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 […]
Living in Place
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 […]
AN OUTDOOR MASONRY BAKE OVEN AT LAST
PART ONE: GETTING STARTED In addition to growing fruit and vegetables, raising new laying hens, and tending a flock of meat birds, every summer we also often undertake A Project—as if picking berries, pickling cucumbers, and moving chicken tractors weren’t enough to keep us busy. This year, The Project is to build an outdoor, masonry, […]
Martina Tyrrell’s Newsletter for Writers
Writer and editor Martina Tyrrell publishes a newsletter for writers “to inspire and support you to meet your writing goals.” Because I’ve been tangled in a long-term project and need support, I subscribed. I’m glad I did. Accountability & Time Management Martina’s first two posts affirmed what I already do: check in weekly with my […]
Missing Hummingbird Feeder
I was eating lunch on the porch. The hummingbird approached, but the feeder was missing. It lay smashed on the patio. Did it just fall? I thought so. Then I saw the nearby scat. A bear.