We did not paint our barn (see my post Don’t Paint — Gray is the New Green ) because it is sided with 1-inch slabs of white oak, which has weathered to a silvery gray and will not rot. But we do have to paint our house in town, which […]
We astonished our friends and family 7 years ago Labor Day weekend when we purchased 44 acres of Driftless Area ridge side that we had first walked only a week before. We wanted to settle on its south-facing slope and care for this bit of land Then we learned, as […]
Our bit of land is nestled into the eastern slope of a tiny bowl-shaped dip in the earth formed where two little valleys intersect, but it has a great big bowl of sky above it. Watching the night sky is easy forget in our hectic, well-lit world, but the perspective […]
We thought finding windows for the barn would be a simple matter of a couple of trips to the ReStore. We did find the door from the barn into the greenhouse there – a lovely solid oak door with glass so old, it has gone rippley. But we were up […]
I was shocked when our timber framer, Mike Yaker, urged us to forget painting the inch-thick oak boards on our new barn. To me the prototypical barn was barn red. I have always loved to see red barns. They look great against a background or green fields, golden wheat or […]
When we decided to build a barn on our land, our daughter/architect quickly sketched up a shape that would maximize future solar panels and provide the most possible headspace for a loft area where we could camp. We took her plan to Mike Yaker, a local timber framer, who crafted […]
A strawberry picked and placed directly into one’s mouth at its moment of perfect ripeness is one of life’s most marvelous sensations, and one of the most elusive. Most of the berries you harvest will be packed away and pulled out of the freezer and enjoyed in August, October and […]
It took me a while to make myself stop and check out the runty little apples and pint-sized pears that Future Fruit was offering from a card table at the Dane Count Farmers’ Market. I knew I shouldn’t turn my nose up at organic fruit just because it wasn’t as […]
This spring we purchased an officially sanctioned bluebird house to support the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW), and we placed it according to their directions. As with all real estate, location is key. A pair of bluebirds are looking for 1-3 acres of predominantly open land to call home. […]
Digging in the Driftless 
