State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

Sustainability

  • After spading the next garden plot on Sunday, I went to the home, farm, and auto supply store to get fence posts. It was a madhouse around 12:30 p.m. with families out and stocking up on all kinds of home items. The person ahead of me at the cashier tallied up more than $500 worth… Read more

  • The terms “data center,” “energy,” and “artificial intelligence” get bandied about in the media. It would be good to have a better understanding of what these things mean in the context of the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. Hannah Ritchie sorts through some of this in an article titled, “How much electricity does AI consume?”… Read more

  • By my calculations, we passed the last frost and the rest of the garden can go in. If cold temperatures return, I have a banker’s box full of old flat sheets to cover and protect young plants. Three plots had been planted, leaving four and part of the garlic patch with which to do something.… Read more

  • A Spring Retreat

    Once or twice a year, my spouse visits her sister in Des Moines. That means, at least in part, I have the house to myself for a week or so, and can cook how I want—more meals that include capsaicin in its varied forms. During these times, I seek to better bind my activities with… Read more

  • I spent time Sunday working on how to use my time. The two parts were structuring days into time blocks and working to better define tasks listed for accomplishment. This post details some of what I did. The natural breaks in my days at home are by time. These time periods follow a natural rhythm… Read more

  • Supporting the environment has changed since the first Earth Day. Then the president was aware of public support for protecting the environment and took concrete action. Now, the president couldn’t give two hoots in a holler about it, as evidenced by his support for copper mining in the Boundary Waters. Times have changed, even as… Read more

  • Two-hour Rain Delay

    It has been a rainy week. Too much moisture in the garden to plant, and constant showers to keep me inside. When the weather is like this, I make a point to find space between rain clouds and get in my 30-minute daily morning walk. A two-hour rain delay is typical. When I finally got… Read more

  • A joke is circulating on the internet that SMR stands for Spending Money Recklessly. It isn’t funny because it is true, even if big money investors have a plan to recoup their investment in Small Modular Reactors with interest. Regular folks like me don’t want new nuclear power when renewable projects that include solar and… Read more

  • Stories About Forests

    I was taken aback by the administration’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service. Jim Pattiz outlined what happened in his substack post, “Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service.” What they are doing is bad. While the news broke suddenly, and agreements were signed quickly, the future of roughly 193 million acres… Read more

  • For Immediate Release: April 7, 2026 (Washington, D.C.) — President Donald Trump’s April 7 threat that he might escalate U.S. attacks on Iran so that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” should profoundly alarm every U.S. and global citizen.  Whether Trump is threatening a massive conventional bombing campaign or… Read more