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The Life of Riley

Episode 2

Cobblestones (test pilot #2)

Jim recruits Harmon and Oz to cobble together a plan for a long overdue project.

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The Life of Riley

Cobblestones-Full Episode Apr 18, 2016

Trailers / Free Content

Episode 1

Country Scholars - Etiquette

Young scholars visit Riley's Farm and learn a few things about 18th century etiquette.

Trailers / Free Content

Ep 1 - Country Scholars Feb 6, 2016

Trailers / Free Content

Episode

Fall Afternoon with Jim Tavaré & The Bost Family Traditions

It's a foot stompin' good time when Jim Riley is joined at the Old Wilshire packing shed by British actor, comedian and Courage cast member Jim Tavaré, his wife Laura and the Bost Family Traditions bluegrass band.

Trailers / Free Content

Fall Afternoon - Tavaré Oct 1, 2015

Tavern Talk

Episode 6

Richard Hanna - Part 2

In part 2, Mr. Hanna talks with Jim more about his service in World War II, whether we should have dropped the bomb, his postwar days as a tommy gun-toting adventurer and the current threats to American freedom.

Tavern Talk

Richard Hanna - Part 2 Aug 25, 2015

Tavern Talk

Episode 6

Richard Hanna - Part 1

World War II veteran and longtime friend Richard Hanna drops by the Hawk's Head Tavern to talk with Jim about growing up during the Great Depression and his service in the war.

Tavern Talk

Richard Hanna - Part 1 Aug 5, 2015

2012 Production

The year 2012, for me, if all goes well, will be something like the year 1771 for Silas Rhodes and his trusty band of freedom fighters.   For those of you who know how cranky and dismissive I am about most modern media, I guess I have a surprising admission to make:  there’s a lot […]

Slow it Down There, Mate

A Quick Look at “America, the Story of Us” During that strange break in the Christmas season when you pretty much know that no one is returning phone calls, or email, and everyone has reconciled themselves to picking black olives out of the appetizer trays and coasting their way towards the celebration, we fired up “America, […]

Merry Christmas

The other night we tooled around Riverside’s Mission Inn for a dose of Christmas lights and Christmas Crowd and Christmas feasting.   Fortunately, the new Air Jordan was not on sale anywhere nearby, so we had a relatively safe evening.    I say “relatively safe,” because there’s something about shepherding 25-30 people (friends and friends’ […]

Courage, New Hampshire – The Major Events of 1771

The year 1771 broke upon New Hampshire with international rumors of a possible war with Spain and her ally, France, over the Falkland Islands.   The British army and navy continued to have trouble with desertion and 40 shilling rewards were being posted for the return of British sailors to their ships.   Governor Wentworth began cracking […]

It’s a Hot Day — Don’t Drink the Water!

Editor’s Note: perhaps a student of medicine might tell us what was happening in the late New England summer of 1771.   We’re thinking the water is getting a bum rap. Re-printed from the New Hampshire Gazette August 16, 1771 Boston, August 8, 1771:  The extreme heat has continued longer this season than has ever […]

The Devil Went Down to Paris

Re-printed from the New Hampshire Gazette, August 2, 1771 The following odd, but true circumstance happened a few weeks ago at Paris.. Two gentlemen going to a masquerade, went to a place where habits are hired, in order to dress themselves; accordingly, one of them took it into his head to be dressed in resemblance […]

Colony News August 9, 1771

Re-printed from the New Hampshire Gazette, August 9, 1771 Those Pesky Frontiersmen The War against the Regulators (rebels) of North Carolina, and the disputes between Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and Connecticut Men on the frontier, prompted one Philadelphia writer to observe this about the people of frontier Colonial America: “..it is our opinion of folks in […]

Coaching A Little Sympathy

Did I Mention the Mail?  And the Newspapers? And the Snow?   And how little profit I make on the Deal? You have to love John Stavers, the keeper of the Earl of Halifax tavern in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.   For many years, if his advertisement (below) is to be believed, he maintained a stage […]

Putrid Fever Takes 150 in One Town

Re-printed from the New Hampshire Gazette, July 12, 1771 Duxboro’, July 5, 1771:  A very malignant putrid fever has, for some time past, much prevailed in this town;  about 150 persons, chiefly children, having had it in the course of a few months; to a considerable proportion of whom it has proved fatal.  More especially […]