Living Like the Past

Charles is a wonderful man and I love him so very much. He will do whatever it takes to do what is right. He has a good spirit and prefers the calm side of situations. Charles is sensible and if something needs to be done he does it. Even in situations that are tense and maybe not exactly what seems right at the time with his work, he says, yes sir, or yes ma'am if that is what needs to be heard at the time. But if it is not proper or the right thing, he will let a situation cool down and then make sure it is done right and proper. People respect Charles because they know he is a good man.I am more hyper, nervous and he calms me and I energize him. lolCh ......

A few of you have asked me and one almost pleaded for me to keep posting. I know some of you have felt my fatigue. The pandemic fatigue that so many of us have. I feel some of us are desperate for something normal. So I am going to give it my best to keep going. I need it as much as you do and I thank you all for your kind words about my blog.This is a Zinnia.My friend and Neighbor Naomi grew Zinna's. Naomi passed away many years ago now and every time I see a Zinna I remember her lovely yard. There is a man that lives in our town that grew camellias and after his wife passed away he bought some extra land and filled his time with expanding his camellias. T ......

Lately I have been dragging a bit on posting. Understandable though...I am going to do a more simple post about things going on around our home. We are now the summer jungle and I am surprised we still have some blackeyed susans blooming.Then we have those that have finished and left us seed. Human life is somewhat like this almost finished flower. We hope what we leave behind is good seed in the way of good that we have done while here on earth. I collect the heads and let them finish drying then shake them off so the seeds will fall to the bottom.I continued to feed Leona, the new sourdough starter I started.I have made many loaves, some failed and so ......

The other day we had a storm with quite a bit of lightening. The week before our daughter called and said that their next door neighbors tree had been struck by lightening and it blew a hole in the ground and plants out of the ground and the lightening ran through her neighbors house, our daughters house, the other neighbors house on the other side of her neighbors and even across the street. They all had disruptions in telephones, answering machines, cable, their televisions, wall plugs, neighbors pool pumps, digital devices and such as that. A quite expensive strike that was.Here at our house when it starts thundering I normally go around the house and unplug lamps, the computer ......

It has been much longer than I planned to do another blog post but things have been very busy around here lately. Charles and I are doing okay but as you all know, it is not easy to stay safe in this world right now.Some people like to leave furniture plain and uncovered, some like to see the wood grain, some enjoy painted furniture as I enjoy both and there is nothing wrong with that because we are all different.In the past we would visit friends and family often and I loved how everyone's homes were different and much was homemade so there was not as much generic as there is today.I love textiles and linens so I enjoy dressing the table and the hutch, the breakfast table and even the ......

I choose to remember the good times in life and the people that have stuck in my memory. There are sounds and smells, sometimes a feeling or something we see.Have you ever thought that each of us is a memory maker? I remember my Mother, I am a mother, I remember my Grandmother, I am a Grandmother. I remember my memories of my brother and I growing up and I am a sister.I have the power in me to be a memory maker just like you. My Grandmother did not know that the things she did, even the most simple of things would impress into my mind for the rest of my life for me to remember.Food is a big part of memories. The smell of food cooking, especially certain food ......

Long ago they knew many of the things that we do not know today. We have so much to learn, and as I get older this is one thing I crave, to find out what my generations before me understood. I want to know so much more because now more than ever I wish my mother and grandmother and great grandmother would have left me instructions of how to do the things they did. The further away from the cities they lived, the more they prepared and preserved and when things got bad those that understood what it took to survive were much better off than those that just lived day by day making frequent purchases as they wanted it.When Charles and I started our history projects and studies ......

To not feel overly anxious about how badly people are behaving during this very serious pandemic I must stay busy and listen to the nudge that must come from God. I feel this comes from God because it is the rational and sensible feeling I get that I need to do something. By nature I am excitable so this rational feeling does not come from me.It is time to prepare, that is what I felt before this all started. On January 28 of 2020 I had a feeling something very serious was going to happen. At this time the coronavirus was not being taken very serious but on that day, I ordered two eighty yard rolls of 1/8 inch elastic to make masks. I had never made a mask before ......

Living with purpose is much more rewarding than living for fun.I find contentment when my life is balanced. It has not felt or looked balanced lately but I know how to get back into balance and that requires me to work on what it is that needs to be done. Sometimes stress can make that seem like we cannot get back to being balanced but we can and we can find a new normal if we just keep at it.Charles and I realized when we started trying to live a more simple life that we needed tools to do things that we would have pay to have done. I keep a tool box for our pets. There are brushes, combs, grooming sheers and old hardware from old leashes and harnesses.A simple life does not nec ......

Now is the time.... People seem to have an attitude that they are owed something or want to blame all the time. We cannot blame the sun because it is hot. We cannot blame the rain because it is wet. We cannot be angry and mad because a serious virus is disrupting our lives. It is like blaming a bird because it was not a cow, it makes no sense. There is a lot of bad behavior going on right now and I am shocked at people that cannot tell a pandemic virus from a turnip.Charles and I have decided that we can only take care of just ourselves. We all can only take care of just ourselves, or children of course. At some point most of us figure this out.It is a Very dangero ......

When Charles and I started living more like the past, it did not take long before we realized how important this was for our life.We started understanding why we were suppose to stay in our small house and this was well before the pandemic. Now we know this is why we were suppose to learn to live on less, it was why we needed to change how we lived. Doing our history projects we have learned that anything can happen and it can and does still today so yes, we need to live a more prepared life. We know that if we make purchases that our money should be on necessary living expenses and items that will help us to be more self sustaining. It is all about keeping a roof ......

If we have a plan.With what all is going on and the many hours I have been sewing masks I have had a lot of time to think about this post.I have been thinking the what if's. Many people don't ever think about the what if's, they just live life as it happens. But if we do not think about the what if's then we do not have the things we need should something happen and it did. I am a what if thinker. Have always been this way because I do not like to be caught in a situation that I am not prepared for if there could have been something that I could have done before it happened. This is not a bad thing and has many times been a very good thing. Long ago when my parents heal ......

We are all going through a very traumatic time being that we are having a very serious pandemic. At first many people went through denial, if more people studied the past I believe there would have not been as much denial. But then gradually things have been changing, sadly too much suffering an loss of life have happened and still happening. As people are finally coming to terms that we all have to do our part we should see some improvement but there are still those that will never do their part.Enough said about this...It is taking time for those of us that understand the seriousness to get our footing with all of this. I know that it has taken me many adjustme ......

I normally try to reply to your emails but I have gotten behind. I have read all of my emails and I enjoy hearing from you and reading how you are doing and what is going on in your lives. I have been busy sewing masks for Charles and family and some of the workers that are out there working the grocery stores.The last several weeks we have been busy cleaning the last of the hurricane damage so we could open our walking trail in our yard. We have a small yard so I had to be creative how to make a walking trail so little by little we ended up with a twisted Labyrinth. We separated our yard for a Potager garden with paths and small garden beds. Then outside the potager g ......

My blog has been around for many years now so I repost some pictures because they are helpful with a new post and because they are in much older posts.Life was so very different long ago. Many people today would think that this picture above is a picture of people on a camping trip.But it is not, it is a picture taken long ago of a family traveling and they have stopped along the highway to have their meal. When I was growing up whenever we took a trip to visit family that required many hours my Mother would always pack food for our trip. After I married this was still the common thing to do. Each state had pull off areas most always with a picnic table for those traveling t ......

For right now, each day that goes by we should be doing all we can do to help protect ourselves and our family from getting the virus.I make sure to wear an apron when cleaning and doing laundry and then putting my apron in the wash or put it in a bucket to be washed. In ordinary daily chores It helps to protect our clothing. Right now is especially important to wear an apron.We are the home front, not the hospital, and our jobs are very important that we do things right if we have and only have to go out and then in our home, so we do not get the virus or become infected with anything and put more burdens on the nurses and doctors.We cannot become Complacent and we must keep washing our ......

Our Generations before us were very resilient because they understood better than any of us today the hard times that may come at any time.They lived a time before electricity and running water and yet they raised families, they grew food and preserved what they grew. For those of you new to my blog I welcome you. My blog is about living more like the past and my husband Charles and I love history. We have been researching for many years now and doing many experiments in trying to live as our generations before us. We do not believe we should live in the past but like the past to live a more sensible life. This photo above was my Great Grandfather, he was born in 1874.&nb ......

So here we are... never thought of this one before.... The rapidly growing virus. So we shift gears and get ourselves out of the shock of it all and get on with the things we can do. We are told not to panic but those saying that are probably just as panicked as most. We need to go home if we are not working and hopefully we have done like we have always been told to keep an emergency supply of food. We cannot go to the places that we normally go to. Our children need to be home and not hanging out. If at all possible a parent needs to be home.We can read and nap and play board games, we can do projects in the home we have been putting off doing. We need take care of ou ......

It was curiosity that we decided to study the past. To learn how our generations before us lived. The more we learned the more we wanted to know. We found ourselves living one foot in history and one foot today. We started experimenting and trying the old way, to learn their skills.Never did I know when living like the past that this knowledge might be needed again.My blog is full of posts on all of these studies we did and how we changed our life, our house changed constantly as we removed the new and replaced things with the old. We wanted more purposeful tools instead of items just for decorations. We found the quality in the old discarded pieces of the past th ......

Above is Bernadette's past time, remove the cushions off the chairs in the house.Stay calm and Run, is that how you feel about now? I have to admit that I have been very concerned about all that is going on right now because the flu virus is still bad according to reports, seems the coronavirus is looming everywhere and we are going into storm season and just last night there were horrible tornadoes that ripped through the central area of Tennessee. That is far north of where we live but I have several family members that live in different parts of Tennessee. As far as I know they are all okay.I am trying to pay attention and remain calm and level headed about the viruses and ......