The City Mouse in the Country

 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 Sunday morning.  It was

       As I am writing this, the country of South Korea was dealing with the aftermath of the Typhoon  Hinnamnor.   It pounded the southern cities of Korea with anywhere between 1 meter (39 inches) to 104 cm (41 inches) of rain, high winds and destroyed much of the infrastructure in the area.  The death toll however was kept to a minimum due to early warning, evacuations and preparedness     Still though, cars were submerged, people were trapped and lives were lost.  The roads into and out of the city in some areas were simply washed away due to flooding and others were blocked by debris.       What I found so interesting about this story however is how it fell along the "green power vs traditional power" in America on a few political discussion sites.   South Korea will recover from this relativity quickly.  They are the forth largest economy in Asia and the tenth strongest economy in the world so there was very little discussion about foreign aid.       It's also intere

            The first great Winter Storm of 2022 is slowly making its way across America.   It's supposed to hit us here Sunday afternoon and bring anywhere between 8 to 12 inches of snow.  The worst part of this storm is the anticipation of it.       It's slowly moving across the United States and the local weather service has given us advanced warning going back several days.   As such, we have weatherproofed some of the windows - at least those that we know our young kitten is not likely to destroy.   We have tested the generator, and cleaned our wood burning stove.       We have the staples of milk, bread and toilet paper in stock.  I have a huge can of ice melting salt at my disposal, a brand new snow blower ready in the garage.  I have my boots, heavy jacket and scarf laid out;  I am ready for this storm.     I have never liked winter.  Moving south was always part of my plans and I moved south shortly after college to escape the cold.  So I find it ironic that I've m

      Imagine the scene, a family fights for survival in a cold and dark world, where the winds blow ceaselessly and the wolves are always at the door.   A ragged man, tired of the weight of the world, exits the home and fights his way through the snow to a lone generator...with a single mighty pull the dark dissipates as the lights come on.  His family inside cheers for now they have heat and don't have to worry about eating cold beans out of a can!        Dramatic music swells.....       Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic.  Maybe the wolves at the door was a bit over the top, but the point is that ever since we lost power for just a tad over 24 hours recently; the idea of a generator has never been that far from my mind.     Plus, I work from home and I depend on power to not only allow me to access my computer and phone lines...but to also keep the pellet stove running.        When it comes to generators however, I quickly learned that I know less than diddly squat about t

      Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interes t me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it out.          So a few days ago my wife and I lost power for roughly 24 hours.   It was out on Sunday at roughly 4 PM and stayed out until Monday afternoon.      To be honest I've often wondered if I could lead a "Amish" style life.   I'm not a fan of TV in general.  I figured that some time in the future I would conduct a little experiment and see if I could give up things like the radio, TV and even my cell phone for 24 hours or so.        No, I'm not a " Prepper ", frankly if the proverbial excrement did hit the rotary blades I would probably be one of the first to go.   My nickname would be "Bait" in a Zombie survival situation.   I'm actually OK with that, because I believe in other people, that the best of a society come