All POSTS
March 2026
Mr. Ahrens! Are you still with us? The voice wafted to me through the sound of surf and diving gulls. Eleventh-grade chemistry class was on the second floor with one side of the room completely filled with windows. And outside the...
See ItSurely and Slowly
So far this has been a most unusual year, in our area at least. We have had two really good rain storms lasting seven or eight days interspersed with extremely good weather. If it’s going to rain, I say, do it...
See ItMore on Lining Out
While lining out may just seem like common sense (as someone commented) doing it on a pointy end like this made me scratch my head. Nothing is common sense until you’ve done it a few times. In the end, after...
See ItPlanking the Pear
In Texas there is a saying that “You can tell a man’s character by the shape of his woodpile.” I don’t know where this originated but I suspect it came from my grandfather. I heard it periodically as a child whenever...
See ItWithout Compromise
This year, 2025 has just begun. Brown grass has turned green. There is ice on the pond in the morning and by 1pm it is 73 degrees (F). It’s a two-coat morning and a tee shit afternoon. It is too early...
See ItWard Thee Well
“Ward Thee Well, Theresa II. I, Your Little Ship Will Rip Asunder. Dark Eyes, Swirling Skies Your Doom Lies With Light And Thunder.” These booming words came to me in the dark, vile and odious, leaving a knot of coldness...
See ItNot on my List
This morning I was up at 0600, made coffee and was on the deck by 0630. It is barely light by that time here in our valley. The sun gets over the hill to the east around 0730. It was foggy,...
See ItPort Townsend and Tally ho
Humans are a weird bunch. After a lengthy stay on this planet and having hung out with a few thousand of them, I have come to that rather solid fact. In the city if you get five or ten of them...
See ItNo Ripple Left Behind
Theresa is definitely a showoff. No one around here draws a crowd like T, as I call her. Peg, a friend of my wife’s asks: “What’s in the big barn?” and magickly a ticket for a shop tour appears. “Oh, Is...
See ItNight visions
Once again it is almost June. It is amazing how this happens every year at the same time. The grass is almost five feet high in most parts. The wind ripples through it in waves, an ocean of grass...
See ItSetting up
Theresa II is undergoing her transformation from a pile of lumber to a recognizable structure. It is finally warming up here after one of the worst winters I can remember. Fifty inches of rain and a foot of snow is...
See ItSiege at Clover valley
I set my mental clock for 30 minutes and lay on the couch trying to get as comfortable as possible. My phone lay on the table within reach. In my pockets were all my standard items for the last 10 days,...
See ItThe big flip
Well here she sits, high and proud on her operating table. I say hello as I flip on the lights and head to the big door. She is now inverted, keel up, looking down at her many forms over which will...
See ItTheresa and thunder
Greetings to all. February arrived with thunder. With a constant parade of cyclones marching up the coast the ground was becoming saturated. The creek behind the house was nearly full, a rushing torrent, almost filling a 12’ culvert where it goes...
See It“C” is for curves
Saturday morning finally came. Nothing to do but goof off. I was up in my room messing around with the model aircraft carrier I was building. I already knew I had to cut the back yard this afternoon but that didn’t...
See Itfirst Ocean
I don’t remember the exact time I became a sailor but I’m pretty sure it was before I was born.My sister and I piled into the back of our 54 Chevy and headed straight for the rear window, the best seat...
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