It is the anniversary of something that happened 103 years ago today. It happened in a rail car in a forest not far from a line of deep trenches that ran from the North Sea to the mountains of Switzerland. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the […]

(Socotras, circa 1930) You can imagine the Writer’s Section at Socotra House is attentive to the day. Tomorrow is the celebration of the end of World War One, expanded to honor those who served in that conflict, and later, considering what followed, the service of many in the conflicts that transpired to date. And a […]

The mountain moving at Refuge Farm continues in a period of transition. The Writer’s Section worked on the Weather Report for this week, attempting to assess the aftermath of the climate crisis engagements at the G20 Meeting in Rome, and the COP26 UN deliberations which will not conclude until Friday. Dropping into the fray was […]

It might just be easier to call us the Ghost People. It seemed to fit this morning. Splash made the best of his Friday night, and accordingly saved his worst for us on Saturday morning. He apparently stopped for a brief rest last night against that nice solid pine tree on the way from the […]

It was the ostensible end of the week, not that there is an actual one and the remaining production issues at Socotra House had the attention of the Writer’s Section assembled on the Farm’s Loading Dock. The dawn was crisp and clear, and the smoke from Splash’s Marlboro whirled toward the trucks in the parking […]

(The Lady, Aun Saan Suu Kyi). I was minding my own business, part of the approach many of us at Refuge Farm have decided to take about the extraordinary developments on the American political scene. As a group, we are mostly retired. We are generally pleased with how our working lives were spent, although there […]

If I was a Republican, this would be a happy morning. The group down by the Fire Ring was charged up this morning. We sent a last unemotional update just as the polls closed on Election Day, recapping the way the day of voting went. This morning we followed our agreement to get our caffein […]

It was chill and gray and wet for Election Day here in Virginia. One of the new times and dates in our new electoral system is in a few minutes. That is 7:00PM, when the polls close. Which of course is subject to local variance- if you are in line at a polling station at […]

We looked at the somewhat bleary Writer’s Section this morning and gave up on attempting to do anything humorous about the coming weeks. It is Monday, at the moment, and appropriate to stay focused and outline some tips for Virginia voters in the election tomorrow. It is appropriate, since it has an outsized significance in […]

It was a family trip to San Diego. One of my sons, a 7th Fleet Sailor like me, was getting married to a lovely woman with a marvelous family on Point Loma, whose cliff are the last sight of America to tens of thousands of us who rode those proud ships. That is one reason […]