But you really should have sent some of your snow our way. If everybody goes outside right now (you’re all home from work and school anyway, right?), takes a deep breath, and blows as hard as they can, it should push the storms all the way to, say, Ohio.
We’ll have to make do with our …

I hate to keep braying about this, but I don’t hate it so much that I won’t keep doing it. This is (Ta-daaa!) our first all-homemade meal. At least that I can recall.
Milk: neighbor’s cow. (I won’t be getting a milk cow anytime soon.)
Waffles: homemade from wheat we ground, oats from our storage, and various …

A short illustrative story withal: Once upon a time we were tooling up the highway amidst the mountains of British Columbia, on our way to Canada’s beautiful Banff National Park. Just after sunset we stopped the car to let the kids run around and throw rocks in the river. We almost didn’t get going again. …

Jessica took this shot out of our front window the other morning (or maybe Emma did; she’s into photography). You can see the snow has already moved into the high country, including the cliffs and long rocky slopes of Wanderer’s Peak. (That’s my mountain; but I let others visit it when they want to.) You …

Well, a couple of months back Jess and I were driving into town, admiring the elderberry bushes heavily laden with the tiny light-blue berries. Next time we were out together we threw a pair of kitchen shears and a couple of smallish boxes in the back of the Jeep. We drove along a back …

“The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.“
Didja recognize that? If not, my friend, it’s time to go back and read the United States Constitution. In fact, I think our nation would be quite a different place nowadays if more people (especially in Washington) were familiar with that document. …

Well, I’m back in the office. And on Monday, I actually got the GLASS onto the GREENHOUSE! It was the second hardest job I’ve ever done (besides being a parent) since the pieces were over 7’ x 4’, had no edges to grab, weighed about 200 lb. eeach, and had to be lifted at least …

The other night I tried to light the kerosene lamp we have on the shelf above our wood stove. It wouldn’t light. I checked the wick: trimmed. Okay. I checked the kerosene: gone! Well, who knew. Kerosene evaporates. The last time I used the lamp was last winter. So the lesson is, use the lamp …

My second-favorite thing about winter is getting firewood in the dark. (About a dozen things contend for the coveted spot of Favorite Thing About Winter, and they alternate depending on the day.) In the wintertime when I get home I always come in, drop off my Spiderman lunch box, grab the firewood tote, and head …

As far as I can tell, “terrific” used to mean “inducing terror,” as in what folks might have felt centuries ago during a tempest. Last night a thunderstorm raged for (by Jessica’s reckoning) two to three hours. I awoke intermittently to the roar of rain on the roof, thunder that rumbled and crashed loud enough …