The City Mouse in the Country

  When my wife and I bought this house nearly 6 years ago, we made some upgrades.   We put on a metal roof, replacing the original shingles, replaced the floor in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the downstairs den.  We ended up upgrading the pellet stove (twice!) and added some insulation; one of the jobs I want to do in the coming year is to insulate the garage, mostly to keep the freezers we have in the garage from becoming damaged. It's only in various home improvement shows that the work to improve your home is done all at once and somehow in 1 hour.  For most of us its an ongoing never ending project. One of the important improvements that I've been wanting to make but have kept putting off for various reasons has been solar panels.  Now, I'm thinking that it may be time to least do something. The main reason we have been putting off this improvement was cost and how long it would actually take us to pay off the panels.   I'm 60 years old now...

 Before my mother passed back in October of 2020, she and my dad has basically consolidated their lives to a small 2 room apartment building.   In the brutal logic that both my mom and dad practiced it made sense.   Less to maintain as they grew older meant less to worry about. Their sons were married and had moved away from home a long time ago. They didn't need much or wanted much.  They lived simple lives and would rather spend their days on things they enjoyed like watching a family of deer romp in a field that their balcony overlooked.  Going out to dinner and spending time with loved ones and family. When she passed unexpectedly and Gary, my brother, and I cleaned out the apartment, we were still amazed by the junk they had accumulated.   Somehow, we managed to get through the days.  When my dad passed , it was a little easier to not only deal with his passing, but to clean what he had left in his bedroom. The original paint and d...

Life happens.   In this past month we have finally managed to paint a majority of the house.  We used a paint named "Cream in your coffee" on the walls now with an accent wall of grayish/green running throughout the length of the house. Suddenly our walls are lighter and more vibrant.  Our house seems more like our home and not the former owner's residence.   It's just a series of home improvements that we have been working on since buying the house in September of last year.   our original look Some of those jobs have been major, others not so much but each job has increased the value of our home.  Sadly, for most Americans the home is going to be the most valuable thing they own, and for Susan and myself there may come a time when we can no longer due the upkeep on the home, and when that time comes, we can relax in the knowledge that all the major work was done when we were young. I still want to do solar panels. During the past mon...

 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...

If you have been following this blog for some time then you know that 2023 has not been a great year for us.   We have dealt with death, failure, job changes (which I realize was a mistake) and more negatives than positives. That's life.  It was the hand that we were dealt. Now that Thanksgiving day is upon us (and at the time of publication, past us), it occurs to me that we do have some things to be thankful for.  We do have good friends and a strong family.  We do have money in the bank and jobs that we are successful at. We have our health. We can change some things and work on making our lives better.   We also have, perhaps overly ambitious plans, for the winter and next spring.  We plan on painting this winter, which has been on the agenda for sometime but still has not been accomplished.  If we manage to get one room done then I'll consider it to have been a success.  Then in the spring, I think I'll put off planting anything like a t...

I started this blog for a few reasons and I never intended it to serve the purpose it does now.  I'm trying to pass on information in a variety of ways to help others.  I'm trying to help others learn from my mistakes. While my blathering may seem trivial.  It's not, for we have to put ideas and concepts out into the world so that they are be built on, improved, discussed and debated.  That's how we make progress.  That's how we build a better world.  Currently I'm still recovering from one very bad day when deer rampaged trough my garden and ate or destroyed roughly two-thirds of it.  I had invested a bit of money into it when it came to soil, fencing, containers and what not; only to lose part of that investment to deer. To deal with the deer, I'm going to have to possibly invest more and buy electric fencing or a variety of chemicals. I'm reminded of William Alexander's semi cautionary tale of gardening from his book The $64 dollar Tomato . It...

This has been a year of progress.  We are entering our third year of country living and I'm actually feeling a little more hopeful than I did this time last year.  We entered the year with vague goals, things that we wanted to accomplish but with little to know idea on how to accomplish them. We managed to get a lot done. Susan could not stand the bathroom and kitchen from day one in our home, and we somehow managed to replace the windows, redo the majority of our kitchen and part of our bathroom.   That was just some of those goals we had in mind at the start of 2022.   Technically the bath is far from done, and the kitchen does need a little more work before I'm ready to call it "finished."  We got things done, that's the important thing. Yes, they took longer than I would have liked. We discussed how to keep your house warm on a budget.   I wanted to plant a small garden and we did have a few containers full of strawberries, some herbs, tomat...

My wife and I have been blessed with good luck, good opportunities and  family that has always been there for us.  However I also know that not everyone has the fortune, family or opportunities that we have had.    We have sadly learned a lot about those families in our area through the IOOF and other charities in the local area that Sue and I belong to.   So as I throw another log onto the proverbial fire and think about how lucky I've been compared to others I thought I would pass on some common sense, and not so common sense ideas to help someone save a bit of money and get through the coming winter months.   I can see no reason why someone needs to live in an icebox, or choose between food and warmth .   Sadly there is no easy solutions and everything that is worth doing takes time and energy.  Sometimes even a little money.  So what I'm offering here is advice that will help reduce your energy costs at least and can b...

 Rome, the saying goes, was not built in a day.   Home improvement will take longer than the rise and fall of Rome and despite recent emotional issues, simply can not wait.  Plans were put in place months ago, and for a variety of reasons, could not be completed until now.  Our home was built by its original owner and although there is much to be celebrated about it; it was never really updated since its construction in the 1970’s.  We replaced the roof shortly after moving in as well as the outdated wood stove used to heat the home with a much more efficient wood pellet stove. Fast forward a few years and now we are in the process of replacing the older windows and doors with new and more efficient ones, and the stress of having those replaced as well as work in our kitchen and bath going on at the same time has caused me...to become "unsettled." I would never call myself a fastidious person, but I do have my schedule and my own ways of doing things...