by Pa Mac | Dec 17, 2012 | Country Ways
My Mama loves Christmas; always has. And it will always be said by us kids that our Mama knows how to keep Christmas well, if anyone alive possesses the knowledge (borrowing language from Mr. Dickens). It cannot be undertaken in just a few words by me to explain why,...
by Pa Mac | Dec 10, 2012 | Trees 'n' Wild Plants
Black walnut wins my “Best Smelling Wood” award…even better than cedar. Not many would disagree that walnut is one of the most beautiful woods. It’s fine grained and so easily worked, and at the same time putting off the most gratifying aroma. We think of wood as...
by Pa Mac | Nov 21, 2012 | Country Ways
There’s a lot of work to be done on my embryonic farm and it all begins with taming a troublesome mess of briars, trees, and rocks. But a question occasionally comes to mind to anyone clearing land: How did our pioneer forefathers transform countless acres of...
by Pa Mac | Nov 12, 2012 | Buildin' or Makin'
Grow all year and let ‘em layThe frost will kill without decay,Once fixed up and hung real highThe renter eats that pesky fly—Burt Whatcher What’s the easiest way to build a birdhouse? Well I say let nature do it…or at least half of it. Dried gourds have long...
by Pa Mac | Nov 8, 2012 | Buildin' or Makin'
I actually love music beyond my ability to play it. That’s kind of a blessing and a curse, idn’t it? I had been contemplating my need for a mandolin earlier in the day, as I walked passed the chicken house one afternoon. After spying my crop of gourds hanging from the...
