Sustainability or Simplicity?

The holidays are fast approaching and every year comes the inevitable "calendar". Uggg... why must it be? I've already grabbed Tasha Tudor's Christmas book and then grabbed the "Unplug the Christmas Machine" book. Somehow the two don't really correspond, or maybe they do. The holidays of deep snows and quiet worship are long gone. Perhaps even false memories. Only God knows. Yet, I am dog tired of the "hustle and bustle" of the "Holiday Season" and it hasn't even started, really. Each year it seems to accost us sooner that the year before. As a child, I remember Thanksgiving and Christmas being obviously separate ~ a month apart for pete's sake. Now it's more "Thanksmas" than anything. Or maybe Hallothanksmas? What ever happened to Christmas Eve to Epiphany? I mean, that's when we celebrated. Rarely did the tree go up before Christmas Eve. In fact, that was the greatest night of all. Big supper, decorating, wrapping, hanging of the stockings... all on the night before. Even after Billy married, no one missed Christmas Eve at Moms. Then the next week was spent in quiet celebrations with friends and family until January 6th when it all was put away until next Christmas Eve. Daddy and I used to go to the back woods for the Christmas tree. It was always cedar and always full. He'd shoot mistle-toe out of the trees and mom would collect running pine and holly. All of it would go on the mantle and the mistle toe would hang at every door. What fun. Which brings me to my primary thought... sustainability or simplicity.

Both of those words are "catch-words" for us these days. Every bookstore has tons of books on "simple living". Every magazine has articles on "simple living", but it's usually for those of higher incomes. I mean, just yesterday there was a letter to the editor on sustainable living and living more simply by using solar power and wind power. Do they live in a box? I mean, solar power is EXPENSIVE to install and wind power is restricted by height restrictions in towns and counties. The government itself makes it nearly impossible. Energy Star appliances? What a joke! We have an old refrigerator out in the barn that keeps the milk cool if we are delayed after milking. It's not self-defrosting. Henry put a voltage reader on it and found that it uses alot LESS electricity than the "Energy Star" frig we have in the kitchen. Why? Self-defrosting uses LOTS of energy. So, are all these "greenies" willing to go back to a time when they had to self-defrost their refrigerators and freezers? Old wringer washers used less electricity and less water than their new "Energy Star" counterparts. I remember when mom washed the whites first in the hottest water, then the least dirty, then, finally, daddy's filthy, oil drenched, work clothes. All in the same water. The rinse water was changed, always cold, but never the wash water. How many of us would do that today? To live simply and sustainably there are only two avenues: with lots of money or with lots of work and work = time. I wrote our government about their lame tax deductions for becoming more energy efficient. I suggested they give 100% cost tax deductions for those willing to do more to save energy. Boy did I get some pitiful reactions. One even told me that he wasn't sure that "wind power" used less energy. How is that possible? Even hybrid cars don't really use "less" energy. Looking at new cars on the showroom floor we can all see how the government and car makers are working together to give us high mileage vehicles, can't we? What a laugh! My husband drives a 1995 (or thereabouts) Geo Metro that gets 50 mpg in the summer and 45 mpg in the winter, yet there is no car... no not one... that gets that kind of mileage with a gasoline motor today. Yet the cost of gasoline is higher today than when the Metro was introduced. Europe has a large number of cars that get high gas mileage. Why aren't they here? Because of the lack of safety features. The reality is that to get higher gas mileage, cars have to weigh less and in weighing less they have lower safety option. So? Give me the car and restrict me off the interstate. Just to have a car that gets better gas mileage that I can drive around here would be great. Sustainability or Simplicity? The other catch-word today among those in the higher income brackets is "Sustainable Agriculture". Well, I can't sell my raw goat milk because it's illegal and I can't afford to buy local, organic produce because it's too expensive for our low-end budget. We grow what we can and buy the rest, still ingesting too many chemicals. There's a "network" out there, but people aren't as good as their word anymore. Simplicity... living in a bartering society. That's what I'd like to see. You raise the vegetables and we'll raise the meat... You sew, I'll bake.

What's this all come down to? Community. The lost art of community. Doing for one another, keeping your word and loving God first. If we would all re-discover community, then we could all live more simply and more sustainably.

Finally, one more word. Where's the farmer out there that wants to keep his farm sustainable and has enough money to sell it so that those of us with lower incomes could buy it and live in community? Everyone wants $10,000 per acre for their "farm" land and the only ones that can buy it are either investors or rich. So... is simplicity and sustainability for the rich? You tell me... Merry Hallothanksmas.

Fall nights and old ways

Fall is truly here and she's late. But, nevertheless, just as lovely as ever. For the last few days the old house has been heated in the evenings with the gas furnace. Gas is wonderfully even and quick heat. But, alas, too dear for this family in this economy. So, today it was time to turn on the Harman. What wonderful heat spews from her portals in our front room. As the weather cooled, my home-heart slowed and settled in for what is always a long winter. I peeled apples to make apple butter in the roaster. No longer do we peel tons of apples to fill up a 42 gallon copper kettle and then cook it on an open fire. The reason we don't? Not enough manpower. Just 24 years ago I sat at the kitchen table with Mom Ruth, Grandma See, Aunt Dorothy and Granddaddy peeling apples for the Saturday boil. Granddaddy was the only one who was allowed to use the peeler. The rest of us sat with knives and peeled until even my 20-something hands ached. As we peeled, Little Henry, now known as "Rex", slept in an antique laundry basket in the living room. Today all those peelers, except Mom and me are gone to their reward and the hands just aren't there to peel all those apples anymore. I wonder if we could get all the kids to come together for four days we could do it again. I just wonder if it'd bring the joy that I remember. I wonder if the boys would willingly stand out in smoke or rain or wind and stir that apple butter? Dad E. would get up at 3 a.m. and start that fire and then we'd take that butter off and jar it at sundown. It was a full day. Dad, Henry and Granddaddy would all take turns stirring that kettle laden with pennies at the bottom. Course, apples at $14 a bushel would cost alot to do 40 gallons. I mean... I used 3/4 of a bushel to fill a roaster.
Wonderful, full memories of fall. But fall in 2007 means apple butter in a roaster cooking all night with barely a stir. I also dug through the freezer today to find a final package of stew beef, chopped it and browned it to make some good soup for tomorrow. Everything in the soup, except the barley, came from this place. ... the jars of beans, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage and corn were all grown just beyond the barn and will grace our table as soup tomorrow. That brings a settling to my heart. It's time for hot tea, as well, and I've had pot after pot the last few days. Not tea from "bags" either, but loose tea, placed in an english brown betty with "not quite boiling" water poured onto it to swirl and seep and make tea. The whole pot placed in a well quilted cozy to await the prescribed time and then poured in a good, english china cup and saucer. A mug is too "common" for tea. Ummm, fall. The other smells of fall.. candles. I've been lighting candles daily for the last few. Today I burned a Yankee Tea and Honey all day. The dining room and kitchen smelled lightly of tea and honey, as it mingled with soup and apples. As the sun set and the supper dishes done, it was time to sit and read for a bit. What better to read on a night like this than Forever Christmas by Tasha Tudor? Just looking through the book I am taken through fall and winter in the eyes of a woman whose artistic talent is unbelievable. She, in her 90's now, still producing art work. I really must get some of her tea as well and I'd love to have a settle for the house, but it is a ridiculous notion. But, dreaming is for dreamers, so this evening was a night for them. In her book A Time to Keep, she quotes Thomas Hood for November, "No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November! " While we have plenty of leaves, the flowers are gone, burned by frost and the birds are quickly heading south. It is a beautiful time to reminisce, remember a time and create a memory. It was a good day.