Category: Life

Boundary Waters Canoe Area

I was able to go camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) for a week-long camping trip before heading back to school. The last time I had g... Read more

Wabasha, Minnesota

In what is turning into an annual June trip, we took a trip to visit friends in Minnesota this year. It was a shorter trip - just a long weekend - ... Read more

Jo the Dog

After two weeks of not eating consistently and losing weight, we decided to have our dog, Jo, put down. *** We got Jo in the summer of 2014 when ou... Read more

The Week That Was

Last week wrecked me. Nothing in particular was bad, but the whole thing just felt bad overall. I 'm finally feeling like I'm back on track with sc... Read more

January Movie Binge

Something came over me this weekend and I decided to watch a bunch of movies. We had a long weekend for the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday, so Frid... Read more

Wrapping My 2024 Goals

2024 is nearly finished and one of my last things to do is think over my goals for this year. One year ago, I wrote down some things I was hoping t... Read more

Look to the Floor

Every break, we decide to tackle some home improvement projects. This week, we decided to finish putting drywall in the basement. We've been half d... Read more

Chicken Weekend, 2024

Warning: this post is about raising and processing (ie, butchering) chickens. There are no graphic details, but it does recognize that meat comes f... Read more

It Finally Feels Autumnish

I'm not sure "autumnish" is a word, or if it is a word, if it is spelled correctly, but I do what I want here. After an absurdly hot first three-qu... Read more

Things To Do

We had our first rainy day in several weeks today. As such, our kids were a little on the bored side and needed some help from me on what they coul... Read more

Goals Check In

We're about halfway through 2024 and I haven't blogged in a while, so here's a simple check in on the goals I set at the start of the year, particu... Read more

Fifteen Years

We celebrated our 15th anniversary this weekend. The kids got to stay with their grandparents for two nights so Lindsey and I could have a quiet we... Read more

Spring Mists

This is the time of year when the mist settles into the folds of the back pasture. The sun hasn't come up enough to burn it off and the woods and w... Read more

The Owl is Back

We have a barred owl who summers in the woods near our house. I'm not sure where he goes in the winter, but he was back this morning. His distinct ... Read more

We Saw the Eclipse

I don't really have words to express the feeling of seeing a total solar eclipse yesterday. I knew that I wanted to go after not being able to see ... Read more

Impossibly Blue

It is a dreary gray day today. Tomorrow promises to be better - spring is definitely coming. I was scrolling old photos and forgot that I took this... Read more

Tinnitus, part 2

Last month, I gave myself a diagnosis of tinnitus. My ears have a strong persistent ring that has started to work its way into my day to day experi... Read more

Slow Going

I've learned to focus on slowing this down rather than fighting to accelerate all the time. It comes from living away from places. It comes from ta... Read more

Winter Longing

January is at an end and I'm longing for more sunlight. The days are definitely longer, but they're still too short to really have appreciable time... Read more

Tinnitus

I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I have a persistent case of tinnitus. Mine is a constant high-pitched ring in both ears that comes and goe... Read more

New Year, New Goals

What better way to start 2024 than with a blog post. I finished 2023 with 86 blog posts which is far more than I've written in several years. I was... Read more

Podcasts are in my Past

I saw some cool stuff about AntennaPod offering a year-end summary generated from listening stats. Even cooler, it's all done locally on the phone ... Read more

Music Battle

My wife and I have vastly different preferences for casual listening music. We don't disagree on everything, but I tend to listen to early-mid 2000... Read more

The Postal Service

There are very few bands that leave significant lasting impressions on me. I'm kind of picky and I have specific tastes, so I don't explore new mus... Read more

Working for Our Food

Today was one of our Work Days on the farm. We have work days all the time, but this day each year is when we all - the whole family - come togethe... Read more

I Ripped Stats Out Of My Blog

Earlier this summer, I took a shot at installing awstats on my server because I'm always up for a good data explore. It took a little trickery beca... Read more

The First Week

I just finished my first week back teaching after moving into professional development and staff support in 2017. I was nervous and feeling concern... Read more

Back to the Lab

Today is my last day with my current school district. A little over eight years ago, I started mid-year, taking over a class that had been taught b... Read more

We Took a Trip

I wanted to write up a beautful travel journal with a custom post theme and write prose like Wendell Berry about our vacation this month. But then ... Read more

Breaks

The broken things in life are continuing to assault my weekends. Our washing machine had a mysterious leak which I finally identified. (No, it wasn... Read more

The Endless Benefit of Learning to Fix Things

I can honestly say, without a doubt, that learning how to fix things is one of the best skills and habits I've developed. In the moment, when somet... Read more

Small Community is Good Community

Community is on my mind today and I think it's because of three different, but related, experiences I've had in the last couple of days. I'm readin... Read more

Back to Nova Launcher

Last summer, I moved my phone to KISS Launcher. I use search across the board on my computer and I thought having the same toolset on my phone woul... Read more

Goodbye Twitter

My time on Twitter has come to an end. It's been 12 years since I joined and this is - honestly - a sad decision for me. When I created my account ... Read more

Dune Hikes

In September, it was my family's turn to battle COVID-19. We're not sure who brought it home first, but it hit me first. Hard. Not as hard as a lot... Read more

Get in touch

Comments are always open. You can get in touch by sending me an email at brian@ohheybrian.com