Plans are such reassuring things. Knowing where you’ll be, when you’ll be there, and what you’ll be doing, instills such a sense of security. Planning your life, from the daily grind to the years-long goals, can even give you the sense that you control what will happen. Sometimes, though, plans were made to be broken. Take yours truly for example. […]

“The sun will come out, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun…” Yes, friends, back in the mists of prehistory (AKA grade school), yours truly was in a presentation of the musical Annie. To this day, I find myself singing some of those songs at certain points in my life. And indeed, the sun has come out. […]

Little did I know when I received my first woodburning kit as a child just how much of a part wood would play in my later life. I was no stranger to woodworking; my dad made golf clubs out of hedge wood, and my maternal grandfather was a master of the lathe. Even my uncle let me run his wood […]

Throughout human history, and even prehistory, people have presented the ones they love with tokens of affection. Cavemen probably presented sparkly rocks to their loved ones, and as soon as someone figured out how to drill holes in teeth and claws, jewelry became a popular gift. Every culture in the world engages in the giving of gifts to win or […]

Most of us live our lives in kind of a comfortable rut. We tend to have favorite foods, favorite clothes, and favorite places, all made customary by long habits. Every now and then, though, something happens to jar us out of our comfy humdrum day. Sometimes you hear something you never expected to hear in all your born days. Darling […]

I would like to take a moment to send a big Thank You out to the residents at the County Lake who decorated their yards this year and let half the county drive around in their backyards, so to speak. The family and I heard about the event and, on a whim, decided to check it out. After equipping ourselves […]

Star Light, Star Bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might…Like many people, I’ve always been fascinated by the night sky. Learning to locate the North Star, naming the constellations and discovering their stories and tracking the Milky Way across the sky were all fun lessons that I’ve been happy to pass along to […]

When you’ve kept chickens for a while, you become fairly familiar with the noises they make. From contented clucking to agitated squawking, inquisitive berking to aggressive growling, Chickenese becomes a second language to the flockmaster. Even if you aren’t the one doing daily chores, you can get used to certain chooks and what they’re saying. That’s why it seemed like […]

As I write this, snow is falling outside my window. It’s not forecasted snow (last I heard, we were outside the “trace to zero” zone) or even particularly welcome snow, but here it is. Even the kids’ initial enthusiasm was dampened when they realized that it won’t even get them a free day from school, since inservice is scheduled tomorrow. […]

I freely admit that I am not a morning person. Over the years, I’ve become better at getting out of bed and making it to the coffee maker without leaving massive destruction in my wake. I can also manage to get the kids up, dressed, and out the door to the bus with no casualties. Heck, some mornings we’re almost […]