The City Mouse in the Country

      When I sit down to write something, I do so for two reasons; the first is that yes, I want to remember my thoughts and feeling about a particular moment in time, so in some ways this blog serves as my journal.  The second reason is that I hope to impart some knowledge or information on.  In the hope that you, gentle reader, might learn something new or, more likely, avoid the mistakes I make.        I leave that decision up to you.       Thus, in some ways you can blame our youngest cat, Bobble, for our upcoming spending a lot of money on window's and other home improvements.       Our first winter in Western Pennsylvania was not really that bad.  This year it seemed we had weeks of sub zero temperatures and several feet of snow.  Our house was physically colder.   Now if your wondering why I'm blaming the cat then please read on dear reader.      Bobble was born in the early spring of last year, so he's still a kitten come winter.  A kitten with very sharp claws and

      When we first moved out to the country, we had a vague notion of what we wanted to do.  We failed in our first year to meet any of those nebulous goals.       Sue, my wife and I have adjusted.      I've always had a passing interest in things like permaculture , we had always grown a few tomato's and other plants on our lanai when we lived in Florida.   It was, and still is to a certain extent, my hope that I have a full garden and become a bit more self sufficient.     After a year however, my plans have changed somewhat and become more focused.  We know what our limitations are.   Our original plans simply did not meet the reality of our situation.  It just being Sue and myself for example, a large garden doesn't make sense.  A container garden does.     This isn't failure, but the realization that we are always adjusting and regrouping based upon several factors.  Our plans have gained focus as the situation warrants.        However I do consider this blog to

    Well I don't consider myself a homesteader in a strict sense, I often find that homesteaders often ask questions about income and financial matters.  This article is to address a bit of confusion about how a home equity loan works and why home improvement is a secret weapon you can take advantage off.        You should always consult a tax and licensed financial advisor in your area. That being said, I am a licensed and bonded insurance agent and have over 20+ years of banking and financial experience and offer this advice freely.               I'm standing outside the house with a tape measure in my hand and marking off an area roughly 24 feet wide (7.3 M) by 24 feet long.  It's roughly the area of a two car garage.   The current garage we have is internal and used more for storage than anything else.   It's a tight space for one car.     Rates will be going up soon and it makes sense to lock in a home equality loan now while the market for homes is still high (our

    Human beings are by nature political animals, because nature, which does nothing in vain, has equipped them with speech, which enables them to communicate moral concepts such as justice which are formative of the household and city-state.  Aristotle        I came across something yesterday in INC magazine that annoyed me.   Now I admit that I generally don't read that publication but years of owning my own small company and working in banking and fiance have taught me to always be open to knowledge and inspiration ,so I expected to glean some new information from an article entitled 7 Reasons to Avoid Going Rural to Work from Home.       My job is done remotely.   I am a good 115 miles from my companies office in Cleveland and live out in the country.   The population of my town is under 1000 people for example and it's not uncommon to see Amish buggies.  I may not be "rural" but I'm damn close.     The article, which I'll let you read, is a hack piece

          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

       Recently their has been talk in the news of why no one wishes to return to office.   Part of that is due to COVID of course, the gift that just keeps giving.   Part of that is family, as various people are rediscovering the joy of just being together.        Others, and I am including myself in this bunch...really see no reason to return to the office.  I see no reason to drive the roughly 30 minutes one way that is the average commute.   Considering that I am more or less able to do my job from home with close to the same proficiency.  I am also looking at this as an environmentalist and as a frugal SOB.           Working from home simply means no commute.   Currently my car sits idle five or more days at a time.   I do take it out here and there to run it, just to keep the oil and gas moving.  As I've recently learned, going meatless just one meal a week is equal to NOT driving 320 miles.   Since the Average Joe/Jane drives 32 miles total just as part of there daily roun

     In the last post I asked if I hated living in the country. I answered with a pretty subjective "No."  There are parts of it I am not fan of.  One of the reasons I agreed to move to the country is that I was hoping to make a change in my lifestyle.     I've never been afraid of hard work, I used to work 60 hour weeks right out of college when I worked for an engineering firm.  I've owned my own company in one form or another sine 2008, which has supplemented my main income and padded both my retirement savings and paid for vacations.  I have discovered however that hard work in the country is not the same of the hard work of a city mouse.   However, I'm tired and burned out.   I find myself wanting to retire more and more and enjoy my time here and now.  Full retirement for me is still twelve years away and age 70 would probably make more sense.      Given another year, both cars will be paid off in full as well as a personal loan.   Within two years, our

      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 –

       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