In the Garden (and Orchard, and Vineyard) – Page 2

How To Vampire-proof Your Home (aka The Garlic Harvest)

July 16, 2014 20 Comments

For as much as I cook things that include copious amounts of garlic, oddly, it never occurred to me that I could plant and harvest

Gardening & Following Through

June 15, 2014 23 Comments

I am, as predicted, dirty and sore and tired and a little sunburnt and, honestly, do you want to know how I feel? Holy-effing-amazing. AMAZING.

Gains & Losses

June 3, 2014 13 Comments

I went in to my “vacation” week just barely holding on to all of the details of my life … all of the details– sleep,

Beer & Building with Friends

April 28, 2014 11 Comments

Listen, logically you might think mixing alcohol and power tools is a bad idea… and, well, you would probably be right. But you know what

Plowing & Planting

April 10, 2014 20 Comments

It only took two years of living on the farm for me to recognize that there’s a very fine line between holy-effing-freezing and holy-shit-my-garden-should-have-been-planted-already. As

End of the Garden 2013: Planning for Next Year

November 20, 2013 26 Comments

Over the weekend I finally got around to cleaning out all of those raised beds I built and grew an overwhelming amount of tomatoes in

End of the Garden 2013: Holy Tomato

November 5, 2013 12 Comments

A few weeks ago when my mom and I were drinking bottles of wine ah, working on the pasture fence, we got the bright idea

Garden Progress: The “Really? That’s it?” Edition

June 17, 2013 18 Comments

Saying that I’ve got a calm and understanding temper might be overstating it a bit, but I’d like to think that after a decade of

Considering Chickens

February 22, 2013 45 Comments

If Jane Austen wrote a book about me: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single girl in possession of a small farm must

Taming The Jungle (Or the Back Field)

April 25, 2012 10 Comments

You know that phrase generally used after eating three pounds of pumpkin ravioli with a handful of buttered rolls and then washing it down with

A City Girl Plans a Garden

April 25, 2011 9 Comments

I haven’t had a ton of success with my previous gardening attempts, despite the fact that I come from a long line of women who

I'm not interested in a mediocre life. I'm here to kick ass or die.

(formerly DIYdiva.net)

THE STORYTELLER

Back in 2004 I started writing about my adventures in fixing up houses on the internet. A lot of things have changed since then, with me, with my houses, and with the internet. These days I am basically a cranky old man trapped in a slightly less old woman’s body. The internet has changed and I am staunchly refusing to change with it. You won’t find any algorithms here, or feeds, or ads, or social media. Just good old-fashioned stories about a woman drinking beer and building shit, and living an unexpected life.

(While you won’t find updates on social media, you can sign up to receive new posts via email here.)