Pick the better parts

The pickling cucumbers are climbing up the arbor now and with baby cucumbers. :)

This week we have been busy with trying to save the lawn and keep the new veggies watered.  At this time of April 26, we are in a extreme drought. We have a burn ban, and there are some serious wild fires to our east and south east in Georgia and Florida.  We do have a chance of rain this week so we will keep hoping.

This birdbath above is a favorite in the yard, this has been tucked away for several years in this spot and the birds come everyday to get their drink and bath.  Often birds are waiting in the trees above for their turn.

Charles and I are adding more water features to our front and backyard to help the wildlife.  We need to be ready for any animal that is thirsty to be able to stop here for water to drink and bathe.  

Last night we discussed that we need to add extra water vessels outside for the wildlife, and then today we were outside sitting on the bench close to the bird bath and a beautiful bird that we had never seen before flew to this birdbath in the back yard by our bench to get a drink and take a bath.  We felt it was a confirmation about what we had been talking about.  It must have really needed the water for it to fly in so close to us.  

We researched to see what it was and found that it was a white with black stripes Warbler, a female according to our research .  I did not have my phone with me to take a picture and I was wishing so badly that I did have it.  It reminded me of the year that a beautiful Indigo bunting flew in.  We had never seen one before and have not seen one since.

 We also are adding bowls on the ground for small animals passing through that can get a drink since there are no rain puddles anywhere.  For a larger container such as a bucket, always add a stick in the bucket so that if a small creature falls in they can climb out.  We will put clean water each day so mosquitoes do not start in the water. As I am typing this now, my desk sits by the long narrow window that looks out into the front yard and there are several birds taking a bath.  We have four bird baths in our yard, two in the front yard and two in the back.  

One is a make shift bird bath but they come to it.  There is definitely an increase in birds coming to drink and bathe. 

Our Ruby Throated Hummers are back in our yard now and we are also adding extra humming bird feeders this year.  They need our help, there is less food for them because so many native trees, shrubs and flowers are being destroyed and we need to add those native plants to our garden as well as the feeders.  

These tiny birds has such a long journey when they migrate such a long distance and some of it over miles of open water. 

These are elephant garlic corms that I planted last week.  our second year garlic is coming up nicely and our third year garlic should be ready to harvest this year with full cloves.  Now that we got them to the third year we should be able to start the cycle over with these corms shown above and we just keep doing this year after year. Elephant garlic makes these corms on the bottom of the garlic which can be left in the soil to make new garlic or dried and plante at another time.  I would suggest looking up planting elephant garlic, first year, second year and third year if you are in an area like we are where growing garlic can be difficult. 

My title of this post is "Pick the better parts".  I want people to know that when I research history, I read it all, the good, bad and the ugly.  Many things I do not like and that is how I feel today in this real time.  It has always been this way, it was back long ago and it is now.  What I do with my information from research is find the strengths, find what makes sense.  Learn how they did the things they did, how they managed through difficult times.  How they handled the great depression, how they managed during rationing.  I pick the better parts to take away from the whole story to use in my life.  

We cannot live in the past, but we can live like the past, "the good parts of the past".  This is not a pretend life, it is a sensible life.

What I have found, is there is always going to be bad people no matter if it was back then or here now. It is up to us how to navigate to preserve ourselves, one way is stay away from what feels bad.

I want to learn from the successes and the beautiful parts of those times. Even in bad times they found ways to use up and make do to make comfort.  

It seemed it was easier long ago, at least in my lifetime to find the beautiful people. Those that had so much knowledge, kindness, respect for others.  We need more of this today and we need to be like they were when it came to kindness.

We are in a very difficult time right now where hate is at a seriously bad level.  Technology has gone too far. We all know this, and we can recognize when something is off. If we find ourself in a situation that does not feel right, walk away, do not participate.  

Each evening we have our routines...

We also can recognize real love for another, there will be generosity and or selflessness from the other, we can recognize kindness, because there will be action and follow through, we can recognize truth because we can feel it. 

We also can be the one that loves another. 

If we go back to basics, we can feel calm again, we can help cure the brain fog by doing things that make sense.  Do things with purpose, take our time and get our home in order so we can make our home a refuge because we need this more than ever.  

I want you to know that I will be taking a needed break from the blog. It has been a busy spring with gardening.  The house needs a good deep cleaning and organizing.  It shows that I have been outside more than inside. 

I also need time to do my research and get myself back to my old self. 

We did the no electronics in October and that was needed for myself and some of you said it felt good to take a break from electronics.  I am not doing a no electronics break because I will need my computer for research.  I am taking a get my home back in order break and get myself rested after the big garden push which is still going on.  I hope that you do as well.  I will take the whole month of May off and then update at that time. 

 I will be turning the forum off because a forum always needs a moderator and the moderator is going to be on break, that is me :)  

If you have joined the mailing list to get email notification when a new article has been posted then you should get a notice when I do another post.  My next post should be on June 1, 2026.

I will be turning off the forum as I did last time and then turn it back on when I do the next post.  

I will leave the forum up until this coming weekend so you can talk about things, ask questions and such as that.  The forum will close around May, 2nd, 2026. 

I hope that you will be able to take some special time as well to pamper your home so it can pamper you.  I will be checking the forum as I usually do until it is closed.  

Charles and I find that from our October break last year to now our meals have change quite a bit to compensate for food costs. I am finding it difficult to meal plan. 

Before Charles retired last October we saved money for a yard and garden re-do for after retirement.  I am so glad that we did this because it has been expensive to make our garden a mostly raised bed garden so we can continue to grow food. With increased prices of most everything it will be more difficult to save for something like this again. 

We are quite stunned at the combined increases from food, to gas, electricity, pet food and most everything.  We already know that we will have to adjust our budget plan again. 

Have you seen many changes since our last break in October until now?  

Have you changed the meals you normally would make to compensate for increased food costs?  

If you have something you want to talk about before May 2nd, lets talk about it as long as it is not politics.   Grandma Donna