We are social animals–we relate more to chimpanzees as they survive through amity than in the hawk soaring alone. Necessary to our survival and growth as a species has been our willingness to care for other living creatures. Short of…
Blog Archives
Caring for Another
Posted in Parenting, Uncategorized Tagged with: animals, backyard, caregiving, CH, chickens, evolution
The Best Part of the Hardware Store
This weekend, as a joke while running errands, I told the kids that, as an extra-special treat, I would buy them each their own bottle of water. When we got to the store I made true on my promise and…
Posted in Home Improvement, Parenting Tagged with: CH, hardware store, mowers, number two, parenting, treats, water
Making Beer, Part One
It was bound to happen: making bread and drinking beer leads to making beer. They aren’t that different, bread and beer. One’s liquid and both are delicious. My wife got me a beer-making kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. The flavor:…
Posted in Baking, Products Tagged with: beer, brewing, CH, home brewing, mash, wheat, wheat beer, wort
A Winter Play
Let’s start with a confusing image and work towards the inescapable conclusion. There’s an animatronic dog wrapped in tin foil, cotton balls strewn about, and a dog with angel wings. Got it yet? Me neither, let’s keep going. …
Posted in Events, Parenting Tagged with: CH, child harbat, hello kitty, performance art, plays, theater
The Great Chicken Adventure
First there was one chicken, Ducky. She was given to us by a friend who’s chickens were pecking poor Ducky to bits while she molted and recovered from a possum bite. The life of a chicken isn’t kind, my friends.…
Posted in Gardening Tagged with: americauna, backyard chickens, CH, chickens, coop, eggs, hens, laying eggs, scratch
Little Girls and Tea Parties
Where does it come from, the compelling urge for young girls to act as Victorian social hosts? Child Harbat hasn’t seen Downtown Abbey yet she adores a china tea set she got for Christmas and has hosted several soirees at…
Finding Your Roots
In elementary school we were encouraged to wear the ethnic costume of our ancestors. This is the true measure of how ours is a country of immigrants–everyone can always say they are from somewhere else, with the exception of the…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: ancestry, bagpipes, Balmoral, CH, heritage, kilt, MacPherson, Robertson, scottish, smallpipes
Vintage Tonka Trucks
Let’s clear the air about my use of the word “vintage” before we begin. I am not curating a collection of retro toys, I’m not a compulsive hoarder with a sweat-slicked forehead making sure all my old toys are in their ORIGINAL…
How to Have a Tea Party
Let’s get this straight: a tea party is serious business. Guests have to be prepared and arranged at the table in order of genus, species, size, and importance. And an ability to sit up on their own without tipping over…
Bring Your Child to Work
You may think it’s a distraction to have your child at work. The bosses will think it hurts the bottom line, that the corporate structure is unable to compute for non-productive workers under four feet tall. The accountants will frown…
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