The City Mouse in the Country

 I come from a long line of guys that call in professionals.    Part of that reason is my own lazy nature, part of that reason is that I would rather have it down right the first time.  Everyone has their own skills and abilities, so why not call in an expert to have it done right the first time? In this case; why not seek advice in the battles against the invasives that have not only invaded my yard, but also a nearby piece of property that my neighbor simply refuses to take care of?  I find myself in a bind of my own design. I let part of my property "go wild" in the first place because that area had a lot of exposed roots, stumps and rocks.  At the time, I was not expecting a bunch of invasives, of which Mulitfora Rosa  is the worse of the bunch, to be a problem.  Yet, here we are. I decided to let parts of my yard "go wild" back in July of 2021.  It has proven to be a mistake, and in order for me to ensure that the invasive plants st...

  resting cat Recently I found myself with a bit of time on my hands.  Normally this time of year my wife and I like to take some vacation time.   We generally don't go to far, having visited Niagara Falls and New York state the last two years, the plan this year was to go south, to visit an old friend that has just accepted a facility position at Duke University .   A few days there, a few days in Charlotte; where I once lived and then, if we had time, a few days in Charleston, SC where I also lived for a brief time. Sadly however, due to circumstances that I won't get into here, our vacation became a staycation .  Which was fine because I still had a tree to plant from the Native Plant sale, odds and ends to do and to continue my war against some aggressive neighboring plants, which it seems I was now finding everywhere, as well as other small jobs that I've been putting off. I actually wondered if it would be affordable (and reasonable) to rent a f...

      It started with a simple question.   What does Goat's milk taste like?     Several years ago when Sue and I first started to seriously consider moving home (Okay...two years ago) and moving into the country we laughed about getting goats.       There were a few reasons for this really: Sue finds Goats really cute, and the baby goats are adorable They produce milk I personally love goat cheese   We both have had goat meat in the past and enjoyed it.      However we only have two plus a bit more acres here, and goats - while any animal to be honest - have to be worth our time and expense.   Remember we're talking feed, cleaning up after them and basically never taking another vacation again because we have to look after the animals.  While we have never specifically ruled out any farm animals, it's not going to happen anytime soon.     So any animals other than our two ...