Saturday, July 21, 2012

July 21, 2012 A Hike In The Woods

Today started out like any other day, we got up, we ate breakfast and then it changed. Sandi spotted a bald eagle, she then asked me if I wanted to go hiking. So we gathered our basic equipment and headed out to hit the trail.. I took a lot of pics some of which I posted on my Facebook but I will post one here still.. we walked for about an hour and a half or so, then turned around and head back towards the car. Along the way we picked up some materials to use for this years hunting projects and such but will talk about that in a different p most I think.. anyways, as promised here's an up to date pic from the very same pond that my home page background was made from..enjoy.
~W


Monday, July 16, 2012

It aint easy being green... borrowed from a friend

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

6/30/12 prepper meetup

Well went to this meet up and it was more of a get to know each other deal and we learned a little bit about canning pickles... especially that in order to make good pickles you have to wear a pickle green pickle hat.. (yeah its a joke).. We did walk away with a very beautiful solid oak picnic table courtesy of the host of the meet up, aka: Thunder Ranch.. oh and by the way it is no longer a prepping group, it is now a farming alliance. Any ways, we had a blast and met a few new faces, and learned a bit about the small homestead type of farms that we didn't already know. We were supposed to be gonna dispatch a hog and butcher it out that morning but had gotten a bit too hot to do so on that day, so hopefully maybe next time.