A Different Perspective

I guess I am just one of these people who was born out of time. I believe that hard work pays off. I believe that you should treat people with kindness and respect, not only because God tells us to, but because it is the right thing to do. I believe that the people should support the government, not the other way around. I believe that food and meal time should be a joy, and not just something to keep your body alive. And I believe that every action, every decision, every desire of every person, affects everyone else .

Work is hard. Otherwise it wouldn't be called work. If something isn't difficult to achieve, we just don't value it. For instance, 2 people of very different social classes, decide they want or need a barn. The poorer of the two has to build it himself while the rich man hires a contractor to build it. The poor man saves his money, asks for salvaged materials, plans extensively so that the barn will do everything he needs or might need for the future. It takes him several months to gather supplies, prepare the building site, and build the barn. It rains, it is hot, it is cold, he bashes his thumb with a hammer a few times, but finally the barn is finished. It may not be pretty, but it is dry and will do what he needs it to do.

The rich man only has to pick up the phone and call a contractor. The contractor comes out with his crew, prepares the site and builds the barn. It takes about a week, then they are gone. The Rich man fills the barn with all of the things that should be in a barn, then stops thinking about it at all.

The rich man never lifted a finger to build his barn. To him it is simply a building. To the poor man, it is an extension of himself, something that he provided at his own expense to better himself, his animals, and his property. He works in it every day. He sees the condition of the walls, the floor, the roof. He will repair anything that needs to be fixed. He adds on to it as needed, because you see, it has to last. He cannot afford to build another one. He values the building, not just because he needs a barn, but because his sweat went into the construction. And his barn is probably more solidly built and of better quality than the barn of the rich man who paid someone who doesn't care about it.

Hard work creates value and self worth. It makes you feel good about something and yourself.


Being kind should be a no brainer. There are many admonitions in the Bible to be kind to others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The story of the Good Samaritan. Just to name a couple. But seriously, wouldn't the world be a better place if every one were kind to each other? Smile at a stranger. Help someone who is struggling. Take a meal to a sick friend. Do any of these things hurt you in any way? No. But they help someone else in ways that are beyond belief. That stranger you smile at walking down the street may have just gotten fired from their job and has to go home to tell their family the bad news. That smile may just give them the encouragement to apply for a job on the way home. The person that is struggling may be your elderly neighbor who is having trouble getting the trash can to the street every week. Your little bit of help may be the difference that keeps her from falling in the driveway and hurting herself. That meal you take to a co-worker when she is sick may feed her children so they don't have to go to bed without dinner. None of these things cost you much in either time or money, but by simply being kind, you have brightened the lives of others, who will in turn, be more willing to be kind to the people they meet. If everyone was kind to 1 person each day, it could change the world.

This country was created to give the people a nation where individual freedoms were considered an inalienable right. The governments sole duties were to provide security to the entirety of the nation and to provide the structural framework for a free society. And gradually, over the last 236 years, the people have asked the government to do more and more of the things we should be doing for ourselves, mostly because we don't want to be bothered with it.

Your granny is old and sick and can't really live by herself any more. So instead of moving her in with you, you sign her Medicare check over to a nursing home and move her in there. She will get minimal care, but they will make sure she gets her meds and someone will check on her every few hours and you will not be burdened by having to deal with her. You live in a small town where there are not many jobs. You have always always lived there and don't want to move or get the education you need to get one of the few jobs there are available. So you get the government to provide you with a welfare check. It pays the bills and provides you with some money for food. Your children see that you get a check every month without having to work for it, so they don't bother working either when they come of age.

The people in a small town want want to be able to commute to work in the city a little faster, so the contact their State Legislators to get a better highway. The bill passes and the highway is built. But it also raises their taxes, but only a little bit. The tax money more than pays for the highway but the tax doesn't go away. Then someone wants to upgrade the civic center. So the taxes go up to pay for it. But the tax doesn't go away after the building is paid for.

Over time, all of those taxes provide the government with a lot of money to use at their discretion. Some of the money is used for the good of the people as a whole. But a goodly portion of it is used for things that only benefit a select few. Our tax money is being used to support programs that are either not necessary, are beneficial to only a few, or are to the detriment of society as a whole. Our tax burden on the whole is many many MANY times higher than what triggered the Boston Tea Party. And yet, no one complains. It makes me rather sad.

As a society, we have gotten away from cooking meals ourselves. With the advent of inexpensive drive thru service, it is easier and faster to just pick up some questionable food from a chain restaurant or pick up the phone for take out. Our busy, hectic lives prevent us from having the time to spend an hour or so making a good healthy meal and enjoying it with family and friends. A home cooked meal has become a luxury. Is it any wonder the Old World countries where meals are prepared at home look down on us for our eating habits?

I try to cook our meals myself at least 5 or 6 nights a week, health permitting. I know the quality of the food we eat, and can make sure that we are all getting the proper amount of vegetables and fruits we need. I try to grow as much of our food as possible and what I can't grow, I try to buy locally. I generally do not buy mixes and kits for the things we eat because they are loaded with salt and preservatives. My children had rather eat a meal that I prepare than to spend a lot of money to eat out. It makes me feel good to know that they understand the difference in quality that a home cooked meal provides because the secret ingredient is always Love.

And finally...

Your actions make a difference. You work hard at what you do. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment. That in turn makes you feel good about yourself and more willing to feel good about the things and people around you. And the effect is viral. The better you feel, the more those around you want to feel that way as well. If you don't work hard, that good feeling isn't spread around and everyone is simply plodding along. If you treat others with kindness and respect, they return the favor. If you treat others poorly, you will also be treated that way. If you tell the truth, no matter how hard that truth is to bear, you will receive the truth as well. When you want only the things you actually need or already have, then you are not wasting your resources for frivolous things. You can focus on Enough, and not on the media driven consumer driven compulsion to buy, you do not need a McMansion that you cannot afford to house all of your things that you don't need or even really want. You don't have to work every second of every day to be able to pay the credit card bills for all the things you have bought. You have time to actually be a parent and spouse. You have time to do the things that make you feel good about yourself. And you have time to sit down at the table to a home cooked meal, prepared with Love.

Unfortunately, none of these things are very common in the fast paced society we now live in. We do not have time to sit and think about the things we do and how it effects ourselves and others. We have become greedy with our time, our money, and our feelings toward others. We all want MORE, without having to give of ourselves in return.

Well, I for one, will not live that way. I challenge the WORLD to join me.

Alternative Energy

I have been researching again. Sustainability, off-grid, alternative energy, all of the things that would be necessary if something happened to society as we know it. Want to know what I have discovered? It is really expensive and none of them are good for general purposes.

If you do a web search on these things, you will find millions of pages, most of which are simply common sense things, to reduce the amount of energy you consume. You can use solar PV systems, but they are expensive, bulky, and if you live in an area that doesn't get optimum amounts of sunlight year round, not really the way to go unless you have a huge amount of battery storage and/or another source as a backup. Wind turbines can be a good solar backup, but you have to have open space, a good steady wind, and they can be noisy if they are too close to the house. Micro-hydro is another good source for solar backup. If you have a creek, stream, or spring with a high enough flow rate. Again, you have to have the right local conditions.

Then there is the whole biomass thing. Essentially, it all boils down to a wood stove of some sort. Yes, you could rig up a way to use the wood stove to boil water, to create steam, to run a turbine, that is connected to a generator, to produce a current. Is it efficient? Not really. You would have to really, really like cutting firewood, and have a large patch of woods, for this to be a viable option. But...there are things you can burn besides trees, provided your stove can handle the different types of fires and still be efficient. Corn cobs, waste paper(ie cardboard, rolled newspapers, etc) sawdust (either loose or pellets), broken shipping pallets, construction waste, basically anything that is cellulose based and will still burn. A wood stove in the home would be a great alternative to being strictly electric since you can use it to heat the home, cook on, and heat water, but this would be mainly limited to cool or cold weather seasons. But as a supplement, it is a great option.

Lets say you have 5 acres and a small (1000 sf or less) house and it is just you and your significant other. One of you works outside the home and the other stays on the property and gardens, tends the livestock, etc. For this setup, 4 to 6 solar panels with the associated battery bank, a wood stove, and maybe a small wind turbine (if you really use a lot of electricity, like for a separate chest freezer and a small ac unit) would be a good set up. The main problem would be that the equipment would run you over $10,000. Plus the batteries would have to be replaced every 5-8 years and that can get expensive in the long term.

You could go really old school and do without electric completely. Have 2 wood stoves, one inside and one outside, candles or kerosene lamps, and live without an AC unit. Here in the hot humid South, not really a viable option. It can be done but you have to have the right layout on your house or you would just be living in a oven all summer. Good airflow through out the house and a 3 sided wrap-around porch with windows (and screens) facing the prevailing winds. This is how our grandparents lived. And it worked out fine.

So, I guess the bottom line on this is really how much do you want to spend, and how many of the modern luxuries can you give up to do it. If it is a survival situation, I can personally give up a LOT of things. If it is just a sustainability issue, I am not gonna give up my a/c.

So until we have our 5 acres, or life as we know it comes to an end, I will just keep researching options. Maybe something new will be developed that will eliminate the need for multiple systems and battery banks. Maybe...maybe...maybe.

It does give me something to think about though.

Is it the End Times?

With world events spiraling out of control, things are going to be getting really bad, for every one. People are dying by the thousands in Japan, either from the earthquake/tsunami or they will soon be dying from radiation poisoning. People in Africa are being killed by their own governments. And this is not just in Libya, but all over the continent. Disease, famine, wars, gang violence, thousands are dying every DAY. And what are we doing about it?

Nothing.

Everyone has been taught by society that we should all look out for ourselves first and others second. How can we learn and grow as humans if we look out for ourselves first? It is just insane to think that we can succeed by only looking out for ourselves. Do we not learn compassion by seeing, not looking but really seeing, those who are less fortunate? Do we not learn what love is by loving others unconditionally? Do we not learn, well, anything important, by doing for someone else? Is it really surprising that most of us don't even think to donate to charities until there is a disaster of some sort?

Most of us do not see how current events will affect us in the long term. We are not prepared, none of us, for a global tragedy. We, as a society, have exchanged the ability to provide for ourselves for convenience. Take out is cheap so we no longer cook our own meals and in many cases wouldn't even know how. We do not know how to make clothing, grow food, preserve food, build a shelter, find water, protect ourselves and our families. We think Survivor is an entertaining show, but not anything we would ever have to do ourselves.

I am afraid that we will all have to be Survivors in the near future. When there is nothing left in the stores, will you be able to either do without or make it your self? You know where to look to see what is happening in our world and what it means for humanity. Will you be part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Am I just weird?

Last night, I asked my husband a relatively banal question. "Do you know what would be good?" I was thinking about a fried peach pie.

"A thousand dollars?" he replied.

His answer stopped me cold. Would a thousand dollars be good? And I could not for the life of me think of anything I would need a thousand dollars for. We have plenty of food, all of the bills are paid, I have a little bit of mad money if I want it. What would I possibly use it for?

Am I the only one who is happy and thankful for the things I ALREADY possess and really don't need anymore? We watched a television show the other evening about greed in the United States. I was simply appalled! The things people would do to other people all for the sake of money and power.

I guess I just don't understand those folks who can't get enough money, power, possessions....anything. I don't need "stuff". I have more "stuff" than I know what to do with as it is. And if you don't need "stuff", you don't need the money to buy the stuff or to upkeep the stuff.

And I have NEVER understood the power thing. Why would I even WANT power? I have enough trouble just keeping the laundry done. What would power get for me?

I just don't get some people.

New year, same wants

Things being what they are, I have been too busy to post. But now that the holidays are over, hopefully, I can get caught back up.

I have been looking at seed catalogs again. This is always torturous for me. I want to have a big garden, a couple of fruit tress, some grapes, berries, etc., but we just don't have the space without tearing up the whole back yard. That idea was very firmly nixed. lol Go figure?

So, I will probably just do what I always do, plant high yielding food like beans and tomatoes, and buy what I can't raise. It makes me sad though. We have less than 3 years until the boy graduates, and if my husband doesn't get laid off before then, we will almost have the house paid off. Then we can buy something out in the middle of nowhere with a few acres (and pay cash for it) and I can have my little homestead.

I really don't need much, just about 5 acres or so, with a decent house and preferably a barn already in place. A few chickens and maybe a milk cow (yes, I am dreaming) and a big garden to raise our food. Is it too much to ask for an asparagus bed, onion bed, some berry vines, a grape arbor, a few fruit trees, and about 1/2 an acre tilled onto garden? It would be nice if this is on the highway so that I can set up a produce stand to sell the extras or have a neighbor who is willing to let us set up on his.

All of this take money though. I would like to be able to be set up to be self-sufficient, or at least as close to it as possible. If things really start getting tight, at least we can eat.

I have learned a lot of skills that will be useful towards that end. Home canning is probably the most useful one. That, along with the dehydrator, have pretty much cut our grocery bills in half. We don't have to buy canned foods and the food I put up tastes much much better and is healthier for us than commercially processed food. It involves actually cooking, but I enjoy that anyway.

I can make bread, and do on a regular basis. It tastes different than the bread you get in the store, but at least it is really food with real nutrition instead of just empty calories. And it makes a mean grilled cheese.

I can make soap, and therefore, laundry detergent. I haven't bought bath soap or laundry detergent in over two years now. That is a BIG money saver. Who wants to spend 5-7 dollars every couple of weeks just on laundry soap? I can make 3 gallons (about 4 months worth) of laundry detergent for about 80 cents. Granted, it isn't a major boost to the budget, but it is kinda nice to not have to go down that aisle at the store.

I can sew our own clothes if necessary. Granted, there are some things it is still cheaper to buy, like socks and underwear, but for just daily clothing, I can do that. Especially if things get bad, this will be a useful skill.

I would like to have a wood stove to use for heat. That does involve cutting wood, but that shouldn't really be too big of a problem. And if it is done right, I can also use the top of the stove to cook on in the winter or if the power goes out. It wouldn't be the first time I have cooked over a fire or on top of a wood stove. It is actually kinda fun, in a strange way. Wouldn't want to have to do it in the summer, but in the winter it would be sort of nice to have a big pot of soup bubbling on the stove all day.

Maybe I am just strange, but I can do without a big house, fancy cars, and expensive clothes. I never really needed those things anyway. I am just a country girl at heart.

Grandma's house volumn 2

There are a lot of things that you can do to save money and energy that really don't take a lot of skill, time or effort. I try to think about how things were done 60 or 70 years ago. Clotheslines, wood heat, open windows, growing our own food...all of these things are not only "greener" but they will cut your bills dramatically.

I think of my Grandma's house for inspiration. She had AC but she almost never used it. She used cross ventilation with the open windows and occasionally she would use a box fan by the screen door in the kitchen when it got really hot.

She had a big garden where she grew most of the food for the year. Almost every meal had brown beans, potatoes, and biscuits. Breakfast was biscuits, bacon, eggs, and gravy. Sometimes as a treat for us kids, she would make chocolate gravy. Spooned over buttered biscuits, it was about the best thing we ever ate.

White bread wasn't something they ate very much. It was always biscuits. I remember she had this big flour bin beside the stove. She would put about 20 pounds of flour in there at a time and just dip out what she needed. There was also a salt cellar and a grease can on the stove. There was always a gallon jar of sweet tea in the fridge right beside the carton of buttermilk.

I don't think my grandma ever bought a box of hamburger helper or a TV dinner. There was a lot of chicken and pork, but not much beef. She sure could make a mean pot of chicken 'n dumplins.

There was a clothesline that was used just about every day. It had to be pouring down rain for her to not hang out clothes. Granted, she had a dryer, it just wasn't used much. She also had a dishwasher that she kept out on the stoop. The only time it was ever used was when the whole family was there. The rest of the time, they were done in the sink. She didn't have a garbage disposal because she took everything either to the pigs or chickens. She finally did break down and buy an electric percolator coffee pot. But she complained about it just not tasting right for the rest of the year.

I really miss my grandmother. She taught me how to peel a potato, make biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, how to sew and quilt, and she taught me the value of the old ways. I still remember the time I mouthed off about how a rub board didn't look so hard. Then I got to wash a week's worth of my Pawpaw's work clothes on the board with lye soap. Then I got to do them again because they were not clean. I learned very quickly how to do it and that I didn't want to do it again.

Peanut butter cake was always on the table when we came over. With a cold glass of milk, that was about the best way to end a meal we could think of.

They never seemed to be stressed about anything, not even money. They were both living on a next to nothing Social Security check. Yet there was never a lack of anything. Once or twice a month they would drive the 20 miles into town. The grocery store was always the last stop. The only things she would buy were sugar, coffee, flour, maybe some meat if it was on sale, tea, salt and pepper, and maybe some butter or margarine. They just didn't need anything else. Very rarely, they would walk down to the corner market and buy lunch meat for sandwiches, but never more than a pound.

If I think back, life was much simpler when all you had to worry about was whether or not it would rain when you needed to pick beans or hang out clothes.

Money for Nothing

I have been thinking a lot about the effects money, or the lack there of, has on us as humans. The saying that money can't buy happiness is true, as far as that goes, but it can buy comfort. A comfortable home, good food, things to make life easier. But that isn't happiness.

And what is happiness anyway? For someone living on the street, it could mean a hot meal and bed to sleep in. For a CEO of a multinational corporation, it could mean a new acquisition in a previously untapped market. But are those things really happiness or is it just momentary pleasure? I like to think that happiness is being content with everything in your life, from your home to your wardrobe and ending with your bank account.

I find that the things that make me truly happy have absolutely nothing to do with money. A spontaneous hug from my teens makes me happy. A kiss good morning from my husband makes me happy. Watching the birds playing in the birdbath makes me happy. Planting seeds in the earth makes me happy. Watching a plant burst from the soil and struggle to make a flower makes me happy. Giving someone a gift that I have made with my own hands makes me happy. My family enjoying a meal that I prepared makes me happy.

Having money left in the bank after I pay all of the bills does not make me happy, it gives me a feeling of satisfaction, but not one of happiness. Buying a new TV does not make me happy. Nor does wearing a new outfit. Or being the first to see a new movie or to eat at a new restaurant. All of those things just don't do it for me. I guess I am just not into the "stuff" collecting. I have seen people work long hours and then spend all of their money on eating out or keeping up with the Joneses. And I just don't get it.

So I don't have the latest model of cell phone that can send videos and take pictures, or use a GPS in my car. Why do I need those things? What possible good would they do me? I have a basic phone that can make and receive calls and that is about it. My truck gets me where I need to go and if I get lost, I have a $2 map under the seat. And if the map isn't good enough, I can call for directions. I do not need a digital voice to give me turn by turn directions to within 4 inches to my parent's house. Of course, the directions to my dad's place is more like "...then turn off the paved road, and then after about a mile, you pass the hay field on the left..."

I guess what I don't understand is the overwhelming drive some people have to collect money just so they can spend it. Yes, it is nice to be able to have pretty things and fast cars and a big house, but I just don't need that. I can be happy without all of the "stuff" that most people take for granted. I have my family, a roof over our heads, food in the pantry, good friends to visit with, and the knowledge that, regardless of technology, I actually want the things I have, not just have the things I want.