This week has been producing some remarkable sunsets. We have a lot of clouds that make each day grey and a lot of rain – sometimes a bit of snow. A typical January for this area.

But rather than the clouds making each day gloomy, the grey has enhanced the natural colors, such as the bright red berries of the dogwood tree, the red cardinals, and the green grass that is trying to poke through the muddy lawn.

This sunset last night had a touch of pink and I happened to have my camera with me, so I got a nice shot. I think I should carry my camera with me more often. I like nice sunsets – especially when they do not involve an endless horizon of water. I think the dark tree branches make a nice frame and the darker hills in the background give the photo depth.

Well, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men . . . when I got to the U-Haul store I was astounded to see the price of cardboard boxes. Every box was at least $5 and some were selling for as much as $30. That is just crazy for cardboard boxes! I can buy plastic tubs for less than that and not have to worry about water damage, mildew and rodents getting into the cardboard.

I went to K-Mart and bought 8 large plastic bins for under $35. After the yard sale this spring, I can still find a use for the plastic bins – they are almost a lifetime investment for storage whereas cardboard only lasts until it gets wet, torn, or starts to naturally degrade.

In all these years that my neighbor has had this swing, I have never seen her sit on it and actually swing. But we do have a lot of squirrels and birds who love this swing. I wish I could have snapped this photo with a couple of bright red cardinals on the swing with it sprinkled with fresh snow. I really like red cardinals and they look especially bright against the dark brown of wood and the white of a fresh snowfall.

I’ve always like the idea of garden arbors and started investigating them online. I was surprised to find so many different styles and sizes available. I guess I need to start my search by deciding on whether I want a wood arbor or a vinyl one.

Of course wood can be painted, but I think the point of wood is to have a more natural feel. If you are just going to paint the arbor, you should probably get one that is vinyl and have it factory painted in the color of your choice.

Everything in my neighbor’s yard is a natural wood – I am pretty sure it is all cedar. Even the siding and roof on her house are cedar and the whole effect is very rustic. My house’s exterior is a red brick veneer, so it is not as rustic as hers, but I still like the idea of wooden arbors for a natural look rather than a color.

While inspecting a property out in the country, my client took me around to the back of his house and showed me his little backyard retreat. He had fenced a section of the yard to separate it from the rest of the farm, installed a shallow in-ground pool, and put up this quaint wood arbor. I thought it was very artistically done, especially considering he is an auto mechanic.

Somehow it is just not as satisfying to rake the leaves from the backyard into a pile and then have to dump them into oversized brown paper bags and wait for the county yard waste truck to drive through collecting the bags. It’s just become another mindless, isolated chore that has to be done. I miss the good old days of leaves burning and all the neighbors gathered around, telling stories and jokes and being part of a close knit community.

I would not think there is that much work for actors in Philadelphia. But actually, it is not far from NYC and is a lot cheaper to live in Philly than to live in New Jersey or New York. So when he gets work in NYC he gets a short term apartment in New Jersey. New Jersey is actually nice once you get away from NYC and the banks of the Hudson River. In fact, most of New Jersey has nothing to do with New York City.

My favorite spot in New Jersey is Atlantic City. Most people probably think of Atlantic City as a min-Las Vegas, but i think of it as the beach and the boardwalk. I spent many summer weekends on the beaches of the Jersey Shore, swimming is the surf and walking for miles up and down the boardwalk and the beach looking for seashells. And I promise you, my summers at the beach were nothing at all like the TV series, Jersey Shore.

Keith’s parents live in rural New Jersey, about an hour east of Philadelphia and that is too far for him to commute to NYC for acting jobs. They have a small dairy farm and we were out there visiting his family over the holidays. I flew into Philadelphia and Keith picked me up at the airport. Then we drove out to his family’s farm in Jersey. That was a nice drive – nothing but open fields and a lot of cows. It was nothing like the opening scenes in “The Sopranos” when Tony is driving from his home in New Jersey across the river into the city.

I’ve know Keith and his family since college and they are like a second family to me. I’ve been to their farm several times and they always make me feel like I am one of the family and very welcome. On this visit, we hung out with Keith’s dad a lot, while his mom was busy shopping and baking – getting ready for Christmas.

Keith’s dad was telling us about Arosa Energy, a company that helps homeowners, farmers and businesses with New Jersey solar power. He says that there are a lot of ways to be able to afford switching to solar power or adding solar power to your property. Now there are federal tax credits and rebates from the state, which really help with the initial cost of installation.

His dad is planning to work with Arosa Energy to add solar panels to the dairy barn and the farmhouse. He was told that there will be so much energy generated from that many solar panels that he can actually sell the excess energy to the electrical utility provider company. I think that New Jersey solar energy is going to prove to be a great investment for his dad and the farm. We might end up back at the farm in April to help with the solar panel installation. I wouldn’t mind going back to help – I think I would learn so much from working on it – and it would be great to spend time with Keith and his folks, too.

Still, the idea of living someplace where you walk out of your front door and gaze across a sand beach to a sunrise over sparkling blue waters does make me wish I could move to Mexico or a Caribbean Island. I even starting investigating the possibility of buying a nice condo near a Mexican resort to have for most of the year, with plans to travel back to the U.S. to see family and celebrate holidays.

With the idea of moving to Mexico I searched online for International Movers to investigate the cost of moving out of the country and to read up on any tips or special considerations we would have to make to move.

Obviously, International Moving is not going to be the same as moving locally. For one thing, you have to deal with Customs agents and restrictions against certain items being allowed across the border. For example, you cannot take plants across the border. But there are a lot of other restrictions that I had not considered and was surprised to learn. For example, you cannot take a Persian rug into Mexico.

To move to the Caribbean Islands is different from Mexico. You have a lot of International Shipping restrictions. No wine or alcohol, no drugs – but I mean personal medical prescriptions, not the illegal stuff – and no guns or ammunition – not even for personal protection. That concerns me – with all the stories of cartels and violence, especially in Mexico, I would not want to be a new, American resident with no means to protect myself and my family.

The good thing about a wet winter is that we almost always need the rain and it helps replenish the water levels so that we do not have a drought next summer. I remember a couple of years ago the water shortage was so bad that I had to install rain chains on the house and the garage to conserve rain water for the garden and the lawn.

With enough chains rain accumulates in a barrel or other collector and can be used when needed. The chains have a practical use but they can also be decorative. I picked out brass chains that match the hardware on the doors of my house and the fence gates.

Wish I could say that I was the first one in my neighborhood to install a rain chain, but one of my neighbors beat me to it. I had been thinking about it and then one day I drove the back way to the grocery store and passed his house. Sure enough, he had install chains and collection barrels. So that motivated me even further to go ahead and do it.

The asteroid will be moving fast, but you should be able to see it from an East Coast viewing spot around 6:28 pm. It is expected to pass Earth, at only 201,700 miles from us. According to NASA, that is the closest any asteroid has passed Earth since 1976.

I found a photo of a doe and her fawn. The fawn is smaller than the rabbits in my backyard. Isn’t that amazing?

Three o’clock doesn’t give me much sleep, but I can catch up with a nap on Sunday if the football game gets boring.

I want to do a landscaping project first, since the weather has cooled off and this is the perfect time of year for working in the yard. I want to put in a small fish pond and a little garden area with roses and a trellis. I found an advertisement for some beautiful climbing roses and they will need an arbor or trellis for training the vines as they grow.

I have to admit that I don’t know very much about trellises but one of the shows on the DIY Network had an episode with a backyard and it totally inspired me.

I would think that plenty of people in the nicer neighborhoods in this area would be using a garden trellis with their Koi ponds and hot tubs or swimming pools. I’m frankly surprised that I don’t see more of them in the local stores. But online is just as easy, if not easier to find what I want and have it delivered when I’m ready.

John’s kid is a couple years older than my grandson and the birthday was a huge group of kids from his Little League team and his classmates at school. There were about 30 kids running through the house, with the door opening and slamming shut hundreds of times throughout the day. Every time one of them came in the house they tracked dust in with them.

Some parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are having dust storms instead of rain. There are huge clouds of dust blowing across entire towns, saturating everything. The dust blows into cars, tractors, homes, schools – everywhere. Its a major problem for everyone, not to mention the risk of fire and no crops to feed the livestock.

John was telling me that Carpet Cleaning Liberty Hill made an appointment with him for the next day after he called. He was glad to have such a fast turnaround. His wife is happy to have her clean carpets. But they still really need rain in Austin and most of Texas.