Abstract and Landscape
We’re at the point in the summer where we open the windows of our earth-sheltered house for an hour in the morning to freshen things up and then close everything up for the day. I go to draw even in the heat which makes the mountains look like they’re melting.
Princess Jane was much more welcoming than we expected when we opened the box of week-old chicks and gently deposited each one into the shaving-filed aquarium where they will live until they feather out. She had, after all, just come inside from disemboweling a chipmunk who made the mistake of venturing out of the woods,… Continue reading Ladies in Waiting
It took less than a week of staying home to realize that, even with Thing1 home, we were saving piles of money by not eating out, not driving, not buying anything except what was on the grocery list. It took less than two weeks to remember that we could brush off our gardening skills and,… Continue reading A Homesteader’s Dozen
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
I expected some savings during the quarantine from not driving, going out to restaurants or ordering takeout. I expected an equally big bump in our grocery bill when Thing1 returned to the nest, but, even with two giants to feed (13-year-old Thing2 hit the six foot mark this week), thrift, apparently, is part of our… Continue reading The Song Can’t Remain the Same
Most of our house is buried to save on energy bills. When the wind tears through in the spring and fall, however, I find myself wishing we’d buried the entire thing until I look at the sleeping Sisters from a Different Litter. The wind and rain have completely blurred the view from our cave… Continue reading What Us Worry?
I’ve been making out my list of grocery items to order from the local country store to last the next few weeks and noticing the dwindling availability of of luxury, prepackaged foods like microwave popcorn and cake mixes, as well as staples like rice or pasta. The recognition that this pandemic could lead to shortages… Continue reading Make Do
Last year I broke my foot, and it never completely healed. For most of the last year I felt like I've been driving a Pinto with the left turn signal on waiting for the tiniest little ding to knock my appendage out of commission which made gardening last year a fantasy. this year I'm getting… Continue reading First Pick
We live well away from the madding crowd - such as it exists in rural Vermont (no, it's not redundant). While we try to be as energy and resource independent as possible, the plot where our slice of life plays out is definitely a homestead - not a farm. During summer months, we grow a… Continue reading Isn’t It Romantic
Winter isn't officially here yet, but the wood stove is going every night just about. I love our wood stove. It's an Amish made wood cook stove that heats not only our whole house but all of our hot water during the winter. I love it for its practicality, but I also love the romance… Continue reading Impractically Perfect
I had the dubious honor of having Margaret* on my list for the evening after only two weeks working at the nursing home. When I think back to my trepidation that night, I'm ashamed. Margaret would give me several gifts, one of which I think each year as we put up the last apples of… Continue reading The Given Trees
We don't live at the top of the mountain; we live in the middle of it. During thunderstorms, it's like being perched in the middle of a waterfall as the rain and runoff course down the hill and around our house to the river 300 ft below us. Lately, though, it's kind of been… Continue reading The Mountain
Rachel Barlow Art 