Abby was exhausted when she got home, and fell asleep in her recliner right away, with her bear shoes propped high up on the “green thing,” which my friends in Norman always called an LBUA, or Leaner Backer Upper Againster. So I went to mow, but first I wanted to cut at least some of…

I didn’t have any late afternoon or evening assignments at work so I was home by about three. It is cloudy and warm out, so by five I decided to get some yard work done. I pondered digging the garden. When I told Abby that I was planning a garden this year, her face lit…

Last night and this morning, rain. For the first time since June, there is water in the pond. It’s too late to green up the pasture much, but it will help everything overwinter better. The big news in Oklahoma over the last few days has been a spate of earthquakes. Abby and I slept through…

My lower back is still acting up a bit, although it is better than just two weeks ago, thanks in part to changing chiropractors. One thing that gives me relief is walking, so most evenings when the mowing is done and the light starts to mature, I walk in big circles around our patch of…

Despite a nation-crippling winter storm roaring through overnight, Abby and I both went to work this morning. I shot some images for the daily, plus a bit of video for the paper’s web site. I spent the rest of the morning helping put out the paper on a skeleton crew, and shot a few more…

Anyone who has ever lived in the country knows that it can be a little wild at times, and by wild I mean that the wildness of nature is always close. When Matthew and Michelle were on their way to visit this weekend, I warned them that a handsome green frog had appeared in my…

Tonight I worked at a chore that I routinely put off because it is so unpleasant, and unpleasant on several levels. The chore was the removal of about 20 volunteer trees that had grown up in the middle of Abby’s Rose-of-Sharon bushes that line our driveway. I find this unpleasant because I have to kill…

Tonight was the last night for the cantaloupe vines in the garden. The vines are actually only one plant, since I was occupied caring for Abby when the seedlings were germinating, and I was unable to thin them and fertilize. The result, however, was that the one plant ended up making a decent number of…

My global fans might remember that last year I power washed the front of our house and the propane pig. It was very effective, and I fully intended to do the whole house, but it got cold, then rainy, then winter came, then summer came, and before I knew it, a year had gone by….

The process of culling the garden and throwing it to my ruminants continues. I find the experience a little sad as I stand in the chill air, remembering the huge harvests; the bushy green tomato vines that smelled so good, the giant stands of bright marigolds, the crisp bell peppers that turned orange and red…