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Monthly Archives: May 2017

The new fawns

What’s the first stop for deer-mothers introducing their fawns to the world? The abbey’s yard, apparently. This one’s legs were still wobbly.

Yesterday’s fawns

So far in May, more than 8 inches of rain has fallen. There should be plenty for the deer to eat in the woods, but there they are in the yard again. They’d just better stay away from the day lilies.

Anne of Green Gables

For the past five days, after the chickens have gone to bed, and after being whipsawed during the day by the news out of Washington, I have retreated to the television to watch an episode of “Anne With an E,” a new production of Anne of Green Gables produced by Canada’s CBC and available for […]

The perils of peaches

It’s year eight in the orchard, and this year I just might get my first bite of peach. Last year, the entire peach crop was wiped out by a late frost. This year, the three peach trees are loaded. One of the trees is weeks ahead of the other two trees and has dozens of […]

Sophisticated propaganda vs. the plain old truth

I haven’t posted anything political for a while. Partly this is because the political drama has moved so fast and reversed so often that it has been a tough target. And partly it’s because the media and the American intelligentsia are finally getting things right. For years, I felt like a voice in the wilderness. […]

The importance of hugging trees

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, by Peter Wohlleben. Greystone Books, 2016, 272 pages. This book got a lot of attention when it was published in German, in 2015, as Das geheime Leben der Bäume. Luckily we had to wait only a year for an English translation. Though I believe […]

Adams Motor Grader

When I see fine old machines, decaying and unlikely to ever run again, I feel something like pity. There’s something about well-made machines down on their luck that deserves our empathy. But people do restore these things, and that’s part of why I’m posting the photo. This one is for sale, and it’s parked alongside […]

Eight years down, a hundred years to go

Music, politics, and a smidgen of religion

Frankly, I am terrible at shooting and editing video. But I would like to get better at it. The abbey’s new satellite connection to the Internet is super-fast and, for the first time, makes it possible to work with video. Here’s a wee practice video. From the abbey organ, a Rodgers 730, this is a […]

Review: Husqvarna weed-eater on wheels

Eight years ago, after I cleared an acre of elderly pine trees for the abbey and had the stumps removed, it was hard to imagine ever having a weed problem. It was all bare red dirt, scary to look at. I was eager for anything — anything — to grow. Now there are weeds, and […]