The Road Less Traveled…
…and that was the problem. Not maintained, rutted, overgrown on either side, the mile long drive is the only way by vehicle in and out of this abandoned homestead we now spend half the year on….
Enraptured Piglet
On the day of the predicted rapture, I was too busy to follow the news of its not happening — busy taking care of all that was actually happening….
Urban Homesteading in Portland and Beyond
Urban homesteading is not usually the term I use to refer to what I’ve been doing for the best twelve years or so. I tend towards kitchen gardening or urban farming. And these days, I’m transitioning towards rural food production at Amaranta Farm. But I see those who do call themselves urban homesteaders as allies in the same movement, and I’d like to see that movement grow….
Where I Write…
More like, “Where I Try to Write.”
I’m about to head back to the city for the winter. As much as I’m looking forward to an indoor toilet and indoor shower, I’m also longing for a private writing space (…)
Moving Rattlesnakes Humanely
We don’t bother the Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes that live on the wilder parts of our property. It’s easy enough to walk around them. But when they appear near our yurt and garden, it’s a little close for comfort (…)
Race for the Pears
It’s that time of year again, when my taste buds give up on peaches and berries and begin longing for crunchy pears and apples (…)
When Life Gives You Weeds…Eat ‘Em
With all the rain out over the last few weeks and the challenges of getting the summer garden in, I’ve been grateful for food that sprouts with no effort on my part. I might not want stinging nettles in my cultivated garden, but I like having a patch on a distant corner of our property. [...]
Gundruk Saves the Day
Rain. Day before last, it was relentless. We had a reprieve yesterday, and I got some planting done, but most of my garden is flooded and impossible to work. I’m already a week or two behind. In this short season, that could mean a lean year for vegetables. So when I woke at five this [...]
Shower Under the Apple Tree
People often ask me what it’s like to live in a yurt. As I wrote in an essay published in The Smoking Poet last Fall, much of the living goes on around the yurt rather than in it. And that’s as it should be with a shelter traditionally used by nomads. Take the shower. There’s [...]
Domestic Challenges, Wild Beauty
I’m ecstatic to be back on our property in Northeastern Oregon. There’s lots to do: organizing inside the yurt to make cooking and storage more convenient, building a spring box and laying pipe to get potable water into the yurt, putting in the garden. And there are many challenges: a muddy road, cars that get [...]
Memories of International Women’s Day in Nepal
Four months after I gave birth to my son in Nepal, I celebrated my very first International Women’s Day in 1988 in Gunjanagar, a village in western Chitwan District. It was also Gunjangar’s first time to organize an event for that day. I describe the scene in Sacred Threads, my ethnographic memoir-in-progress….
Bushy-Tailed Woodrat: Species of the Week
Tomorrow, we drive to NE Oregon to spend a week or so in our yurt (and a few other places). The creature I fear most on this trip is not the cougar, wolf or porcupine. It’s much smaller. Most females and the younger males of the species could fit into the palm of my hand….
Our Live Christmas Tree
I used to be the Christmas tree enthusiast in the family. I’d drive around Seattle for hours looking for the perfect tree, set it up, decorate it….
“A Grammar for Yurt Living” Published
I have a new essay published in The Smoking Poet. It’s new in the sense of being recently completed and published but also in the sense of process….
The Pardoned Potato
On Thanksgiving, we couldn’t bear to slice and roast this huge homegrown potato face. Nor could we boil and mash it….
