The City Mouse in the Country

 If it were up to me, I would let trees go through their natural lifecycle and never cut one down.  Our forests have stood for thousands of years before us, and will outlast us.   They serve as homes for a multitude of birds, insects and little furry friends throughout their life.  Trees not only capture and store carbon from the air but help cool the ground and air around us. Even after a tree falls and begins to rot it provided food and shelter to a variety of different life forms.  The phrase "Tree of Life" is more than just metaphor. Sadly however, I have to take down somewhere between three to five of these beautiful trees because they pose a threat to my property.  Two of them threaten my home while the third threatens my neighbor's barn.  It's on my side of the property line and is therefore my responsibility.   Each windstorm causes them to groan and ache and it's not uncommon for large branches to come crashing down.  ...

 I'm the first one to admit that I'm pretty useless when it comes to any thing what I have to build or assemble.  For example it took me three days to assemble a closet from Ikea for our previous home in Florida. Although to be honest the instructions were not that clear about what part to begin with, although once we did start it came together pretty quickly and, to the best of my knowledge, still stands today.  My comfort zone has moved somewhat since I've moved out to the country.   I'm not afraid to take on a project knowing that I'll learn from it in some way. We started planning our garden in the last days of fall, although it appears that both Sue and I didn't communicate enough.  I was thinking that we would do a container garden and grow some some simple things like Basil, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Cilantro, Cucumbers, Garlic, Onions, Parsley, Parsnip, Peppers, Radish, Strawberries, and Tomatoes.  For a family of 2, we would need...

 Sometimes I think I'm more in love with the idea than the actual practice. I'm basically a lazy man, more in love with the concepts of homesteading and building an edible lawn/food forest than actually putting in the hard work to make it happen.   Sometimes however, things happen that present you with unexpected opportunities....if your smart enough to take advantage of them.   Recently we had a series of wind storms move through the area, the winds toppled trees, caused several electrical outages and even managed to damage roofs and homes in the area.  Luckily no one to my knowledge was hurt and the damage was minimal.  We did lose power for a few hours but never once considered running the generator as we were tucked in all cozy and warm. A decent sized maple tree did came crashing down in my yard on Saturday night and proved the old adage that if no one is there to see it, it does not make a sound.  Neither Sue or myself was aware of the problem till Su...