The City Mouse in the Country

  So we stood there, my wife and I, looking at a train display in the window of a small bank, my eyes as wide as saucers as I watched the toy train chug around the track.   One of the cars had a moveable searchlight on it, and that brought back warm memories.                 My wife said something to me but I had already traveled back in time to when I was 8 years old and my brother and I were playing with a train set that took up the entirety of my grandmother’s dining room.    One of the rail cars on her train set had a search light on it too, another car had a missile that you could shoot up and into the tree; which was exactly what my brother and I were doing; trying to knock ornaments down.    Sort of looks like me.  Even has a beer.                 Even today I swear that every Christmas packages were as high as the roof as chorales sang of old kings and new and it always snowed on Christmas day.   Memories of my father dressed up as Santa year in and year out as generation a

      I know, wrong state but read on!           Sue and I like to play things by ear.  When we travel just to get away it's often by throwing a dart at the map or picking a direction.   These little jaunts often lead to adventures, such as exploring near by Oil City for example.  However these short jaunts into the unknown only recharge our batteries.  Neither Sue or myself has had a proper vacation in some time.        So given the opportunity to visit friends in the Great state of Tennessee, we took full advantage of it, and flew by the seat of our pants southward with no plan in mind.     Our pants were ripped and torn however and our bums were left flapping in the wind by the end of the trip.        My buddy Tim is an old friend form High School.  We grew apart over time but started to reconnect over the last few years.  He owns eight (8) acres of land outside of Shelbyville, TN.   He owns several horses, a goat, chickens, has a fish pond,etc.     I wanted to pick his brain

        I have to be honest, I wasn't sure if or when I would get back to this blog.   It is easy to make excuses but honestly, I've not done much of anything to improve the "homestead" in over a week or two; and that honestly bothers me. An old Caboose in Stoneboro     I do tend to be a lazy man and I just feel that I should be doing more to help prepare this home for the coming winter, but so far the temperatures have not dropped below the mid 40's and the last  two days have been a pretty consistent rain, which makes doing anything outside unpleasant at best and down right near impossible at worst.      What this has allowed the lovely Sue and I to do however is spend a little time traveling, exploring and finally getting our new pellet stove installed.  Well Sue grew up in this particular part of Western Pennsylvania, I did not.  We decided to go sight seeing, take in the wonders of Autumn and just relax for a bit.       Now generally speaking I would get all