Home Life
Historical category no longer used.
-
Snow flurried outside the dining room window for a while. I thought we might return to normal winter weather. The thought passed and snow stopped without accumulation. We need a good streak of very cold days to prune the fruit trees. Last year it was difficult to find such a streak yet I’m hopeful this… Read more
-
Our family holiday season begins with our Dec. 18 wedding anniversary and continues until New Year’s Day. Two weeks of slowing down, eating more traditional food, reading, reviewing the past, writing, and planning. 2019 was a difficult year. It was a pivotal year. It was a year of coming to terms. There were gift cards.… Read more
-
After I returned from a shift at the home, farm and auto supply store I scrubbed and cut up potatoes to roast for dinner. Roasted potatoes, a burger patty and frozen peas made a dinner — comfort food as winter approaches. The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone, our pantry and ice box are full. There was… Read more
-
Happy Thanksgiving readers! Thanksgiving week continues to be a special time. There is a certain something in the air. As a writer I should do a better job describing that. Doing so would reduce what’s special to mundane. Let’s not go there. We all need time to recharge after this long year. The days find… Read more
-
On a bleak, drizzly Sunday morning I visited our parents’ grave with my sister. Cemetery workers had piled sod on top of Mom’s grave with a carve-out for the foot stone designed to look like Father’s. We are waiting for delivery. I was glad to visit before winter. We met our brother at an Italian… Read more
-
A hard break from autumn accompanied last week’s snowfall. Outdoors there is garden clean up, raking leaves, and another mowing to be done, however, we’ve turned mostly inside. A main issue has been determining how to get exercise without an active garden and walks along the lake. Yesterday I cleaned and set up the NordicTrack… Read more
-
What should we make of Tuesday’s October snowfall? Not much, I guess. It was another day in the neighborhood, where melting snow delayed yard and garden work, and a final mowing with grass clipping collection. It’s unclear whether further mowing will occur. Weather has me turning inward. A technician is schedule to inspect our furnace,… Read more
-
Daylight remained as I drove into the driveway after a shift at the orchard. If the garden appeared scorched by the previous night’s first frost, some tomato plants survived and the kale looked resilient. The weather forecast is a couple of days without rain. I scheduled garlic planting for Tuesday when the ground should be… Read more
-
Who wants to reinvent home cooking every time they enter the kitchen? Here’s a better question, how can I work to be present in the kitchen and produce tasty, nutritious food for our family? While I have a strong memory of Mother’s cooking, I don’t recall many of the dishes. For me, home food begins… Read more
-
My Saturday and Sunday shifts at the orchard were cancelled because of almost continuous thunderstorms during the weekend. I’ll miss the income, although will get by. Saturday I canned the next batch of tomatoes. With the pantry containing 24 quarts of whole and diced, 24 quarts of tomato water and 48 pints of whole and… Read more
Journey Home 