New 4-Week Writing Circle Starts October 9 Come join me in a remote Writing Circle on four Wednesdays in October from 5-7 pm (Vermont Time). The Wednesday Writing Circle will provide a safe and isnpiring place for writers of all alibilities to put words on the page. We will follow the successful model of the […]
The Project, Part 5: Progress!
Building the Arch On Sunday, I left early and drove to Tribal Archery, where I had an appointment to have my crossbow tuned. Dave, the owner of Tribal Archery, is knowledgeable and kind. He’s also generous, providing a lifetime guarantee on the bows he sells. He replaced the fraying serving, the thread that protects the […]
The Project, Part 4: A Weekend Off
We had a two-week respite from pouring cement, laying bricks, and otherwise working on the oven last weekend. Instead, we performed our day jobs: Tim saw patients, I met deadlines, and Andy worked a weekend shift. Without him to supervise, we took a break from advancing The Project. Instead, we harvested cucumbers, tomatoes and chickens. […]
The Project, Part 3: My Growing Glossary of Masonry Terms
As promised last week, here’s my growing glossary of masonry terms. Learning new words while laying bricks makes hard labor interesting. Mortar Board (noun) I have a BA, MA, MPhil and a PhD, so until I laid my first brick, I thought a mortarboard was a square, academic hat graduates wore at commencement ceremonies. But […]
The Project, Part Two: Learning to Lay Bricks
I’m learning to lay bricks as part of this summer’s Big Project: building an outdoor, masonry bake oven. Slow Going We started The Project around Memorial Day and thought we’d bake our first pizza over Labor Day Weekend. But it took two days to lay three level courses of cement blocks, and four days for […]