Dreadful Penny

I don’t have a green thumb. I hate yard work. It’s inescapable, however, so I figured that I might as well try to make our yard as productive as possible this year, especially when I’m trying to eat better and feed the family more cheaply. I’m not Farmer Penny and while we […]

The other day we were in front of the house, putting another coat of paint on our steps, when a neighbor called over, “You’re always working!” I replied that there was always something to do. She insisted that we make work for ourselves.
Oh, she’s probably right, but it may be a question of […]

We’ve reached the most obvious indicator that we’re done with home improvement projects for a while. Yep, we’re out of cash. We finished all but one item on our ambitious 2008 outdoor project list before the well ran dry, which I attribute to good planning, lots of research, and no shortage of hard […]

I’ve been switching over to more whole foods this year, so the article Raw Milk Rebellion on Reason Online caught my attention. Many years ago on a stop in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, my family had milk and eggs for breakfast, straight from the farm. I think it’s the only glass of milk that […]

That’s our rain barrel; one of three that we put in place this year. Apparently we’re trendy — there were two vendors selling rain barrels at the city plant and flower sale yesterday. One was proudly offering ugly recycled containers for $300 installed, which is a lot more than we paid, though it […]

We don’t really know where the local squirrels get their food. Oh sure, they gather walnuts and acorns from the trees and dig grubs out of our lawn; that’s nothing unusual. I’m talking about their junk food. We’ve seen squirrels nibbling full slices of pizza and carrying a bagel up a tree. […]