Little Journeys

Overbeck Pottery: One Talented Family

  Sometimes the most fascinating little journeys don’t even require a plane ticket or a set of car keys. I took one this morning that didn’t even require me getting out of my chair or closing my laptop. I have been working most mornings…

When In Doubt, Add a Corbel

  Rest assured, this will be my final column on our deck roof, Leigh Ann’s three new flower gardens, and the granite flagstone path we added to front of our 1972 ranch house. In truth, I thought our project was done last week when I…

Fitzgerald and Friends

  One of the serendipitous discoveries I made thirty-some years ago, when I was writing my first book on the 1913 Grove Park Inn, was that author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his schizophrenic wife Zelda had stayed at the Arts and Crafts resort…

12 Tips for DIY Roof Building

  As you may recall from an earlier column, once I had completed the excavation and preparation of the new planting beds in front of our house, I turned the plant selection over to Leigh Ann and got out of her way. I turned my attention…

Summer Routes and Family Roots

  Growing up on the Illinois prairie with countless other Johnsons and numerous Olsons, Petersons, Andersons, and Swansons, I was familiar with the tragic story of Bishop Hill, a religious commune established in 1846 on 700 acres of land…

Furniture Finds and Topsoil Troubles

  If you ever experience one of those uncomfortable lulls in a party conversation, just bring up either of these two topics and everyone will start talking: flying incidents and moving experiences.   When I moved from Iowa to Durham,…

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