Today’s post comes from Barbara in Rivertown

When we moved here to Winona in June, I knew one of the things I would miss most from our Robbinsdale home was the back yard, a huge “park” and garden that was lush and green and private – from trees and shrubbery as much as from the existing fencing. Imagine the adjustment to our cute little yard, most of it encased in this lovely white plastic fence!

I understand – the former owner had a young child, and what better way to keep track of him? Husband doesn’t seem to mind the fence – he’s happy trading the lawn for veggie garden no matter what. But I feel a bit like a caged animal whenever I spend time out in the yard – the fence is visually solid, not even a crack to see what might be on the other side.

Add to this the fact that upon talking to our neighbor with whom we share this fence, it turns out the fence was both poorly erected and may have been built onto his property. (Luckily this neighbor is an old friend.) At any rate, its proximity to his driveway makes snow blowing almost impossible in winter. So there is plan afoot to move said fence this fall to where it should have been built, and add the missing 4×4 posts.

But – AHA! – Husband has had another idea – what if we just eliminated that fence? Granted, he needs some fencing around the garden for the bunnies, which (thanks to tim) we have in the garage, waiting for just such a purpose. But after that, do we really need a fence?

I asked Robert Frost, who wrote “Mending Wall”:

… Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.’…

I think it’s worth talking to Neighbor about. It may be that some fencing is in order – maybe they’re used to the privacy, too. But it might be a low fence, or just at the back of the drive where more privacy is desired. For my money, I’d like to see more open space.

Is your yard fenced? How do you feel about fences?

Today’s post comes from Clyde of Mankato

I have given into the rampant coffee culture, an invasion from foreign lands such as the Middle East, so it is my guess that Trump and the Trumpeters do not participate. Coffee was brought to Europe by Asian invaders, it seems.

In my childhood coffee was this weak watery stuff, in my house more watery than most, my mother being that thrifty. She bristled at being called cheap, which she was. Coffee would also stunt your growth.

It took my a few years into my adulthood to start drinking it, then I stopped. Coffee was made in the faculty room, a place I learned to shun, and by midmorning was over-heated – the coffee and the room. Sandy has never been able to drink it. I learned to sip it to be sociable. My daughter had sworn she would never drink coffee, as did her husband. She did not even drink it to be sociable. Now they have this fancy-schmancy coffee system and thrive on it.

So about ten years ago I started making it occasionally, then almost every day. But I seldom buy it out and about; it is expensive, and I do not like dark coffees. Starbucks is battery acid to my pallet. Then my son, a devotee of coffee who has tried roasting his own beans, clued me into two temptations: 1) blonde coffees, such as Starbucks Veranda and 2) Trader Joes, especially their Joe and their Soft and Mellow. Thrifty, if I ignore the gas to go up to the Cites to buy it. (Thrifty I call myself, never cheap.)

I made a drip pot every morning. Every so often I would press coffee. My coffee has grown a little stronger and a little stronger. Then lust set in, fueled by my daughter’s fancy-schmancy coffee maker, which allows you to make a cup at a time if you wish.

Both of my offspring extolled the virtues of grinding your own coffee. Temptation won. Last week I ordered a thrifty coffee grinder. I lust after a single cup coffee maker. However, I am finding that grinding coffee each morning and pressing it is very nice, especially out on the patio before the heat rises. Somehow each morning for the last week my blonde coffee gets a little stronger each day.

I am still coveting a the single-cup coffee maker. (But not my neighbor’s ass.) A cup at a time as I wish, easily done! Oh, my, I do sin.

However, I will have to hide the grinder this weekend. My sister and brother-in-law are coming this weekend. They go on tirades about their children and their dedication to coffee and how strong they make coffee and the money they spend. They are cheap for their children’s sake.

What do you hide from guests?