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Christmas Greetings

Snookie ponders his reason for the season

Merry Christmas from the homestead up the holler. “I’ll be Home For Christmas” is playing (the Bing Crosby version), the wood stove is glowing and Snookie is pondering another cookie. “I’ll be Home for Christmas” rings true this year, just not in original way it was meant (it was written from the point of view of a WWII soldier stationed abroad). With Covid numbers spiking, my wife Julia and I are hunkering down… Continue reading

Pickle Raft Crushed, Rebuilt and Refloated

Crunch! Last winter a tree crushed our beloved Pickle Raft. This week, we rebuilt it. Here’s a quick (30-sec) video of how that went followed by some pics.

Introducing the Pickle Raft

A few years ago, my wife Julia and I assembled what looked like a patio on top of a bunch of plastic barrels and pushed it in to our pond.

We christened it the Pickle Raft and life was good.

Building the raft. We scored the barrels on… Continue reading

How to Rebuild a Katadyn Survivor 35 Desalinator

The email came from the Falkland Islands. “Do you have advice and information about watermakers?” It was from my friends, sailors Thies Matzen and and Kicki Ericson aboard Wanderer III. A new Katadyn Survivor 35, the one they were interested in, costs around $2,400. In this post, I show you how I rebuilt a surplus Katadyn Survivor 35 Desalinatorwatermaker I bought on eBay for $150. It worked fine.

Thies and Kicki and me in Whangarei, New Zealand. I’m… Continue reading

The Garlic Journal

How long does it take to grow a head of garlic? Today I found out.

Last December, Scott, one of our hunt club members, gave my wife Julia and I 30 heads of garlic. They were amazingly delicious, grown by Scott in his garden. This, I vowed, I would have to try.

Scott’s garlic, well, what’s left of the original 30 heads he gave us. Hanging beside it, one of my favorite sculptures, a mango wood carving given to my… Continue reading

Locust Fence Part 3: Running out of Posts

Today’s post was going to be about setting the first locust posts in the pasture I’m building for our mules and horse….until I ran out of posts. So, back up the mountain I went in pursuit of locust. I found such a beauty, and was taken by how much life it contained, that I wanted to show you some photos of how a log become posts.

Queen of the Wind Fall Locust Jungle: she showed me how many plants and… Continue reading

Three Little Birds

Bird One

Julia said, “I think something’s wrapped around its leg,” and opened her fingers for me to see. In her hand a phoebe with a piece of string wrapped around its foot.

I clipped of the thread with the scissors on my multi-tool. It flew away. Can’t say it was happy. We were, though.

The phoebe, also known as the eastern flycatcher. Voracious insect eaters, they love building nests in the tractor shed, right above my Tacoma pickup.
Continue reading

Locust Fence Part I

I’m currently writing my new book about my recent mule ramble from North Carolina to Idaho. Every day, the process goes like this. First I write my thoughts in longhand on sheets of printer paper. Then I scoot over to my computer and transfer that to my manuscript. Sitting in my saddle of course.

Nothing makes writing about a saddle journey as authentic as sitting in a saddle while you’re writing. To raise my keyboard and mouse, I employ a… Continue reading

Writing New Book

Mules Cracker and Brick, stars of my upcoming book, relaxing at home.

Sorry I haven’t written lately. I’ve been busy chasing mules, admiring an 8-legged lamb and having lunch with Robert, a 1000 pound, dead man.

Yes, I’m writing a new book.

Draft One of the new book: All the field notes have been transcribed. Now comes the fleshing out.

Mule Ramble Book

My new book is about my recent mule ramble from North Carolina to Idaho with mules Brick… Continue reading

Dixie Faces

Friday, my wife Julia and I attended the Dixie Draft Sale. The Dixie Draft Sale is the biggest horse, mule, tack and horse drawn equipment sale in the south-east. Their catalogue is the only place I’ve ever seen the word “chattlel” used outside of a hand written Civil War last will and testament.

From the age of chattel: he stopped and looked at me while I was looking at the black wagon and said, “I could have bought a hearse… Continue reading

Dixie Dogs and Faces

Dogs in denim, coon skin hats and Daniel Boone beards. Today Julia and I attended the Dixie Draft Sale in Troutman, North Carolina. We didn’t come home with a pony but scored a lot of great photos. Check in mañana for the Dixie Dogs photo essay.

We met at the black wagon and he said, “I could have bought this hearse in 1970 for $70.”
Pocket dog.
My favorite wagon: it sold for $1,200
Sold!

Coming Tomorrow: Dixie Dogs

Plenty… Continue reading

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