So, it was a stressful week so far. Grace and I packed up and left the farm property. We were both optimistic. The plague seemed to have been back, and it was time to interact with the world again, including a trip to the Dentist after months of erratic closures. I have been with the […]

On the 4th, we had guests in from Arlington, and I was quick to put one of the rambunctious males to work before things started in earnest. I asked for help to close the south side doors to the barn, which somehow got opened. I don’t know how that happened, but I am adamantly opposed […]

I was so exhausted from grilling and entertaining over the holiday that I thought I would get some sleep last night. The sun is setting these strange days just before nine, and that is when the explosions began to ring out along the farm lane. I was jumpy, either from the prescribed medication or something […]

It is the day before one that many of us consider a national holiday, and it is a hot sunny good one. There are others who do not consider it so, and are quite shrill about it this year. To me, the blue skies are filled with the roar of WWII rotary engines above the […]

“The present-day Pacific Fleet is not bounded by the vast ocean for which it is named. When Iranian militants seized American hostages I November 1979, the U.S. Government decided to establish a continuing presence in the Indian Ocean as a means of demonstrating resolve and ability to project military power. Although that ocean is about […]

So, frustrations with satellite internet out here in the lush greenery of rural Virginia were enough to make me sign up for an additional service, one the ads tell me will bring the forces of nature to power my insatiable desire for more information here in the peaceful pastures near the Big River. It actually […]

It was a morning here at Refuge Farm filled with sunny skies, chaos and emotion. Our Director of Physical Tasks arrived with one of his slim Hispanic assistants, and things around the house began to move. Watching them and occasionally holding the screen door open to permit passage of large items exhausted me. Grace was […]

As you know, I am blessed to have a circle of pals who possess vivid memories of strange and ancient times and can recreate them with rousing prose. I am also happy to have a resilient Webmistress in the form of the redoubtable Renee, who has been putting up with this drivel for nearly twenty […]

I hope you have been following Marlow’s unique appreciation of the plague on his picturesque and unique Southern town. We are on episode 23 of his observations, and my intent is to compile it as a manuscript for the next book to appear on the website, and eventually for purchase as a smooth eBook on […]

I am going to break tradition here and post my Shellback Card. I have a reason for it. The card recognizes successful completion of a solemn and sometimes brutal ceremony held on ships of the Old Navy- the one in which my pals and I served. To commemorate crossing the Equator, we were screamed at, […]