Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 15, 2025 – As the rest of the world turned in earnest, I worked (earnestly) in my own little corner of it, continuing the annual fall project I started yesterday: installing protective fences around hemlock saplings and stapling paper “bud caps” on the terminal shoots of the young white pine, all in the woods …
NOVEMBER 13, 2025 – This afternoon on my return from hill climbs in “Little Switzerland,” I espied my hearty friend and neighbor Fred corralling leaves in his well-attended yard of his well-appointed house. (When Beth and I were newbies to the neighborhood nearly 40 years ago, people referred to Fred and his late wife Carol’s …
OCTOBER 25, 2025 – When you spend lots of time outdoors, especially at the beginning and end of the day, you become attuned to the tilt of Earth’s axis and its effect on the duration and intensity of sun-generated heat and light. At this time of year, especially in more northern latitudes, you become acutely …
OCTOBER 10, 2025 – Yesterday I wrote about perfection. Today while working on the pergola I focused on details. Details can be quite apart from perfection, but perfection inevitably comprises details. As my dad said of musical performance, a “wobble” here or a “warble” there—details—might not matter, but the cumulative effect of too many such …
OCTOBER 3, 2025 – This season the water level of Grindstone Lake has taken a hit. Although rainfall has been slack, and additional problem has been DNR control of a small dam way downstream from our spring-fed lake, which forms the headwaters. The condition triggered a major local political re-action, which prompted the town board …
OCTOBER 2, 2025 – (Cont.) Our family’s weekend routine back in those days was to leave for the lake as soon as I arrived home from work and changed out of my “lawsuit,” as our older son, Corydon, called my sartorial norm. To hasten our departure, Beth would have the car packed and ready to …
OCTOBER 1, 2025 – Progressive Insurance has long entertained us with a brilliant ad campaign featuring the fictitious “Dr. Rick,” who conducts seminars to help new homeowners avoid turning into their parents. Of course, we Boomers, especially, laugh at these vignettes because they remind us of ourselves—and our parents. Today while working on the cabin …
JULY 19, 2025 – Yesterday I had to make cuts at the end of the beams that will support the purlins of my Pergola-on-a-Platform. The beams are two-by-fours, I didn’t dare make the cuts with the only power saw I have available right now, a battery-operated mini-circular saw. I turned to my hand saws and …