And another thing… I remember my daughter’s teenage years.  You would not know it to meet her now–she’s poised, charming, generous, clearly intelligent and lovely.  But her teenage years were scary ones for us, her parents.  (More than average, I think.) I have a gift for guilt and worry, insecurity and obsessiveness.  And I clearly remember when I realized that I just had to set that aside. It didn’t matter if it was all my fault, or not.  It didn’t... Read more

6 oz of plastic waste in November As of November 26, 2010, six months into our plastic fast, Peter and I have produced a total of 13 lbs., 7 oz. of plastic waste. By a reasonable estimate, that puts us at about 17% of the average rate of waste production for the United States, though we may be generating plastic waste at a rate of only 7% of the average, depending on which set of numbers you choose to use... Read more

About a month ago, near the end of meeting for worship, I felt something rising up in me and nudging me for attention. Sometimes a leading is a deep, powerful, physical thing.  When I was a teen, I used to go out sailing on a sailfish with a single piece of wood, a daggerboard, that was thrust through the heart of the little boat to act as its keel.  In a strong wind, you could hear and feel that keel... Read more

On Saturday morning, Peter and I put on our blaze orange vests, and took a walk together in the woods behind our house. There’s an old woods road back there, maintained by the local snow mobile club, and used by the vocational school’s forestry program, as well as various hikers and hunters.  Since bear season is in progress now, I often see a jeep parked at the top of the V.A. Center’s access road, the most common point of entry. ... Read more

I’ve been home the last two days, yesterday on family business, and today because it is a school holiday. I got to make soup, and bake a cake to freeze in slices for snacks next week, and tend my indoor garden.  And the day was mild and sunny, and I woke up very early, so I was able to wash a week’s worth of laundry and hang it outside to dry one last time. My dog is always very happy... Read more

One trait I’ve always had is “buyer’s remorse”: that tendency in human nature to regret commitments made, and to wonder if we haven’t made a terrible mistake as soon as a decision is irrevocable. For instance, when I brought home Morgan, our 185 pound English mastiff and the dog of a lifetime, I spent at least a week fending off a sinking feeling that I had ruined my life (and this dog’s), and that it would never, ever work out! ... Read more

Mmmm… supper! I started by baking my own bread, in an attempt to get affordable bread without all the plastic packaging.  One thing led to another, and I returned to making my own pie crusts, as I had in college–only this time, making one to use now, and freezing the second–buying local produce and freezing it, then pickling it and turning it into jams and jellies, and finally into getting pretty much all of my produce local and organic. But... Read more

I just came back from a walk in our woods, and for the first time, I have seen a bear. Photo credit: Mickael Brangeon Oh, I’ve seen cubs before, even before we moved out of downtown.  As woods have grown up around the small cities in Western Massachusetts, bears have found places to live that are awkwardly close to humans; about a year ago, for instance, the wildlife police had to remove a mother bear with cubs who had made... Read more

OK, so I’m not Catholic.  But it has been a very long time since my last confession here–meaning, the last time I posted our weigh-in of plastic trash and recycling.  (Why do I count recycling?  Because, although I do recycle everything I can, plastic is not like aluminum or glass that can recycle endlessly; plastic actually “downcycles” and becomes, essentially, hazardous waste for thousands of years after only a handful of reuses.  So it all counts, sooner or later.) The... Read more