The City Mouse in the Country

     Earlier in the week, I finally managed to get most of the house pressure washed.   This has been something that I’ve wanted to do for some time and kept getting put off due to weather, other commitments and God knows what else. Getting the green off!      Notice I said “ most” of the house.   I was only able to reach about seven or eight feet into the air.   So nearly all the second floor of the home is still in need of a good cleaning, I didn’t have the right tools to go any higher.          To do that, I would need a steady ladder and a longer hose.   Two things I don’t currently have but will be resolved shortly (probably by the time I publish this).   It’s just two more things to add to my growing collection of things.    The accumulation of things is something I'm trying to avoid but that's another post for another time.      I’ve owned homes before, both here In Pennsylvania and in Florida.    Over time I have managed to build a nice collection of hammers, wrenche

       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

           What makes you fall in love with a house?  Is it the layout, the square footage, the way the sunlight dapples the floor?  Susan and I fell in love with our house for a lot of different reasons.   We loved the wood burning stove and hard wood floors.  We loved that we had roughly 2.5 acres of mostly wooded land.  Sue loved that the kitchen, although small, had original Amish handcrafted wooden cupboards.   However I fell in love with the house when I was walking through the backyard and realized that the small "creek" that flowed between two hills and away from our house was not a natural feature at all.   It was a drainage ditch that looked natural and drained the water into the sewer system out by the road..     It was man made, I could see where the cut for it began at the top of the hill and had been obscured by some underbrush.   I would trace its path down along the hill and how closely it followed the lay of the land.        Someone long ago dug it to keep th

         Ever since I was told by my doctors that I would have to make some changes - and this time that "talk" actually took hold, I've been trying to live a healthier lifestyle .   It's been a bit of an uphill battle as both Sue and I are stuck in our ways.     If change is inevitable then why not start with easy and fun things?   Then move on to some of the harder stuff later on?  So one way that I've decided to try and incorporate a healthier lifestyle is through my love of cheese making.  Never in a million years did I think I would choose this as a hobby, but I do have a love of cheese, experimenting in the kitchen and a love of trying new things.      Thus vegan cheese.     To be honest I wasn't sure what to expect, and I can truthfully say that some of them I really enjoyed.   So I'm going to talk about my experiences making some of these cheeses and my taste tests.  Your mileage may vary.   Vegan Mozz      It was also an adventure trying

      Once in ancient America - about 100 years ago - there was this thing called a "Party Line".  In remote or rural areas it made sense to have several homes connected to one telephone line.  Thus if you had to make a call, it was possible that others could listen in, sometimes even join in on your conversation.  Party lines were a way to connect to your neighbors and avoid isolation.  Party lines were eventually replaced as the miles and miles of utility wire were laid over time in rural areas.     It sounds strange to today that we would allow ourselves a lack of privacy, but in 100 years the idea of a cell phone will probably sound very odd to the youth of that generation.  However it was a way to avoid isolation back then.  Much like our work chat and zoom calls are ways that we avoid isolation now until we finally officially go back to work.      It's not odd for my team to share pictures of our pets and talk about things other than work, even though the chat is de

    So what do you do when you find yourself alone on Mother's day?   It was a truly miserable day of low temperatures, howling wind and at one point, about an inch of snow on my front yard.        Well if your me...you make cheese.   Not one, but two different types of cheese.  Both of which you have never made before and wanted to experiment with. I'm actually happy to call both a success, although the quick mozzarella I made missed the mark in my opinion.        That's the fun thing however, and so far I've been pretty successful in my cheese making endeavors.  I was not going to do a post about cheese making however, generally speaking they are only popular with 3 - 5 people and I don't really have a lot of great photo's to share this time.  However I decided to because one of them is a bit unusual, a lot of fun and simple to make.   Although it is time consuming. Juusoliapa - final product        When I was out gathering some things for some vegan cheese

        First off let me state clearly that this is not a political post.   This post is about guns.  For my purpose here I am classifying rifles, automatic rifles, semi automatic's, pistols and such in all their various forms as "guns."   You don't like that, get your own blog.  This is personal post     Now that we live "out in the boondocks" the question comes up every now and again from otherwise well meaning people about when Sue and I are going to buy a gun.   My answer is Probably Never .   Despite being a dyed in the wool liberal, I've no issues with guns.   After all, I know people that hunt and have never turned down their offer of venison, duck or quail.       I also have several friends that have served in the military and have defended this country with honor and dignity.  I have family members that serve the public as police and I personally have fired several rifles and pistols in my life, taking down several threatening tin cans and