Author: kate

In the city, you get less home for your buck, but you get “city life” – easy access to, well, pretty much anything that isn’t space, solitude, or quiet. For those last three, you can get those in spades out in the boonies, but you wind up needing to goRead More…

I made a deal with myself that I would try to spend about an hour or so a day, every day, writing – not necessarily here, but writing something, so that I can continue to develop facility with words and maybe even produce something interesting and good. Alas, I haven’tRead More…

I still continue to be amazed by the things we see and hear out here, insects and animals aplenty. Whenever we come home, driving up the driveway, I spot at least half a dozen birds in different places doing their birdly duty of swooping down to probably catch some unfortunateRead More…

Whenever I speak to someone for the first time since I’ve moved out to the boonies, they ask me about the commute. They’ll hear me burbling on and on, happily, about life out here and how I’m loving it, but then they’ll get a kind of sly look on theirRead More…

Last Monday the grill was delivered, and last Tuesday we got propane for it. I am not exaggerating when I say that we have grilled every day – sometimes twice a day! – since we have had fuel. The Weber is an absolute joy, and it makes everything I cookRead More…

Wasps had been holding us hostage all weekend – I don’t know if I’m allergic to them or not, but given that I tend to be allergic to some pretty weird stuff, I figure it’s best to be safe. Ever since the first one landed on me and I didRead More…

Our dog Owen is a lovable galoot. He’s a pit-lab mix, about as beta as they come, and loves nothing more than to snuggle up to any creature, human or otherwise, who will have him. He also likes trying to eat everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Some years ago, “everything” includedRead More…

One of the biggest issues with our condo in Chicago was that we didn’t have any outdoor space, either private or shared, which meant no grilling and no sitting out around a fire at night. This has now changed. We have a walk-out basement onto a concrete patio that’s aboutRead More…

Not a phrase I ever thought I would utter, but we do, in fact, have 12 couches. At our condo, we used to joke that we knew we’d made it because we had 5 couches (3 lovely leather pieces, 1 cloth couch, and a chaise). I mean, that’s a lotRead More…

In our home, there lives an aged ballerina who has a serious drinking problem. She literally lives inside a bottle of some ancient booze, and when you twist the bottom of the bottle, she spins around while music plays. Next to her lives Jim Beam – not the common type,Read More…