Other Cool Reads

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Froggie Friday

Last night, coming in from the barn after critter late check, a figure on Julia’s ox-goad caught my eye.

What a long shadow you cast: the creature on Julia’s goad.

We’re blessed with lots of frogs and toads around here but usually, they hang out in the creek, pond or marshy areas. When I leaned in for a closer look, a frog jumped from the goad onto the kitchen window. Julia ran inside to see the frog up close and… 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

Sunflower Sunday Morning

Our kitchen windowsill: peach pits, sunflower and teapot.

It’s been a good sunflower and peach year here in western North Carolina. Last week we were enjoying Taylorsville peaches from 20 miles away. This week, it’s Kings Mountain peaches from a wee bit farther afield.

I’m a big fan of saving good pits and seeds. Right now the fridge is full of baggies filled with the season’s best peaches. Others go on the windowsill until I put them in a paper… 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

Wren Silhoutte

Morning visitor. A house wren perched on our locust clothes line support. The shadow on the left is our door sill. The vertical strings give something for the pole beans to hang on to.

Welcome to summer. My wife Julia and I are busying ourselves with summer chores on the homestead. Mornings, I’m working on my new book. Afternoons are spent building a new locust fence for the mules, tending the garden and leveling a pad for the new run… Continue reading

The Sound of Locust Splitting

Here’s how that locust log I’m using in my new fence sounded when I split it with my sledge and wedge. Locust is known for being one tough wood. Rot resistant, too. But what’s less known is how it crackles and pops when it’s split. I made you a recording of what it sounds like to split the locust log below.

Click on the audio below for the sound of locust splitting.

The sound of locust splitting
One of the… Continue reading
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