I was born and raised in the North Country and proudly call it home.   Fifteen years ago, I joined the military and have been bounced all over the globe since.  I visit NorthCountryNow.com for a little taste of home and in this case…humor. Humor from how sheltered the North Country truly is. “Subsidized Smoking”…really! “Burning House Unsafe”…ya think, that is why a fire department needs to do to ensure they have the best training under their belt when they respond to your home!  “Manure a nuisance,” in the grand scheme of life it is simply a pile in the road…life will go on. It’s true, you never know what you have until you’ve lost it. I’ve seen an orphanage in the slums of Haiti, I’ve talked to the distraught parents from the ninth ward carrying their children in one arm and what’s left from Katrina in the other. Worse yet, I’ve heard the ear-piercing screams of a mother who just realized she lost her husband and only child to a suicidal extremist. Grab a shovel, clean up that pile in the road, shake the firefighter’s hand and thank him for what he does and most importantly embrace the North Country. There’s no other place on earth like it!