Beauty, nature, wild animals, peace, and tranquility are what comes to mind when you tell someone you live on twenty-five acres of land.
They might envision their kids and grandchildren having plenty of room to run and play. Or take walks through the forest. Allow your animals to roam free. Fresh air and starry skies and all that.
The truth is: You only need one acre of land if you are not doing anything more than that. When you live in the country, there is so much more to think about.
If you are productive and care about your land, you might decide to do any number of things like these:
Be self-sufficient and have your own farm to raise food for yourself and your family. Why not for your community?
Raise rabbits, sheep, goats and lambs.
Raise cattle.
Run a you-pick berry, fruit, flower or vegetable farm.
Grow pumpkins.
Turn the house into a bed and breakfast lodge.
Rent it out to hunters. (My least favorite!)
Have it cut for firewood. (Also not my favorite.)
We all take many things for granted in our lives and this is one of them.
Let me tell you about the lazy, unforgivable, wasteful part of this story.
It sits and rots. It is abandoned as is the life within it. The trees decay from disease and die. Sometimes being choked out by vines and weeds. Their branches lying strewn about in the yard to further pollute the landscape because no one picks them up.
The animals you thought were safe are dead on the road or have mysteriously disappeared because a coyote or an owl took them and you will never know for sure nor have closure about it.
There are insects everywhere. From wood-boring bees, fire ant hills popping up, mosquitos out to bite you constantly, black flies that won't let you pick your fruit without stinging you, and wasps building nests on every area of your house that they choose to.
Bushes wildly grown over because no one trimmed them back so that you could see out of the windows nor walk down the sidewalk without brushing them aside.
Pinecones falling where they please with no apparent useful purpose. Maybe to feed the few sparse squirrels that are still living there.
The flowers that once were lovingly planted there that no one is outside to see. Orange tiger lilies, daffodils in white and yellow, violet lavender flowers growing in the grass among the pink wildflowers.
What beauty there is, goes mostly unnoticed and unappreciated by those who live their lives in a selfish possession driven state. They are ignorant of the abundance and pleasure that is theirs if they could only see. All they do is complain about what it takes to do the more menial tasks of just keeping it up for appearances. Whenever they get around to it.
Do you know someone like this? How sad!
We all tend to believe that time is on our side and we have nothing but our everyday lives to think about. Sure, it is always good to be balanced between what if's, the present and the future.
However, what if you didn't die from some disease or a terrible accident, or natural causes?
Suppose you did not have electricity or free running water available tomorrow and then your food supply is running low or is spoiling now, and the stores are empty?
What would you think about? What would you do? It would be too late to make a plan or to think logically about it.
These events happen all of the time in other places, but usually only for a few months. How difficult it must have been for those who endured such tragedies to cope and wait on supplies or help.
I am talking about globally and permanently. Do you think that you will starve or become dehydrated, die at the hands of looters, be able to gain assistance from some unknown source, wait for the government to provide, or something more like Judgment Day?
How important would politics, prejudice, racial discriminations, global warming, taxes, climate change, or arms control be?
We are all so distracted with life in general, that any major event would knock us on our butts and we would not be prepared for it.
The common speculations are that an EMP would hit us and that it would knock out our already fragile power grid. Without power, our military would be useless because it is so technically advanced now. There would not be any police or 911 to call. There would be no communication. Once the store shelves become empty, then the looting would begin. People in their own homes would not be safe, and if you own land and grow your own food, the government has the right to take it all from you. You may have to get in line at a FEMA Camp set up by the government and hope to get food for your starving family or be detained within its confines permanently like sheep to the slaughter.
Imagine living in darkness constantly other than what sunshine you have during the day that is if you felt safe enough to venture outdoors.
What about sanitation? Without water, things tend to get messy and unsanitary. Do you have enough clothes to wear since you will not be able to wash them?
Water will be in short supply. The western United States has been in a drought for the past 13 years and that will only worsen. How will you find enough water for your family's needs on short notice?
Communication would be non-existent. Everything electrical would be fried and of no use. At least during 9-11 we had cell phones, satellites, cable, and television. None of that would be available to us. We would just believe that it was a blackout or a temporary disruption of some sort.
These are just the very basic concerns that we should all be aware of even if it never happens or if it does, then you could at least have a short-term plan and supplies handy so that you don't have to panic and risk your life to gain what you need at the last minute.
What would you regret? That lost love you didn't pursue? How about quality time with your family? Going to the nursing home to see your mother? What about that close friend you didn't have time to call? How about that vacation you put off because it wasn't the right time? Remember all of those things in storage that you didn't get to see or use one last time? How about that promise you didn't keep? Or that book that didn't get published because it wasn't perfect?
Just something to think about...
The glistening, golden sand clings to your bare feet as you tread through it towards the border where the sparkling, blue-green water buffets the coast. A few feet from the water, green algae lie scattered like wind-tossed hay.
A cool breeze blows from the east showering the banks with a light mist of salty spray. Seagulls glide and hover as they search for a vacant spot to alight. There are purple and pink bubbles lying just below an inch of sand. The have the appearance of slightly deflated balloons and are known as jellyfish.
The thundering roar of the ocean can be heard along the many miles of coastline. As you plunge into the cool watery depths, you feel the soothing lull of the tide tugging and tossing about. In the distance, you can discern the many different boats cruising in the water. There are oil tankers, yachts, speed boats, and windsurfers.
On the crowded beach, fringed with palm trees, there are multitudes of women in brightly colored bikinis, basking in the brilliant, sweltering rays of the hot, glaring sun. Small children playing near the water, are busy making their own lopsided, disfigured versions of sand castles. A few bronze, muscular men are jogging along the edge of the water looking at the women as they pass by.
There is the unmistakable smell of coconut oil as young couples rub the warm oil all over themselves and each other.
A slightly pudgy woman in her mid-sixties is stooping over to pick up some shell that looks pretty.
A lone lifeguard wearing a white beach hat, dark black sunglasses, and sunscreen on his nose, sits high in his watchtower under the shade of an umbrella as he scours the ocean with his eyes, searching for anyone who might be a weak swimmer or someone who might have a cramp or may be drowning.
An amateur volleyball game is in practice, as people of all ages join in on the fun by trying to hit the ball over the net with their hands or fists so that the team on the other side will not be able to return it.
People who brought coolers of something to cold to drink, search to the very bottom for their favorite flavor of soda and for something good to eat.
The cool water of the shower stand feels refreshing as the water rinses the sticky, salty sweat and sand from your hair and cleanses your skin.
The sounds of traffic on the busy highway behind the beach, fill the air as people driving by honk at some scantily clad stranger that looks appealing. There is the occasional loud, wailing siren of a speeding ambulance going by.
The sky is a colorful sight to behold. It is the color of robin’s eggs, with colossal billowy clouds that look like mounds of pure white cotton candy.
There are two low-flying planes with banners that fly across the sky every hour as they advertise teeny bikini contests, happy hour, food buffets, and free t-shirts.
It was barely two months ago that this kitten came into the world. It seems like so much longer. It was a little boy that was born to a female gray-striped cat that I named Sheba. She was abandoned by her owner and left starving in the woods, so I fed her and developed her trust.
Her kitten was severely injured somehow. I have not found the source nor figured out how. It was filled out and looked healthy, and then it showed up limping along like a drunken pirate leaning to one side, barely able to move forward. It could have been a dog or a snake that harmed it. I'll never know. The poor thing looked like it's belly went to his chest and there was no longer any stomach where it should be. It was breathing too hard and fast. There was no blood anywhere, and I could not find any puncture wounds nor bite marks.
For awhile, it seemed as if it would recover. I gave it antibiotics and monitored it closely. Last week, it wasn't breathing as well and was losing the remainder of it's weight. There are no vets nearby and no one to carry me.
The baby stopped eating two days ago and died this morning. I asked the people who owned this place if they would tell me where to bury it, help me to dig a hole, or how they wanted to take care of it. Where I come from, you don't leave dead animals around to rot. Even in the country and on the roads, at least animal control would come by and pick up the dead animals and dispose of them.
No one seemed to care. I spoke to my landlords, my neighbors, and never received a reply. This afternoon while they were doing whatever they had on their agenda, I went and buried this poor kitten.
No one helped. There were two men nearby that I had asked, and not once was I told that they would take care of it. I went back out into the heat of the day, grabbed the shovel, went behind a building and near a tree and struck the ground to see if I could get the shovel into it. Slowly, inch by inch, layer by layer, I made a circle and broke some roots as I did my best to pull up some dirt. I kept at it until the hole looked big enough. Then I picked up the plastic bag that I had the animal inside of and placed it in the ground. I carefully covered it up and placed a large concrete block on top of the mound hoping that the dogs could not dig it up.
I'm not used to being ignored when I ask someone to do something for me. Especially when it is something that I feel a man could help with. It made me even sadder to think about the animals in this world where people have no compassion nor empathy.
I hope others will become more sensitive and aware of the animal's plight as well as the emotions of others who care for them.
I was raised outside of small towns and on country farms up north until I was a teenager. I remember playing in creeks and watching guppies and turtles swimming by. I liked collecting round pebbles from the dirt road. There were baby voles in the barn with their tiny pink blind bodies, and sometimes we would find and rescue a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. Chasing fireflies at night were magical as a kid, and as much fun as looking up at the stars.
Many days were spent outdoors playing tag, hide-n-seek, and just discovering all that nature had to offer. We would pick fruit from the trees, grapes from the vine, and look for nuts that had fallen to the ground.
What is unfamiliar to me is adults playing dominoes almost every night. Eating winter peas and cornbread. Feeding cats and dogs once a day and never petting them nor acknowledging them. Taking two-month-old kittens to a stranger's farm and letting them loose in the barn to catch mice. Riding on vehicles that they call side-by-side, or the gator. Basically, ATV vehicles to drive around a large garden or on your property, down to the mailbox at the end of the driveway, or race on it with your kids or grandkids aboard as if it were a go-kart.
Shooting at crows and turkeys because they are in your garden. Urinating in your yard since there is no one else around and it is easier than going inside to do it. Burning trash and rubbish on the ground due to the fact that there is no other pick-up for it besides the normal trash. Keeping your hens penned up in a cage off the ground as a result of dogs or snakes attacking and penetrating the wire to kill them.
Small children under the age of 3, playing with kittens and holding them by their necks or putting flea powder on them without supervision. Babies crawling on the ground getting bit by ants before their parents notice. Animals plagued by unrelenting fleas that no one cares enough to do anything about. They are concerned more about their machines such as tractors, lawn mowers, bush hogs, trailers and trucks than a living animal. Even the crops are more important!
Maybe times have changed, or perhaps different parts of the country have opposite or unnatural ways. I am not comfortable with any of these things, and I want your input. What do you think about this? Is it just me, or is something wrong with this picture?
It's the weekend when most people have their days planned and their activities to dash to. If you are one of the unfortunate ones, your day is not anything to raise hopes about.
Do you have anxiety as you wait for the good news that what you need more than a miracle will happen today?
Did you have to hold your breath until someone left the house so that you could take a shower in privacy without hearing s*xual innuendos and being touched without your permission?
Was the air clear of bomb smoke and the land free of imminent threat where you live? Or do you stay in the shadows until safety is announced?
Did you have your positive thoughts ruined by someone with their verbal abuse and negativity and threats? What's the use?
Where did you have to go to find the nearest restroom without feeling indecent about it? Maybe you couldn't hold it long enough and now have to hide from prying eyes to get somewhere to change clothes.
Was your depression so bad that your thoughts lingered all day about committing suicide? You had to stay busy and find ways to take your mind to another place. It was extremely hard and you struggled to figure out what you had to live for.
Did your friends beg you to come to a party that you weren't invited to and secretly wished they would leave you alone? How can I smile and pretend to feel something I don't?
Is there food in your cabinets and refrigerator or did you have to steal it to keep from starving and try not to get caught and killed?
Did you wake up so cold and hurting that you would give anything to throw yourself into a fire just to feel warm again? Or did you have to settle for a few rays of sunlight?
Stop. Be more than grateful. Try to make a difference in someone's life today.
I DARE YOU!
You can't, can you? Not unless you've been homeless before. You probably have most of these things and more. What would your life be without them? Let's break it down so that you can see more clearly, shall we?
When you have no housing, where do you live?
Local shelter
A good samaritan takes you in
A boyfriend, significant other, friends, or relatives
Strangers who want to take advantage of you
Do you need to go to the doctor? Not possible unless you can beg a ride, and get someone to dole out the co-pay. Even at clinics where it is based on your income or lack thereof, there is still a $20.00 fee at these places. If you need medicine, you're out of luck unless they give you free samples.
Got problems with your teeth? Even harder to find a dentist with no money and no insurance. Think about how much you suffered last time a tooth bothered you.
How many people have cell phones, smartphones, or PDA's? What if you don't? You have no money, and wouldn't be able to keep service for long if you did. You have no means of contacting anyone for any reason.
What about food? Everyone has to eat. Right? Well, unless you are on food stamps or can get to a local pantry, or someone buys you groceries or provides a meal, you are most likely doing without. Eating out at a restaurant would be a luxury for this person.
Transportation is a major concern. It is non-existent. You have to beg rides from anyone that you can. Whether it is a person at church, a friend, a stranger, or you hitch-hike.
More than likely you have taken a vacation in the last few years. That is not even a dream for someone who is doing without so many basic needs.
Something you do at least once a month would be shopping. Imagine not being able to buy much-needed clothes, shoes, and toiletries. Basic staples, right? Try doing without them sometime. Not for just a week, but for years! Clothes and shoes do wear out. Especially when you wear them day after day with nothing else to change into.
Have I got your attention now? You don't have to be homeless to experience these things. You could just be in a rut, going through a divorce, bankruptcy, coming off an addiction, or maybe you don't have any family or friends to assist or offer help. Maybe they're just not willing.
With the end of the year coming upon us so quickly, it is easy to get caught up in old habits and traditions, planning for holidays and vacations, parties and festivities. Please stop, slow down, get out of your comfort zone and take a look around you. Glance at the people near you, whether they are co-workers, associates, friends, strangers in the shopping line, patients at your doctor's office, someone on the street, etc.
Are they smiling? Do they look like they need a friend? Are they having trouble paying for their food? Is their sadness or worry in their eyes as they smile back at you? Are they waiting for a ride?
Please take a few minutes from your hour. Talk with them, help them, give some encouragement, get to know them, let them borrow your phone, take them out to eat, offer to provide some clothes and shoes from your closet, church, thrift stores, etc.
We all have weeks, months, years, and the rest of our lives to do whatever we want. For some, it is all they can do to make it through another day with what they have or don't have.
A place to call home, money, food, and resources = PRICELESS!
Do you still have grandparents? Mine have all passed away many years ago. I miss them. They were great for giving advice, learning new things, visiting, having a conversation with and sharing secrets.
It was my grandmother on my father's side of the family who taught me to crochet at an early age. She also allowed me to play her electric organ even though I didn't know how.
My grandfather would take me to his garden just outside the kitchen door in the back yard and we would pick some tomatoes. Then we brought them inside and sprinkled salt on them and ate them just the way nature intended. They also had a mulberry tree in the front yard and those berries were better than the blackberries that you find growing wild or in the stores nowadays.
My grandparents knew how to square dance and would go on the weekends every chance they could. They wore country western outfits and I thought how different they looked dressed in those clothes compared to what they usually wore.
My grandmother was a beautician. She had a beauty shop built on the side of their house just off the bedroom. I loved to visit her while she worked. She would always introduce me to her customers and talk about what I had been doing, my grades, etc. I loved to spin around in those chairs and raise the lift up and down. There was always the smell of chemicals in the air, but I got used to it after awhile.
At Christmas time, I could always count on getting some rose scented lotion or hand cream, some perfume, and socks or other clothes from her. It seemed old-fashioned at the time, but I loved it because she gave it to me.
One of my favorite things to look at was her salt & pepper collection. She had two barrister bookcases with glass in the front, and she kept all of her shakers in those two cabinets in the living room. The salt & pepper shakers were teeny tiny ceramic things usually in the shape of animals or little people.
A fascinating thing about their house was a mural that had been painted on the wall from the bottom of the stairs extending all the way up to the top of the steps. I couldn't tell you what it looked like because it was so long ago and when you're a child, you don't pay attention to those things.
My grandparents lived long enough to celebrate their golden anniversary and a few years past that. They were my best friends and I loved them dearly. Their sage advice was comforting and helpful. The knowledge that they possessed is a treasure truly missed.
How do you put into words something that you have just heard, seen, or felt that shocked you and left your mind numb?
I just came from a camper that was abandoned by the person living in it and what I saw was much worse than I had imagined or had experienced by other scenarios that I have witnessed.
The camper is remotely situated on a long narrow stretch of road in the country with no real path leading to it. As I came upon it, my eyes scanned the surroundings which were appalling in relation to what was yet to be discovered.
A scrappy storage building that looked to be barely held together with vertical broken pieces of wood held the remnants of someone's long forgotten, filthy, thrown about belongings. How sad! I thought to myself, why not just burn it? Not much to see there. Nothing of value any longer.
As I got closer, I saw an open shed that displayed the contents of a sink that was overflowing with miscellaneous pots, pans, dishes, and anything else that had been previously used for cooking or eating and drinking from. I wondered how long had it been there?
There were plastic hangers thrown about in the yard, including a bag of clothes on the ground just under the edge of the camper. Trash was seen everywhere littering the landscape.
I cautiously approached the makeshift door and pulled it open. That's when I couldn't believe what my eyes were showing me. We've all seen messy rooms before, but this was different. It was just plain gross! There was a mattress too long for its frame. The sheet had cigarette burns and the rest of the bed had clothes piled all over it, including a small plastic wastebasket with discarded food and paper trash of every sort in it.
There were empty foam cups and ashes throughout the space. Curtains were barely hanging on the windows leaving them exposed and open. The few places where you could set something down were covered with junk. CD cases, a picture frame, an ashtray filled with butts, empty containers, and more clothes.
The closets were devoid of clothes entirely and held just the dangling hangers. The bathroom was something I wish I could unsee and understand. The entire bathtub was overflowing with trash. Several empty gallon sized milk jugs were across the top of the pile, along with papers and more garbage. The small sink was the only thing anyone could make use of in that space.
The rest of the place looked just as bad. Nothing but more clothes and trash scattered about and piled on the bed in the opposite part of the camper. The refrigerator was covered in rust and I tried to open it, but the door wouldn't release, so I didn't pursue my efforts since the place had no power nor running water.
Yet, despite all of that, someone had just been living in that squalor only a couple of weeks ago. I can't help wonder how a human goes from being a regular attendee at church, then allows drugs to turn them into the animal that they have become.
This person no longer cares about possessions, family, respect, advice, and doesn't have any morals, values, or even a conscience. To me, this is an animal. Intelligence is erased and replaced with irrational desires to feed upon what they used to know in an effort to sustain and obtain the drugs that overpower them. They function only in a selfish, self-preserving way to sustain that habit.
I have personally known some who were like that. It breaks my heart to know of it and to realize that until they make the decision to change, nothing ever will.
Early this morning, I discovered that I had no water. I did not want to look at the dirty dishes from last night's dinner and I had no way to flush the toilet. Not the kind of day anyone wants to wake up to. I won't bore you with the details of what happened to the water.
I don't know how many of you remember what it was like when you didn't have running water. Thankfully I did and knew what to do.
I took a medium sized bucket, one that was not too heavy for me to carry. I walked next door to my neighbor's yard and turned on the hose and filled the bucket. Then I brought it back to the house and dumped part of the water down the toilet. The rest of it I used to get the dishes washed.
I took a pot, dipped it into the bucket of water and set it on the stove to heat. When it was hot, I dumped it into the sink with the plug in place to stop the water from getting out. I added my dishes to it and some dishwashing liquid and when I finished washing the dishes, I set them in the other side of the sink and waited until some more water was hot and then poured it over all of the dishes at once. Then I moved them to the strainer to air dry.
It seemed like a daunting task at first with all of the dishes piled up, but once I got started, it was over with quickly and now I have a clean kitchen again!
Have a stress free and relaxing day!
Life isn't fair. Throughout different stages of our lives, something is going to happen that we didn't count on, weren't expecting, and no one told us about.
I feel angry when it happens. Especially when it takes me by surprise and catches me off-guard. Some things make me sad or even cry.
How many of these things have you felt or suffered?
Who knew that your parents would get divorced? That your sister would be given up for adoption? My brother died of an Aids related disease. I thought that my grandparents would live forever. I loved their stories and the way that they always loved me and gave great advice.
Did you know that your heart would get broken over one kiss? The one kid at school that you had a crush on, could make you feel like dying? How about how embarrassed you were when the kids in your class made fun of you?
Why didn't someone tell me that my marriage wouldn't last no matter how hard I tried to keep it together? That we have no control over what the other person decides? How about those with children? Who knew that the government could find ways to take them from you?
And death, one of the most cruel things that could happen to anyone. Why is it so painful for some who have to endure years of suffering, and yet others die peacefully in the night? Why do little babies die after only a few seconds of being born? Did someone tell you about that when you got pregnant and were so happy to be having a child?
No one ever told me that strangers could take away your virginity, steal your identity, rob you of all of your possessions, drive drunk and kill someone that you knew and loved. I could be homeless despite working my entire life, or that I would be forced to apply for food stamps so that I didn't go hungry.
No one said that the things you watch on tv actually happen in real life. I didn't know that one day I could come home and there would be no home due to a fire, flood, or a default on the mortgage. Maybe your family left without saying goodbye. Perhaps you didn't know what bad food was supposed to look like and you ate it and got sick. No one tells you what a stranger looks like, and you aren't supposed to talk to them, but everyday you say hi to one or more whenever you go to the store with your parents.
I don't think we will ever know all of the things that we should know to keep us safe, healthy, alive and informed. All we can do is try to adjust, read, and keep alert. Do our best not to take anything or anyone for granted.
Have you ever found words to live by or had good advice given to you? My parents made sure that I was taught good manners. Be polite, to sit up straight, eat with your mouth closed, don’t put your elbows on the table, make sure that your bed is made, brush your teeth daily, wash your hands before you eat or touch any food. Blow your nose in private.
Do you wish you had been given certain advice or guidance earlier in your life? For me personally, yes. I wish that I had been taught how to date, how to recognize people who have drug and drinking problems, to know when you are being lied to, how to better handle finances, to be informed about dental care in its entirety, and to not rush into decisions too quickly.
Did someone hear your message or advice and use it to guide them in making a decision, or help them with a personal issue?
People at work told me that they valued my work ethic and the way that I conducted myself. I would not give advice if I had not been in their shoes, or had that experience for myself. The information so freely given and delivered off of the tip of a tongue these days is often just something that they heard or read about from somewhere. I have found that much of it is outdated, unpractical, and ill-advised. If you haven’t done the research and followed through for yourself on the advice that you are dishing out, then please don’t give it nor share it. It only causes heartache, frustration, and confusion in the end for the person on the receiving end of it.
Please feel free to share your words of wisdom with us. It might bring back memories, a few laughs, and maybe someone will learn from it as well. Thank you!
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