The City Mouse in the Country

 I consider myself a researcher.   Meaning that I find something of interest and I have to learn all I can until that research itch is satisfied.   I've actually made a career out of it in some ways.  Hopefully not dressed like this Foraging for food has never really interested me much.  I have a passing interest in it because of my desire to make my yard into a edible lawn.   For example I planted an edible (although non native) dogwood tree.  I'm planting or have planted a variety of native perennial fruits and veggie's.  It is an ongoing process, simply because in the back of my mind some post apocalyptic traveler will come across this and have nourishment for a few days. I have identified and used purslane, sheep and wood sorrel, curly dock and; what I believe is fiddlehead ferns in my yard before.  However not being 100% sure about the fiddlehead fern, it's not made it into a dish or salad yet.   Some ferns look familiar to fiddleheads but they are toxic.  As such

  This is a true story.   Years ago when I was a young man studying Evolutionary Biology as part of my teaching degree; our professor told us this story.  His professor at the time walked in, dropped the textbook into the trash and said something to the effect of " The discovery of complex life developing in deep sea vents changes everything we thought we knew." In other words....the biologists at the time were surprised to discover multiple colonies of complex animals with completely different biochemistry living in a very hostile environment, at that time it was believed that only small organisms evolved in the extreme temperatures and high pressure of the deep sea vents.    Suddenly there were advanced forms of life (worms and crabs) whose biochemistry was unlike any thing else on the planet.   Evolution, at least the way it was understood at the time, changed.   This story has stuck with me all these years because it teaches a very valuable lesson.  As our knowledge grow

 I'm the first one to admit that I'm pretty useless when it comes to any thing what I have to build or assemble.  For example it took me three days to assemble a closet from Ikea for our previous home in Florida. Although to be honest the instructions were not that clear about what part to begin with, although once we did start it came together pretty quickly and, to the best of my knowledge, still stands today.  My comfort zone has moved somewhat since I've moved out to the country.   I'm not afraid to take on a project knowing that I'll learn from it in some way. We started planning our garden in the last days of fall, although it appears that both Sue and I didn't communicate enough.  I was thinking that we would do a container garden and grow some some simple things like Basil, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Cilantro, Cucumbers, Garlic, Onions, Parsley, Parsnip, Peppers, Radish, Strawberries, and Tomatoes.  For a family of 2, we would need a minimum

  Let me state that first and foremost that I am a Pacifist.   I don't believe in violence in any way, shape or form nor do I believe that violent actions are ever justified. That being said I was reading an opinion piece on an environmentalist discussion board calling for more direct - and confrontational - action concerning climate change and social justice. I can understand the writer's comments and their frustration.  That being said I personally cannot condone or support any act of violence in the name of ecology or social justice (or any other cause for that matter).  That's just my personal belief that any violence just begets more violence...and that solves nothing. I may have been reading to much into it or supplanting my own fears and anxiety onto the author of the original piece  I do feel it's an idea worth commenting on however because the solutions needed are complex and intertwined and frankly require more than slap dash attempts at "policy." B

       In many ways, I want to make this home of ours into a gem.  We have an idea of what we want to paint, what we want to update and what we want to replace completely.     If the weather cooperates, this morning at the time of writing there is a heavy thunderstorm moving through, I hope to add some more rocks to my "Dry Creek" project and start/finish the often delayed fire pit build. Taken from a window during a storm     Well we did not plant a garden this year for a variety of reasons; we do have the room in front of the house for a wonderful and varied garden.   It's also the part of our property that gets the most sun and has a very fine slope away from the home so water can flow out towards our road.     We may never be self sufficient but we can be a little smarter and environmental conscious on what we do, and how we do things.   This is why I am thinking about letting some of our property “Go Wild."     We own roughly 2.5 acres, most of that