Blather
Cooking for Guys
Live to Camp
Camp to Live
Poetry
and Other Lies
Rusty Nail – Praise & Treats
It has been an unseasonably dry winter. Up until Friday, when it started to snow. It has been snowing all weekend. Sunday morning it cleared, revealing a sparkling winter wonderland. With no pressing need to go anywhere, most people elected to stay home, off the...
BBQ Sauce
I made this sauce for the rabbits at the last Bunny BBQ. I cut up and brined the rabbits for 9 hours, then rinsed and boiled them for 10 minutes. They were painted with BBQ sauce and frozen until the day before the party. I thawed them Friday, and put the meat in...
Moussaka
The Food Stamp Gourmet by Wm. Brown has been out of print for years, but you can still find it on-line at a reasonable price. I have had my copy since the seventies; it contains some of my favorite recipes. Every so often, I pull it out and choose one of them....
Moussaka Hand Pie
I made moussaka for dinner last night and had some left-over filling. Today I got out the pie-irons and made moussaka hand pies for lunch. Forcing the Greek pita bread into the buttered pie irons, I spooned some tomato paste over the pita, I filled it with the...
Grandma Wade’s Mince Meat
Grandma Wade used to make mince meat pies for the holidays. She shared the recipe with Mom,and this delightfully sweet pie has been a treasured memory of mine for decades. The recipe is pretty labor intensive and contains your entire annual dietary allowance of fat in...
A Day Spent on the Water
My friend, Joe Castaldi, built a beautiful, sixteen foot gaff-rigged Melonseed Skiff from the original plans. He sent word he was planning to launch her for a maiden voyage down at the Hood River Marina, so I showed up yesterday, bright and early to...
Well, That Was Dumb.
My last week before I retired, I decided to ride the moto to work. People expected it of me and I enjoy the ride. It was December, with temperatures down around 15f (-9.4c). I suited up and went out to the garage. The bike had been plugged into a tender, so the...
Good Afternoon
5/27/25 3:30 80f (26.6c) Clear sky, warm breeze. Mike and I went up the mountain to have a look around. Found coral mushrooms, shaggy manes, and a handful of morels at between 3000 and 4000' under mixed conifers. ...
Mardingtop 25L Backpack M6347A
For years my EDC was a Wolfman tankbag. When I was still working, I kept it filled with maps and tools and fuses for my moto, emergency kit, knife, a roll of T.P. and my lunch. I could leave straight from work for the woods when the notion took me. When that bag wore...
Voyagers
Having discovered Disappearing Lake was full and the road free of snow, four of us loaded up our boats and headed into the woods for an adventure. Five of us, if you count Walter Dawg, and really, you must. He has been an integral member of the team from day...
Good Morning
7/4/26 7:00 60F (15.5C) Calm air, clear, blue sky. It may be precarious, in this polarized society, when jingoism and patriotism are so easily confused, to express reservation about elevating the flag to a position of worship, but I feel I must. Don't get me...
Good Morning
7/3/26 6:45 57F (13.8C) Blue sky with a few scattered clouds. No wind. Happy Dependence Day. ...
Good Morning
7/2/26 5:30 52F (11C) No wind. The sky is filled with mares tails. In the distance a lone sprayer drones. Now another one, closer this time, joins in an orchard sprayer duet. Birds sing, unbothered by the whine. Walter barks a bit, then lies down. The clouds...
Good Morning
7/1/26 6:15 55F (12.7C) Windy with white clouds scudding across the bright blue sky. A jay squawks. Walter barks. The rooster crows. A gust sighs through the oaks. Momentary interruptions in the still of morning. It is a relatively quiet Wednesday this first...
Good Morning
6/30/26 6:15 53F (11.6C) Windy and cloudy. It doesn't look like it rained last night after all. I finished unloading the truck yesterday and put the canvas up to dry. Staked up some corn the wind blew over while I was at it. The baby rabbits seem to be...
