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   September has always been a harbinger of change for me.   From season to season, from vacation to school, from bachelorhood into married life.  Now I find myself three weeks at least from my last entry and thinking about change once one.  I've tried to start this blog four, five or seventeen times now because this is a hard post for me to write

    Because I got a lot on my mind...and I'm not sure who my audience is.  Any one that writes needs an audience.  Are they people interested in country and rural life?  It's not really a homestead blog, nor is a food and recipe blog even though I've covered all that in the past.  Although I've played around with the idea of making it a "learn to cook" blog.

    If only I had people that would not mind eating my "weird" creations.  It's one of  the reasons I concentrate on cheese.  Most people like cheese.

    So a cooking blog is out.

    Or is it about my health journey?  I got some blood work back and it appears that my move to a plant based diet and some other small changes have helped me not only lose about 15 pounds but kept my A1C at 5.8.  I am still a borderline Diabetic but my blood sugar is under control.  My last A1C test was closer to the diabetic range.  My Doc sees no reason for me to add any additional medications, so I am thankful for that.

    Nor do I want to make it all about me and try to keep it non - political.   Although my very nature makes that hard.   If I want to write about things like global warming or homesteading or self sufficiency, I am wading into political waters.  

    For example, we try to keep at least 1 day of the week, meatless.   This started as a way to maintain my blood pressure and cholesterol, although having grown up in a family where heart disease is an issue on both sides, I'm always been aware of some benefits of diet...I just never recognized the environmental benefits.  


    Of course now I'm getting political.  I'm not giving up meat or poultry by any means, however we have to accept that the old ways of doing things simply are not working anymore.  Global warming in particular is a major concern because we Americans are simply not prepared for what lies ahead.  To put it mildly, if we don't get serious about it then frankly it's only going to get worse...and we live in a country where roughly 1/3 of our population are morons.  I'll let you decided which side is which. 

    In the past month I've been concerned about the future of my job, plans for the home, family matters and about 1,001 things that have made me not only lose sleep at night but are simply out of my control.  

    I don't particularly like my job.   I like the company, I love the benefits and frankly I will never see these types of benefits again.  However if I wish to move up in my company, that means committing to going to Cleveland at least two or three times a week.  That is roughly a 115 mile trip one way.

    As of today, we probably will not be going back into the office until the spring...but that means having to find a motel room or place to stay at least two nights out of the week.   That means more mileage on the car and a higher carbon footprint.  That means more expense that I can not afford.

    Of course, I should be looking for something different.  I've applied here and there, but am not serious about finding another job...but I should do something.  Things are subject to change, but I'm better off changing jobs now rather than waiting.   Of course, the longer we are out of the office, the less likely our return to it.

    We have also talked about putting in a garden in the coming spring.  It's going to be just herbs and a few container plants.   Nothing to fancy, much like what we did in Florida in our screened in porch.   Anything else would simply be overkill.  


    I'm not trying to save the world here.   Only make mine a little better.   Then again if I do find another job that means at least an hour commute to Pittsburgh every day.   Or Erie, or one of the smaller cities around me.    Less of a commute, but I would probably not make the pay that I make now...and I do get paid well now.

     However my piece of mind and work life balance are more important to me right now.    Even writing in this blog is important to me...even if no one really bothers to read it.

    So gentle reader...what can you suggest?   What should this blog be about?  Who is my audience?   Let me know in the comments below or on the companion Facebook page.

    What should I do?

Comments

What all the cool kids are reading.

Maybe we need to rethink invasive species???

Hi. As the writer of the post and feel that I need to clarify something. I do not advocate the planting of invasive species. The point that I'm trying to make, and clearly didn't, is that perhaps we should be thinking about an invasive species in a different light. Apples, figs and other crops are clearly non native to America and Europe but are widely cultivated because they have use to humans as a food source, animal feed, etc. Kudzu is an edible plant and although it is clearly harmful can it be used someway by humans? It's a food source, it's been used as a cloth and is showing some use as a building material. All I'm trying to do is to create discussion on how we can use invasive plants in new ways.   It's mid April here in Western Pennsylvania and so far it's been warm and wet.  The buzz of lawnmowers fill the air as I gallivant through my back yard collecting dandelions to make some tea and bread with them.  I had always known that they w

Why didn't Erie, PA develop into a bigger city?

          Recently I had to travel up to Erie, PA for business.   It's about an hour north of me and is a rather small city, having just under 100 thousand people living in it.   It played an important role in the founding of America,  - where it was the headquarters for Oliver Perry's flagship Niagara during the battle of Like Erie in the war of 1812 .            It was also a important shipping center, being Pennsylvania's only access to the Great Lakes which was the easiest way to trade with parts of Canada at the time as well as move goods to the cities of Detroit and Chicago, which in the mid to early 1800's were just starting to develop.  It was also directly north from Pittsburgh which was a major industrial city at that time.     Yet Erie never really grew beyond it's humble beginnings and I wondered why.   Like any good sleuth I turned to the internet where I found mostly wrong answers.    Many people thought the port of Erie was to shallow to handle most

Don't leave the rural areas behind.

This blog was started because I had lived most of my life as an urban dweller; I wanted to record my adventures as I tried my hands at different things and I never pictured this blog would become what it did. Country life suits me in some ways.   I'm at a point in my life where I can appreciate looking up into the night sky and seeing thousands of stars, just like I did as a kid.   I just love how the moonlight bathes my beautiful sleeping wife in a creme colored light.   Country life is more peaceful and a lot more hard work than I would have ever expected.  While my neighbors and I may not agree politically or philosophically, my new lifestyle has given me insights on how they view the world. This brings me to my main point.   Here in rural America we simply don't have public transportation, nor do we have a lot of manufacturing or diversity or hospitals or even great education...and if we are going to move forward with a brighter greener future that we all want then we canno