Bee~ Journal of then...

[delia_peterson]

I will need "the how to" section! And all the information in your brain!
Bee, I never thought I could be SS. But since joining this forum and reading journals like yours, Kels and many others- I have grown! Both in SS and in my faith. I am now thinking of bees! I know your book would encourage me and so many others.

 

[Beekissed]

Delia, you are the sweetest! Bat loved that you mentioned her in your Christmas card....thank you so much for your sweetness and light!

It means the world to me to have you all's support and well wishes.

We are getting out the old pics tomorrow and will be choosing the ones for the book and for inspiration.

And, from now on, all the usual skills will be documented by photo...even making the laundry soap that we all use. Ya never know how many folks out there haven't ever heard of doing this.....all the folks around here never have, I can tell you this!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Bee, you have such a wonderfull writing style, that I would want to read the book, even if I already knew how to do everything in it.

When you write something, I can see it or feel it. And you are funny to boot. You have the style I love to read.

 

[justusnak]

My my my my my!! I cant waite to read this book. This will definately be a "keeper" Go Bee GO!!!!!

 

[Farmfresh]

Start in the beginning Bee. Remember telling us all what it was like being a little girl growing up off grid? That was such an enlightening story. So many of us were amazed by the story. So FAR away from how most of us were raised. You learned so much about the ways of the world first hand back then.

Also part of the reason, oh Mountain Sage, that we ask "I wonder how ___ would work" and you tell us how you used to do it. The book will be great!!

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, yes, Farm! I am taking your sage advice right off and starting it from a 5th grader's perspective in the beginning. As that was my actual perspective, it must be this way.

Funny, isn't it? How kids adapt so easily? Before then I had always lived in a regular house, close to the road, always had the normal conveniences. We always had a garden and we processed a lot of deer, but then, everyone did THAT back then. The closest I had been to SS skills then was going to Grandma's house on the weekends.

She had a fascinating place...and old farm! If I had to put a finger on the beginnings of my yearning for old country life, her house would be it. She had a dark, creepy cellar house with all kinds of good things in it. She had chickens, cows, barn cats, and dogs. She had a rhubarb patch, pickled corn in a huge crock, a very large grape arbor, big garden and a huge barn filled with hay.

Us kids thought we were in heaven! She lived in an old house that was red with a green roof and the floors rolled. I kid you not, the kitchen floor had a ripple effect from the house foundations settling....to a kid this was magic! This house was built in a very unusual style, was kind of dark and creepy also but very interesting to explore. Weird house, weird smells....yep, Grandma's was the funnest place ever!

She even had a wolfman in a cage, a mounted turkey's foot, a spooky board game called Dark Shadows (vampires) and old pictures that had that ubiquitous gaze thing going on, where the eyes follow you no matter where you were in the room!

She liked to play Sorry with us and Grandpa let us help him with the cows. He had a mean ol' Angus bull named Tiny Tim. We were scared to death of that mean thing!

It really was a cool place and you all would have loved to talk to my granny.....she knew so much about the old timey skills. I wish I had a chance to talk to her again, just to hear her tell it all her way. She had a way of telling things that made you laugh!

 

[MorelCabin]

I want a signed copy of your book Bee! Can't wait till you write it...it will be a very interesting read!
My grandmas was alot like yours. My grandma had this uncanny thing she did when she got older...she bought things that she would have liked as a child and put them kind of on display and no one was allowed to touch them. She had no electricity and and old outhouse out back on the top of a hill. One time me and my cousins were playing tag and my older cousin chased me behind the house...I ran behind the outhouse (that was overflowing down the hill) Slipped on sewage slop and slid all the way down the hill real fast on sewage sludge...the best part was that my cousing followed and came barrelling down with me! We were so grossed out but laughing so hard! Lots of good memories at my grandmas...Tent camping in a huge blizzard...ahhhh...

 

[Farmfresh]

Sounds GREAT! I can hardly wait to read all about it.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Sounds like my grandma too. The "nice" grandma, that is
She had a house in the country and knew how to do all sorts of stuff, so did grandpa.

 

[Beekissed]

I have been reading the 4th edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul tonight. I must tell you folks that I cry through every story I read in those darn Chicken Soup books! Am I just a sentimental ninny or do I really need some hormones?

I think in my book I will probably add some Chicken Soup stories of my own....just to get the full range of emotions in there!

Two Bites hide is coming along....got it fleshed properly with Bat's Ulu knife....it did a great job but one has to be careful. It is very sharp! Two Bites now has a few holes in her hide.....

The Bettys are content, Lucy is already showing more flesh on her bones from her homemade dog food mix and another disappointment at work has sharpened my resolve to get busy on this book project.

If my(one of the Toxic ones) sis can write a children's book that was very dull and had very ugly cover design and illustrations....sell very many copies for $10 a pop, have her book bought by a publisher who paid her $10,000 up front and will revamp and re-release her book.....well, by golly, I can do this book!