The City Mouse in the Country

      I have every reason to put off this piece for another week or two, however later on this month – August 28 th in fact – it will be one year since Sue and I moved back to Pennsylvania.    Although I did not start my blog officially until over a month later as I tried to make sense of my “change in lifestyle .”   Plus, there were a lot of boxes to unpack and things to organize.      People that I know are asking me “Do I hate it here/there?” a lot.    I’m sort of surprised by how often it’s asked of me.    Am I that much of a “City Mouse?” A little advert for our realtor      Truthfully I don’t hate it here.    I don’t like things about living in the country.    For example, I don’t care that I live forty five minutes away from a decent Chinese Restaurant, shout out to the Fortune Star by the way.    There is simply a lack of variety out here.  Nor do I like that the nearest hospital is twenty minutes away.    I’m not happy about not being able to find a decent radio station –

         Ever since I was told by my doctors that I would have to make some changes - and this time that "talk" actually took hold, I've been trying to live a healthier lifestyle .   It's been a bit of an uphill battle as both Sue and I are stuck in our ways.     If change is inevitable then why not start with easy and fun things?   Then move on to some of the harder stuff later on?  So one way that I've decided to try and incorporate a healthier lifestyle is through my love of cheese making.  Never in a million years did I think I would choose this as a hobby, but I do have a love of cheese, experimenting in the kitchen and a love of trying new things.      Thus vegan cheese.     To be honest I wasn't sure what to expect, and I can truthfully say that some of them I really enjoyed.   So I'm going to talk about my experiences making some of these cheeses and my taste tests.  Your mileage may vary.   Vegan Mozz      It was also an adventure trying

      I'm going to keep this simple.   One of the reasons why Sue and I moved back to Western Pennsylvania was due to our desire for healthier living.       Sue has had some various health problems through the years and has managed to fight them all.  She's a strong resilient woman and one of the many reasons I love her is that she is a fighter.   Many people would have given up, but she keeps on keeping on.  For privacy, I will not go into what ails her.      I, on the other hand, have a pretty strong constitution and want to keep it that way.  So when my doctor starts telling me he's worried about "cholesterol" and "high blood pressure" I can't help but pay attention.  Both my parents have heart disease and it's something that I've been aware of my whole life.  Both Sue and I actually try to maintain a low salt diet for example.       That's tough to do when your a hedonist and a foodie at heart.  Living out here in the country does lea

    **EDIT**  Someone just pointed this out to me in another group that I belong to that many homesteaders - or those attempting to homestead (or just simplify life like I'm trying to do) have must more to worry about than ceiling fans and paint.   They have drought, predators and wildfires to worry about.   It is a fair criticism.     I am not belittling those facts.   This blog is only about my adventures and worries.   I may have to deal with those things one day.   If I upset someone because of this piece I am sorry, that was not my intent.   However we are all on our own journey.  This is mine and I decided to share it with you.          In the past couple of days Susan and I realized something.   We had goals set for the winter, things that we wanted to accomplish...and for what ever reason, we failed to meet those goals. Even though winter is technically not over yet, the day are getting longer, the weather a little warmer.  We are using our pellet stove a little less, and s

      I recently read something that both surprised me and shocked me.   I was not looking for a research project, I wasn't even looking for anything but a distraction.   The problem is this particular distraction combined a few things that I love.   Food, being one of them, and History being the other.   It also contained a mystery; which at first seemed like a shock.  However it really something I had never really thought about before...but after a day of research all the puzzle pieces fell into place and it made sense.     So what was the mystery?    Exactly.     Japanese, and to a lesser extent Chinese culture had never really developed a Cheese or Dairy Culture.    I knew for example that in Tibet and other areas Yak's were used for the production of dairy.  Yak's milk is around 6 to 11% butterfat, meaning that it is perfect for things like yogurt, butter and cheese.  Water buffalo and even cattle were also known to both cultures.     However "dairy culture"

     I don't know what attracts me to "Amish Cheese's."  I came across a few recipes while putting about on the interwebs and was taken by them.  They do seem rather simple to make and they require little in actual work but they do require time.  While not exactly a "set it and forget it" cheese, these cheeses often used milk that has spoiled naturally over time or "Clabbered."       Which, considering the Amish lifestyle, makes perfect sense.  The Amish are not a wasteful people.        One cheese that caught my eye is called Amish Cup Cheese.   It is a soft spread where you heated the milk to room temperature first (about 72 F) then let it cool, letting the curds seperate from the whey.    Then you add a bit ingredients and again...you "rested" the cheese for 12 hours before moving on to the next step.  Then, again add some more ingredients then rest for 5 hours before moving on.  It's not hard, just time consuming.        It's

    Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it o ut!     OK...I hate cliche's.  Those terms and expressions that have been so overused that they lost meaning.       As I tried to write this blog entry, I found myself using more and more of them.  That's not creative, that's not even that interesting.  There is absolutely no reason that I should be boring myself...AND I AM THE FREAKING AUTHOR!       The problem is that Susan and I got into a little bit of discussion the other day.   It was over my current hobby of making cheese.   I was planning on making an Amish cheese that required the buttermilk to basically "spoil" before using it.  The correct way to do this is to use uncultured buttermilk and "culture" for 24 hours before making the cheese.     I let me "cultured" buttermi

       Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it o ut!        I have to be honest, at no time did I ever think I would want to make cheese.   My first effort , done more as an experiment than anything else, turned out very well.  So well in fact, that I wondered what else I could make.   I wanted to keep it simple. My first Cheese, misshapen and all      Keeping it simple means different things to different people of course.   I was hooked when I started to look up exactly what rennet was.  Which brings up the whole question of what the hell primitive man was thinking when they decided to put the milk back into the intestines of a dead animal or what lead to that discovery...and moving on.     The earliest cheeses are probably similar to the Farmer's cheese that I made earlier (see link above) and that got me looki