Thanks to the polar vortex, this winter has had some real teeth here in the Midwest. I have listened to many complaints about below zero temperatures and our thick blanket of snow. I’m looking on this winter the way I might have gazed at the buffalo if I could travel […]
Anyone who lives in or has traveled through the Driftless Area (where Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa meet) can see at a glance that this is dramatically different from the land encircling it. Because this region was untouched by the last three glaciers, it is defined by rugged ridges and deep […]
Think globally – act locally! I got a chance to do just that recently when I read in the local newspaper, The Dodgeville Chronicle, about an upcoming 4-part series of evening presentations called “Floods, Droughts, Land and Energy: What Is Wisconsin’s Future.” We now live about 11 miles from Dodgeville, […]
January 6 was the coldest day in the past 10 years here in rural Ridgeway. A newly-named weather phenom, known as a polar vortex, had descended on the Driftless Area. In downtown Dodgeville, -22F was flashing out front of the Wells Fargo Bank – and a brutal wind produced a […]
Deer are the largest and most dramatic wildlife most of us see on a regular basis. This summer we enjoyed watching a mother and her two fawns regularly explore their botanical buffet within feet of our bedroom window. They were incredibly endearing at such close range, but a cloud hung […]
Gorgeous, delicious and toxic! Their nuts are super nutritious and a mouthful of earthy flavor. Walnut wood has vivid grain. When peeled, they reveal a muscular, sculptural beauty. Everything about […]
I’ve been given honey twice in the past few weeks. What a wonderful gift! It’s a gift that has been given twice. People gave it to me, but bees gave it to them. Some new friends, Amber Nicole and Paul, gave us a jar of Mad Urban Bees honey. http://www.madurbanbees.com/ […]
Last July, Doug and I joined the timber-raising of one the carpenters who helped build Underhill House. (Check it out in my post Timberframing with Friends: Sweat, Love and a Little Drama. ) Prairie and his partner Lindsey are restoring an old farmhouse. The back of the house proved too far […]
The making of Underhill House was also the destruction of all but the most rugged organisms living in the soil around it. We moved here in January, and as soon as the snow melted, I was counting the days till I could start to heal the earth outside our walls. […]
Saturday October 5, Underhill House will be part of the National Solar Tour — the world’s largest grassroots solar event. We are so thrilled to part of a coalition of over 5,500 home and business owners, volunteers, solar installers, public officials and grassroots organizations who conduct open house tours of […]
Digging in the Driftless 