All Things Chap, Some Things Daddy
“I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind. Whatever the worries of the hour or the threats of the future, once the picture has begun to flow along, there is no room for them Continue reading Defining Leisure
One of the greatest aspects of backyard vineyard winemaking is your connection to – and awareness of – the cycle of the seasons. After the excitement of spring bud break, the hard work of summer maintenance, and the celebratory rush Continue reading The Backyard Vineyard – Winter Pruning
Of all your decisions for a backyard vineyard, one of the most important is choosing your harvest date. No matter how well you pruned the year prior, how good your soil may be, or how well you trained your vines Continue reading The Backyard Vineyard – Determining Ripeness
The Good Life In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, Helen and Scott Nearing moved from New York City to a farm in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Although the motives for their move were numerous, and the Continue reading Helen and Scott Nearing
My personal interest in the classical definition of leisure began, unsurprisingly, at work. My job was very abstract – we were tasked with quantitatively measuring the impacts of foreign security assistance in corrupt, mismanaged countries emerging from years of civil Continue reading Finding Leisure
An Introduction The concept of leisure should once again be part of our collective dialogue. For many of us, it may already be so. The past year provided an unprecedented amount of time – time at home, time alone, time Continue reading Noble Leisure
We covered a lot in the Year One Vineyard Management (Part One) post. The main takeaway is this: above all else, year one in the backyard vineyard is about preparing the vines for long, healthy, and productive lives. This means Continue reading The Backyard Vineyard – Year One Vineyard Management (Part Two)
A country twice the size of France with a population of just over three million, Mauritania is a nomad’s paradise. The open spaces, rolling dunes and starry nights can give even the most rooted of homebodies an itching to wander. Continue reading How to Ride in a Mauritanian Bush Taxi
Roxy the Hound passed away a little over a year ago – this was written for family to capture our transition to a life without her around. Sometimes you’ll hear her still walking upstairs,Or snoring alone in her bed.Sometimes you’ll Continue reading Ode to Roxy
The Fallacy of Service – Part Two In “The Fallacy of Service – Part One,” we talked about the fallacy of “public service” and our misguided tendency to place “the abstract over the practical,” or the “professor over the plumber” Continue reading Thank You For Your Service