Holiday traditions


Celebrations

If you sat down to a dinner something like this in the last few days, you are among the most financially wealthy people in the world. As am I. Sometimes it almost seems like a sin, feasting so much—in a way that has nothing to do with whether or not I overeat. But I remember […]

November 29, 2014

On the naming of cats


Life around home

So much depends upon the naming of small furry ones. They will be fundamentally altered if I call them Muffin and Pudding or Tiger and Panther or Solomon and The Queen of Sheba. He is small and black, the baby of the litter. She is feisty and golden, and leads him around. If only their […]

July 4, 2014

$$$$$


Life around home

Confession: I kissed a frog once, for five dollars.* I thought it easy money, and I do still. If I had a lineup of frogs right here, right now—I’d kiss them all. One hundred bucks? That’s only twenty frogs.   *Sadly, he did not turn into a prince. He turned into a frog.

January 8, 2014

Little Sal, Mk2


Life around home

Introducing our new goat, Little Sal Mark 2. She’s four days old and darling! I’m no believer in reincarnation, just relieved out of my wits that she looks nearly identical to the one we lost so painfully last year. I feel like I have my pet back. And I still love bottle feeding. We would’ve […]

June 3, 2013

Turkey courtship


Life around home

Newsflash: My Current Reading page has fresh suggestions for your edification and amusement. ***** Observations After Watching Turkey Courtship in my Backyard The males are kind of cute when they show off. Cute in a bombastic sort of way. The females are either Extremely smart, or Extremely dumb. While Mr. Tom was strutting his stuff […]

May 2, 2013

Spring fever


Life around home

Pharaoh is the handsome, regal type: bushy and sullen, the kind that dominates by silence. Munchkin is the nice guy: clean, likeable, affectionate, the kind that takes his dates for walks in the moonlight. Both are gone more often than not these days, slinking home exhausted and mangy in the wee hours of the morning. […]

February 23, 2013

Fluff and unbreakable habits


Life around home

Confession: I have outgrown many things, but never my love of kittens. I found these in my shed last week… …four darling balls of fluff! I can hear my father groaning in the background. Ryan too. Neither of them has been successful in breaking me of this habit of cats. I love cats. They are […]

May 2, 2012

On gentry and peasants


Brain things, Growing stuff

Confession: I am interested in at least 5,302 projects that I don’t know anything about. And I am impatient with my inability to be and do everything I want to. Last November God blessed us with an incredible property—a big gray house, a couple of creeks, and ten acres of land, part wooded and part […]

April 16, 2012