It is time to change the formula. This world has become very difficult and it is easy to lose our perspective with so much turmoil. I have to find a way to navigate through this time safely and keep our little space that we live protected. In the past I would go home to my older family members to get filled up with love and wisdom and my get my perspective back on track. Now that I am older, all of those elders are gone and I can no longer ask them for advice. Fortunately there is one thing that I can do and that is to pull from my life experiences to help navigate my way through as my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles did. Those experiences sho ......

We are living in a very different time, that is for certain. Whenever I get overwhelmed, I think about my grandmother and all of the challenging times that she lived through, and yet she managed to raise her children and keep on pushing through. She was born at the beginning of the year 1900, she went through serious wars, recessions, a great depression, and throughout those years they had not yet connected to electricity or running water. Because of my knowledge of her life and the history we have studied, I realize that we are looking at many possibilities that could throw us into deep trouble and challenge us because most of us are dependent ......

When I was young, I did not know how many life experiences I would draw upon as I got older. I wish we all could understand this while we are young so we could pay more attention and ask our elders more questions.I have always been a curious thinker, I like to know how things work and why and I do better if I can see it and learn visually. A mentor is even better but there are not as many mentors today as we once had. We have now gone several generations without them as many of the old skills of the past have been replaced by machines that do it for you but this comes with a cost.I try to be a mentor here on my blog with words and pictures since I cannot be in person, but it is n ......

I am having a difficult time writing lately with the unrest in our country. I like to do comfortable and sensible posts but my energy is sucked out of me right now with so much instability. I have written and deleted post before ever sent because I fear someone will go off on me about something I say. I really should not care but I do. I will say that I love all of you wherever in the world that you live. I feel somehow, we are going to be ripped apart from one another. I feel that by now I should not have to explain what is happening for me to say this. We are supposed to love one another and care for one another and it seems that many have forgotte ......

We never expected to have a deep snow weather event all the way down here in Southeast Alabama. We have had light snow before but not often and many years apart. We have never had a snow storm like this. It has been very cold!Our daughter lives in Pensacola Florida and this was even a bigger shock! They have never had anything like this. Here in the south we are not equipped for this kind of cold. Our cities do not have road equipment to clear snow, it brings us to a standstill.Many people wear flip flops and very little cold weather clothing so it is difficult to stay warm for something unknown as this.Another picture from our daughters house.This is a four ......

It has been a fairly cold winter so far here in the deep southeast part of Alabama. The sage has a heavy frost sitting on it's leaves. It rarely snows here where we live but some of the meteorologists are starting to talk about a polar vortex coming to the deep south. The possibility of very low temperatures in the range they are talking about is quite concerning to have ice and snow is even more concerning because we do not have the equipment for such as this down here. The rare occasions normally bring things to a standstill and can easily cause power outages. I craved a woolen skirt this year for some reason and now I know why. Wool anything i ......

We are moving into another New Year full of the unknown. Charles and I try to follow our intuition to do the things that we do, we study where we have come from and plan for where we are going. What is important to us to live within our means and that requires us to live a simple life that feels comfortable but capped.We have saved what we could for retirement but life threw us some challenges along the way, paying for big repairs and unexpected expenses and it chewed away at some of our savings. We are not alone with this, many of you have challenges as well. We are looking at this new year as a new start, and anyone can do this. For many years starting New Years ......

Are we using our homes as they did in the past? If I take a trip down memory lane, it is full of memories of warm meals, blankets on the beds, robes and bedroom shoes during the winter. We ate many bowls of stew or Chili , soup, greens such as collards and corn bread, hot chocolate and warm pudding. In the summer curtains were blowing from the windows being open and pies sitting on the window seal. We had to open the windows because there was no air conditioning. The sound of children playing and occasionally a trip to the first aid kit to locate a bandage for a skinned knee. There were board games and laughter, When we embrace our home ......

Never give up gardening means to me to keep moving and keep trying and keep making it interesting. It costs less to garden if you don't buy the plants from the nursery but instead plant from seed.This table above has been piled up with garden books and seed trays. I finally cleared all of that and re-dressed the table after getting it better organized.I have added a third tray for seeds, and I have a new plan. Plant everything from seed or cuttings.I do have a growing concern for our food here in the U.S. It seems there are too many food recalls, so now I feel that something is up with that. I want to grow as many vegetables as we possibly can here in our sma ......

Long ago, we did not have all of these different ways of communication that we have today, especially instant communication. Our way of communication was writing a letter. I have been thinking a lot lately about the way we lived in the past before electronics. The electronics have become intrusive and it feels like a burden to me. I feel concerned about our young people that have grown up in this era of instant everything and all these electronics and wires and chargers and constant everything. They have never experienced the freedom of living without it and that is sad to me.I have old letters that are very personal and full of memories from long ago when ......

It has been three weeks since our little dog Katie passed away and we all have grieved for her. Our little dog Elizabeth and also Bernadette have grieved in their own way. Elizabeth became anxious and Bernadette kept sitting at the gate thinking that she would come back home through the gate. She would sniff the areas of the yard that Katie would go potty and back to the gate. Then she gave up and has since started something new and has been putting her toys at the lookout window. She will take them away and play with them and then put them back and we feel she wants them to look out for Katie. Animals do remember. We are giving them extra hugs and we ......

Photo of our Grandson Michael, he turned 21 this year and I wonder how he did that so fast.I am popping in for just a moment to say that I am taking a short break from my blog. We have many things going on and we are working on building a safe hallway from storms and building a double ceiling and walls. This turned out to be a bigger job than we expected as we are doing this ourselves. Our Katherine when she was a baby.And now the main reason for the break, our little dog Katherine, such a joy to us has passed away and we are dealing with much grief over her not being here with us. She was just shy of being 17 years old. Katherine (aka Katie) front and her b ......

Our sweet girl Maggie many years ago saying, What is going on? We were always moving things about the house and still do today.Charles and I have been studying our Generations before us for over twenty years. I have been sharing what we know from how it was when we were growing up and what we have learned from our Generations before us that lived without running water and electricity and those that never had all of This that we have today. Hurricane Helene has caused horrible destruction and this is an historic event that will take years to recover from. Our Granddaughter is 7 months pregnant right now and she and her husband had to leave their home and com ......

The Hurricane has passed through. We lost power at 12:45 a.m. this morning with a big explosion of a power transformer that got knocked out as a feeder band of wind came through. The transformer that blew was unusually loud and many of our neighbors started coming out of their doors with flashlights to see what happened we were doing the same. Our power came back on but the other side of our neighborhood did not. Then it happened again, we have power now. Thankfully it did not get as bad as first predicted for us because the hurricane shifted more east. I feel very concerned for everyone that was and still are in the path, this was and is a dangerous storm.We had ......

Last Saturday, Charles and I went up to Madge's house to do some work. We packed two sandwiches and two bananas, a jug of water and a bit of kibble for the girls, (doggies), a small jar of water for the car in case they got thirsty.It has been a struggle for us to do the difficult work at Madge's house. We are slow at everything we do so we bring our patience with us. Slowly we are chipping away these big projects and one day we will have them finished and be glad we kept pushing through.This particular day we pulled up the old glued down flat carpet that had been on the floor for over 40 years. It was sad to see this glue on top of hardwood floors. If you look clo ......

I feel inspired by all of you because we had such a wonderful response in the forum from the last two posts. My purpose was to learn if the economic problems were being felt in just the United States or around the world.We didn't solve the problems but we know now that we are experiencing very high costs in many countries around the world. You all were so genuine and generously shared your experiences and difficulties and this is what we needed to understand where these problems are being felt. Have you ever seen a Nautical candle holder? If you were on a ship and the ship rocked side to side, the candle holder part that holds the candle remains balanced due t ......

I am feeling the morning sun coming in from the window. I have a lot on my mind these days thinking about what is wrong with our world.My last blog post was to take a chance to see if I could put my concerns out there to see if I could figure out if what I was feeling is as bad as it feels to me.Thank you for your participation from my last blog post and responding in the forum and emails with your wonderful and informative comments. Due to the forum responses, which anyone can go there to read, I am now getting an understanding that this is a global problem. Is this the same feeling that you are having? We cannot blame our government for our many proble ......

There are many sayings that home is where your heart is, there is no place like home. I feel that the home is where you feel love, where you feel refuge and safe. We are living in a complicated time where many people are struggling to stay in their home because the cost of living today has gotten out of balance. This post is going to be different than I normally post but I feel necessary.I spent the entire month of August 2024 working on a budget only to find that we have a very serious problem for the middle class folks in the United States. Many people that are retired are now having to come out of retirement and go back to work. Young adults are struggling to ge ......

Above is Bernadette in early morning looking out her lookout window. We all have our routines and so does Bernadette. I feel that we are in a time that we need to concentrate on our home and family. There is much tension here in our Nation and many places in the world. Wherever you live and you are reading this post, this is a time that we need to concentrate on home, family and also neighbors. The world is mixed up and instead of worry, we should strengthen our home by putting our concentrated efforts in repairing, mending, stocking our supplies and get real with our budget and meal planning. Also, we are changing seasons, so this is an especially ......

I said in yesterdays blog post that I would post how I make my all butter pastry dough pie crust.Here in the United States when I was taking home economics in school, I was taught to measure by measuring cups and spoons. This is how I learned, but as I have gotten older and many years of baking, sometimes it would turn out just right and sometimes not. I have learned that by purchasing a small scale and measuring by weight I could make the same recipe over and over with it being most always the same. Sometimes the weather is a factor but by measuring by weight like people do in much of the world, this is how you get more accurate results. The recipeThis is th ......