Like a lot of you, in the early months of the pandemic, I got chicks. Three little puff balls from the feed store, one black, one white, one reddish. For a time, they lived in a big cardboard box, with a heat lamp to keep […]

Editor’s Note: This piece by Maddy Butcher was originally published in the Washington Post. Here it is, but without the many links to research, statistics, and references. Sorry ’bout that! By Maddy Butcher Tina is smart and, sometimes, I’d swear she can read my mind. […]

Editor’s Note: This is an unedited version of a piece written about horse slaughter, animal rights activists, and rural, agrarian life. An edited and alternate version was published in the Washington Post. Thwarted by a paywall? Read it here.  M.B.  Maddy Butcher writes: They meant […]

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece was originally published in the Washington Post and is republished here. I am throwing in some pretty random pics. Sorry – no provocative images here!  It’s dedicated to Barry, pictured first, a horse I lost last year and still miss […]

Editor’s Note: This piece was published in the Washington Post. But here it is for those of us hitting the paywall. By Maddy Butcher Who gets to use the trails on this country’s public land? And how should they do it? The latest debate is […]

Editor’s Note: This essay in an alternative to a piece written by Maddy Butcher in the Washington Post. In the video, a mountain biker confronts a man riding an adaptive e-bike, berating him for being on the trail, and telling him he’s not allowed. In […]

Editor’s Note: This is a free, paywall-avoidant version of the Washington Post opinion piece that Maddy Butcher wrote recently. Read the WaPo piece. In “The Homesman,” a 2014 movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank, three traumatized pioneer women are transported back East to […]