Waiting for Coyote's Call

In his 1915 poem, “After Apple Picking,” Robert Frost describes the troubled dreams of one who has passed a long day on a ladder amidst apple boughs, harvesting a bumper crop of fruit:“I have had too muchOf apple-picking: I am overtiredOf the great harvest I myself desired.”

It’s been a busy summer. Prairie management, gardening, county commissioner duties, writing, and helping our son and daughter-in-law remodel their house have left little time for recreation. That’s why ...

Norma and I have spent the last week in San Antonio, where the average afternoon temperature has hit at least 100 degrees in the shade. Obviously our timing is bad; the time for a South Dakotan to head south is January, not July. ...

Waiting for Coyote’s Call was an interesting eco-memoir (new genre for me!) written by Jerry Wilson detailing his homesteading experience on a bluff in southeastern South Dakota.

There’s something invigorating about watching corn grow. In hot, humid weather it seems to rise an inch a day. Musk thistles develop equally fast, cause for anxiety and alarm. Annual plants, from tomatoes ...

In last week’s blog, “Waiting for Rain,” I lamented what seemed an impending drought. I noted that with just 4.7 inches of precipitation in 2009, my neighbors and I were experiencing one of the driest springs on record. ...