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We hope you will find inspiration, information and most of all humor as we share our adventures in advancing a more sustainable lifestyle in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.



Sunday, January 9, 2011

Being Prepared

Our snowy weekend started Friday afternoon and we enjoyed big beautiful fluffy flakes through the evening followed by snow for most of the day Saturday.  Today we are expecting a cold reprieve before another system comes through.  Weather reports of course conflict- but we expect at least a foot! 

So once my Happy Snow Dance is out of the way- the list making starts.    We have so many things to think about- making sure neighbors and family close by are OK, checking our backup systems,  food for animals etc.    Karl laughs at me when I go about setting by water for us and animals and oh yes- TOILETS.   Most of my life has been spent on well water ( thank god)  but it has its challenges when we have hard freezes and power outages.  There is just something NOT FUN about going outside and baring ones bum to 7 degrees to attend to necessities.  So I run buckets of water  and fill the tub while Karl laughs at me-  Perhaps I will make him go outside.

While I sit here musing about our sense of being prepared, and what our ancestors had to do to leave here in the Mountains- we seem so soft, ignorant and unprepared on how to really live in isolation.  Fortunately for me, I am only one generation away from it.  My mother grew up in Moravian Falls, and remembers what it was like to heat with wood and grow her own food.  Her family were homesteaders in the truest sense- outhouses, gardens, plowing with a mule.  Yesterday she told me she remembered that when she was young, it was customers- honor to read the meter and send in money monthly for electricity.  Her family had only 2$ a month budgeted for electric a month and when the meter hit that- he would turn the power off until the next month.  Imagine- electricity was a LUXURY!

What things do we consider essentials now that were a Luxury not too long ago?  


As I obsess over being prepared- I am watching the news about the horrific shootings in Arizona.  How can anyone be prepared for such senseless violence?   6 dead, 13 wounded a little girl only 9 years old-  chillingly born on 9/11. 

How can you be prepared for such tragedy?  I go back into checklist mode- insurance, bills payed, -  but all that seems so inconsequential - How did I live my life?  Do the people I love know I love them?  Reminds me of the ole Garth Brooks tear jerker- "If Tomorrow Never Comes"    Not something we want to think about but it is irresponsible not to.... I like to think I try to live each day with mindfulness and gratitude- but I am sure I could work harder at it.  How bout you?

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