Category Archives: Family Activity

This has been a story, and I have been the hero of it

Posted on April 4, 2013 by calvincaley

A decade or so ago, my wife said to me: you should have a blog. Blogging was becoming popular, and ‘new media,’ and its practitioners, were darlings of “old” media; some bloggers had book deals, even movies. I laughed and … Continue reading →

Posted in 'green, or Green?', DIY, Family Activity, Landscaping, Moss Gardening, Native Plants, Outdoor Living, Property Restrictions, Weather, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Lessons Were Learned, and…HEY! Wait a minute!

Posted on March 5, 2013 by calvincaley

My little quadrant of this sphere is slowly tilting back toward the sun, and there is now enough demi-daylight (and if my wife is reading this: I went to high school with Demi Daylight!) when I get home from work … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity, Landscaping, Moss Gardening, Native Plants, Outdoor Living, Property Restrictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Change of Mind, Change of Heart (part three, a change of plan)

Posted on February 26, 2013 by calvincaley

In late December and into January, while I waited for the soil to thaw and my special-order mutant Native plants to arrive, I studied up on Mountain Beaver control (this creature, which eats a few hundred dollars a year’s worth … Continue reading →

Posted in 'green, or Green?', DIY, Family Activity, Landscaping, Native Plants, Property Restrictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Yellow Lake

Posted on January 11, 2013 by calvincaley
Posted in Family Activity, Native Plants, Outdoor Living | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Our Stockings are Hung by the Chimney…

Posted on December 18, 2012 by calvincaley

Our magic elf has done yeoman service so far this month. The outdoor tree was lighted while we were all out of the house; a tabletop Noble Fir, just for my daughter, appeared one morning after I left for work. … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity, Outdoor Living | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

MAKE A GIFT

Posted on December 14, 2012 by calvincaley

I eschew the holiday gift guide this year, even the low-cost holiday gift guide for the uber-manly forest tamer-slash-landscape commando in your life (sorry if that is you and you are not uber-manly…or even slightly manly), and instead give you … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

This is NOT the Charlie Browniest Tree

Posted on December 11, 2012 by calvincaley

A dozen or so years ago, when we were newly married, my wife and I bought a spectacular Christmas tree from a tony local nursery. Wildly expensive, even for the time, I trimmed its twelve-foot height to fit our ten-foot … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity, Native Plants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Honey, I’m home!

Posted on October 18, 2012 by calvincaley

We had thought at one point to make our offer on the ‘new’ house without inspection contingency.  We knew there were others interested in it, and felt that if we just took it ‘as is,’ it might differentiate our offer … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

This haunted house

Posted on October 10, 2012 by calvincaley

We no longer live in our house.  Oh, we sleep there; sometimes eat there;  but we are ghosts, the phantom traces of a family.  Selling a house is to exist in a nether world, neither here nor there, your thoughts … Continue reading →

Posted in Family Activity, Outdoor Living, Property Restrictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Summer-y summary

Posted on September 21, 2012 by calvincaley

Autumn is upon me, here in the nether region between I Don’t Want to Live Here Anymore and Now I Live Somewhere Else.  When you exist in a shadow world such as this, you tread a fine line between the … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, Family Activity, Moss Gardening, Native Plants, Outdoor Living | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments