I’m not posting infrequently because I’m short on things to write, but just on time to write them. And I don’t know how long it’ll be before things change. This is the time of year when longer-term projects cry out to be completed, and I usually discover that I’ve put things off longer than is… Continue reading

We generally don’t take official holidays, preferring to work or rest according to the situation rather than the calendar. Thanksgiving is a bit of an exception because we do like to have a bountiful midday meal, which calls for a lot of preparation in the kitchen as well as cleanup afterwards, and we have to… Continue reading

I always have a handful of ambitious but vague projects brewing. I keep them to myself as long as possible, because most of them will never get beyond the thinking stage. and it’s easy to get a reputation for being all hat and no cattle, i.e. all talk and no action. Occasionally I will announce… Continue reading

(Still working on that trip report …) Last Friday we had a wood stove installed. We inherited a Pioneer Maid kitchen stove with the house, which is not only for cooking but also for heating the house. But it’ll be a long time if ever before we’re cooking with wood, and so we decided that… Continue reading

Late Friday evening I returned home from a week-long road trip around the area to the west and north of Kentucky, during which I made stops in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana. The rental car receipt tells me I drove a total of 3000 miles, but I’m skeptical about that. The road trip was… Continue reading

Monday Chris and I drove over to Jackson County for a workshop on how to put together a good press kit. The workshop was presented by Carla Gover and Mitch Barrett, collectively known as Zoe Speaks; they are singer-songwriters whose music draws heavily on their Appalachian upbringing, and their music is quite good. The workshop… Continue reading

Yesterday Chris and I spent the afternoon in Virginia with our friend and mentor Ron Short, then joined him at a benefit concert that evening. As we were leaving the theater, I nearly backed the car off a three-foot-high retaining wall, but fortunately Chris stopped me in time. Then on the freeway home early this… Continue reading

A few weeks back our next door neighbor, Leemon Goodin, invited us all to be his guests at the bean and ham supper staged annually by his lodge in nearby Casey Creek. We accepted, and were especially looking forward to getting to meet some of our neighbors, including some bluegrass musicians that would be playing… Continue reading

Chad and Kelly Degenhart and their six fine children were traveling through the area and came to visit us for the weekend. It was the first time we’d hosted visitors in the new house, but it went well and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had to warn them that upstairs living was a bit rough—the floors… Continue reading

One of the people our neighbor Leemon had wanted to introduce us to was his friend Frank, who he said was a banjo builder in Russell Springs. In fact, he said, Frank had built banjos for lots of well-known musicians, like Sonny Osborne and Ralph Stanley. In fact, he said, Frank designed and builds the… Continue reading