Skip to main content

A true year in review

   For as long as I've kept a blog or a journal of some sort, I've always taken a few minutes to look back over the last year to see what I was thinking and feeling at any one time.   What worked and didn't work for me as a blogger...and as a human being.


    This was our first full Calendar year in Western Pennsylvania.  I can honestly say that 2021 was a year of firsts, of disappointments, and at times felt like we were on a roller coaster without the safety bar in place.   It was also one of joy and laughter.

    In some ways it was full of setbacks - for example we never did get our garden planted in the spring, which was something that I was hoping to do.   We realized however that we had planned was simply to much for what we needed and by the time we made adjustments, the growing season was over.

    However we did do "little things" like replace our drainage ditch with stones and such to make it seem more like a natural creek bed.  We also added a fire pit and let part of the property go wild.      

    One of the most popular posts of the year was when I traveled up to Erie and asked why it never developed like other cities on the great lakes did.   I may do a series about the little towns around me as there is certainly history to be explored.  The surrounding area is full of little wineries and universities that are worth a short day trip.

    Where family and friends were abundant when we first moved back to the wilds of Pennsylvania, we have only had a few visits this year...in fact; we did not even decorate for Christmas. That is a first for us.   Of course, having a new kitten in the house does not help.

     I find that my garage runneth over with new tools like a power washer and snow blower, one of which is still in the box    Along with three tons of wood pellets for a stove that has been giving us grief since we first fired it up sometime in early November.

    It's funny to me how many of these tools and other things are now just a part of my "country" life, where I never needed or used them before.  

    My adventures in cooking have been limited, without a press I am limited in what I can do cheese wise but some ongoing health issues started me on a path towards a more plant based diet; which is something that my lovely Susan seems not interested in pursuing with me.  It has opened up a new world for me in exploring different foods, textures and possibilities. 

    For example, last night I was at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Pittsburgh and had a vegan falafel with greens, tomatoes, turnips, pickles, and tahini lemon dressing wrapped up like a pita.  The turnips provided a very satisfying crunch while I considered taking the dressing home.  I specifically choose that restaurant for their vegetarian options.  

    I even wrote a few reviews and will continue that into the new year.

    So even though I am slowly but surely learning to fend for myself in the kitchen, I have not spent as much time in the kitchen as I would have liked.   This is partly due to my job and a side job that I find myself working to get us out of debt that much quicker and pay for some issues - like car repairs from having hit not one but two deer in the same week.   

    Sue and I would prefer a drama free life, but sometimes you have no choice.  

    I tended to write more about economics this year, mostly because the advice that I was seeing in homesteading blogs made little sense to me.   

    Of course, I'm not a homesteader and I spent a lot of 2021 trying to determine what I am or will be doing going into the future.    I am lazy for one thing, but I do know how to make money and use it wisely.  It's been my job for over 25 years (and that is another story as I currently looking for a new position that doesn't involve me commuting).  

    We waited for the cicada's that never came - which was a shame because I was really interested in trying a few since they were edible.  Although I don't think I would have tried to eat them during the summer...but now I might.  

Learn more

    I also indulged my love of philosophy some this year and become an Odd Fellow - which I don't regret but do wish as more visibly active in the community at large.

    As I review the posts of the last year certain themes to emerge and it's up to me in this coming year to make those themes more focused and more manageable.

  1. GET A CONTAINER GARDEN GOING!  BUY SOME POTS NOW
  2. Get out more and explore the towns nearby, perhaps develop a series? 
  3. Move more towards a plant based diet for health reasons - and share that journey.

    This is where you in gentle reader.   What would you like to see?   Is there something that I can write that would interest you?

    I don't do this for money...I do it for my own satisfaction.   It's still cool to receive feedback however and that's not something I'm getting a lot of.    I would like some more feedback, I would like to build more of an audience.  

    And you are always welcome to join our Facebook page too!

 

Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

On Marches, Strikes and being a keyboard warrior.

 This is not the America I grew up in.    It occurs to me that those days are long gone, and that I am probably looking back on those days with rose colored glasses as well.   However there was a time in America when, if two parties disagreed, they could hammer out some sort of compromise.   Where opposing viewpoints were respected.   Where, if a heated argument did break out the chance of violence was very low. I miss that America.    Recently I was threatened with physical violence for something that I posted online.   I ignored the comment, I didn't bother to respond to it.  Not because I feared the person - I've no idea who they were, etc. - but because I am a pacifist.  To respond to violence with more violence makes little sense to me.  Plus, it's been my experience that such people are paper tigers.   The anger that is felt however, by both the right and the left is very real.  I can no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Maybe it's time I got serious about solar

  When my wife and I bought this house nearly 6 years ago, we made some upgrades.   We put on a metal roof, replacing the original shingles, replaced the floor in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the downstairs den.  We ended up upgrading the pellet stove (twice!) and added some insulation; one of the jobs I want to do in the coming year is to insulate the garage, mostly to keep the freezers we have in the garage from becoming damaged. It's only in various home improvement shows that the work to improve your home is done all at once and somehow in 1 hour.  For most of us its an ongoing never ending project. One of the important improvements that I've been wanting to make but have kept putting off for various reasons has been solar panels.  Now, I'm thinking that it may be time to least do something. The main reason we have been putting off this improvement was cost and how long it would actually take us to pay off the panels.   I'm 60 years old now...
Post a Comment
Read more

Honoring the past - Thinking more about "invasive" plant species.

 Recently I've been giving some thought to invasive species.  I had received both positive and negative feedback on the blog post concerning kudzu and recently I came across a very well hidden, and very small, wild cherry tree while doing some yard work.  Since it's against the house it would have to be removed since the root systems could damage my foundation.   A buddy of mine at work was asking if I was going to transfer it, his logic being that it was a fruiting tree that would not only attract a variety of pollinator's but that the deer would eat the bark and cherries, keeping them away from the garden (which Sue and I swore we were not going to do this year).  It occurred to me that I was going to have to do a slightly better job of identification, since black cherries are native to America , where as other types of cherries are not.  Being able to make a precise identification would be helpful.   I used to be able to identify all these tre...
Post a Comment
Read more