Homestead mailing list

[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> Bev asked in a posting on this thread, "What if Herself severed her hand?"  
> Well, that's all the more reason to walk very circumspect to make sure that one 
> is not risking one's hand.  For example we don't use tractors and 3point 
> hitch machinery that probably accounts for a high percentage of homestead severed 
> hands.  That is, the best we can all do is stack the odds in our favor.
>   
Yes, well, I've no quibble with that; but we've spent many an hour, some 
pleasant, even, mulling over what is the best plan....maybe in such a 
case as mine we will then just always wonder which decision might be 
more right, or wrong, in any given situation.

I do know, for sure, that if I'd been trying to live any other way, the 
bills would have drowned me.  As it was, it's taken basically my whole 
life to pay them so that now I have very little in reserve, so it's a 
pretty good thing I have this spot and know how to live on it.  I don't 
think they have poorhouses anymore!  If everything stays on an even keel 
from here on out, I'll come out just about even, but still be able to 
enjoy fresh food safely grown, have my woods for rocksitting, and to 
keep me warm in the winter.

I've kept the back of that trailer under tarps, and recently have 
started thinking about a 'trailer inside a greenhouse' sort of rig, 
where I could also enjoy some extended gardening season, etc, take the 
very rear off and part it out, put a little summer bedroom out 
there.....still mulling.  I've never been able to find anyone who could 
(or would) be able to fix it; I think I need to find an aircraft body 
guy; those older Spartans were made from parts left over from WWII at 
the Spartan Aircraft mfg plant in OK, as housing for returning GIs when 
they were employed in the midwestern industrial plants; there were, when 
I was a kid, whole little 'cities' of those shiny trailers all lined up 
in rows.  The thought of living like that gives me the willies, but I 
love the trailer itself.  Mine has plane windshield windows front and 
rear, and the curved front and rear metal panels, too cool.  And the 
inside is still solid, all wood and metal, built quite nicely.  And the 
space inside is delightful, with more light than most houses.  So I'll see.

Anyhow.  It all keeps me from being bored..... :-)

SJ