The natural world, life, and dogs.
If you spend time in the outdoors, eventually something will go wrong. It's a law of nature. But if you survive, those epic failures become the best stories! We’ve all read about amazing accomplishments in the wild, but now it’s time to tell us about the not-so-great times and what you learned from them. Share… Continue reading Epic Trail Fail #4: Guide Dog
Going through life, minding your own business, you don’t always know why something pulls you, calls to you, why you feel compelled to keep pursuing it. You find it impossible to articulate the whyfor. You just know, deep in your bones, that you feel better, healed even, when you do it, heeding the call. For… Continue reading Awe in Nature
Late December in Idaho's Salmon River Mountains means snow, some years more than others. This year, so far, is a little below average, although I'm not sure there is such a thing as "average" anymore. With climate change, I've noticed that the snow arrives later in the fall - December rather than November - and… Continue reading Fences III
I've written about the fact that the period between my birthday on December 18th through Christmas is not my favorite time of year. Soon I'll have more to offer on the topic of family. I wish I could say it will be happy stuff. So tonight - Christmas Eve - I reflect on my families… Continue reading Choosing Family
If you spend time in the outdoors, eventually something will go wrong. It's a law of nature. But if you survive, those epic failures become the best stories! We’ve all read about amazing accomplishments in the wild, but now it’s time to tell us about the not-so-great times and what you learned from them. Share… Continue reading Epic Trail Fail #3: Malamute Perfume
Take it from someone who knows: it sucks to have a mid-to-late December birthday. Mine happens to fall exactly one week before Christmas. Three days before Winter Solstice, the shortest, darkest day of the year. Like many with birthdays so close to Christmas, I grew up hearing, “We got you something really special, so we’re… Continue reading December Birthdays
As I warned in my recent post Fences, I have tons of photos of rural fences and gates, most taken while walking my dogs in the valley. Since it's 2F this morning, rather than venture outside, here's a group of photos from last year, December 21-25, 2018. Except the last two photos, which I just… Continue reading Fences II
With a long meeting scheduled for midday, I decided to take the boys for an early morning walk and add another at the end of the day. Our morning outing featured a sky with high wind-strewn clouds painted with the rising sun's gentle orange and pink hues. Our late afternoon walk was completed just before… Continue reading Combustion
It was a déjà vu kind of morning. I was following the boys along an old Forest Service road, a couple inches of fresh wet snow on top of the ice, snow and slush mix left from the last snowfall a few days ago. We were walking an out-and-back route near home. Early on Conall… Continue reading Same As it Ever Was
In the rural West, fences are ubiquitous. Love them or hate them, they're everywhere, marking property boundaries, keeping livestock in or out (or not). Some fences are all wood planks or posts, others wood or metal posts with barbed wire. Wooden gates are quickly being replaced with metal tube gates (and fencing) which aren't nearly… Continue reading Fences
Wild Sensibility 