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roaddude.bsky.social
Road
@roaddude.bsky.social
560 followers 600 following 690 posts
Photog/Writer/Artist/Cook
Maine Coast

- Well versed in slow travel, off grid, & back country life
- Gardening Geek, Woodworker
- #TheMicrofarm
- #GetOutside
- I miss #Post

Wherever you go, whatever you do,
#LeaveItBetterThanYouFoundIt
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Road
acyn.bsky.social
AOC: I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.
January 13, 2026 at 1:20 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
I wish Charlynn from Post were here to discuss and share this with. She turned me on years ago to Rancho Gordo, their amazing heirloom bean varieties, and their long waitlist.

I miss Post every day.
ranchogordo.bsky.social Steve Sando and the Rancho Gordo staff @ranchogordo.bsky.social · 8d
I think it’s behind a paywall, but this is a really nice article. I had done a morning drive radio interview earlier that had put me in a foul mode. This sure made up for that! Thank you, Ben Cohen for intelligent questions and a great article.

www.wsj.com/business/ent...
There Are 29,000 People on a Waitlist for Beans—and It’s Not for the Fiber
The bean economy is booming. America’s bean king wants Rancho Gordo to be known for something other than the latest health fad.
www.wsj.com
January 10, 2026 at 4:52 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
This 4 part thread is why we grow as much of our own produce on #theMicrofarm as we can, w/focus on vegetables & protein foods good for long term storage, are easily frozen, or fermented. Dry beans, winter squash, sweet potatoes, root crops, cabbage, etc.

#GoodFood=GoodHealth
Harvested Nov 8:
Colorful Nov 8 2025 image of 2 rutabaga, tomatoes, carrots, and a large head of red cabbage just harvested, sitting on a wooden porch deck.
January 2, 2026 at 10:53 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Ok, everyone, what book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?

My personal “bible:”
Photo of the same vintage paperback cover of Jack Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD that I had decades ago, with bold sans serif letters in black over a deep orange sky and blazing orb sun.
January 2, 2026 at 4:19 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
To my bsky friends and #Post family – what a long, strange, year. I've missed connecting with you all and writing about #theMicrofarm and my wanderings.

My wish is that the New Year brings us all peace, comfort, and the warmth of knowing we will emerge from this madness with renewed strength.
View from a warm cozy lit windowsill with colorful vases and pots out into the early cold light of a blue snowy morning, Dec 24, 2025. The image is one of human-made comfort and warmth making the best of a long, cold, winter.
January 1, 2026 at 4:28 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
So what did Santa bring you?

Gift-giving here on #theMicrofarm will wait 'til the Grankiddo can be here, though the Kiddo said "Check your email, Dad. . . "

She bought tickets for us to see two of my singer-songwriter heroes, #LyleLovett and #JohnHiatt. She grew up listening to them. What a peach!
Image with portraits of Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, both singer songwriters, in classic portrait lighting and both holding guitars as if playing them. Lovett is in a black leather sport coat on a black background and Hiatt is in a dark teal sportcoat on a painterly teal background.
December 26, 2025 at 12:30 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
Goood morning and Merry Christmas!
Here's the view out back this morning at #theMicrofarm.
December 25, 2025 at 2:42 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Every once in a while I come upon a recipe that fits snugly into plans for creative ways to cook the food we grow in #theMicrofarm gardens.

Here's a good one for both home & camp cooking. It's likely to become a holiday tradition for us, along w/Hopping John, Collards & Cornbread Dumplings. . . 1/
Image of person in doorway from shoulders down, in green sweatshirt and orange jeans and colorful striped socks, holding a huge bunch of freshly-pulled garden carrots (Nantes) under one arm with carrots pointing forward and large bunch of lush green tops sticking out the back. Recipe description for baked carrots: - Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6 - Peel 800g of carrots; leave them whole if small, chopping any larger ones up - Get yourself a sheet of tinfoil abut 60cm long, fold it in half to make a crease and then open it out again - Pile your carrots in the middle of the foil on one side of the crease - Finely slice 1 rasher of smoked streaky bacon, preferably free-range or organic - Pick the leaves off 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary and finely chop - Peel 1 clove f garlic and finely slice - Scatter the bacon, rosemary and garlic over the carrots - Grate over the zest of 1/2 an orange, and add 1 teaspoon marmalade, 2 knobs of butter and a pinch of salt & pepper - Fold the other half of the foil over the carrots and scrunch and seal the two sides of the foil bag together, leaving one end open - Halve the orange and squeeze all the juice into the bag - Seal up the final side - Place your foil bag on a baking tray in the preheated oven for around 50 minutes - To serve, carefully pour the carrots and all their juices into a nice big serving dish.
December 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
❄️🎄Wishing all my friends, old and new, a warm and wonderful holiday from #theMicrofarm. ⛄️❄️
December 24, 2025 at 3:46 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Aww man. In a week of tragedy, crushing on its own, a man I damned near revered for his peripatetic ways & ability to capture in song my mood & vision, Joe Ely, has died.

I followed him since the early 80s, saw him in Carlsbad CA, & will miss him.

Listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG-e...

Read:
Joe Ely, Progressive Texas Country Legend Who Toured With the Clash, Dead at 78
Joe Ely, the Texas singer, songwriter, and member of the Flatlanders, who influenced the Clash and Bruce Springsteen, has died at 78.
www.rollingstone.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:44 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
Heh.
tracesoftexas.bsky.social Traces of Texas @tracesoftexas.bsky.social · Dec 12
How I knew I was in Texas.
December 12, 2025 at 8:36 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
One of my favorite night sky images, shot in the Chihuahuan Desert. This is a single frame image, no stacking or double exposure, all done in camera and on-site.

Those are 12-14' tall Giant Spanish Dagger Yuccas, side lit by a semi-tractor as it turned a bend.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekNforNights
Night sky shot of the Milky Way and its galactic center with planet Jupiter, arching over giant 12-14' tall Spanish Dagger Yuccas, lit from the side, in the Chihuahuan Desert. © 2019 roaddude.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:12 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
Prepping #theMicrofarm 's 3 tall raised garden beds for cold weather. I bent & installed 1/2" EMT conduit in 1/2 hoops to support UV resistant greenhouse cover. Inside that will be last year's red Pex hoops supporting IRAD greenhouse cover, creating double-walled protection. 1/

#SanityGarden
Photo of a long, angled, view of three tall, 12' long, raised garden beds with new conduit semi-circular hoops installed, ready for UV-resistant greenhouse cover. Along the rails of the closest tall bed is an assortment of colorful red, yellow, and green vegetables just harvested and sitting in morning sun. To the left are three low raised garden beds supporting a tall walk-through arch of cattle panel fencing.
September 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Have I told you how much I love our vegetable garden?

I've started 2nd plantings of rutabaga, red and golden beets, beans, cabbage, and 3 types cukes. Time to get new metal hoops made and cover 'em up before first freeze.

Collards, tomatoes, & peppers all still strong.

#theMicrofarm #SanityGarden
photo of a row of colorful just-picked vegetables resting on the flat top board around the edge of a tall raised garden bed. It includes a few types of tomatoes, delicata and carnival winter squash, patty pan summer squash, and several peppers of various types. In the foreground are several 2nd crop rutabaga tops growing in the raised bed and a red-handled pair of garden snips. In the background are two lower raised garden beds full of marigolds red and yellow and tomato plants.
September 17, 2025 at 12:55 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
Happy PTSDay!

This is the coolest thing I've seen all year.
I first learned of the Pythagorean Theorem in grade school geometry, then again from gramps, though put it into practice in my teen years as carpenter's apprentice. Perfect for making sure you have square corners.

Only time this century.
On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty
Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.
www.npr.org
September 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Man, oh man, this pulls at my heart:

"I felt a surge of disappointment. I had to make things good, make them special. You never demanded this of me but I felt it like an internal clock, memory ticking like a metronome."

Daughter, violin, goodbyes, long road trips & sudden discovery, all the same.
sarahkendzior.bsky.social Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · Sep 13
New article! A lot happened this week, so I wrote about how Antonin Dvorak wrote his greatest works in Spillville, Iowa in the summer of 1893.

And about saying goodbye: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/dvorak-liv...
Dvorak Lived in Iowa
And you once lived with me.
sarahkendzior.substack.com
September 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?

Uhh, we're not sure but have mixed feelings about finding out...
Handsome, playful and goofy black & white dog stands with his front paws on the edge of a black coffee table, on which is an all black cat sitting on his haunches, his front paws out in front. Both dog and cat are looking straight at the viewer as if their mock battle was interrupted unexpectedly. – iPhone photo, 25/0901
September 2, 2025 at 1:00 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Morning Ritual

These two weren't expecting me, evidently. An every morning ritual, the cat bats the dog about the head with both paws in rapid fashion & the dog bobs and weaves, lunging in with nips and nibbles. A chase then generally ensues, sliding and skittering across old floors.

#theMicrofarm
Handsome, playful and goofy black & white dog stands with his front paws on the edge of a black coffee table, on which is an all black cat sitting on his haunches, his front paws out in front. Both dog and cat are looking straight at the viewer as if their mock battle was interrupted unexpectedly.
September 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Going Vertical

Dusk in the #SanityGarden at #theMicrfarm with L-M-R views of the walk-through arched trellis that goes back about 20 feet. Going vertical with even sweet potato vines (far L in 1st image) helps me maximize what little footprint we have. Huge success.

When all the squash & tomato...
Photo of 3/4 view from left, at dusk, of short raised garden beds made of redwood-stained lumber and corrugated roofing metal with arched wire trellises, lush green climbing vegetable vines, and a double row of solar-powered LED lights attached along the top of the arched trellis. Photo of straight-on view, at dusk, ng down between two short raised garden beds made of redwood-stained lumber and corrugated roofing metal with arched wire trellises, lush green climbing vegetable vines, and a double row of solar-powered LED lights attached along the top of the arched trellis. The left raised bed looks slightly higher because the ground slopes up to the left. Photo of 3/4 view from right, at dusk, of short raised garden beds made of redwood-stained lumber and corrugated roofing metal with tall arched wire trellises, lush green climbing vegetable vines, multiple clusters of Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, hanging planters with nasturtiums, and a double row of solar-powered LED lights attached along the top of the arched trellis. In the lower right corner of the image is a black and white canine looking back to his left.
August 27, 2025 at 11:12 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
WAITING FOR JACK
Vermont Cranberry Dry Beans. . . anyone ever try them?

Though I planted these late as a fall crop & don't know if they'll mature before hard frost, I'm excited to have them in the #SanityGarden here on #theMicrofarm.

Strong & vigorous, they emerged two days after planting... 1/
The cotyledon from Maine co-op Fedco Seed's Vermont Cranberry Dry Bean sprout rises from dry grass mulch, reaching for the sky, strong and proud. Planted 8/15, emerged just two days later (!), I have hopes it and it's several fellow seedlings will mature before hard frost. This is an old New England staple, and though edible before dry by cooking via typical "green bean" methods, is usually harvested when the bean husk is thoroughly dry on the vine. It shells *very* easily, providing an abundance of wholesome speckled dry beans to use throughout the winter and to use for replanting come spring. Buy once, reap the harvest forever. Chock full of protein and great for the diet, strong and vigorous to grow, I'm tickled as hell to be growing these beans for my family and neighbors.
August 25, 2025 at 1:48 AM
roaddude.bsky.social
A Girl & Her Carrots

She sure loves her carrots and comes in with a huge wide smile wit bunches like this. These are Scarlet Nantes – very sweet when pulled at the right time.

She's a peas & carrots girl, for sure ad simply adores growing both.

#theMicrofarm #SanityGarden #Maine
Image of a woman from shoulders down, in green and orange, standing in an open doorway, arm around a huge bunch of freshly pulled bright orange carrots with even brighter lush bunch of greens sticking out the back.
August 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
From #theMicrofarm #SanityGarden.
5 jars of fermented goodness.

L>R: 1qt Beets w/carrot, garlic, & dill; 1qt Sweet Sauerkraut w/cabbage, carrot, & garlic; 3qt jar of Half-Sour Pickles, Brooklyn Deli-Style; 1qt of straight sauerkraut; 1qt of Half-Sour Pickles.

All from the garden!
#GetOutside
Five jars of colorful fermented vegetables on a wrought iron table with a rose pattern. From L to R: 1 qt of cubed Beets with grated carrot, garlic, and dill; 1 qt of Sweet Sauerkraut with cabbage, grated carrot, and garlic; 3qt jar with bail lid full of Half-Sour Pickles, Brooklyn Deli-Style; 1 qt of straight sauerkraut, 1 qt of Half-Sour Pickles. In the background are weather cedar shake shingles and a porch railing.
August 19, 2025 at 8:57 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
#GetOutside
#LeaveItBetterThanYouFoundIt
A bright red watering can with rectangular decal that says "The Only Monarchs We Need" over an image of a Monarch Butterfly. In the background are a variety of perennials, yellow, white, crimson, and purple.
August 12, 2025 at 10:50 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
Yep, this is good, especially these days.
August 11, 2025 at 9:02 PM
roaddude.bsky.social
And. . .CABBAGE!
First year: not too shabby.

I can hardly wait to make my own slaws & sauerkraut. I adore good sauerkraut. I have red cabbage growing, too, and am putting in another bunch of green cabbage to see if I make it before hard frost.

#theMicrofarm #GetOutside
#LeaveItBetterThanYouFoundIt
Five heads of homegrown cabbage of the Primo variety resting on a wooden planked porch, having just been rinsed.
August 11, 2025 at 8:20 PM