The City Mouse in the Country

       By the time you read this it may very well be the 10 or 11th day (if not later) of January, 2022.   Happy New Year!     We would have got here sooner but frankly we were hiding in our bunker, unsure if we should peak our head or not.  Sue and I caught what we thought was the common cold around the end of the Christmas Holiday and it stuck around.   Two, thankfully negative, Covid tests later and we are ready to enter the world once again.       However we are flying blind here.   Normally we have a goal, a sure plan on how to attack it.   This year we have a vague idea of where we would like to be and a even vaguer idea on how to obtain those goals.       Sue somehow found a job cleaning some buildings every night which, while not particularly hard, does take up some time and is paying what debt we do have down drastically.    Well I'm thankful for that, it cuts into the time I have to work on other projects, such as this blog.     We are still planning on put up a small con

    With Thanksgiving on the horizon, many people have asked me what I am thankful for in the last year.  My glib replay is the title of this article.  I know it seems like I'm being a whiny little bitch right now but bear with me, it does get better.     It's not that I have nothing to be thankful for, I'm still healthy and neither my family or anyone I know has lost a family member to COVID.   I have a roof over my head in a house that, all though dated, has good bones and is slowly but surely becoming "our" home.  All my bills are paid on time and both Sue and I have good paying jobs which we actually do enjoy and like...most days.          I am just feeling stressed and pushed to the limit by circumstances that I can not control, for example this week alone I will have worked ten days straight often putting in a minimum of twelve hours a day for the majority of those days.  When I was a younger man working for an engineering firm in Charlotte, NC I would not h

                             Up until this moment, I had never heard of or seen a Grinder Pump.  It's actually a very common piece of plumbing equipment that is usually found in commercial businesses or homes, like mine, that are located lower than the nearest municipal sewer line.  It's designed to prevent waste water backup.                 (Sorry for such a bad video but there is so little information out there)                  Now exactly how my house sits lower than the nearest municipal sewer line is beyond me.  After all, when my house was built, it appears to have been done so in such a way that all the water flows away from my home and downhill.   So what I'm thinking is that the grinder pump is there to "push" the waste into the sewer lines that are a good football field distance from my home?  My property is the last in the boro to be hooked into the municipal lines so I suppose I could be "down hill" from them?             I might be wron

     September has always been a harbinger of change for me.   From season to season, from vacation to school, from bachelorhood into married life.  Now I find myself three weeks at least from my last entry and thinking about change once one.  I've tried to start this blog four, five or seventeen times now because this is a hard post for me to write      Because I got a lot on my mind...and I'm not sure who my audience is.  Any one that writes needs an audience.  Are they people interested in country and rural life?  It's not really a homestead blog, nor is a food and recipe blog even though I've covered all that in the past.  Although I've played around with the idea of making it a "learn to cook" blog.     If only I had people that would not mind eating my "weird" creations .  It's one of  the reasons I concentrate on cheese.  Most people like cheese.     So a cooking blog is out.     Or is it about my health journey?  I got some blood work

                                        When I first decided to write about why I joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, I thought that one of the best ways to do it would be more me to tell you about my love of music.      I am not a musician myself, never having the patience to sit down and practice or put in the hard work.   However I grew up in a house where records and the radio were just part of everyday life.   As I was growing up I was surrounded by the sounds of Mel Tillis, Kenny Rogers and George Straight.   As I grew older I found myself drawn to bands like Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush and Jazz music.      My friends however were all musicians, playing trumpets, guitars, drums and a whole range of instruments.   An old roommate often had band practice in the garage next to my car.   My first wife was a professional flutist and even though the marriage was unsuccessful, I still have a deep love and understanding for classical music.      Music has always intrigued

 Recently we lost power when the transformer blew across the street.  We were without power for about five hours.  Another day we went without power for about two hours due to a fierce thunderstorm.  As luck would have it both these instances occurred when I was off of work (I work from home on a semi-permanent basis) and during the day.             As such, they proved to be not much of an issue, however it did give me time to test the generator, which has been setting out on our covered back porch awaiting this very opportunity.              Only it would turn over, but not start.  That could be due to a variety of reasons but old gas in the carburetor would seem the most likely culprit however.  It would also be the easiest fix to the problem.            I would simply have to open up the carburetor drain screw , let the old gas drain then make sure to tighten the carb drain screw then let the new gas flow in and try it.   It should start right up.                     Only we h

     Earlier in the week, I finally managed to get most of the house pressure washed.   This has been something that I’ve wanted to do for some time and kept getting put off due to weather, other commitments and God knows what else. Getting the green off!      Notice I said “ most” of the house.   I was only able to reach about seven or eight feet into the air.   So nearly all the second floor of the home is still in need of a good cleaning, I didn’t have the right tools to go any higher.          To do that, I would need a steady ladder and a longer hose.   Two things I don’t currently have but will be resolved shortly (probably by the time I publish this).   It’s just two more things to add to my growing collection of things.    The accumulation of things is something I'm trying to avoid but that's another post for another time.      I’ve owned homes before, both here In Pennsylvania and in Florida.    Over time I have managed to build a nice collection of hammers, wrenche

       When you own a home or any piece of property, you realize how much you don’t really know.    You become a plumber, an electrician, a landscaper and a painter.   You become, or are forced to become, a lot of little things as part of being a homeowner.   It’s in the fine print of that contract you signed.        I thought about that and 1001 little things during the last few days.  Recently my riding lawnmower needed a blade replaced, which I replaced with mulching blades, only for me to hit a hidden root with it again – on a tree that was scheduled to come down this weekend.   Now the mower assembly will not engage at all; shutting down the whole machine.   We have to have it repaired for the second time within a week.       I thought about how the summer thunderstorms moving through our area all this week were turning our “dry creek bed” project into a very wet, very muddy issue.   I’m also realizing that this is why I should have put a landscape barrier down (to help preve

    We are having my family over for Easter.       Generally speaking I'm happy about this.   I don't get to see my brother and his family very often.  I'm sure that my niece will have a bit of fun feeding our next door neighbor, Billy the horse. as well as enjoying a good dinner of glazed Ham, carrots with some pesto and my homemade ricotta, scalloped potato's and maybe some grilled asparagus.       Easter is also a time of rebirth, a call back to simpler times when the natural cycles of the world held sway.   Both Susan and I are non religious, believing in Science more than some Higher Power but we are both smart enough to know that traditions matter; and that deep down we are still hardwired to be thankful for warmer days ahead. Blessing of the Easter Baskets     This is also the first major holiday since Thanksgiving that we will have family over.  Sadly my brother and I have little in common and completely different memories of growing up in the same home.  Si