When I was growing up, we spent just about every weekend out at Grandma’s farm. We drove out on Friday night and came home on Sunday evening. The farm was as much my home as the little one my parents bought back in 1960. I was a voracious reader. From the moment the alphabet clicked with me and I realized words could transport me to other worlds, I made my escape as often as possible.

As I was puttering around in the kitchen Saturday, this thought kept recurring. I haven’t made tofu or yoghurt or baked my own bread in a gazillion years. I know there are economical concerns at work here. And there are skills that should be passed on to the younger generations before they are lost. But it’s not that simple. Something kept nagging at me. Then I watched CBS Sunday Morning yesterday and things became clear.

I was really productive in the kitchen yesterday. I made a double batch of spaghetti sauce and cooked a huge pork shoulder...both in crockpots. Then I decided to try my hand at making yoghurt in my instapot. That was a big no go. It smelled like yoghurt, but even after 10 hours, it was still a soupy mess. I used to have a yoghurt maker a zillion years ago and I used yoghurt starter. I never had a bad batch. So, I gave in and ordered a yoghurt maker online. I eat a lot of yoghurt so I think it will soon pay for itself. You can buy one HERE.

It’s May Day! Can you believe that??? In what seems like three lifetimes ago, I was a bit of a hippie earth mama. I had all the Mother Earth News Magazines and the Moosewood Cookbook. I made all of our bread, yoghurt, tofu, pasta, granola, and Grape Nuts. I grew veggies on any piece of land available. And I frequented the Farmer’s Markets to preserve as much food as possible. I was a girl on a budget. I did all this while working full time, raising a child, and putting my hubby through medical school. What can I say...I was young and could do anything.

I usually reserve writing my post for the evenings after supper and any TV that I might want to watch...which is very little. The Voice, American Idol, maybe something special...but there’s very little on there that interests me. I’m at the farm working on the laundry and taxes and everything I’m doing, including writing this post, is dependent on the electricity staying on. That is a dicey prospect in the country, especially when we are under high wind and storm alerts like we are at the moment. (3:00pm yesterday afternoon to you.)

I woke up yesterday, scrounged around for a clean t-shirt and quickly came to the conclusion it was laundry day. I’ve told you before, I like to do my laundry out at the farm. There are several reasons for that. First, the gas and water are free and who doesn’t like free stuff, right? Second, we have one of those new-fangled washers without an agitator. They are supposed to save power and water but you can only wash a third of the amount at a time, and the cycles last three times as long. So, I can’t figure out how that saves energy. Also, you need a degree in engineering to work the darned thing and no matter how many times Mr. FixIt shows me...I just don’t get it. It’s far easier and less stressful for me to make a bi-monthly pilgrimage out to the farm for a little R&R and laundry time.

I’ve been looking for the good stories to use on “Feel Good Friday” because Lord knows there are far too many of the tragic ones. One such story was about a little four-year-old Staten Island boy. Little CJ Tardy’s mom wanted to keep his time structured like his pre-school class days so she started out with the Pledge of Allegiance. Now he is doing a daily Zoom call with up to fifty participants from family and friends to first responders.

I went into x-ray training straight out of high school. Our first year was spent almost entirely in the classroom with gradual transition to working in the x-ray department. Our second year was almost all hands-on experience. We each had to take turns working in surgery, mostly in orthopedics taking films to see if bones were set and pins were placed correctly. It was fascinating and held my interest far more than high school ever did.

Since I can’t take off with my camper and head for the hills, I’m having to be more creative with my favorite extracurricular activity. I decided to work on Big TOW-Wanda yesterday. I didn’t camp in her at all last year so she really hadn’t had a good cleaning since 2018. Mr. FixIt ran a power cord out to the camper and I found the surge protector and plugin adapter and got her powered up.

By now you all know I am no stranger to psychotherapy. And, I have zero interest in hiding the fact that I coped with a serious seven year bout of clinical depression. There were so many intrinsic factors, most of which I don’t go into great detail about merely to protect the privacy of others. Suffice it to say, it was a perfect storm and it wasn’t pretty. It was hard and difficult to work through. I am so grateful that once I found the right therapist for me, the work became easier and affected permanent change.