Welcome

“I once described myself as looking like Robert Redford would look if he looked like me. Well, Bobby and I both have gotten much older and while I can’t promise to be cute anymore I can promise that this little electronic hangout will offer you a few minutes that will be interesting, funny, educational or aggravating, sometimes all at once.

Come back often—it’ll change frequently.

For 60 years I’ve been batting the keys of various writing machines, turning out news, fiction and humor about the outdoors and the indoors. I’ve published seven books and one book-on-tape. The ones still in print are for sale here. I put up universally-acclaimed tomato salsa every year, but it’s not for sale. Talk nice and I might give you some.

Read the blog page to get mad, sad, happy—anything but bored. The photos are ones I like out of thousands of images I’ve taken all over the country. Marty, my wife of 54 years, and I have five children, eight dogs (at last count), four canoes/kayaks, a bunch of shotguns, guitars, mandolins and banjos, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Join us for a while…”

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Welcome

Digging History

  HUNTING FOR YESTERDAY By Joel M. Vance   I was crouched in the lea of a western Kansas cut bank, a bitter November wind slicing overhead, gratefully dipping my spoon in a bowl of Hearty Hodgepodge with steam rising from the dish, spreading the succulent aroma of the food, along with miniscule but welcome [...]

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Becoming Old Rusty

  By Joel M. Vance A dusty gravel road in rural Missouri in the 1940s.  I am 10 years old, learning to ...

County Fair

  COUNTY FAIR By Joel M. Vance My home, Missouri, has 114 counties and on any week during July there will be a ...