My adult ed language classes started again this week, following the community college’s spring break schedule, and yesterday’s Spanish session was a perfect example of seniors learning new things.  Our teacher, who is in...

In the winter, I feed any deer who are willing to jump the fence and come onto our property.  I’ve been told that feeding deer is illegal in some states but here it isn’t,...

We’ve had the mildest, most unusual winter that I can recall in years.  Days and days of mid-fifty degree weather, sunshine and no snow.  The mountains have snow but down here in the valleys,...

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...