Good Evening
11/18/25 6:00 42F Just got back from a mushroom foray with Walter and Mike. We went out around 1:00. It was an overcast day with enough breaks to provide adequate sun to navigate through the trees. Immediately we spotted Amanita, Lepiota, Russula and Stropharia. Our...
Good Afternoon
11/9/25 Clear, sunny, and warm. We decided to forage for cranberries and mushrooms instead of doing yard work, so Amy, Walter, and I piled into the car and headed north. We picked up Mike on the way and by noon, we were on the road to Trout Lake....
Halloween on the Big Lava Bed
It was a beautiful, crisp autumn day when Kent and I drove north into the Big Lava Bed. The road was rugged, just ruts worn into jagged rock, winding between collapsed lava tubes and stunted trees finally arriving at a flat...
Good Morning
11/2/25 6:00 40f Overcast and calm out on the lava bed. The weather has moderated. It was still dark when I made the treacherous trek to the latrine. I was relieved when it hove into view. Andy and Kent put some much appreciated effort into its...
Good Morning
11/1/25 8:00 Temperate but raining hard. We had a puddle form by the door last night. It has grown to a lake with a river running into it. Constant rain all night with no hope for it letting up today. The tipi won't draft and is filled with smoke. We had...
Good Morning
10/12/26 6:45 36F (2.2C) AQI 21 Partially cloudy with a faint breeze. It feels cold out. The birds are slow to wake; not much movement and very little chatter. Good morning. ...
Good Morning
10/11/26 6:30 38F (3.3C) AQI 19 Dark and still with no wind yet. Above me drift thin, broken clouds. I catch a rumor of wood smoke from the tipi. Walter stirs from the deck to enforce the perimeter. An owl glides by. Dawn begins to lift the corner of night's...
Good Morning
10/10/26 5:45 45F (7.2C) AQI 24 A slight breeze rustles the fallen leaves. Stars shine through broken clouds. The dog sleeps on the back deck with one eye open. I sip my tea. Good morning. 7:15 The clouds have closed into a ceiling of gray. It has...
Good Morning
10/9/26 6:30 49F (9.4C) AQI 28 It is a dark, luminous blue morning. There is no wind. There are no stars. Birds begin to wake, calling softly to each other in the still dark dawn. Walter rests quietly on the deck. The eastern sky turns pink and a slight...
Good Morning
10/8/26 6:30 46F (7.7C) AQI 28 No wind, no clouds. The sky is clear and dull blue, shifting into brilliant shades of lavender before it eventually eases into a lighter blue once the sun actually appears. Birds awaken with the morning light, filling the air with...
Baked Couscous
Baked Couscous I've made this dish stove top at home and in the Dutch oven while camping. A savory couscous galette, it is an easy, flexible recipe. You can use any mushrooms, or none at all. The same with the meat: use whatever you have, or no meat at all. I've made...
Chicken & Dumplings
Chicken & Dumplings Chicken and dumplings may be the ultimate comfort food. We had this for Sunday dinner on our Halloween camping trip. To ease the work at camp, I did some prep at home, mixing the dry ingredients for the dumplings in a zip lock bag, and cooking...
Cranberries and Chanterelles
Cranberries and Chanterelles Cranberries ripen at the height of chanterelle season. It was inevitable eventually I would try cooking them up together. I'm only surprised it took me so long to get around to it. Ingredients chanterelles wild cranberries...
Dutch Oven Cornbread
This is a variation of the cornstick recipe I posted earlier. Cornbread recipes are pretty flexible. You can start with equal parts cornmeal, flour, and sugar Use more cornmeal and less flour for more texture; proportionally more flour than meal yields...
Campfire Chili Dinner
Until recently, I seldom used a tripod for anything more than boiling water. Why go to the effort to make a tripod when you can cook directly over the coals? But I have come to appreciate the heat control a tripod affords. You can hang your pot high over a flaming...
