Part of my chore-time ritual, twice a day, is to muck a wheelbarrow full of accumulated waste hay and sheep poop from the barn floor and trundle it out to the compost heap. Even with this effort, the stuff builds... Read More ›

Hi All, Mark here. It’s a balmy winter Saturday. The sun is ever higher in the sky. The breeze is mild. About half the pastures and lawns are bare; only a thin layer of slushy, melted, refrozen, and remelted snow... Read More ›

The “Waste Not Want Not” bulletin of last week, which included news of the death of my elderly sow, Possum, elicited a range of responses, including valuable kitchen composting tips to help me replace my living, breathing consumer of food... Read More ›

In the flurry of big news stories at new year — Ukraine, of course, the deaths of Pope Benedict and Barbara Walters, and more — this was an easy story to miss in the New York Times on New Year’s... Read More ›

Virtually every morning, when I open the gate to descend to the path around the pond, on my way to feed Possum the sow, I cause a stir of sorts. Possum hears the sound of the latch opening and the... Read More ›

Perry, the son of my late partner Peter, arrived to our delight Thanksgiving morning. We hadn’t much warning that he’d be in New York; he flew in to do a job installing whatever it is he installs in buildings. But... Read More ›

With temperatures forecast to plunge well below freezing imminently, I realize the days of covering my fall plantings at night to extend my growing season are over. In preparation for the inevitable, I harvested all the daikon radishes of harvestable... Read More ›

A week ago I was down about the state of the world. One and a half million Ukrainians were facing electricity interruptions as Russia’s brutal imperialist war took an ugly turn in tactics. Yet Kevin McCarthy, the prospective Speaker of... Read More ›

I am savoring this Columbus Day weekend as a time of reprieve. Nuclear war has not yet begun. We can continue to live in the hope that perhaps it will not. Maybe the Russians who are threatening it will realize... Read More ›