Rusty Ring

( Malus fusca . Native to the North Coast, in my home county it's a common understory tree, flourishing on the margins and in clear...

(As a warm-up for building myself a new radio, I put this together. It's for securing a printed circuit board while solder...

( Pieris japonica, known here as popcorn bush, is a popular landscaping shrub on the North Pacific Coast. Native to the same latit...

(I've posted about my monk stick before, but there's no denying it has a very "rural" vibe. Ideal for forest and ...

(I've never been a stain guy. I don't know why; boatbuilders just tend to prefer oil or varnish. If we deny ourselves the na...

(Last month I knocked this together, my opening salvo in a bid to carve out a modest workshop in my mom's tiny, cluttered gar...

(After ten years fighting off my ham radio addiction, I recently dug out my old station and set it up again. This is my classic brass s...

(A hemlock recently fell across the trail and was cleared by someone with a chainsaw. Seeing the sections on the shoulder I felt a dist...

(Some of this information originally appeared in my book, The Neighborhood Forager , Chelsea Green, 2000) The neck of the woods where...

(I recently reckoned I've built at least seven of these over my lifetime – possibly more. All made from scrap that would have been...

So I'm doodling around on the Enlightenment Superpath, and I surf into Arvesund , a Swedish company that makes prefab outbuildings....

(I built this toy gun when I was in Grade 2, nearly 50 years ago. Only a Scottish kid arms himself with a flintlock.)

You know when you're researching a blog article and then you run across something entirely unrelated thanks to Google's arcane se...

I was about nine when my dad took me to visit a friend who was building a large wooden steamboat. It was all framed in, and really impress...

Thoreau's cabin at Walden My decision to live in a tiny tent during my 100 Days on the Mountain , rather than more comfortable ...

Here's some breaking news on subjects I've broached in the past, of no particular internal relevance and in no particular order. F...

I had a lot of fun building this structure, which is about a foot and a half long by a little less wide. It encloses an electrica...

This is an ancestor gong I made from an old saw blade I found in my grandfather's shop. Each time you ring it, it sings gratitude...

(I mentioned this stuff last time , and since it's a handy thing to have around, here are the particulars for anyone who'd l...