Blog posts by Peter DeHaan, many of which are in his book Woodpecker Wars.
Years ago my son Dan was on spring break from college and challenged me to a game of chess. Although I hadn’t played in several years, I readily accepted. It had been a while for Dan, too, so I figured we would be equally rusty. After making a series of errors in the first game, […]
When my daughter was in college, there were all manner of dorm rules and restrictions. Some made sense (such as “no candles or open flames”), while others were quizzically arbitrary (as in “all Christmas decorations must be down before you check out for Christmas break”). I’m not sure if my daughter found a loophole or […]
Traditionally, the new year is a time when many people resolve to make changes in their life. Making New Year’s resolutions, however, is a practice that I tend to avoid. It seems arbitrary and contrived to target January first. After all, if a change is warranted or desired, why wait? Set about it immediately, be […]
Consider How You Ring in the New Year It is hard for me to imagine, but this year, which seems like it just started, has come to an end. Did you stay up late to celebrate and have a happy new year? The practice of staying up late to greet the New Year has always seemed […]
I’m thankful for family, friends, and faith. I’m thankful for food, clothing, and shelter. Everything else is a bonus—and I’m thankful for that too! May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I dream in black and white. I’ve always assumed this was because I grew up watching black and white TV. Occasionally my black and white dream contains one item in color—a more recent cinematic effect that my dreaming has likely emulated. A couple of times an entire dream scene is blasted with vibrant, blinding color. It […]
Fall means that I won’t likely be watering the lawn anymore for the rest of the season and that mowing will occur much less often. So you think that I would look forward to fall because it means a lot less yard work. While this is true, there is one thing that I dislike about fall—the […]
Years ago, on a Saturday, my lawn was again in need of liquid sustenance and I was in watering mode, repositioning sprinklers in half-hour increments. During one mid-morning trek, there were two birds on my deck railing. I walked by them slowly, wondering how close I could get before they flew off in fear. They […]
I remember, years ago, I used to like woodpeckers, admiring their colorful beauty and stately appearance, being amazed at their peculiar characteristic of using their beak as a drilling tool to find food or make a shelter. However, when I learned that woodpeckers had taken an interest in my neighbor’s house, I immediately checked mine. […]
I have had a lifelong affection with words. An avid reader of fiction as a child and teenager gave way to becoming a student of nonfiction as an adult. Along with that goes forty years of random writing experience and two decades as a magazine publisher. It should come as little surprise then, that I […]