The BGF is fine, by the way. I put in three quarts of new Mercon V transmission fluid, just like the owner’s manual said to use, and started the vehicle, backed it up, and drove it down the driveway, and it was fine. It was a little shakey on startup; maybe that was due to …

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 …

Of the Yeeeeeeeeeeeear!
We’ve had the Christmas music on, we’ll set up the Christmas tree a week from tomorrow (we always do, the day after Thanksgiving), and the weather has complied by sending snow. Jess called this afternoon and said we had two new inches. (This picture was from the other day.) Yahoo!
Not to rub it …

New England has its maples. We have our aspens, birches, and especially our tamaracks. Tamarack (Larix laricina) is conifer whose needles turn orange in the autumn and fall off the tree. There is a stand of them on the northwest border of our property, and when the sunrise moves south in the fall it illuminates …

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 have …

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 …

We have a Bushy-Tailed Wood Rat building, and rebuilding, a nest in the engine of the BGF. So technically, I suppose we have a BTWR in the BGF, or ABTWRNDBGF.
How do we know it’s a BTWR? I met him one morning, trapped under the recycle bin on the back porch. The dogs had been sniffing …

One advantage of living in the boondocks is that places like this are pretty easy to get to. The trailhead for this adventure is about an hour from my front door.
I got out of work later than expected on Friday and so did not start up this trail until 8:10 pm local time. And I …

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 …