11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Living, Totem Hall
Tags
found, glasses, iphone, keys, lost, money clip, resolutions, this new year
This…
my clip…
This too…
my phone…
These…
my glasses…
These too…
my keys…
So, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hereby resolve not to lose any of them, not a one, not for a moment, not this year!
And, well, right, my dear reader may notice the obvious differences in time and backgrounds, which, of course, there is a perfectly good reason for…
19 Wednesday Aug 2015
Posted in Gentleman Farming, Living, Seasons, Time, Totem Hall
I’ve been spending time on the back of a tractor, contemplating all the mysteries…
23 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Seasons, Time, Totem Hall, Vacation
Tags
beach, boarding school, children, classes, college, empty nesters, life, savannah college of art and design, spring break, tides, woodberry forest school
that last sunset…
Perhaps, I should say, spring sprunged. My youngest returns back to his boarding school later today, and in Savannah my oldest returns back to the college grind today, which all means that today at Totem Hall we return to life as empty nesters today, not a bad life mind you, but a life nevertheless…
11 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Business, Gardening, Gentleman Farming, Living, Passages, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
apple blossoms, apple computer, macbook, motherboard, spring, technology, technophobe, troglodyte, video card
new boss meets the old boss…
In case you were wondering where I might have been all these days, well, did you know that on older MacBooks the video card attaches to the motherboard and that when the video card goes bad, the motherboard though still good is now worthless? Yep, I did not know that either, though I have since found out about this and much other arcane trivia regarding both my now old and now new computers.
meet the new boss…
same as the old boss…
To be honest, the Gentleman Farmer does few things well and computers are not one of them. Slowly, but surely, while my face basks in the glow of computer light, I am making friends with the newest addition and expense to Totem Hall.
Somewhere, someone promises improved productivity and instant enlightenment, right?
I just noticed the blurry image of my old and now very defunct computer, which is somewhat apropos, no?
just because it’s spring and I love apple blossoms…
12 Monday Jan 2015
Tags
camellia japonica, camellia sasanqua, christmas camellia, christmas day, christmas presents, fried egg flower, matilija poppy, romneya, weather channel, winter storm gorgon, yuletide camellia
Not long ago, I looked up from whatever little task I had at hand and realized there were no flowers blooming here at Totem Hall, anywhere, anyhow.
christmas camellia…
That is so unusual, since we have an abundant blessing of blooms year round, which of course I absolutely love, since it gives me a reason to go outside, and make my picks of the day. I blame November. There was a brutish cold snap followed immediately by a deluge of biblical proportions and then another bit of nasty cold weather.
fried egg flower…
Those absurdly sweet harbingers of winter flowers, the Romneya, Tree Poppies, or Matilija Poppy, and the Camellia Sasanqua, the Christmas Camellia, the Yuletide Camellia, said “see ya, outta here, done”.
or yuletide camellia..
or matilija poppy…
And so we were, that is until Christmas Day, when miracle of miracles the Camellia Japonicas, which had been promising, burst forth in all their single, semi-double, irregular semi-double, formal double, elegans, and informal double glory. Spectacular stuff, kid you not, simply one of the best Christmas presents ever.
camellia japonica…
more camellia japonica…
camellia japonica once again…
penultimate camellia japonica…
the final camellia japonica
Now as I type this out, Winter Storm Gorgon has come and is now slowly leaving the scene. Before I go any further, can I ask when we started naming winter weather patterns, honestly, what is up with that? Is this a Weather Channel conspiracy, a new way for marketers and t-shirt makers to sell “I survived Gorgon” kitsch?
Anyway, the damage to my precious winter blooms was extensive, all the flowers freezer burned, and, as for the buds, time will tell. Thankfully, the camellia is a hearty plant and our winters mild, so I fully expect to enjoy bringing flowers into the home sometime later this winter.
12 Friday Dec 2014
Posted in Family, Gentleman Farming, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
27-ton, chainsaw, chopping wood, family, farm boss, farm chores, farm equipment, farm tools, fireplace, firewood, front-end loader, hydraulic, kubota, laurel oak, log-splitter, nephew, Quercus hemisphaerica, Quercus virginiana, southern live oak, splitting wood, stihl, troy-bilt, winter fire
So, besides the feeling of power and glory, compensation issues really, the main reason that I chainsaw is for firewood.
laurel oak…
On the ground is a Laurel Oak (Quercus hemisphaerica) that we took down because it was growing too close to a Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana). Don’t you just love the Quercus rolls off the tongue? Go ahead say it really fast three times over.
rounds…
After the initial felling, the main trunk is broken down into smaller sections known as rounds, using the Stihl Farm Boss, which I referenced in an earlier post.
loaded…
I tractor up and use my front end loader to move the rounds from the tree site to the well house shed where I can split the wood.
setting up shop with my nephew…
Now, I used to split wood using wedges, hatchets, axes, and mallets, but that was before my enlightenment. At the shed, out comes one of my favorite boy toys, the Troy-Bilt 27-ton hydraulic log splitter, and a complete exercise in brute power,strength, and dominance.
my nephew experiencing the joy of pure hydraulic power…
From there it is just what you would expect. Stack the wood.
stacked and ready to go…
Burn the wood. Enjoy the life…
the end result…
01 Saturday Nov 2014
Posted in Living, Nature, Passages, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
crowns, daydreaming, doorways, entries, etruscans, fieldwork, greeks, harvest, old, olympics, owls, power, romans, tractor, wealth, wikipedia, wise, wreaths
harvest wreath…
I came back from the Woodberry Parents Weekend to find the front door of Totem Hall all decked out with a brand new wreath, courtesy of my mother in law, celebrating the best of fall.
one view up close…
Later on my tractor, working a field, I started thinking about wreaths, the whole who, what, when, and where.
another view up close…
So I turned to Wikipedia; I mean, after all, who doesn’t? Did you know that wreaths appeared during the Etruscan era, worn as crowns? After that, the Greeks and Romans appropriated the wreath concept, wearing them to celebrate, for instance, Olympic achievement, or to designate wealth and power.
wise old owl up close…
Of course, wreaths on the head are all good and wonderful, but how does one get from the dome to the door? Well, by way of Wikipedia, one again turns to the ancient Greeks. It turns out the Greeks enjoyed hanging a harvest wreath by their door, just like mine.
one more look…
before you come on in…
And there you go…
29 Wednesday Oct 2014
Posted in Gentleman Farming, Seasons, Totem Hall, Totems
Tags
art, chainsaw, farm boss, farm chores, firewood, local critters, nature, stihl, totem poles
farm boss…
I like my chainsaws.
I like the power.
I like the danger.
I like the dirt.
I like the sawdust.
I use them.
I use them a lot.
I chop trees down.
chop down…
I chop trees up.
chop up…
But
I cannot make art.
white-tailed deer totem helping to support totem hall…
gopher tortoise totem helping to support totem hall…
florida panther totem helping to support totem hall…
eastern diamondback rattlesnake totem helping to support totem hall…
At least not with my chainsaw…
12 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Time, Totem Hall
Tags
dodge, lexus, memory, moms, moves, moving, nissan, packing, pathfinder, poodles, ram 2500, roommates, rx400h, scad, sons, u-haul
Our oldest made his return to college Saturday. This was not our first fond farewell, having over the years sent him off to summer camps, boarding school, and the first year of college, but somehow yesterday was different, he was moving into his own home, well, own home with four other roommates.
folding sheets for the first and last time…
boxed up and ready to go…
The whole process was most entertaining and it brought back a flood of memories.
i’ll just stuff this in…
it doesn’t take me long to pack…
To begin with, all our carefully thought out plans fell by the wayside. The big Dodge 2500 is still in the shop. She was going to be the workhorse of the move. So, you say, no problem, I am sure you have a Plan B. Well good old Plan B did not work out either. Since my son’s Pathfinder did not have wiring for the trailer lights, there was no U-Haul for us, not rentable. Surely, we can use one of the open-air trailers here at Totem Hall, right? Ooh, too bad, the Lexus, choice three, with tow package and harness, is no good, faulty wiring.
The end result: ah, stuff it in the back of the Nissan.
packed in the back…
packed on the side…
packed on the other side…
and packed in the front…
He is definitely my son.
How crazy time is, really. We move through it, try our best to hold on to it, swimming upstream, you know.
bye moms, bye poodle…
Was it just the other day that I was making my own moves, possessions stuffed into a trash bag, or two? Or how about renting the first moving truck, enlisting a couple of friends with offers of beer and lunch, forgetting to tie down everything in back.
bye totem hall…
Then came children, just the births alone seem long ago, though, in the grandness of time, not too far away, remembered, just not able to be captured again, the first words, the first walk, off to school, off to university.
bye son, fare thee well…
Life is such a funny game…
24 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted in Gardening, Gentleman Farming, Living, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
bountiful bush bean, dark star zucchini, farm chores, heirloom vegetables, kitchen garden, lioness f1 squash, organic gardening, plants, procrastination, solstice, sumter cucumber, tequila sunrise pepper, vegetable garden, vegetables, victory garden
Most folks call it a vegetable garden.
most say this is a vegetable garden…
Others prefer to use kitchen garden.
some say this is a kitchen garden…
Me, well, for me I go old school; it’s a victory garden.
i love the smell of veggies in the morning…
Here at Totem Hall we let our freak flag fly and do our best to live the whole granola crunching organic lifestyle. Let’s see, for this year’s edition of my victory garden, I planted corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, basil, eggplant, tomatoes, watermelon, and, for the sheer heck of it all, potatoes. All are organic, with a big percentage of my garden being heirloom varieties. In case you’re curious, I do talk to my plants. Why not, it works for Zonker.
zonker’s down with it…
On solstice day, I had the first picks of the season. Yeah, yeah, I know the harvest should be earlier, but what can I say, I planted way too late, a victim of well, my tendency to do this or that before doing this or that.
in search of zucchini…
our first squash…
picking bush beans…
and the end result…
