Hello my readers I have not visited with you in awhile. Like so many Americans right now O Wise One and I sit here in our home during a world wide pandemic. We have locked the gates and pulled the front blinds and resolved ourselves that something has happened that we never could have imagined.
Long ago he and I made choices. We chose to live our life simply and quietly. We chose to accept those things beyond our control. We are proud of our gray hair, laugh lines and stooped shoulders. We chose to grow our own food, to live not letting things like fashion and Hollywood set our choices. There are no designer jeans in my closet or thousand dollar cell phones on my bedside. Just a rotary dial phone, a wind up alarm clock and a 50 year old bible. We find great solace in the little things. Snapping beans on the back porch together. Sunday rides through the country. Planting seeds and watching our food grow and then preserving it. We live this way not because of overwhelming political or religious beliefs but because we just enjoy it that way. That is what we know and draw comfort from. We enjoy each other and have for many decades now. We vowed before God in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer till death do us part. That devotion has never waned.
For years I shared our experiences and what small wisdom we had collected in our lifetimes on this blog. After moving I continued for a short while but eventually just had problems keeping up as I have aged. With O Wise One now 70 and myself not far behind. We have slowed down considerably. My eyesight isn't what it used to be to edit all those pictures. I now suffer from bouts of vertigo which have greatly slowed me down. But I still garden with the help of a walker. I still can extensively, dehydrate and freeze the harvest that we produce in our own garden. I spend time knitting, crocheting, quilting and still sew some of my own clothes and many of my household linens.
I left this blog up because I wanted you all to be able to draw on the knowledge I have shared with you. Learn from my mistakes and continue to be self sufficient. I want you all to know the joy of sitting down to a meal and know most of what is on this plate is the result of your own hard work. You planted it, or harvested it or preserved and prepared it. I want you to be able to sit and make a blouse. Make a pillow case. Quilt a bed cover. But most of all I want you all to have the peace of sitting in your home in the middle of a pandemic and being able to say. I'm okay. My pantry is stocked, my garden is there waiting to go. My fruit trees will bloom. I can lock my doors and be okay.
To the younger generation that read this blog. Learn from all that is happening now. Remember. My husband and I are in the high risk category and know that if we get this virus it will be very dangerous for us. But I wanted to leave a post to let you all know how proud I am of you all. All of you that have planted the gardens and canned the food. All of you that have embraced this lifestyle and let my husband and I have the pleasure of getting to know many of you. Of letting us into your lives. You are a community. Preppers, homesteaders, survivalists and housewives. Help each other, teach each other but always remember the feeling of relief at being self sufficient. That while people are fighting over silly things you enjoy the comfort of a full pantry and garden. Not from hoarding but by the hard work and dedication of living a lifestyle maybe a little different than many.
Pass on the recipes and the gardening tips and the knowledge. And to you all be safe. I pray for the suffering and dying all over the world. My heart is breaking for you all. Keep the faith. Be strong. And when it is all over the sun will again shine. The birds will sing and maybe we will learn this lesson. Maybe walk a different path. Be brave. Dare to be different.
Blessings from The Holler
C Q and O Wise One
