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Life Not Crazy Enough for Ya? Add a Third Dog.

/ Cait and Me, Dogs in General, My Dogs and Me / By / 22 Comments

I think it was John Lennon who said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

Well “life” sure has been happenin’ around here. Not least of which is that I’ve somehow been roped into adding a third dog to our crew.

It all started when Cait began making serious noise again about wanting her own little dog (emphasis on little). Having zero interest in adding a third dog, I told her to take it up … Read More

Garden Progress and Yummy Swiss Chard Recipe

/ My Garden / Recipes / By / 8 Comments

It’s been about a month since I planted my garden.

Here’s how it started.

June Garden

Here’s what it looks like one month later. What a little sun and rain will do, when you start with good dirt…

July garden

Without a wide-angle lens, I can’t get the whole thing in. But you get the idea.

So far, we’ve enjoyed Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, the usual lettuces, peas, snow peas, beets, all kinds of herbs (most of which I dry for use throughout the … Read More

Want to Write a Book that Sells? Start With an Outline

/ On Writing, The Mail Bag / By / 9 Comments

writing From the mailbag: Hannah writes: I’ve been writing a novel and have been stuck for weeks. That’s my pattern: I write a little, get stuck, have a breakthrough, write again, etc. It often feels like torture. I’m wondering if you also have this problem and if you’ve found a way to overcome it. I’ve read that it’s a good idea to start with an outline, but doesn’t that work better for non-fiction? For fiction, it seems like it would clash … Read More

Longest Day of the Year

/ Cait and Me, Finnegan the Coon Cat, Life, My Dogs and Me / By / 13 Comments

The summer solstice is the day of maximum sunlight hours, bringing the longest day and shortest night of the year.

I’d like to think we put it to maximum use.

As usual, Graidy greeted me at 4:50 a.m.by jumping up on the bed and licking my face until I woke up. Next to me on the floor, was Kiera on her dog bed. Finn was perched on the open window sill, twitching at every birdsong. The furry contingent and I … Read More

Warning Labels

/ Cait and Me, Funnies / By / 10 Comments

On a recent, rather hot evening, Cait and I were waiting in the air-conditioned car while Andrew volunteered to get everyone ice cream cones. We’d all just finished hitting a bucket of golf balls at the driving range.

Andrew, interested in getting Cait good enough at golf to become a golfing buddy, had been trying to get her to the driving range to practice her swing. Lately, all she’s been interested in is challenging either me or Andrew to badminton … Read More

Garden Experiment 2008

/ My Garden / Recipes / By / 16 Comments

With the cost of food skyrocketing, and the prices of organic produce off the charts, my garden experiment this year is to work toward growing enough food to feed my family for the year. Matron of Husbandry over at Throwback at Trapper Creek was the one who inspired me.

This year, I’ve more than doubled the size of my gardening space, as well as added several more fruit trees and bushes. Even with all that, I’ll need to increase my … Read More

A Writing Life

/ My Dogs and Me, On Writing / By / 7 Comments

I haven’t needed an alarm clock for years now, because I have two furry ones. Today, it’s 4:10 AM, a little early even for me. Graidy usually has the decency to wait until about 5:00 AM before rousing me out of bed. (Another quality people should be aware of when getting high energy/herding dogs is that they’re ready to go at the crack of dawn–literally. ) Fortunately, I like to get up early to write, in the quiet, when everyone … Read More

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