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Marty’s photo of the day #4614: At the beginning of July and at the end of December, one of my chores is to totally clean and sanitize the two snake vivariums (I spot clean as needed the rest of the time). This is a five-hour process that turns into a workout, as I end up […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4613: My Christmas weekend so far: Deb (wife), Nellie (dog), and I live on a private gravel road in the mountains of Montana. We have three neighbors above us, and the climb to our houses on that road is steep and often icy in the winter. Our two newest neighbors […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4611: Earlier this week, Deb, Nellie, and I watched “The Book Club: The Next Chapter” (where the characters travel to Italy). The movie was good, but not great. Mostly Deb and I would take turns blurting out, “We were there!” and Nellie would bark out, “Where are the dogs?” So […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4610: Seven-and-a-half weeks have passed since Nellie got her new bionic left-rear leg (TPLO surgery to remove a ligament, reshape/refit the bone, and install a metal plate with 6 screws). Nellie’s recovery is coming along on schedule. She doesn’t limp anymore when outside, but still limps sometimes inside—especially after a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4609: Once Christians can set aside Jesus’s disdain for money as depicted in the Bible, the rest is easy to accept: The enormously wealthy Catholic Church declaring individual bankruptcies to avoid paying court-ordered penalties for child sexual abuse, mega churches and televangelists shoveling in the money while virtually ignoring the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4608: A few years ago I publicly asserted that over 1 million children have been sexually molested in Christian churches. While I doubt I’m the first to make that claim, two things have surprised me: The first is that I haven’t seen the media ever make such a claim. The […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4607: At this time of year, I often think about my born-again Christian father and the arguments we used to have. He was the kind of Christian that believed the Bible was the literal word of his god. That, of course, meant that the Bible had to be either written […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4606: ’Tis the week before Christmas, and as has become my tradition, I’m going to dig out some of my photos from all over the world, showing the wealth and power of Christian churches, along with the hypocrisy they bring. But please, don’t blame me. I’m only stating inconvenient facts. […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4605: Six-and-a-half weeks have passed since Nellie got her new bionic left-rear leg (CCL removed, knee refitted, and a metal plate with six screws installed). Deb and I have one more week of sleeping with her on the pullout couch mattress placed on the great room floor before moving up […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4604: It’s hard to believe that five years have gone by since Deb and I saw Within Temptation in Italy. Their latest album is awesome, and they remain one of the best live bands in the world. And (hint, hint) if my wife would like to go to the Netherlands […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4603: This is the Jago River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It took Deb and me five days to canoe down it and about 30 minutes to fly back over it. For more on this, see my second book, book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4601: Here’s an old photo I would never post in the summer, because too many of my Bitterroot Valley Montana friends would freak out, thinking the fires were here again. This is the fire of 2000, which at the time was the #1 priority fire in America. Deb’s and my […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4600: Here’s an old photo, taken with a cheap film camera, of my wife, Deb, standing alone on a beach in Kauai, with huge waves crashing in. I was able to clean the shot up a bit in my photo program, including removing an object that made her look like […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4599: A rotting bridge in the Costa Rican rainforest, no longer useful for travel, but quite nice for photography.
Marty’s photo of the day #4598: Most people love owls without really thinking about why they do so. One of the reasons for that is because owls have faces that express emotions much like human faces do. I photographed this long-eared owl many years ago, while spending a day in northern Montana catching and banding […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4597: During the rainy season, in the Amazon Rainforest, much—but not all—of the land floods. In this photo, my wife, Deb, is paddling her dugout through a portion of the forest where we had walked when we were there during the dry season. And the water varied between three and […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4596: Deb and I traveled to Vancouver Island this past September only because extreme forest fires blocked our original trip to the very top of Canada. Partway through our Vancouver Island trip, I was still saying, “Since this will be the only time we’ll be here,” but by the time […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4595: My dad, Paul W. Essen, died twelve years ago this week. As anyone who has read my book Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer knows, my father was a born again Christian to the extreme. In fact, he even believed his god wanted him […]
