Sounds Good
On Friday, as the butcher helped us load some 800 lbs. of meat from a steer we never formally named – the beast went only by “#1” in reference to […]
Category Archives: Farming
The Science is Inconclusive
On Saturday morning I walked to the barn through an uncertain dawn, winter easing, the air noticeably softer, the first tentative hints of shirtsleeves and baseball on the face. But you […]
Home Alone
The recent heavy rainfalls and resulting heavy mosquitoes are the topic du jour around here. The buggers are making up for the lost time of a dry spring and attacking with […]
A Case for Telecommuting
I awoke at 4:30 on a Monday, tiptoed past Alison, nine children, two dogs, and thirty-one brooder chicks temporarily camped out in a kiddie pool in the middle of our living […]
Foreign Country: Blythe, California
I awoke at 4:30 and by 5:00 the rental Nissan was motoring down the sparsely vegetated ribbon of interstate between Palm Springs and Phoenix. I had just weathered two straight […]
Parting Shot
It was an absolute gift of a night. The air was like Mom’s kitchen, soft, fragrant, and yielding. The silhouette of black walnut tree and barn roofline featured against a […]
Tender Loin
It was the kind of gathering where a bowling ball rolled across the lush, encyclopedia-thick carpeting might only make it eight inches before hitting the next set of Gucci loafers. […]
Creative Destruction
I stared out at the Gulf, a ripe nectarine in one hand, a bag of granola in the other, watching the playboy yachts chugging south toward the Keys and the half-drunk […]
Like So Many Farmers Before
By the time I pulled into the driveway a splendid spring evening had turned into a perfect night. The temperature was an even fifty degrees and the snow and ice […]
Shooting Pains
I clattered around the kitchen to the washboard beat of a Johnny Cash playlist, scratching crusted butternut squash soup and quesadilla remains from a pile of pots and skillets. The stains from […]
