The City Mouse in the Country

Recently I learned that nearly two out of every three Americans have been affected in some way by climate change.  That 62% of Americans think climate change is currently having some sort of effect on their local community and economy. I mention this because climate change is one of the several reasons we moved from Tampa, Florida to Northwestern Pennsylvania a few years ago.   My wife, Susan, likes to tell the story of when it was 90 degrees (32 C) on New Year's day, which is an exaggeration but the point remains.  It was hot and humid on a day that really should not have been. It got so bad that even the natives were saying "It's to hot." Migration is defined as " The movement of a person or people from one country, locality, place of residence, etc., to settle in another ."  Thus Sue and myself became, without even realizing it "Climate migrant's." Now I want to make it perfectly clear that I'm not comparing Susan and myself to any

 I was on a bit of a side quest a few days ago and ended up eating dinner by myself at a cute 1950's style diner, complete with the music and red plastic chairs of the period.  I entered and had already resigned myself to a chicken or meat dinner; so imagine my surprise when I was able to order a vegetarian meal.   That's something that I've been trying to do for some time because I know that when I order a vegan/vegetarian dinner at a restaurant; I 'm doing my part to make these items a little bit more accessible to others, as well as helping my overall health and reducing my carbon footprint just a tiny bit more. The waitress and I started chatting about this and she stated she wanted to try more plant based items.  I mentioned one of my favorite companies Quorn .  Either due to luck or more likely the all powerful algorithm; what showed up in my news feed at the diner was that Ron DeSantis, current governor of Florida, was in the process of trying to ban lab grown m

It hasn't been reported much by the national news here in the States; that COP 28, or the 28th meeting of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Climate Change Conference is currently being held in Dubai, a major oil producing country (more on that in a bit).  It is open to  " Business leaders, young people, climate scientists, Indigenous Peoples, journalists, and various other experts and stakeholders" in the future of our planet.   It's meeting in a variety of ways current ongoing from November 30 through the 12 of December this year.  So as I'm writing this it's still ongoing and already simplifying complex and complimented decisions, creating empty promises, possibly committing or planning to commit fraud and full of controversy. It's been a failure on the environmental front for a variety of reasons. The idea of COP28 is a simple one according to the UN ; it is to allow the major players and countries in the world to

When I first started this blog some three years ago I didn't have an audience.  I wasn't even sure who or what I was writing for.  Did I want to write a personal blog about life in the country?   I was playing around with the idea of homesteading and self sufficiency...did I want to write about that? In some ways over the last several months I think that I finally found a focus and an audience for this blog.  In a way I finally felt like I had found its purpose and focus.  My readership has slowly been improving over the last few months and I appreciate that. Thank you. However I published something that I knew would not go over well with the particular readership that I had been reaching.  I published it anyway because I know in my heart of hearts that I was correct in my conclusions.  The backlash I received I was not prepared for.  I did however attack a central tenet of the belief system of my intended audience.   Frankly the backlash that I received through me for a loop

The original post that inspired this piece was removed by the moderators of the Solarpunk subreddit.   In a nutshell it was a comment about how many in the Solarpunk community are simply not grounded in reality.    Or at least that was the way I interpreted it.   The original poster could have simply been trolling the group, but before I get into the meat of this opinion piece I need to take a moment and introduce those that are unsure of what Solarpunk is to some of the concepts of it. Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement primarily but has grown into a movement that strives for the integration of community, technology and nature.  It's a hopeful future that imagines renewable energy as our primary sources of power; this includes geothermal , wave energy and other sources as well as solar and wind power.   What I love about the movement is that it encourages action through a variety of means and understands that change, real change, requires actions that are based in the

 Generally speaking I don't trust the government when it comes to climate.  Here in America we basically have an Oligarchy - where a few rich asssholes are more concerned with maintaining their own power than doing what is best for the country overall.   This has not given me much hope for the future.  In fact, I've reached the conclusion that we simply will not be able to relay on the government going forward.  I'm not a doomsayer but the government at the highest levels simply isn't functioning the way it should and because of that it's simply not going to be able to handle the environmental and other climate related challenges in the future - such as massive immigration caused by failing crops.  Due to their age, most of our leaders are living in a world that no longer exists. So, why does President Biden's American Climate Corps pigued my interest? Two reasons really, it is an understanding that we have to do something sooner than later.  Well details are f

Every job has it's problems, it's good points and its bad points.  Evey one has had that boss from hell or that co-worker that you loved.   We spend a majority of our lives with complete strangers, sometimes seeing them more than our family. The average American commute to and from work is slightly under 1 hour round trip.  That adds up to a little more than 10 days a year spent in our cars going to and from work. I recently left my job in the Insurance industry.  I've been involved with insurance, banking and finance for most of my adult life...and this voluntary departure was based on several reasons...but it got me thinking about work, anti-work and significant work. I am not afraid of work. We all have to put food on the table, we all have bills to pay.   When I first started looking around for a new job, which at the age of 57 I thought it would be daunting, I quickly discovered it wasn't.   A lot of employers actually contacted me directly when I floated my resume

I've started and stopped this article several times now as I assessed my mental state over the last couple of weeks.  However I did not publish anything because all the previous drafts made me think that I was whining. Part of that "whining" was deciding to leave my job as of September 5, 2023.  It's easy to blame someone else, and the company I left does have some serious issues that they simply are not addressing, but the final responsibility for leaving is mine.  I just felt like I had nothing to contribute nor was the company addressing my needs and wants.    Money really isn't everything. I quickly interviewed for several jobs, but in the end decided to take something "completely different" for a bit.  I can always go back into insurance and banking...but my needs and priorities have changed.   In fact, I was offered a "Green" job with an energy company that really excited me.  However when I stopped and thought about what I would be doin

When I first moved to the country I wanted to get involved in something.  I wanted to become part of the community.  I wanted to belong to, and add to, something greater than myself.    In small town America that usually means joining a Church or your local volunteer fire department but since I'm an agnostic bordering on atheism, the local Church was out.   I'm also old and out of shape so the fire department was out.    So that left the Odd Fellows who have a local chapter close to my home. While I may not always agree with who my local chapter supports as an organization and what they do butI know that I am making a small difference in the life of my community somehow.   A homeless person manages to snuggle under blankets provide by the Odd Fellows on a cold winter's day, a child gets a scholarship, someone gets a warm meal.  Today we don't think much about mutual aid unless we are giving funds to some charity or faced with some sort of natural disaster.   Many of us

  I never expected to live out in the country.    I never expected to enjoy it.    I never expected to plant my own food, or do much of the day to day “manual” labor that living out in the country requires.   I was a city boy, I had come to enjoy the distractions that a city offered. I never expected to love where I live, I love the quiet.   I love the stars at night.    I even love the deer that nibbled at my garden, or the wild turkey and foxes that live around me.    Which got me thinking, what can I do to improve the community around me?   Other than what I already do with the Odd Fellows ? Basically we live in an area of three closely knit towns, and despite the title of the blog – it’s not considered the “boondocks” but it is rural.    I live in the small town of Stoneboro, close to the small towns of Jackson Center and Sandy Lake.     Small communities that are all knitted together by country roads and a local high school.   We are 70 minutes from Pittsburgh, 100 minutes