The City Mouse in the Country

So what comes next?   Most of our house improvement projects are done, but the last blog post I wrote got me thinking about something because winter is closing in on us, although this time two years ago we already had a several inches of snow on the ground.  Today, as I write this we are expecting a balmy 46 F (8 C) although it's rainy and windy so it feels a bit colder.   Sadly winter is on it's way, so my first order of business on a lazy Saturday is creating a bit of a shelter for all the outdoor cats which have adopted us. We have two indoor cats and two indoor/outdoor cats which are our own.  Our neighbor is a good guy but he owns four horses and a goat.  Because of this he keeps a few barn cats around, which serve to keep the rodent population in check and away from his animals feed Our back porch is generally where they hang out  because they are protected on one side by a wall, which serves as a windbreak and they also know that Sue and I are totally powerless agai

    Generally speaking about Six PM every night it's my job to feed our cats.  Officially we have three.  Unofficially we have seven or eight.       Even though we don't have a barn...we have barn cats.   Our neighbor has horses and he encourages the barn cats because they do a great job of preventing mice and other rodents from getting into the feed.       When we moved into this home some two odd years ago, we were frankly asked if we wanted the previous owners two cats trapped.   "No," my Susan said, "they were there before us."        Since then we had one of the original two outdoor cats pass, while the other one is a semi permanent fixture on our back porch.  She sneaks in sometimes and once I woke up from a nap only to find her at my feet purring away contently.  Our youngest cat, Bobble (so named because his head was bigger than his body when he was a kitten), was meant to be leashed trained because of future plans of traveling the country in an RV,

    When I was a young man, I was surrounded by dogs.  In fact, it always seemed like dogs were just part of my growing up.  Buttons was a toy collie mix who loved to run after rabbits and to this day my dad and I laugh at a slow motion chase scene that was out of a cartoon.         She spotted the rabbit in the high grass of our neighbors home...she looked at my dad quizzically.   "Go" he said and she was off.   Chasing after this poor bunny.   Buttons was able to catch up to the rabbit on the straightway, but didn't have the cornering ability of the rabbit.  Well this rabbit decided to run directly towards my dad and I as we stood near our home...the dog so close that we wondered what Buttons would do if she caught the rabbit.     Bugs the bunny got so close to the house that he jumped and bounded off the wall, that's where things went into slo-mo and become a cartoon.  Buttons applied the breaks her tongue flapping as she leaned as far back as she could her front l

      I watch way to much Food Network .  When I was given the opportunity to buy some quail eggs recently, I could not pass them up. Where I have had quail in my life - it reminds me more of duck than chicken since the meat tends to be darker - I've never had quail eggs.  The hedonist in me demanded that I buy them.  Plus they came from a local breeder with a good reputation.       I am slowly but surely moving towards a plant based diet, but I'm not willing to give up all animal products yet.        Quail eggs are tiny, it takes about 2 to 5 quail eggs to equal the same amount of chicken eggs (depending on several factors) but, generally speaking, the quail egg tends to be a healthier (and more expensive) choice.      Let's talk about the cost first before I get into nutritional value and what I decided to do with these little beauties.   I paid five dollars for 24 eggs.  That works out to be roughly 21 cents per egg.     Now the average cost for a dozen chicken eggs is $

       In many ways, I want to make this home of ours into a gem.  We have an idea of what we want to paint, what we want to update and what we want to replace completely.     If the weather cooperates, this morning at the time of writing there is a heavy thunderstorm moving through, I hope to add some more rocks to my "Dry Creek" project and start/finish the often delayed fire pit build. Taken from a window during a storm     Well we did not plant a garden this year for a variety of reasons; we do have the room in front of the house for a wonderful and varied garden.   It's also the part of our property that gets the most sun and has a very fine slope away from the home so water can flow out towards our road.     We may never be self sufficient but we can be a little smarter and environmental conscious on what we do, and how we do things.   This is why I am thinking about letting some of our property “Go Wild."     We own roughly 2.5 acres, most of that

        First off let me state clearly that this is not a political post.   This post is about guns.  For my purpose here I am classifying rifles, automatic rifles, semi automatic's, pistols and such in all their various forms as "guns."   You don't like that, get your own blog.  This is personal post     Now that we live "out in the boondocks" the question comes up every now and again from otherwise well meaning people about when Sue and I are going to buy a gun.   My answer is Probably Never .   Despite being a dyed in the wool liberal, I've no issues with guns.   After all, I know people that hunt and have never turned down their offer of venison, duck or quail.       I also have several friends that have served in the military and have defended this country with honor and dignity.  I have family members that serve the public as police and I personally have fired several rifles and pistols in my life, taking down several threatening tin cans and

     When I lived in Florida, a friend of mine worked for one of the local news stations, where he was a camera operator and he confirmed what I had always expected.   That TV news was a form of entertainment and that the old adage of " If it bleeds, it leads" was true.        Thus it's important to remember that a lot of what we are seeing on the internet or on the TV news concerning the coming of the so called Brood X Cicada is either not true or inaccurate.  This is not a "once in a lifetime" event but rather part of the bug's mating cycle, occurring every 17 years.       No, they will not eat crops, bite you or your animals nor will they leave questionable stains on your patio furniture.   Yes, they are loud.      What makes Brood X so news worthy however is the mere size of their emergence.   It stretches from upper state New York to as far south as Tennessee and Northern Georgia; to as far west as Illinois.  It's been estimated that there cou