i mean that in several ways but mostly let's see...
yesterday morning we stopped at a 'roadside farmer's market' in Gladeville and bought $5.00 worth of veggies. we bought 2 tomatoes and 4 peaches. pretty delicious food also!!! The girl has torn up two of the tomatoes (they were a pink variety) and we cobblered the peaches (Yes. i did just invent a word. shut yo mouf!)
My day lost in my thoughts
10am - gosh. that lady was from Clarkrange, TN. That's where my granny lived. it's where her house still is and uncle kendall and aunt janice live. i miss going there.
10am - 2pm - wow. all the memories of country life!!
- picking veggies and fruit at mammy and pop's house (My grandparents had a very large 'home garden'
- picking veggies with Granny Virgie up on the mountain (Great-Grandmother Virginia Wright)
- June bugs on leashes
- firefly catchin
- fireworks in july
- pickin blackberries
- fishin for tiny fish in the pond at Granny's
- Jean and Hershel across the street from Granny's
- shucking corn and shelling peas and beans
- Granny's famous dinners (fried chicken, beans, cornbread, corn on the cob, green beans, sliced tomatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy) all from scratch and don't forget the sweet tea (some adults needed a glass of milk to crumble that cornbread into!!!) Pie or cobbler for dessert. man-oh-man.
- Granny's famous breakfasts (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, sometimes oatmeal, toast, juice, milk)
- Sittin on her low metal porch swing while it rained
- Playing on the back driveway barefoot in the torrential downpour
- Weeding the garden
- Spreading fertilizer on my Pop's garden...thinking it stunk to high heaven and then finding out it was chicken or cow poop lol.
- Feeding the chickens and pigs at Mr Hershel's house.
- Being afraid of the pigs at Mr Hershel's house. (Ha!)
- Catching crayfish in creeks
- Wading in the creek
- going barefoot
- building forts
3pm - 5pm
Gosh self. it might be kinda cool to grow a container garden. spent some time googling for the best way to make a container garden. When i shop - i shop for organic fruits and veggies so i might as well grow them that way.
There are plenty of farmers out this way (hello - there are probably 7 farms within 10 miles of my house that have chickens and or cows. bet they'd give me poop for free...not to mention i have a compost pile that's totally unused and has been fermenting/decaying/composting/whatchamadoodling unused in peace for 15 years....bet you some cold hard coin that i can mix that with some cow or chicken poo and make a pretty hearty fertilizer without resorting to some big nasty chemicals.
I can combat insects with some cheese cloths and other natural methods. i'd like to employ some urban chickens but i'll have to work on convincing the land owner (aka my dad) to let me have some chickens to 'control the mosquito and tick population' ahem. also - free poop!!! and free ground turning and free eggs. also - a life lesson for my two small kids!!
So i spent time googling for those sexy non-gmo plant seeds and those suckers be 'spensive!!! But oh the variety of heirloom veggies!!! I can even grow okra and peppers and tomatoes and carrots and potatoes and lettuce like my grandfather and granny used to!!! Think of all the cash i will save. it's a ton of work but who cares!!!
5pm - bedtime
Why stop at container gardening? i could carve out a sweet plot in the back yard and get some chicken wire and bury it a few feet to foil the stinkin rabbits and turn the earth on my own with a shovel and some back breaking labor and teach the kids how to do it!!! then i can use my fertilizin compost and get some poop and mix it in with that - yeah...i can do this...grow some real veggies. maybe even some corn!!!!
This morning - now
I should figure out a way to fix my credit and find some cash or a job that will aid me as a single mother and find a plot of land - preferably up near jamestown/clarkrange and just plant my kids up yonder and start homesteading. (WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??? Who said that? who provided me with that thought process? So today i spent time googling and found THIS site and was looking at border collies and thinking:
'wow. i should get a farm and buy one of those and some sort of mouser - maybe some barn cats. yeah. and i can have a farm and a barn and raise my own sheep for the lanolin for soap and wool and i can become self sufficient and just work hard every day. yeah. sounds like a good time. i can teach my kids about frogs and turtles and june bugs on thread and snakes and fun things like that'.Whew man. Am I crazy or what?
Ha! My thoughts do that sort of thing ALL the time. And, at the end of the day, I exhaust myself thinking about it all, so I find myself happy enough to go to the Farmer's Market here in my town and buy their eggs, bell peppers, honey, and fresh lemonade while I drive in my car towards home :O).
ReplyDelete@Thevfiles - yeah it sounds all exhausting but it would be so worth it. i am looking forward to one day being able to have my own home again. i hope it will be in a rural enough area that i am able to have chickens and a nice sized garden plot. kinda like that one my mammy and pop had. it was very large. i'd wager a good 1/4 acre. obviously not 'farm' worthy but a good deal. granny virgie had a good sized plot that was every bit as large as half an acre. she worked that sucker alone until she was into her 70's and fell and broke her hip.
ReplyDeletei'd get my kids involved too - they'd get the job of gathering eggs etc. i bet at first we'd break more than we'd keep but they'd learn eventually to gather the eggs carefully or no eggs will be there for breakfast.
they'd also learn what kind of hard work went into growing those veggies so maybe they'd be more willing to try to eat them. (i know how hard it is to grow tomatoes... but you can't really force me to eat a raw tomato.)
i think most of it is that i miss the slow living of that time frame and maybe the days just seemed so long because i was so young. (EVERYTHING is bigger when you are little) or maybe that kind of lifestyle is devoid of all of the time wasters that modern conveniences bring.