There was a time when I knew where the pot roast (or hamburger, or steak) came from: off the farm. Sometimes we named our beef, but most of the time we did not. Trust me, you really don’t want to make a pet out of your next meal. Now that I am twenty years-plus...

Many years and a few pastorates ago I was taught that the proper way to eat an oyster is raw. From the first time I let one slide down with a dollop of hot sauce I was hooked. Is it any wonder that we plan our vacations near Apalachicola, oyster capital of the USA?...

Once upon a time our attic served as the archive of a class project completed several years ago by one of my sons. It was of the solar system. Notice my use of the past tense. The planets were made of clay and evidently in the heat of the attic the clay went through a...

…My wife has it. Literally. She is sneezing, snorting and wheezing along with many in our good state who also suffer from allergies. She also has the baseball kind of spring fever. Now that baseball season has returned Amy has commandeered the remote control whenever...

I do. It is coming from the back of my car. It all started with a weed-eater, actually a weed-eater that was out of gas. I drove to the gas station and filled up my gas can for the appointed task of tidying up my yard. All was fine and ordinary and such until I pulled...

Last week I joined my family for a bit of Spring Break vacation. There are a few essentials I pack for vacation: at least one pair of shorts; one Hawaiian shirt; one pair of Birkenstocks; and a stack of books. Really there is not much else one needs when taking a few...

Along with a handful of other TV viewers we wasted a couple of hours watching the Oscars last Sunday evening. Why do we sacrifice useful hours before the “idiot box” when we could be doing something constructive – like lobbying for world hunger or working on my...

I like a good challenge, especially when it involves food. There is nothing that gets my competitive edge better sharpened than for someone to say to me “I bet you can’t eat…” Count me in. I will go for it, whatever “it” may be – five hot dogs and two hamburgers...

Many times when I go home to visit my family in Putnam County I will walk the woods for lightered knots, or “fat lightered.” Lightered is basically seasoned pine (usually a stump, but not always). Highly flammable, pieces of lightered are commonly used to start fires...

Congratulations! You made it. We made it. We survived another year and 2006 is over and done with. For better or for worse we have made of it what we can and now it is history. The rest is up to grace. Did you stay awake long enough to countdown into the New Year?...