Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 12/9/06, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

> I agree with Gene on this one.  It's a matter of the odds.  Now those who
> believe the modern version of our health being written in our stars (genes,
> ancestory) would not see the stark difference so clearly.

Depends on what you have in your genes. Mine are pretty good. When my
father died at aged 93, he was taking no medicine. My mother has lived
exactly the same lifestyle as Dad, naturally, and at 88 she's as
active as she can be. Unfortunately, she has lost her balance and has
to use a walker (and until one of her knees sort of blew up --
arthritis and an autoimmune disease seem to be the problem) she
continued to be very active. She's also, however, taking few meds (the
past two weeks she's been hitting the oxycontin pretty good because a
stenosis in her spine has put her in agony, and this is not a woman
who takes painkillers casually -- she's happy that the oxy allows her
to use her treadmill and the pain is getting better).

Like the Clan, Mom figured that since she was living an exemplary
lifestyle and was very active, she'd age fine, and she's throroughly
pissed that it hasn't worked out that way. All the stuff that's wrong
with her is almost certainly genetic. Just for example, about the time
she realized that she was falling over all the time because her
balance was gone, she found out that her older cousin Evelyn (mid-90s)
is now using a staff because she too has no balance (Evelyn uses a
staff because she was not about to hunch over a cane and ruin the
excellent posture she's had all herr life.)

That said, I live a much more sedentary life than my parents and have
the niggling health problems that result. Still, my main medical
adventure in the last few years resulted from my slipping in a muddy
chicken yard and ripping the rotator cuff of my right arm apart. So
far, commuting hasn't been nearly so dangerous or medically expensive.

> Never known anyone yet to be seriously injured by a hoe or a bow
> saw.

Good point. OTOH, Mom and I sawed down several large trees when we
were both much younger with a crosscut saw. We were careful notching
them, etc., but in retrospect I'm amazed that we never came close to
killing ourselves. If you put your mind to it, there are many ways to
hurt yourself.

And, oh yeah, when I was a kid we still were using mules for some of
the farmwork. In many ways, tractors are safer than draft animals
(though we never had accidients with either).

Marie