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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.  

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    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!

 

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Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

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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
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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
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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
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