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 …

I like heading in to the mountains in autumn. The crowds are gone (I’m not counting the hunters), the mosquitoes are gone, the water is low if you have to cross it, the mist has moved in, the colors are glorious, the days are warm, and the nights aren’t too cold. I recently took Emma, …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …