? Do you remember the hissing sound of a burning sparkler, the pinpricks of heat as stray sparks hit your hand, the tiny vibrations coming down the wire? What kid in America has not written his name with the brilliant chattering light? What …

I want to be considerate of the few neighbors we have; so I debar the use of power tools before 9 am. This precluded my getting to my firewood as early as I would have liked last Friday morning. But other things can be done without disturbing the neighbors; so I took the seats out …