The City Mouse in the Country

 So I got banned from Facebook for 24 hours. I violated community standards because of a post that was somehow taken out of context.   I don't know or really care about the technical stuff, but basically a "bot" that scans the world wide web looking for content that does not meet "community standards" tagged me.  I would be lying if I didn't say I was little bit upset about it; after all there is a lot worse things that are floating around on Facebook than "They are already here, kill them on sight." A friend of ours had posted a picture of the spotted lanterfly , which is an invasive species. The department of agriculture here in Pennsylvania has requested that you kill them on sight.   He didn't think they were in this part of the state yet and this was his first siting of one..   The problem that I have is that lots of news stories and articles have already been written about this problem.  Slate magazine even published a bit of a humorous ...

I'm not a vegan.  I'm not even a vegetarian.   I am, for lack of a better word, "Plant based food curious." Like most people today, I got worried about my health.   A lifetime of bacon and cheesy poofs along with the traditional American hobbies of laying around on the couch pushed me close to the diabetic  range.  Heart disease runs in my family and after seeing what my wife has gone through with her diabetes and losing my mother to a heart attack...I started to seriously think about what I could do to improve my health.  Living through a pandemic didn't help either. The more I learned about diets and where food comes from, the more I realized that I could do lots of little things to help the planet too .  I'm proud to say that generally speaking I go at least two days out of week eating a vegan or vegetarian diet.    My interest in this type of food was sparked by my interest in cheese making , a hobby I picked up during the epidem...

Generally speaking I don’t like to talk politics on this blog, but it is one of my favorite topics to explore.   It’s just so rich in history. Not everyone is going to agree with me, and frankly I am an anomaly in the country, so a brief explanation before I get to the gist of today’s topic. People living in the country or rural areas generally tend to lean right politically.   Those that know me however know that I am a dyed in the wool Democrat and that I lean liberal.  I consider myself to be a Social Democrat; which differs from Democratic Socialism in a lot of ways despite the names being so similar.  The best way to think about Social Democracy is “ Capitalism with a heart. ”  We are still Capitalists; we just believe that Health care is a right that every citizen has and therefore the current health care system needs reformed.     Or that no one should be homeless.  Examples of Social Democratic programs that have bee...

      In some ways our first garden was successful.  We did manage to grow a few tomatoes, some wonderfully sweet strawberries.  Fresh basil, rosemary and thyme are used in a more than a few fresh dishes (see our recipe page for a couple of wonderful dishes ).  Although they were small, we even managed a few cucumbers.     Sadly both insects and deer got to my Brussel sprouts.  Although our zucchini flowered like crazy, for some reason we were robbed of this wonderful fruit .  We also failed to produce a single pepper despite our plants growing strong all year.     It's easy to blame this on a lot of things.  Not having the plants watered enough or the right container or 1001 other things that could have gone wrong.   I'm concentrating on the positive.   My lovely wife Susan loves to make and eat simple tomato sandwiches.  Sadly raw tomato does horrors to my digestive tract, but I can eat them...

    Generally speaking about Six PM every night it's my job to feed our cats.  Officially we have three.  Unofficially we have seven or eight.       Even though we don't have a barn...we have barn cats.   Our neighbor has horses and he encourages the barn cats because they do a great job of preventing mice and other rodents from getting into the feed.       When we moved into this home some two odd years ago, we were frankly asked if we wanted the previous owners two cats trapped.   "No," my Susan said, "they were there before us."        Since then we had one of the original two outdoor cats pass, while the other one is a semi permanent fixture on our back porch.  She sneaks in sometimes and once I woke up from a nap only to find her at my feet purring away contently.  Our youngest cat, Bobble (so named because his head was bigger than his body when he was a kitten), was m...

  I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. - Thomas Jefferson            I sit outside on our front porch, a tall cool glass of home brewed iced tea in my hand.   I'm looking over our "front 40" - basically a few raised garden beds and containers holding our strawberries, cucumbers, tomato's, peppers, Brussels spouts and zucchini.  There is not much I can do for them now, just let them grow and hope that we get a harvest of something soon.   I'm actually a bit anxious about the garden, I want to have something...anything for the effort.     You can plant a seed and try to take care of it as much as possible, but so much is out of your control.     Although to be honest, for the most part I am actually very content, and I can't help but think of an opening line of a poem I once read.  Sadly the rest ...

     Over the last couple of weeks, I've had a lot on my mind.  I've been given the opportunity to pursue two different, yet very similar jobs through my current company.  Both would pay me more and both offer me more, yet oddly similar responsibilities.  Although there is a great difference in how I would carry them out.        One of these positions would allow me to continue to work from home, where I can  continue to save money by not having to commute and work four - ten hour days in a week, having an extra day off in the middle.        The other position is in the city of Pittsburgh.  It's roughly  75 minutes away by car and that means additional expenses like parking and gas, in addition to my adding anywhere from eight to ten hours in commute time each week.  However it's a little more in line with my long term goals and, despite my bitching about it earlier, I do miss people.   ...