The City Mouse in the Country

Suddenly it's spring!!!  Actually, it's not but with temperatures in the high 40's (7 t0 9 C) it's certainly feeling like it.  We even hit a few days were it was 68 and 70 degrees (20 - 21 C).  The grass is starting to change from its winter brown to a lush and vibrant green; a few trees are even stating signs of early budding.   However as anyone that has ever lived in Western Pennsylvania knows old man winter has at least one more trick up his sleeve and snow as late as April is a real possibility.  We can't count out the old man just yet. If I am serious about wanting to plant a garden and work towards making this yard an edible oasis, then sometime this weekend I need to start planting seeds indoors.  That's the goal.  While we may not a proper garden this year, we have been prepping since last fall.   It's not pretty but it's something. Last year I think we waited too long to plant and didn't have much in the way of cross pollination, or pollina

          Recently I went out to eat with friends and I order a vegetarian option.   After getting playfully teased about eating rabbit food, the conversation turned to eating healthy, and the expenses of trying to maintain a healthy diet.     We also talked about gardening, canning, and the fact that they felt things were going to get much, much worse with the American economy.     While I am far from being a survivalist, I can honestly say that one of the reasons I want to learn to garden, to forage and store my own food is because I don't like where we as a country and as a planet are going.   No, this isn't a political blog, my concerns are more food availability and environmentally based then they are political.        If the pandemic showed us anything, it's that the supply chain can be interrupted and supplies can become diminished rather quickly.   Plus when costs raise, a common reaction is to save money where and how you can.   In this case, I'm in the perfect

 " We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” - Winston Churchill.      Winter isn't officially here yet, but we seem to be getting up in darkness and going to bed in darkness.  The nice weather we were having last week had disappeared and been replaced by...let's call them brisk...mornings and cloudy sky's.        Frost warnings and snow flurries are not on the agenda yet, but the days are counting down.        Up until this point, Sue and I had a vague idea of what we wanted to do come spring.  We knew that we wanted a garden; we knew that we tomato's, onions, a few herbs (Cue Simon and Garfunkel ), garlic and a few other things.     We also realized that, since it was just the two of us, any excess would either be canned or given away to family and the local food bank .  Sue was thinking that we might want to plant an abundance of pumpkins so that families that couldn't afford them would have something for their kids.  Which is jus