Well, it's been a slow close on a very long summer which only seems to be halted by the spectre of COVID shutting everything down once again. In a familiar repeat of 2020, people are gradu...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/09/sand-mandalas.html
You know, it's around this time of year that I start singing my favorite Christmas song, "Let It Snow." It's the one that opens with the line, "Oh, the weather outside is frightful." (Apo...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/08/let-it-snow.html
So for the most part, I like the "new and improved" Blogger, which I've gotten the hang of (or so I thought) and use regularly. Except for one thing: Apparently not all the comments people ...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/07/my-sincere-apologies.html
Heat Dome. I like summer, but can honestly say it's not my FAVORITE time of year, unlike many Oregonians. This is because 1) I don't always appreciate the heat, even if it's just for a b...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/07/that-time-of-year.html
So in my former career as a newspaper columnist, it was more or less my job to ponder The Big Things -- you know, the things that people think about at three o'clock in the morning, or when ...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/06/is-life-just-too-hard-now.html
So here we are smack in the middle of 2021, the unofficial start to the Roading 20's -- 21st Century Edition. I don't know about you, but for me 2021 just feels...more, somehow. Like the worl...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/06/freshly-washed.html
I love the way the English language sometimes creates a link between two things that make sense...the word "season" being one of them. I think seasons are to the planet what seasonings are to f...
Oregon locked down exactly one year ago today. We had plans to go to a spacious venue to see an Irish band that night as I remember, but of course that never happened, along with a myriad of ot...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/03/weighting-one-year-on.html
I'm sure you've all been hearing about the terrible power outages in Texas, which have left millions without water or power. Less reported on was the ice storm that hit the Willamette Valley ...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/02/off-grid-2021-ice-storm.html
We had our first snowfall of the year today. There is always something magical about snow; growing up in Southern California, the most we ever saw was an occasional thick frost, white and cri...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2021/01/snowgaritas-and-shot.html
So where does the end of 2020 find you? If you're like me, i.e., counting yourself lucky right now, you're basically in the same place as you were for most of the year: You're staying in, limi...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/12/end-of-year.html
While my sinuses are not equipped to live there full time, I do love the high desert. Even in California, I often found myself torn if offered the choice between a day at the ocean or the desert....
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/10/bend-there-done-that.html
Last week we decided we needed a mental health day and drove to Bend for the day. I'll post some photos we took in Bend in a few days, but I wanted to first post some photos of the areas we dro...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/10/requiem-for-forest.html
Well, our fire evacuation orders are lifted, we are unpacked and settling in to Part Two of 2020's "Apocalypse: September Edition." Part One was fire, and Part Two consists of air you c...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/09/safe-at-home.html
Labor Day was a holiday that was unusual in the typical ways all 2020 holidays have been so far. We didn't have friends over, but did some barbecuing for ourselves, and stayed home. In the even...
...plentiful. The projects are plentiful. And that's OK, because once the rainy season comes it will be nice to have all this done. Basically we have about two more months before the rains really...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/08/summertime-and-projects-are.html
In this past month, I celebrated a milestone birthday within the maelstrom of all that's going on in the world right now. It was weird, but ultimately, also meaningful. While I'm not a believ...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-gift-of-saturn-return.html
OK, so let's be honest here. These are some of the toughest times most of us have ever experienced (on a collective level). If you lived through WWII, I guess you get a pass, since that was cer...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/07/things-that-cheer-me-up.html
Through the troubling times in this country, the one bright spot here on the homestead has been the vegetable garden. Whether it's food on your plate or in the ground, the sight of that kind...
So every morning I have breakfast in my new dining room, also known as "the garage." I'm not alone, even if Big Ag isn't up yet -- my car is there. I actually think it's been good for our rel...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-times.html
The workers may all be in masks, but they are here, as we deal with the kitchen gutting/renovation after our flood. Craftsmen are generally a pleasure to deal with, in every situation. They're a...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-boys-are-back-in-town.html
Do you ever feel like, just when you have everything under control and are the master of your fate, fate pulls the rug out from under you? Of course you do, because that is a hallmark of living o...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/05/waterworks.html
So Big Ag and I are officially in our 12th week of Confinement In The Time of COVID (which would be a great title for a novel if I didn't think 120,000 people were already working on their own no...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/05/peace-uncovered.html
Well, I'm guessing this is probably going to be the most...uh...different Mother's Day any of us have experienced en masse, ever. Oh sure, we've all had Mother's Days that were a bit off. May...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/05/mothers-day.html
So for some of us lucky ones who aren't struggling with unemployment or home schooling, 2020 has turned into the year of Endless Summer. (Note: This is also the title of my all-time favorite ...
http://hotflashhomestead.blogspot.com/2020/04/endless-summer.html