Built and Grown by Hand
Locust fences, haphazard gardens, barn-built wagons and hives. Birthed by feel, not plans.
16 Animals Are Watching You: Last Day to Bid on Julia’s Pet Food Paintings
Happy Sunday morning! A guinea hen named Freezy would look good on your wall. Today’s your last chance to bid on Julia’s Pet Food paintings, and every dollar goes to a local animal shelter.
Small Craft Warning: How I Repaired the Tiller I Broke Sailing in 25 Knots
The morning my tiller broke, I woke to a small craft warning on board my Nimble 24 sailboat Grit and decided to go sailing anyway.
I hoisted her tanbark sails, tied in a double reef, poked her nose into the Pamlico Sound and the second I rounded… Continue reading
Get a Taste of Pet Food at Happy Valley Filling Station
RESCHEDULED RESCHEDULED RESCHEDULED
Note: Julia’s artist reception for Pet Foot has been rescheduled to September 2 at 5:30 pm
Join my wife Julia and me this Wednesday August 26, September 2 at 5 pm at Happy Valley Filling Station for the opening reception of Pet Food. Pet Food is a collection of 16 of Julia’s… Continue reading
How to Grease the Wheels on Your Covered Wagon
Remember those scenes on TV where the pioneers are rolling across the prairie with their covered wagons? Or sitting around the fire drinking coffee and whiskey and strumming a guitar? I don’t ever recall seeing a pioneer doing wagon maintenance like greasing a wagon wheel and saying, “Damn, I just turned that wagon wheel nut the wrong way. Of COURSE, the left wheels are lefty loosey..!” Here’s your and my chance to fill that glaring gap in our TV knowledge… Continue reading
How to Make Cowboy Coffee on a Covered Wagon
Do you feel like Mr Coffee is taking too long to do his thing? This week I rigged up my wood stove on the covered wagon I’m taking on my next ramble with PBS North Carolina. Climb aboard for a cup of cowboy coffee straight off the covered wagon’s wood stove.
Get a Copy of my New Book… Continue reading
How to Sew Tie Back Points to Your Covered Wagon’s Cover
Remember the guy driving the chuck wagon in the old movies? A lot of the times, the canvas was rolled back over his head. That was so he could see better. I recently added tie back points to the canvas cover I’m sewing for my wagon. Here’s how I did it.
Shadows of Mules and a Covered Wagon: Sneak Peek
I got an idea while I was putting the new cover on my covered wagon this weekend.
While I was dinking around on the wagon (“dinking” was one of my dad’s favorite words, along with “piddling” when it came to describing just messing around with something), I thought of a new art project. I don’t want to say much more about it at this point, but I wanted to let you have a glimpse because it’s so beautiful. Enjoy!
How to Replace a Wear Plate on a Covered Wagon
This afternoon, I had a close look at the front end of the wagon I’m taking on my ramble and found that one of the steel wear plates on the axle was badly worn. The other was missing. Covered wagons aren’t hard to repair, so I got out my drill and angle grinder and went to work. Click on the video below to check out how it went.
Here are some pics of my mule Polly pulling the wagon.
How to Install a Wood Stove in a Covered Wagon
The Friday night moon was coming up over the wagon. I fired up the wood stove and kerosene lantern for the first time and thought you’d enjoy the scene. Have a great weekend!
How to Sew a Cover For a Covered Wagon
Who knew how much pleasure a waxed canvas tarp, a vintage sewing machine, and a borrowed covered wagon could bring a fellow? I found out this week when I sewed a new wagon cover for my friend Ronald Hudson’s wagon.
How to Build a Deck With Locust Log Posts
My wife Julia and I are building a platform for our wall tent. We have lots of locust growing on our mountain and I decided to use it for the posts that will support the deck.
Mule Mushrooming: Hunting ‘Aeyer Schweumli’ from the Saddle
My mom used to point them out to us as kids. We’d be walking through the forest in western North Carolina and she’d point down at an orange mushroom and say, “Lueg. As Aeyer Schweumli”. “Lueg” means “look” in Swiss German, her native language. Aeyer Schweumli is what she used to call chanterelles.*
My brother Christian recalls a… Continue reading
How I Improvised Hoof Boots From a Tire Store Dumpster
In 2004, I set off across North Carolina with my mule Woody. Though I’d grown up riding horses, I’d never shod them. I nailed a pair of shoes onto Woody’s front feet and hit the road.
I started that trip in Oriental, on the coast of North Carolina. Two months later, I arrived in Southern Pines. I thought it would be good to have a pack animal so I bought a pony named Maggie from my friend Mel Wyatt in… Continue reading
Sky Water: Catching Rain on a Sailboat with No Water Tank
Last week I wrote about how my wife Julia and I lost water at our cabin and I needed to figure out what was wrong.
This week, I was going to write about how my nephew Alvin and brother Christian helped repair the cistern that gathers the spring water before sending it to the house. Then I got restless and decided to write about how I used to catch rainwater while I was at sea… Continue reading
In Praise of Salamander Water Part Two: Keeping the Cistern on the Hill
Last week I told you how my wife Julia went to turn on the tap in the kitchen and we didn’t have water. I thought it might have been a salamander plugging up the works. It turned out our cistern was about to topple off the hill.
