Abstract and Landscape
When we first build the crazy cave we call our home, we had a zillion things on our wish list. Solar panels. A wind tower. Tinted concrete for the flooring to maximize our solar gain. An outdoor shower. A garden. We ended up with the solar panels and the garden, but, by the time we… Continue reading Exposed to Nature
Every spring, without fail, at least one morning trip to the garden is marked by the discovery of an overturned composter. Unlike the weeds that I'm working to smother as I completely overhaul my veggie garden, I don't have much control over where the bears wander and what they will smash. If you compost and… Continue reading The Bears are Back in Town
I'm thinning basil seedlings.Eggplant, you’re next.I've killed dozens of pepper shoots,mourning the products ofseeds that worked so hard,tossing them out the door.Only the very best survive.The cat runs by with a chipmunk who may escape her maulbut will more likely end up in the middle of the yard,his entrails split over the new-cut grass while… Continue reading Poem: Murder Most Foul
We may be the only house in Vermont where you can’t actually see a mountain. We carved our plot out of the middle of a hill, leaving as many trees as possible. The result is that we can see outlines of mountains through the branches in the winter, but most of our view is defined… Continue reading Tree Noise
The weather experts kept pushing back the storms’ arrival time yesterday, so we decided to get the chicks out of their indoor enclosure and into the outdoor tractor for a little playtime. We still get some cold nights, and they’ll go outside full-time when we hear more clucking than peeping. That can’t happen soon enough… Continue reading Lawnchair Psychology
It’s interesting watching fathers and sons connect. It happens in the very beginning, but it seems as if, during those early teen years, a chasm sometimes appears. When Thing1 was eight or nine, he and the Big Guy bonded as father taught son and then sons the fine art of burping on command and then… Continue reading Fathers and Sons
Yesterday I went to the hospital for more bloodwork, including a coronavirus antibody test. Pain in my chest and lungs still keeps me mostly sedentary, with the exception of our daily walk. Even though I walk only a few additional feet traveling between my bedroom, study and living room, but it feels as if those… Continue reading Journey of a Thousand Miles
The day before Mother’s Day, and it wouldn’t be Vermont if there weren’t five or 6 inches of fast melting snow on the ground and trees. The other animals staked out their pillows and poofs for the day as soon as they glanced out the window, but the warrior princess, Jane, was in and out… Continue reading Restless Warrior
Somedays the wind is howling around the mountains. Other days, the sun is pointing out every new bud in the forest. Even when it’s grey and the back section of our trail is more pond than path, though, at four o’ clock, at least one kid and one adult will ask if we’re all ready… Continue reading Organically Grown
It was almost uncomfortably warm on Saturday so we let the chicks into the chicken tractor to play while they’re current enclosure was cleaned. It was a good chance for them to really meet Jim, Princess Jane, and Katie. Jane and Jim inspected the chirping babies and, discovering that the tractor was secured by wiremesh… Continue reading Are You Our Mama?
Okay, okay, I take a lot of pictures of cats, especially happy cats. The thing is, I was not especially happy just before I took this picture. I was angst-ing over work or money or a story I couldn’t get started, and then Jim-Bob, who had wedged himself on my lap under the computer, patted… Continue reading Make Something Happy
When I was a kid my parents and some friends rented a community garden plot in Baltimore. Our yard was mostly gravel and shade, and I remember the first summer my dad carrying on about the victory garden his parents had when he was a kid and the experience he wanted to replicate. We got… Continue reading Green Victorious
Rachel Barlow Art 