I have a bad habit of splitting my kindling on the hearthstone, and occasionally the hatchet dives clear through the wood and bounces off the hard flat stone. This is not very friendly to the blade, so every now and then I have to sharpen the hatchet. (The last time I did so was probably …

A friend invited me to go snowshoeing with him yesterday, and to my legs’ consternation I agreed. Also brought Emma along, who is shown here looking south over Lake Pend Oreille from about 3.5 miles into the hike. We had to quit at about four miles because I was too tired to continue, and we …

We are a condiment family. A great portion of our fridge is filled with ketchup, BBQ sauce, oriental sauces, salad dressing, jam, mustard, mayo, …. We like to fancify our meals, so we use dips and sauces frequently. Here are three condiments you can make on your own, and they will be three less …

Two years ago today, while we were struggling to finish the plumbing in the house (we ended up calling in the professionals, $2400) the snow was waist deep on the level. By mid-February, our driveway looked like a white hallway. I have pictures where the snow berms were above my head.
We had so much snow …

Well, you guys have been asking about this, so here’s the news on my book. Tentatively entitled “Rain,” it explores the world of a slave whom we first glimpse as it lies dying in the desert, six weeks before the Biblical Flood.
The slave has no name, no will—not even a gender. It only has one …

Wow, that sounds sinister, doesn’t it? It sounds like the name is not so much spoken as intoned: “The Killing Cooooonnnnnne,” like a tool of unspeakable torture. Actually it’s a quick and merciful way to dispatch a bird, and I got mine at Home Depot.
Or more accurately, I got the sheet metal for it at …

To Absalom’s legs, that is. The ones with the spurs on them.
Absalom met his Maker on Saturday morning. Here’s the fixin’s for rooster soup, just before Jessica bagged them to put in the freezer:
It was not a pleasant end. I’m really sorry, Absalom, but I didn’t know what I was doing. By the time I …

In spite of the events of tomorrow [Absalom's execution], I am not going to give you the recipe for chicken noodle soup. I am sad the rooster has to go, so I’m trying not to dwell on his imminent demise. So, how about breakfast.At our house we only have an hour in the morning to …

I had to get on the roof.
When I get sick to my stomach I get really sick. Violently sick. It’s icky. And the timing was rather poor for the violently-icky illness I had over the holiday, because our chimbley was clogged* and I had to get on the roof to fix it. Until I could …

I estimate January 15 to be halfway through the burning season, which ends, by exactly the same precise calculation, on May 1.
Here’s our winter heat supply as of the first week of the new year. I’ve used up just over two rows of the seven rows in the wood sheds. Here you see the cross …