I’ve been on an adult education binge this winter, balancing three language classes over two days every week. It’s awesome for someone who loves communication as much as I do, though some days I...
It was just a matter of time before the wild turkeys discovered that there’s birdseed available here. Various hunters have told me that turkeys are clever birds and though it impugns that reputation, I...
My father grew up on a farm during the first part of the twentieth century. No matter the calendar, no matter the season, there were chores to be done. Cows had to be milked,...
A mile or so north of my house, there’s a small cemetery that occupies a plot of untended ground, surrounded by an ornate iron fence and dotted with markers that were engraved over a...
Leaves are skittering past the window, whirling in vibrantly colored eddies as a cold front advances and our first winter storm of the season approaches. A chance of snow is predicted for tomorrow. It...
The sun retreats early and is slow to rise in the fall, here between the walls of the Snake River Canyon, on what is probably our last camping trip of the year. Evening arrives...
Two weeks ago I went to my 50th high school reunion, back to my roots in far Northern Wisconsin. Twenty-eight of us were there, looking considerably older than teenagers — yet somewhere in our...
Our whole family, all thirteen of us, met in central Oregon for the solar eclipse, and since then, I’ve wanted to write about the experience. A week later, I still can’t find the words...
When I wake to the scent of baking bread drifting through the open window, I know the wheat harvest is underway. Wheat is a beautiful thing — a mercurial plant, changing its color from...
I’m reading a book of essays by Kim Stafford, whose work I recently discovered and who instantly became a favorite of mine. In one piece, he relates that during her pregnancy, his grandmother was...
