The City Mouse in the Country

    When I was a young man, I was surrounded by dogs.  In fact, it always seemed like dogs were just part of my growing up.  Buttons was a toy collie mix who loved to run after rabbits and to this day my dad and I laugh at a slow motion chase scene that was out of a cartoon.         She spotted the rabbit in the high grass of our neighbors home...she looked at my dad quizzically.   "Go" he said and she was off.   Chasing after this poor bunny.   Buttons was able to catch up to the rabbit on the straightway, but didn't have the cornering ability of the rabbit.  Well this rabbit decided to run directly towards my dad and I as we stood near our home...the dog so close that we wondered what Buttons would do if she caught the rabbit.     Bugs the bunny got so close to the house that he jumped and bounded off the wall, that's where things went into slo-mo and become a cartoon.  Buttons applied the breaks her tongue flapping as she leaned as far back as she could her front l

     Thanks to the wonders of algorithms if I try to eat a little healthier or try to eat a bit more plant based, my social media feeds (have you checked out our Facebook page yet) explodes in a variety of articles and recipes.  Which I don't mind so much in that I like to learn about different things that interest me.   What I do mind is that I have more than one interest and my feed is full of nothing but vegan and plant based info now.        For example, Kentucky Fried Chicken's new plant based nuggets.  No, I've not tried them yet but I'm planning on it.  My social media feeds are full of stories, reviews and general information about this one product right now.      Any company that is offering plant based foods I think deserves kudo's and our cash; because if they see it's a profitable market, they will continue to support it.   It's not a bad thing as such, although please note that KFC's plant based offering is technically not vegan or vegetar

            The first great Winter Storm of 2022 is slowly making its way across America.   It's supposed to hit us here Sunday afternoon and bring anywhere between 8 to 12 inches of snow.  The worst part of this storm is the anticipation of it.       It's slowly moving across the United States and the local weather service has given us advanced warning going back several days.   As such, we have weatherproofed some of the windows - at least those that we know our young kitten is not likely to destroy.   We have tested the generator, and cleaned our wood burning stove.       We have the staples of milk, bread and toilet paper in stock.  I have a huge can of ice melting salt at my disposal, a brand new snow blower ready in the garage.  I have my boots, heavy jacket and scarf laid out;  I am ready for this storm.     I have never liked winter.  Moving south was always part of my plans and I moved south shortly after college to escape the cold.  So I find it ironic that I've m

       By the time you read this it may very well be the 10 or 11th day (if not later) of January, 2022.   Happy New Year!     We would have got here sooner but frankly we were hiding in our bunker, unsure if we should peak our head or not.  Sue and I caught what we thought was the common cold around the end of the Christmas Holiday and it stuck around.   Two, thankfully negative, Covid tests later and we are ready to enter the world once again.       However we are flying blind here.   Normally we have a goal, a sure plan on how to attack it.   This year we have a vague idea of where we would like to be and a even vaguer idea on how to obtain those goals.       Sue somehow found a job cleaning some buildings every night which, while not particularly hard, does take up some time and is paying what debt we do have down drastically.    Well I'm thankful for that, it cuts into the time I have to work on other projects, such as this blog.     We are still planning on put up a small con

    For as long as I've kept a blog or a journal of some sort, I've always taken a few minutes to look back over the last year to see what I was thinking and feeling at any one time.   What worked and didn't work for me as a blogger...and as a human being.     This was our first full Calendar year in Western Pennsylvania.  I can honestly say that 2021 was a year of firsts, of disappointments, and at times felt like we were on a roller coaster without the safety bar in place.   It was also one of joy and laughter.     In some ways it was full of setbacks - for example we never did get our garden planted in the spring, which was something that I was hoping to do.   We realized however that we had planned was simply to much for what we needed and by the time we made adjustments, the growing season was over.      However we did do "little things" like replace our drainage ditch with stones and such to make it seem more like a natural creek bed.   We also added a

      I watch way to much Food Network .  When I was given the opportunity to buy some quail eggs recently, I could not pass them up. Where I have had quail in my life - it reminds me more of duck than chicken since the meat tends to be darker - I've never had quail eggs.  The hedonist in me demanded that I buy them.  Plus they came from a local breeder with a good reputation.       I am slowly but surely moving towards a plant based diet, but I'm not willing to give up all animal products yet.        Quail eggs are tiny, it takes about 2 to 5 quail eggs to equal the same amount of chicken eggs (depending on several factors) but, generally speaking, the quail egg tends to be a healthier (and more expensive) choice.      Let's talk about the cost first before I get into nutritional value and what I decided to do with these little beauties.   I paid five dollars for 24 eggs.  That works out to be roughly 21 cents per egg.     Now the average cost for a dozen chicken eggs is $

      It's a classic family scene, perhaps going back to the first family - Greg and his wife Oola as they tried to get their kids to eat veggies.  I can hear it now: " Your mother Oola spent all day slaving in the hot sun gathering those berries and green twig things for you!   She almost got trampled by a giant ground sloth!  So no one leaves the rock till they finish their green twig things!"       So it was that in mind that I decided to try Yummy Dino Buddies.   Originally made by a Canadian company but now owned by Purdue , these are being marketed as Vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian friendly, however not all of their products under the Yummy Dino Buddies name are meatless, so let the buyer beware.       It's up to the indivdual consumer to buy items that they feel comfortable with, however I believe that the only way to move these companies towards an environmentally friendlier product is by supporting their efforts to make plant based products.   With this