The City Mouse in the Country

I feel like an old man as I watch the blustery snow swirl outside my window.  I'm wrapped in a warm sweater, drinking an aromatic herbal tea and I am at peace.  " All I am missing, " I think to myself, " is a pipe and my cranky old man persona would be complete. "  Winter gives me time to think.    I hate the winter, the cold and the dark of it.  I hate the short days, the snow and the cold rain.  I hate the very thought of dealing with it. It was winter that drove me south all those years ago. We have yet to have a harsh winter since moving back to Western Pennsylvania.  We have had cold snaps and snow of course, but the snaps haven't settled in for months and the snow - while heavy at times - has generally melted away quickly.  This has made the winter bearable for me. Winter gives me a break, a moment to stop and catch my breath before the busy seasons begin again.  Lately I've been thinking about work and what I have to do come spring; such as cleani

 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.   The reason why I hate to take down t

 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

       When you own a home or any piece of property, you realize how much you don’t really know.    You become a plumber, an electrician, a landscaper and a painter.   You become, or are forced to become, a lot of little things as part of being a homeowner.   It’s in the fine print of that contract you signed.        I thought about that and 1001 little things during the last few days.  Recently my riding lawnmower needed a blade replaced, which I replaced with mulching blades, only for me to hit a hidden root with it again – on a tree that was scheduled to come down this weekend.   Now the mower assembly will not engage at all; shutting down the whole machine.   We have to have it repaired for the second time within a week.       I thought about how the summer thunderstorms moving through our area all this week were turning our “dry creek bed” project into a very wet, very muddy issue.   I’m also realizing that this is why I should have put a landscape barrier down (to help preve

           My buddy Aaron and his brother Wes called me early in the morning yesterday and asked if I be interested in splitting some wood with them.   Aaron has done tons of favors for me in the past, from cutting my grass to helping put up ceiling fans.   He's a good guy.   So, of course I said yes.     Being a "city mouse", it should come as no surprise to any of my two or three readers (who are probably family - Hi Steph!) that I have never split wood.  Aaron and Wes heat their home with a older wood burning stove, but increased it's efficiency with some good DIY thinking.  They also sell wood to supplement their income.     The idea behind splitting wood it is pretty simple.   You take a tree and section it down into usable bits.   This is normally done using a chainsaw, which I didn't use - that skill I'll pick up later.   Then take your nice round section of wood, place it upon a bigger rounder stump and then take a nice look at it.   You want to start

     Every homesteading article I read says the same thing.   Take it one step at at time and learn new skills.  Now that's all well and good, the only problem is that I am a "City Mouse" and I've become used to having things either "on demand" or having someone that can do it for me on my time schedule.          Thus it was the first weekend in November that I had planned on learning how to split wood.  Sue and I ended up buying a pellet stove, and buying a ton of pellets (50 forty pound bags) which were stacked into the back of the garage to fuel it.      Originally we were going to go with a traditional wood burning stove and had even bought a cord of wood, however that plan fell through due to cost to replace the original wood burning stove and bringing everything up to code.  (See previous posts).        So we gave the cord of wood that I had previously bought to a family member and spent part of the day Saturday loading and unloading  two pickup truck

     It's mid September and already you can feel winter in the air, it lurks like a proverbial horror movie villain just outside the windows.  It's presence is felt in the dropping temperatures and the winds that blow across my neighbors open fields.       I had escaped it's grip twice before in my life, moving to North Carolina when I was a younger man fresh from college, and when I moved to Florida shortly after the 2008 housing crash because I could not get arrested in the Pittsburgh job market.     Now I had returned, perhaps for the last time due to aging family and the wishes of my long time girlfriend I easily called "wife."  The first winter would be hard on me I knew.  I loved the warmth, the sun, the longer days of spring and summer.  I was not someone that enjoyed the concepts of being cooped up for three months hunkered down and waiting for the golden rays to return.     However I could survive it.       It's all in how you prepare for it.     For