The City Mouse in the Country

 There is an old saying that goes something like " You can never really own the land, you are only borrowing it from future generations." The exact quote escapes me at the time of this writing.  However the sentiment holds true.   We are considering the possibility of buying our next door neighbors one acre lot. At one time Harvey, who long time readers of this blog know was helpful when we first moved into our home, lived there. However the property and the trailer he lived in where showing signs of falling apart; when he moved unexpectedly the property fell into further disrepair.  For the past year or so, it has simply been empty. Susan and I are considering buying it.   Partly because we can put another trailer on the land to rent if we wish, as the plumbing and electrical wiring is all ready in place and we don't believe the current property is worth saving.  That of course, means tearing the old one down. Rents in our area are actually below the nati...

 So far this year has been one of upheaval.  Things however finally seem to be settling down into a pattern which I'll happily call "normal."   We have been blessed, so far, with a mild winter having just a few cold snaps but nothing drastic snow wise.  The days are getting longer and with it the feeling that spring will be upon us soon.  With the coming of spring I find myself thinking more and more about starting a small container garden to supplement our diet, and the edible landscape that is the long term goal.  Last year we had some small success, but were ravaged by deer, late planting and our inexperience.  We learned some things and have hopefully grown from that experience.     The greenhouse that our daughter-in-law wanted to build for herself over the winter fell by the wayside, and not wanting to let the old windows not to go to good use, I decided to pay to have a wood working family member build cold frames for us both...

      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 se...

    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 an...

       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.   ...

      I decided that I could not let this holiday and year pass without comment.  I've started and stopped writing this entry three or four or five times now.  I've always done some sort of "year in review" for every blog I've ever wrote and this is no exception.        However I've only kept this blog since late September and really haven't done much in the way of "homesteading."      The question for me become how do I summarize a year that has been anything but simple?  How do you close out a year that has...to put it mildly...been anything but normal?   A year that frankly, I can't remember some parts of because they seem to exist in a dreamlike state?      It started simply enough, Sue and I were living in Florida and talking about moving home to PA, discussing about starting a bed and breakfast , etc.   Nothing that was to wild or out of the ordinary.  ...

      With everything that has been going on recently, the recent death of my mom and some changes in my job which required me to go through an intensive background check, getting a new roof - which should be happening this week hopefully -installed on the house and our new wood pellet stove installed next weekend (more on that in a bit).  I've simply not been able to move forward on some simple projects.   For example, I wanted to get the mulch pile for the gardens started in mid October.     Now here it was, getting into late October/early November and I still didn't have any mulch piles started.  Nor do I think that I'll have them ready by spring.  For example, not only do I have to deal with my Dad's needs - he's currently living with my brother, which is roughly a 75 minute drive south of me - but I've meetings with a lawyer, insurance to sort out and other things.   Thanks do to an internal change in my company...

 First off, I'm a fan of history and food.  So when I found Tasting History on YouTube I was a fan right off the bat. In fact, I tried this dish below.  Although I was disappointed in it at the end of the day.  I didn't have two of the ingredients; lovage and caraway seeds (which Sue swore she had), so I ended up replacing them with celery leaf and cumin.  The chicken ended up being very moist and peppery but there was no "wow" flavor.  Nothing that unusual about it, even though it used several ingredients that I was unfamiliar with.  I don't mind being pushed out of my comfort zone in the name of good food. It did bring up an interesting question for me however.  If I'm serious about learning how to garden, preserving my food and other things...would I be willing to try and raise "forgotten" foods? This interest actually goes all the way back to collage, when I learned that Spirulina was used by the Aztecs in a type of dried cake.   ...

       Definitions are important to me.   Part of that reason is because I have a degree in education and biology and a love of philosophy.  Although I never really used either degree to a certain extent, but biology has it's own precise language for clarity.  So does philosophy.    I worked for engineering firms for several years where you had to be precise, you accidentally transpose a number and the building could fall down.   Or at least cause delays that could cost thousands of dollars, if not more.    I ended up working for banks and Insurance companies where medical terms are used to describe a exact problem, which in turn may lead to that person paying a higher premium, or not getting insurance at all.     It's not always fair but it is important.  It's important that I have an exact definition or at least a clue about what I'm doing.  So for me at least the term "homesteading" doesn...