The City Mouse in the Country

I 'm not sure if kids today have ever played with a Kaleidoscope .  You used to be able to buy this silly little toy, which consisted of two or more refractive surfaces in the tube, at any toy store.  Turn it one way and see one colorful pattern, turn it another and see a completely different pattern.  The number of patterns depended on a couple of things which I’m not going to go into here. Kaleidoscopes however are a thing of the past.   Simple little toys that didn’t beep or let you beat up hookers or kill Big Bad Monsters.   There was no winners, no losers.    There were only moments of simple fleeting beauty. Relationships, particularly family relationships are a kaleidoscope.  For example, my brother and I are only 3 years apart in age, grew up in the same home and were raised by the same parents, but we were raised by two completely different people and have two completely separate memories of events. Turn the tube slightly and entirely new patterns appear.   I tho

I am driving into the sunset.  The colors of the sky are brilliant; as pinks, oranges and reds dominate the skyline.  The sun continues to set and the palate changes into the darker hues.  It feels as if I'm driving into heaven itself as I make my way down some random country lane. Change and loss have been on my mind a lot this October.  We celebrated the second anniversary of our move from Florida quietly.  We remembered the passing of my mother quietly and are dealing with the loss of Susan's father the best we can.   Her father passed earlier this evening. It's only a matter of time for my father as well. Death and change have been on my mind as of late.   How do you deal with the passing of a parent?  How do you deal with the the realization of our own mortality?  Because like it or not we are next in line.   The coming days will be filled with grief as Susan’s family members say goodbye to their Dad.   I will be there beside them to provide what comfort I can.   One

      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.        Our home in Florida had been off and on the market for the previous two years w

    It's been a few days since I've been able to put electronic pen to electronic paper so to speak.  This was due to the untimely death of my mother, Patrica Ann Wilson or simply Pat as many of her friends and family called her.             Like any mother she could be a pain in the ass, loving, supportive and making her son's crazy at the same time.  However she always believed in and supported my brother Gary and I whenever and however she could.       The funny thing is that Sue and I moved back to Pennsylvania because we knew that our parents were getting older, and that we wanted to spend more time with them.   Now this happens with us being less than two months in the area.  At least my mother got to see our new home.     I'm sure that she probably thought we were crazy to move this far out into the country, where are nearest neighbors really are a horse named Billy and a goat named Nanny.      The funny thing is that I've always found solace in nature.  As