Beekissed
Mountain Sage
I, too, think of their life as more in rhythm with the Earth and the seasons. I grew up sort of living like this...no electricity, no running water, working all day to make food, firewood, clearing the land, planting, hoeing, harvesting. We moved there when I was 11 years old. It wasn't nearly as nice as their setup, though, as my dad had little interest in farming and more in just getting "back to the land". My mother and us kids would have loved more of an Amish kind of existence.
I like the orderliness of their farms, the straight lines of their clothing, the clean lines of their horses. It may seem hard work but, its a different kind of work than we do every day....they can look back at the end of their day and see a tangible result. Larders full, laundry fresh off the line and neatly pressed, oats shocked neatly in the field, animals fed and bedded. That would be so wonderful...that feeling of working hard and seeing the results every day. I bet they sleep wonderfully!
I know when we were living like that, the world seemed so distant. We didn't have TV, phone, only one radio that Dad controlled. We went to bed early, got up early, every Saturday was a "work" day, which was kind of funny, as every day was a work day! The only difference was that, on Saturday, we had to get up around 5 am and had to work for 2 hours before breakfast to "earn our meal"!
My typical school morning was this: Haul water to pigs and chickens (both pens were very far from the house and so was the spring...in the opposite direction from each other), tie up the cow for milking, take the calf to pasture, get ready for school, walk a mile to the hard road and catch the bus by 7:10 am. In the evening it was getting in firewood (we cooked on a wood cook stove), hauling a million milk jugs of water from the spring, filter the mosquito larvae out of it, haul water to pigs and chickens, ducks, turkeys, take the cow and calf to water down in the holler, do the supper dishes and do whatever other chores Dad required according to what season it was... hoeing, mowing, clearing brush, etc. Homework was done by kerosene lamp (the globes had to be washed and the lamp filled before dark) and usually to bed by 8:30 pm.
You know, I really learned to appreciate the luxuries in life....running water, a hot shower (or any shower for that matter!), a washing machine and dryer. The other stuff like TV, computer, phone...I can take them or leave them!
I like the orderliness of their farms, the straight lines of their clothing, the clean lines of their horses. It may seem hard work but, its a different kind of work than we do every day....they can look back at the end of their day and see a tangible result. Larders full, laundry fresh off the line and neatly pressed, oats shocked neatly in the field, animals fed and bedded. That would be so wonderful...that feeling of working hard and seeing the results every day. I bet they sleep wonderfully!
I know when we were living like that, the world seemed so distant. We didn't have TV, phone, only one radio that Dad controlled. We went to bed early, got up early, every Saturday was a "work" day, which was kind of funny, as every day was a work day! The only difference was that, on Saturday, we had to get up around 5 am and had to work for 2 hours before breakfast to "earn our meal"!
My typical school morning was this: Haul water to pigs and chickens (both pens were very far from the house and so was the spring...in the opposite direction from each other), tie up the cow for milking, take the calf to pasture, get ready for school, walk a mile to the hard road and catch the bus by 7:10 am. In the evening it was getting in firewood (we cooked on a wood cook stove), hauling a million milk jugs of water from the spring, filter the mosquito larvae out of it, haul water to pigs and chickens, ducks, turkeys, take the cow and calf to water down in the holler, do the supper dishes and do whatever other chores Dad required according to what season it was... hoeing, mowing, clearing brush, etc. Homework was done by kerosene lamp (the globes had to be washed and the lamp filled before dark) and usually to bed by 8:30 pm. You know, I really learned to appreciate the luxuries in life....running water, a hot shower (or any shower for that matter!), a washing machine and dryer. The other stuff like TV, computer, phone...I can take them or leave them!
Yes, that would be a serious drawback in living with them! And, it appears they DO get to go on vacation, then?
