Still waiting for spring...

To the point where I put my little seedlings out and LAST WEEK we had a freeze and I lost our baby cucumbers.

One of the things we agreed to before moving to rural-ish Pennsylvania was that we wouldn't let ourselves feel stuck here.  After a lifetime of travel, buying a house here and working from home has a real risk of causing our lives - or what we've come to understand as our lives - to come to a screeching halt. Our house is a new build, so at least it doesn't need repairs and basic maintenance is minimal 6 months in.  We are going to take care of the yard this year, so, watch this space.

The early months felt easy as trips to Philadelphia were built in every couple of weeks for work. It's an amazing walkable city. Since moving here we've done a couple trips down to DC for Marymount stuff, a weekend to Pittsburgh where we met up with Nicholas for a Caps-Pens game, a weekend in Buffalo/Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) for a Caps-Sabres game, and a weekend to Atlanta to see Becca, Max, and Paul McCartney. We've gone ahead and planned the rest of the year too, so again, watch this space. Of course, our goal is to regularly see our kids, and Ian's future pilot license will go towards that.

I probably shouldn't attempt to write posts on a Sunday night.  Next month we'll have a fun update.

March supposedly ushers in springtime

You'd think after 2 years of living in Toronto we'd know better, but we still toss around the idea of moving to Canada. Ontario to be precise. Vancouver, Nanaimo, are so amazing but feel too far.  Same with Nova Scotia and PEI, and while Newfoundland and Labrador is amazing, but is essentially a rock where everything besides whales, puffins, and icebergs have to be brought in. Quebec has a lot of hurdles. Not really vibing with Saskatchewan, Alberta or Manitoba.  And going further north is a big No.  Ian went to Nunavut for a work trip and has no interest in that bitter bitter cold.  Maybe New Brunswick if not Ontario?

As cold as Canada can be, we feel like we're onto about month 13 of winter in Pennsylvania. And we've only lived here for 6 months. We're not sure what to make of this part of PA.

We've had someone come by to look at our yard and are now waiting for an estimate on fencing and managing the steep hill.  I say we just ignore that corner of the yard.  Plant a tree.  Surround it with tall native flowers and grasses that will keep erosion at bay.  Now's the time to do all the things that an actual HOA might try to argue, amirite?  We've also thrown out ideas like putting in a shed, a fire pit, and a pergola, just to get ideas of what dealing with the yard may cost and how much we can get away with.

I also have three sections of grass blocked out and covered with soil (free from the construction sites!) where I plan to grow Things.  In the fall I sprinkled some wildflower seeds in two of them and I'll do more once the ground thaws a bit. The kids got me an assortment of vegetable seeds and gardening gear I'm itching to break in, so once I can feel my hands when I step outside it's game on between me and 416 sqft of growing plot. Ian wants a couple barrel blueberries as well. 

Do I have any idea what I'm doing? Not in the slightest.  But it's going to be fun.  If only spring would come.

Squeaking in a February blog post

Over the winter holidays we had the family up/over over the course of 2 weeks.  Some were here the whole time, others came for one part or another.  It works best this way for us when everyone has lives in different parts of the country. 

Living where we do, we had to make some of our fun.  This area is no Toronto.  We played a lot of cards, poker, and Codenames.  The offspring decorated a gingerbread house.  We visited Lititz and the Green Dragon, and the adventurous ones went off for a day of snowboarding.  On a quiet day after some had already departed for home, we sat around the table and drafted up some 2026 bingo cards. 

What I noticed after the fact is that most of my squares are either year-long projects, like "blog once a month" or projects that take a while to plan, like "have a garage sale."  

Read two books a month.  Kinda cheated on this one already.  In January I finished one I started in December and then read three more... in January.  In February... none finished but I have three I'm working on.  I blame it on 28-days.

Mail something every month, from me not Amazon.  I want to write more in general which is why I have blogging, mailing, and drafting a story on three different squares.  I had an idea for a story, but now I kind of hate it. Good thing I have a year... 10 months... to figure it out.

Plant a garden.  Our awesome kids gifted me an amazing wheelbarrow and a full set of gardening gear and seeds before they left for home.  If only we didn't live in a land of perpetual winter.  I told Ian that we've lived in our house for 5 months and 12 of those months have been winter.  It needs to stop. So I've taken to rescuing succulents from the bargain trays at Lowe's, and repotting them into their own little pots.  And rinsing all the dirt off the roots of the peace lily my parents sent as a housewarming gift... and popping it into the fish tank. And growing a potato in water like a kid doing a science experiment.  And trying to grow a lemon tree and avocado tree from seeds...   We have three plots marked out in the the yard, I just need it to not be freezing and/or covered in a foot of snow.

Do something creative every month. This is left open to interpretation.  I did something kind of creative in January, absolutely creative in February, and have no idea what March will be. 

And so it goes for the other 18 squares.

We're here.

Back in July 2025 I drafted a blog post about where we were with everything since January 20.  It wasn't good then, it's still very much not good for many many more reasons.

We are no longer with the federal government, and our departure was by choice.  In that, I am grateful.

We built a house in a small community in central PA, where even the locals ask "why here?" Our neighbors are divided between Came From Away (a few) to Moved 10 Minutes Closer to Mom Who Lives Down the Way (many many more).  There are a number of homes still being built - notably in front and behind us so we have at least a year of construction to contend with, but to the right we have a couple from New York, and to the left a couple from Vermont.  The diversity in this neighborhood is better than I expected too, so grateful for that.

The family visited over the holidays.  I don't use the term "blessing" much because of its religious connotations, but last year we had the whole family visit in Toronto, and this year in a far more remote place -- so yes, the fact that my parents and our kids still make the trek is a blessing.

Ian's retirement didn't last long.  He's been part-time since October and just started very flexible full-time.  I'm full-time as well, and we're lucky that we can work from home.  

As I look over the icy moonscape that is our yard, I do have moments of wondering if settling so far north was the right move.  But then people say that this winter has been an odd one.  The entire month of December was freezing and snowy with an ice storm thrown in for good measure over the holidays.  Now in January we've had a giant snow dump and it's so cold it has frozen into a hard shell. And the wind, oh the wind. The wind is beyond anything we expected.

OK.

Let's be honest, it's hard to launch blogging again -- about our new fish tank, plans for the yard, how do you even set up for a yard sale? -- when the country's institutions, its people, and the constitution is under a full attack from our own government, without turning the blog into a political commentary?  Truly there's no point in avoiding it, it's going to seep in no matter what I do.  

https://www.signsofjustice.com/products/we-the-people 

https://makerworld.com/en/models/119995-loud-whistle?from=search#profileId-129140

Sometimes I wonder if the anger and anxiety are why I've been so sick lately too.

It certainly can't be helping.