Category: Practical

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Ocean

    Oooh! Ocean! I have one of those! (You know, the same way that one can have a sky, or a constellation, which is that I can look at one with a reasonable expenditure of energy) Our ocean is moody and cold: There is honesty in naming in action, at the Polar Bear Beach. I didn’t…

  • Review: Keeping the Bees

    Why is that young man serenading the blueberries with his guitar? Why are cactus spines as likely as stings for many bee researchers? What can each of us do to improve the situation for pollinators in our world? What I didn’t know about bees could fill a book. Fortunately, Laurence Packer has provided exactly that…

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring Cleaning

    It is the time of the year when young beekeepers minds turn to thoughts of honey. Not harvesting honey, not honey for people, but… whether there is going to be enough honey left in the hive to keep the bees alive until the flowers are in bloom. It is a great sadness to get the…

  • The Troll and the Farmers Market

    alternately titled: “Be Careful, She Might Have a Blog.” Today somebody walked up to my table at the market, picked up a jar of my spices, said, “That’s too expensive,” and banged it back down onto the table. This was  the first time that somebody has been that abrupt about it in three years, and…

  • Signs of Spring

    1. We can find the remaining firewood (it’s all in disarray because we finally had to get the plow in, and it was by the edge of the driveway): 2. Sliding now involves an actual slide: 3. The garden beds are reappearing. We’re thinking cranberries: 4. The annual construction season has started: 5. Dreams of…

  • Things I Learned Today

    A Honda Civic without snow tires cannot get to Gampo Abbey in early March. That’s it, really. Oh, wait. Don’t get too attached to outcomes. I’m trying not to be too disappointed, but really, I’m disappointed. The Abbey is only open a few days a year, and they were giving out the practice booklets today,…

  • The Price Of Gas!

    Oh! It is time to run in circles and flap our hands! Gas is going up! Food will cost more! Who could ever have predicted this??? Here is one of the places where the division between structural analysis and the personal impact becomes glaring. It has become apparent to me over the last few years…

  • Stoking the Unknown Wants

    My internet is slow: It also has 14% packet loss, for those what care about such things, so it is slow, and it stutters. I didn’t know that my internet was slow until the recent foofaraw over internet caps in Canada. But now that I know that my internet is slow, I kind of want…

  • How to Build a 1500 Follower Facebook Page in 24 hours

    It turns out to be rather simple: Trademark a common phrase that is primarily used by freethinking radicals. OK. It won’t be your page, but if you want to galvanize a movement and you are willing to be the common enemy, this could be an effective strategy. There is a disturbance in the force today…

  • Moments of Inattention

    We forgot to close up the chicken coop. It is one of our nightly tasks, along with putting children to bed, making dinner, bringing in the firewood. Every night, we must close up the chicken coop. Last night we had people around for dinner, my husband was out for the day, people were coming and…

  • Little Steps to Home

    Sitting in the lounge at the mechanic’s this morning (don’t ask), I found myself in the company of a friendly sort, an older man who was definitely from here. I know this because as soon as I arrived, he asked me a question, I countered with a book, we chatted for about a minute, and…

  • Could you live without the internet?

    For a change of pace, I’m going to answer the Plinky question. It’s not for want of ideas, it’s just a good question. No suspense here: Yes. I could totally live without the internet. Unlike TV, cell phones, and constant access to music all around the clock, though, I wouldn’t *choose* to. We have a…