Well, it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but I’m giving thanks that there’s snow. I took this picture out of our bedroom window this morning, and it’s been snowing all day out there. Yay! I love the snow. It’s a mystery to me why so many people who live up here complain about the snow. It’s like …

Here you have it, the John Denver song in real life, but exceptin’ we don’t live in West Virginia. This is the country road that takes me home every night. Our driveway is about three quarters of a mile up ahead. Except for hunting season (right now), our road is pretty quiet. Because this road …

These are out of the raspberry patch down by the garden. You see a couple of varieties here, golden and red, as well as some of the honest debris that accompanies home-grown foods before they’re washed. We got enough to make 15 pints of freezer jam (more on that later) and to eat some early-morning …

I feel like I’m always bragging about our lives up here. I hope you don’t feel that way. I don’t think it’s bragging to be happy with your life and you like sharing that with others. It’s a nice thing look at your life and think, hey, I wouldn’t change a thing. (Except my job, …

It’s a bit like Satie. Or, in our case, Satie played by daughter Emma on our old piano. On a fresh Saturday morning, spring sunshine gleams in the dining room windows (which you can tell I’ve washed, not altogether effectually, with my homemade window cleaner) (It’s the squeegee’s fault!). These cold jars of cider have …

Steller’s jay? Jeller’s stay? This is English; you can never tell how something is supposed to be written. I used to pride myself on my spelling capability (even though I lost the 6th grade spelling bee on “asterisk”, a word I’d never heard before, but I’m not emotionally damaged, waaa!). But now that I’m getting …

This actually happened almost a week ago, last Friday, in fact. The snow stayed in shaded areas for upwards of four days. It’s been cooooold out there! January weather, sometimes. Way too cold for October, and I’ve been burning firewood frequently. That said, we’re back to more normal fall weather now. It’s welcome; I still …

I got home late last night, and was relaxing in my cushy chair with Fast Company, possibly my favorite magazine (tech, innovation, business, great graphics, what’s not to love?) when here came Abby in her jammies. Sometimes the kids have trouble staying in their beds at night so I was preparing to respond when she …

Some of my immediate family gathered last week to spend some time together in the mountains. On Thursday evening we hiked up Rock Canyon past the old beaver farm, up past the abandoned mine with its cascading waterfall, and in the darkening twilight we ascended the switchbacks to Rock Lake in what became the darkest …

Well, I finally recovered our Utah vacation pictures off my camera, which now seems rather to eat pictures than give them up. I’ll have to get a new card with all my spare money. Anyway, one of them is this one of the Manti Utah Temple, where Jessica and I were married 14 years, 4 …