Yearly Archives: 2014

A Sense of Scale

Number Two waking in tent

I think I’ve gotten used to being tall.  When you are over six feet, as I am just barely, you realize the world is made for people 6-8″ shorter.  Working at a counter means hunching over like Quasimodo.  Getting anything

Posted in Parenting Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Chickens are Baffling

Medusa the chicken

I don’t know why chickens do the things they do.  And with their tiny pea-sized brains, I doubt they do either.  For the last few weeks the chickens have been shunning their coop and roosting on top of it, crammed

Posted in Gardening Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Bigger is Better!

3 gallon mash tun valve

I’ve moved up to 3 gallon brewing instead of 1 gallon.  And oh lawdy was it easy.  How do you do it?  First, go to Home Depot and get a 5-gallon water cooler.  It’s $20, a bargain for what you’re

Posted in Brewing, Uncategorized Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One Down

image

Child Harbat’s first front tooth is gone, like a door pulled off its hinges.  Is this the face of pain, of embarrassment, of relief of a long-hanging vestige of childhood dropping away in the plodding march to adulthood?  No.  It’s

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The Drought is Not Over

Number Two at lake

The drought is not over but we got our first measurable rain in over 6 months.  Maybe I think the weather gods are stingy but over 2 days it only ever rained at night so we couldn’t sit inside and

Posted in Parenting, San Diego Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Bad Food and Horrible Footwear

N2 looking out of train

Let’s start with a food review!  It’s the whee-ha world of Trader Joe’s frozen “meals”.  Up for review is the Butter Chicken which is stamped with the watermark “Authentic Indian Recipe”.  Yes, it’s technically true since the original probably also

Posted in Products, Uncategorized Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

Demise of the Pumpkin

Rotting pumpkin 3

“Yes, but the end was extremely sudden.”  Extra bonus points for whoever names that quote.  Clue at the end. The end was sudden and, evidently, quite violent for our jack o’ lantern.  The children got agitated by its sunken features,

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All Things Dead

Rotting pumpkin 1

Bonus points to anyone who can name the movie from which today’s post was taken.  Clue:  it’s over 25 years old. I love how nature can take whatever you’ve done and make it more interesting.  Not to knock Child Harbat’s

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Roxaboxin and the Rise of the Glutards

Paleo "bread"

Let’s start with Roxaboxin.  Child Harbat is at the perfect age to write fiction.  She hears and absorbs enough real-world information to have the good basis for a story but then mixes in her own thoughts and interpretations, sprinkles with

Posted in Baking, Products, Writing Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

Laying In for the Season

Firewood stack

I’m a creature molded by my upbringing, my genes, and the long trail of forebears who had a harder life surviving and passing on all they could so I can be alive.  One of the vestiges of this pre-programmed history

Posted in San Diego, Uncategorized Tagged with: , , ,
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