About thirty years ago Diane and the kids lived in an apartment in San José, and I traveled back and forth between there and Hacienda Barú each week. The guy who lived in the apartment upstairs was a mycologist. That’s a fancy word for someone who knows everything about fungus. Jesse grew mushrooms for a living. He used to bring home […]
Imagine yourself living in a cozy log cabin tucked away somewhere in the backwoods. It’s an idyllic flight of fancy, but once it becomes lodged in your mind it cannot be extracted. It becomes a part of you, and whether it grows or it festers, it’s there to stay. And you know if you’re ever to have any peace, you’ll just have to make it come true.
There are lots of ways to build a log house or cabin, but they […]
Peak into fire’s ancient myths and stories and you’ll discover devious tricksters and animals with magical powers. Fascinating stuff for kids learning about fire safety from Einar Jensen, the author of Ancient Fire, Modern Fire and Origins of Fire books. In this new blog series, we’ll share a few of the ancient myths that Einar has collected. They are fun to read, no matter what age you are. Enjoy!
![Fire [...]
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What do people planning a log home want more than anything? Floor plans. That’s according to survey after survey. Floor plans — two-dimensional representations of room layouts — are great ways for people to start visualizing their home, specifically how it will live. I’ve observed couples examining floor plans by moving their fingers through the rooms to get a sense of the flow and commenting on the suitability of various layouts for their new homes.
Given this popularity, why then, do […]
If people food is readily available, it’s just a matter of time before a bear comes exploring. If the bear has a positive experience (getting a food reward) without any negative consequences (being yelled at and chased off), it will try for what its enterprising bear-brain thinks might be an even bigger and better reward.
People tend to ignore these early stages of conflict, hoping the bear will eventually move on, or rationalizing that losing a bag of garbage or […]
It’s race day. You know it, and, to your dismay, your horse knows it too. Maybe because his hay bag was smaller this morning or his grain ration was cut back. Or maybe he just knows. Because you know. You are acting different in subtle ways that only a horse could discern, the way you always act on race day.
The horse has been pacing his stall since breakfast. Already you can see fine beads of sweat glistening on his coat. […]
If you are lucky enough to spend the night in Scott and Tess Van Wagner’s 1,500 square-foot, solar-powered log cabin hideaway in the Colorado Rockies near Telluride, you might wake up to the enchanting melodies of mountain bluebirds, courting just outside the upstairs guest bedroom. If you then venture out onto the stylish, cantilevered Truman Porch—named after the brassy 33rd President who commissioned a similar, though much grander, porch to be built on the south portico of the White House […]
Hiking takes you into places wild animals call home. You’re the guest; they’re the residents. It’s up to you to learn how to enjoy spending time on their home turf without doing any damage. Statistically speaking, your chances of even seeing a bear are slim; the odds you’ll be involved in an unpleasant encounter are slimmer still.
But if you do encounter a bear, not knowing how to respond and behave could turn a dream day in the woods into […]
by Linda Masterson, author of Surviving Wildfire
“Thank God you got out alive. Everything else is just stuff that can be replaced.” People mean well, but you may make survivors feel guilty about mourning personal treasures that truly can never be replaced. And since more than half of all homeowners are underinsured, many people will not be able to replace their home and all that stuff. The loss of your home is like a […]
Most of us in most places hardly ever give a moment’s thought to electricity. At least not most of the time. We don’t wonder how many pounds of coal has to be fed into the glowing maw of a distant power plant to bake a pizza in an electric oven, or how many grams of enriched uranium has to decay radioactively each year in order to keep poultry and pomegranates cold and fresh in a deluxe refrigerator. Why should we? […]
