Homestead mailing list

["Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>]

On 12/18/06, tonitime AT juno.com <tonitime AT juno.com> wrote:
> reason i chose some intensive community service and the knowledge (new to
> me) required was just so i might join the "Use it, or Lose It Club"as
> inevitable aging becomes so apparent on a more physical and mental plane.

I try to solve one Sudoku puzzle each day. That seems to be a good
brain exercise. Since I mostly work with words, doing something
outside that realm is a good brain stretch.

> Time now to get the gardens as accessible and friable and raised as much
> as possible, grow mostly pole beans instead of bush types for the back's
> aging process, - the list goes on and on!  A good topic for some of us
> these days, is how we are preparing for becoming "Older than dirt"!!
> What have you done at your steads?  Anyone have bars in the bathtub yet?
> I've plans for a dumbwaiter to the drive-up basement, as DH (my elder,
> hee-hee) doesn't like hauling things up stairs anymore.  This year, after
> decades of avoidance, i will become proficient with the chainsaw, that
> has before been male territory in my choices!  I bought a new hydraulic
> splitter, as i can see that this task will become trouble for our
> hardworking bodies.
>
> I'd love to hear of your different ideas for making becoming elderly at
> home
> easier.
> Toni
> E KY


No bathtub bars yet. The house I'm buying is two story, but everything
I NEED is on one level, as the second level is really just a finished
attic, and it can still be just an attic. The land is level, so there
will never be the struggle to get up and down an icy hill as I've had
in the past, just to get to the barn. There is NO garden yet, but I
intend to build raised beds over time. I will plant dwarfed fruit
trees, and when they come into production I will cut down the large
fruit trees that are there - ladders will get harder to use as the
years go by. My dad did not consider that when he planted his
homestead orchard. He eventually replaced the original planting with a
planting of dwarfs, for that reason. Hay can be stored in its own
separate shed - no loft needed - that alone is huge. At some point
down the road, I want a wood splitter also. They are such a miraculous
tool! I've rented them, and they make such short work of the job.

Gloria
Feeling a Bit of Her Age Today, As Yesterday Was Spent Building a Fence!