Category: The Softer Side

If you are reading this article, Mother’s Day will have come and gone, so it will have to be a “Women Day” piece.  As I was taking care of the left-over ham from Easter, I was thinking about what I paid for it and how many meals I will have gotten from it. I do…

With another cold spell approaching, it’s probably time to empty the woodstove ashpan once again. For those of you who don’t have to do this chore, lucky you. Over the years, we have had a variety of heating sources. When we built our house in 1969, electric heat was the way to go. It was…

The Duster Coat first caught my attention when my daughter, Tammy, decided to make one for a friend. She obtained a pattern from Etsy online and fabric from Joann’s. She completed sewing the duster in time for her friend to wear it driving his 1903 Cadillac for a car tour in England.  One of the first…

Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam And admit that the watersAround you have grown… I will let you google the rest of the song if you wish. It wasn’t really the subject I had planned on reporting.  It is February 5, 2025, today, and my birthday. About 3:15 am, I turned 77! I will never be 76…

A little while ago I was talking to an old-timer who grew up in Underhill. We were reminiscing about the old days here in town. He went back further in time than I do. He was asking about the barns on our property. Well, the house is gone and the big barn is gone. I…

While researching background on Dave Dion , the famous local race car driver, for the following story, I got to thinking about something that happened way back in the 1970s when my youngest brother, David, and our cousins, John and Billy, were around 8-10 years old. They were nuts about Vermont’s local racers… Bobby Dragon,…

The other day I was thinking about what had to be done before the first snow started to come down and realized that the jobs had changed over the years.  Having grown up on a farm, it seemed we were always “getting ready for winter.”  I will not go into all the farm chores but…

The other day, during yet another rainy spell, I was watching the rain gutter downspouts spill water into a flower bed and thought about rain barrels. I went on Amazon and, sure enough, they had rain barrels. I  ordered one and it came two days later. It is now installed and works great. The mention…

You have probably been asked this question many times; I know I have. If you had a lot of money……. The question next is… What is a lot of money? It probably depends on who you are asking. To some, a lot of money might be $1,000 or $10,000 or $100,000, or more. But it is…

We got our first “family” pet when our sons were in third and fifth grade. It had been brought to our attention many times that it would be wonderful to have a pet, and of course listened to all the promises of care and all they would do to make it a “no work” situation…