Pocahontas County Fare

Our cherry trees are having a big year. In the nine summers we've lived here, this has only happened once before, in 2006. That year ...

Potatoes bloom often enough, but this year's planting of Kennebecs is sending up large, handsome flower stalks. If only more of them ha...

Many people have trouble with squirrels emptying their bird feeders. We would like to offer our uninvited guest in trade.

Here's another event that demonstrates there are no easy solutions to environmental problems. The American demand for corn for ethanol h...

Last week I read Faulkner's Light in August for the first time. Although I was an English major in college, I missed all the America...

Back in March, I posted about my plan for SharonB's March "Take It Further" Challenge. I am learning or trying a new skill o...

Last weekend I made a new futon cover. It's hard to find fabric of any kind in these parts, so I ordered a length of cotton duck from D...

I've tried making sourdough bread starter several times, following several different recipes, with limited success. A few weeks ago, I s...

I confess to following the RSS feed for The Onion. It keeps me posted on important trends like this one: Realtors Blame Housing Market For ...

The last week of school overlapped with the first heat wave of the summer, and me with no short pants in the closet. Fortunately, I had bou...

One sad disadvantage of my school engagement was that I missed many exciting developments here at home. I missed the delivery of the blocks...

The box elder tree is busy making its little winged seeds now, but about a month ago, this is what the pistilate flowers looked like. I...

This is what we bought with our Economic Stimulus Package--a handsome pile of gravel. It probably wasn't what George Bush intended, but...

While the Job That Devoured My Brain continues, interesting things are happening here on our ridge. A couple of weeks ago, we purchased two...

Recently, our local TV news has been reporting a new study indicating that life expectancies for rural Appalachian women have decreased in t...

From African violets to wooly mullein, I've always been fascinated by fuzzy leaves. Whether you consider common mullein a noxious weed,...

Earth Day spawned a host of articles on "environmental issues." I'm still sifting through my RSS feed results from that day, w...

This woodpecker has been visiting our sunflower seed feeder for most of the winter. On this particular morning, he had an unfortunate encou...

Peaches are a hit-or-miss proposition on our ridge. Our two small trees are brittle, and the wind prunes them a little smaller each year. G...

On sunny April mornings, I get excited about dandelions. Look at those curly pistils and fuzzy anthers! Who could resist?