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Update - a little progress on a personal front

 Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

Rachel Carson
 
 
This past week or so, I've been stuck for a topic.  Not much has really happened as I've dealt mainly with leaving one job and searching for/accepting another.  
 
Several quiet anniversaries were celebrated (we moved into our home 3 years ago this month) and I volunteered to man the Odd Fellows booth at the local Stoneboro Fair several days last week.   

Months ago I had applied for a Master Gardener class through the Penn State extension program.  I promptly forgot all about it as I have only done container gardening in the past, and I saw this as an opportunity to learn more.  
 

 
I was very surprised to have been accepted into the program.  This is NOT a degree but rather advanced skills aimed at public outreach and education.  I'm sure that this knowledge however will come in handy as I continue my search for a Green job and try to create my "edible yard."  This starts in October.
 
 I also found it ironic that I was accepted into this program as I didn't have much luck with our garden in our second year, we had issues with deer eating about 60% of what we planted.  


For what ever reason the zucchini and squash we planted would flower but never develop.  We did have some good luck with some strawberries, an abundance of tomatoes and a surprise crop of sunflowers.  I say surprise because we didn't plant them.  Since they were under our bird feeders, the seeds must have dropped and developed from there.   Nor did we plant any additional trees like I wanted to do this year, but instead had to take a few down.
 
 
I planted some native grapes and well and did some landscaping work this year.  It's not much but we are moving forward.  I'm not sure if I have a "passion" for gardening but I do think that every small step I make is only going to help our environment in some small way.   Again however, we are chalking this up to an learning experience and it does appear that I'll have to figure out a where and what I'll want to grow next spring to determine how much space and fencing I'll actually need.
 
So for now...everything is on hold.  I'm still going to try and update this blog once a week or so but right now, other things have priority.  
 
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What all the cool kids are reading.

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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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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Paradigm shifts and Project 2040

In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “ There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. ” His observation has been echoed by people ever since and changed a bit over time, but has remained a stark warning. Only anarchy the way most people think of it rarely occurs.  We have found that people are more likely to band together when their communities face some sort of disaster, be it from war, plague or natural disaster.   We are all too familiar with pictures and videos of communities digging through the rubble of bombed buildings searching for survivors...but how many of us remember the moments during the Covid epidemic of people singing from their balconies?   When you have a community; people will always help people.  Despite these bleak times the things that make us human - our compassion - will see us through. Recently my life changed due to issues with a car .  While, in the scheme of things it was a minor crisis it did make me think if things could have been done differently,
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