Category Seasons

IF Power is Out on a Three Dog Night

The wife and I are living under the jurisdiction of a new Energy Domain: new to solar panels, new to heat pumps and new to Generac propane generators. We are not so new to power outages, and wondering about “best…

Fragments Rises Again. Kinda

The blog was on the ropes. Then it was down for the count. The referee intended to stop the fight, the victim too far injured to rise again. But wait! Fragments has struggled to her feet, bloodied, staggering, but headed…

Home and Hearth

Replenish as you deplete: that has been the Rule of the Woodpile since we moved to Goose Creek in 1999 and spent our first winter in Y2K. Until maybe eight years ago, this meant extraordinary measures involving me (and oftentimes…

What is Your Barbeque Footprint?

Labor Day for many marks (or used to mark) the end of summer and the return of the kids to school. By that time, Floyd County students will have been in sweltering classrooms for almost a month. But that is…

Snows of Narnia

https://fredfirst.smugmug.com/SEASONAL-GALLERIES/WinterSpring-2018/i-hqr57VF/A

If every snowflake is different, then every snowfall must be too. This one was unique. It was the last snow to fall before my personal odometer turns to a new zero. And so I am trying to pay attention to…

The Fading Faint Colors of Fall

It has not been a spectacular year for fall colors in our part of the Southern Appalachians. The prolonged late-summer drought seems likely to have contributed to the subdued palette, but the alchemy of autumn is a many-splendored mystery with…

When The Bottom Falls Out of the Food Web

Most people might think it’s a good thing–that there are demonstrably and significantly fewer insects than there were three decades ago. But consider that these morels are critical links between the primary producers (grasses and other greenery that turns sun…

Off Grid on Goose Creek

This “slice of life” from 2013 also published on Jan 28 to Medium.com where you can see better views of the images. You might consider “following” my Medium.com articles and essays, and “recommend” a few if you find merit. Off…

Animated: The Spirit of Life

The mechanics: This shot came from the parking lot of Huffville Methodist Church and was a still capture from a 15 second video inspired by the beauty of racing fingers of wind across the tall grasses. This dance between Earth…

Deep Freeze February

So I was too late over to free the bridge, and won’t try again until next week’s thaw and flood melt. Doesn’t look like so much volume of precip expected now from a complicated mix on Monday and Tuesday. Do embiggen,…

Over Icy If Not Troubled Waters

CLICK TO ENLARGE AT SMUGMUG It was a three-dog night. We came up one short. But there will be other opportunities yet to get up after midnight and throw an extra piece of oak on a fire that, despite its…

Currier and Ivy-er

Every winter, I hear it: “Take some pictures of the house.” She says it lightly, as if doing the Dr. Zivago across the whited planes, putting face and hands at frost-bite risk, standing stark still in the single-digit morning light…