Tag Archives: country

Resolutions or Goals?

January 5, 2010

Appearing today on The Hur Herald (www.hurherald.com)

Resolutions or Goals?

It’s been years since I’ve made any New Year resolutions. I don’t much care for the idea of starting over. Some like to look at the New Year as a fresh start. Well, I’ve made plans, I don’t want to go back to scratch. For me the turnover to a new year is a time to reassess the goals I have already established.

In early 2006, Frank and I set a long-term goal to simplify our way of living and become more self-reliant. For us, this is the path we have chosen to pursue our happiness. Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine; our “super sized” garden; farming; my experiments with canning, freezing, raising chickens, baking bread; our studies into earth and body friendly resources; practices of budgeting and saving and recycling – all of these are attempts to “simplify” our lifestyles.

Unless you were raised that way, simple living is anything but simple. In order to be “self-reliant,” your life schedule comes under the control of daylight and dark, the whims of seasons, the influences of the clouds and the sun. Meeting times are set by chickens and projects are planned around planting, weeding, watering, and harvest.

In college, I studied writing and literature, not herbs and livestock. I may be able to quote Shakespeare, but I cannot tell you the germination period for a tomato seed. You have to study, learn, practice and polish simple living skills to reach the goal of self-sufficiency, and I feel, in many ways, I’m just getting started.

1. Learn About and Launch Hot Beds: Frank and I learned last year in our first “serious” garden that vegetables like carrots, beets, etc. really need to be planted early. Also, we don’t want to wait until spring to have fresh leaf lettuce. We know that hot beds can help us get an early start and more fruitful harvest, but I know very little about how hot beds work or how to manage them.

2. Study Compost, Fertilizer and Earthworms: In an attempt to increase the quality of our soil, we began a compost pile last year. In addition, this year, we have what we need to “farm earthworms.” While these things may not seem related, the soil the worms will be living in will be excellent for our garden, and we might sell some worms for fisherman. Worms can double their population in less than three months. Of course, I know very little about raising worms, and I haven’t quite gotten full control over the compost pile, but I can continue my studies and practice.

3. Expand the Herb Garden: I started an herb garden last year, mostly from plants given to me by friends. It did fairly well until the rabbits, chickens and deer found it. Even so, I have herbs dried and frozen and I use them in my breads, teas and other dishes. But, I need to fill out the selection I have, and I need to get a fence around it. I will master what I’ve learned about drying and freezing them, and maybe next year I’ll learn to make salves, vinegars, oils and tinctures. But right now, I just want to master keeping them alive.

4. Get More Hens: I’ve been the parent of four hens for eight months now. We call them “The Ladies.” DeeDee, Ellemby, Pepper and Red provided eggs for Frank and I, my mother, my aunt and uncle all summer and fall. If I get four more, I can supply more friends and family, and maybe work through the process to sell some at the farmer’s market with excess herbs and vegetables from our gardens.

These four goals are some early 2010 goals for the land around us. We also have goals for the house, goals for the business, goals for our health, goals for our minds and our mentality. So much can be done in a year, the possibilities are overwhelming.

It helps me focus, organize and plan if I reassess my goals instead of making resolutions. For me, it’s the difference between promises made from scratch, and simply maintaining our set path.

It helps me remember that I’m already part-way there.

Also tagged , , , , , , – 1 Comment

Two-Lane Livin’ – We’re Not the News

December 3, 2009

magazine: a periodical paperback publication, released at regular intervals, containing articles, fiction, columns, photographs, etc.

newspaper: a weekly or daily publication with current news, editorials, features and reviews.

Perhaps it’s my newspaper background that some of our readers are familiar with, perhaps it’s the fact that Two-Lane Livin’ is printed on 50-pound and 30-pound newsprint — but so many people familiar with Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine refer to it as a “newspaper.”

When people say “magazine,” we get the image of a glossy publication, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, filled with full color photos arriving in the mail box, or reflecting flourescent light at the news stands. When people say “newspaper,” we get an image of a tall and skinny publication on greyish paper, with community and world news printed in black ink that smears.

Two-Lane Livin’ doesn’t fit either image, really. A tabloid size publication that only dreams of glossy paper, Two-Lane Livin’ includes only two pages of news — pulled from newspapers and media outlets in the region. Granted, it’s a popular section of the magazine, but it does not define the publication itself.

We are NOT the news.  I believe this is exactly why readers enjoy Two-Lane Livin’ so much – we’re not the news.  So, why then refer to it as a newspaper?

I suppose it matters not what people call it as long as they are talking about it, and the difference between a magazine and a newspaper is subtle, I admit. But it’s that subtle difference between the two that led me to leave the newspaper business and start a magazine.

It’s the difference between going out every day to supposedly hold officials accountable and report keep the community informed of newsworthy developments (newspaper), and teaching the community about topics of themed importance and keeping them entertained (magazine).

It’s taken me two years to slough off the newspaper reporter mentality.  Two years to surround my life with positive instead of negative. As an investigating reporter, I often felt… Sneaky and slimy. As editor and publisher of a healthy living guide for the Central West Virginia region, I feel… Cuddly and warm.

The difference between a newspaper and a magazine, to me, is the difference between tattling / telling – and teaching. And although it may also seem subtle, there is a huge difference between telling and teaching.

People will call Two-Lane Livin’ what they want. A rag, a paper, a newspaper, a hippie mag, a magazine. As long as they are reading and learning, that’s all that really matters. But, if I am now a teacher, a philosopher… A columnist and not a reporter… Then I hope I also teach the difference…

…between a magazine and a newspaper.

Two-Lane Livin’ – We’re not the news.

Also tagged , , , , , , – 1 Comment

The Country Exchange

September 8, 2009

When I left full-time employment status, one of the first things I did was join the local CEOS (Extension Homemaker’s) Club. When I was a reporter for the local paper I, of course, often covered the goings on of such clubs, but did not feel it appropriate for me to join any specific club or serve on any board.

But truly, my neighborhood CEOS made me feel like a club member anyway from day one. They know where I live, know my husband, his parents, our farm. They know what I drive, when we put up hay, when we go camping.

They are my community, and to them, though I hadn’t yet paid dues, I was already a member. So, when I was finally able, I joined.

Now, meeting once or twice a month with a collection of elderly women may not sound like a good time to many in  the younger generations.

You don’t know these ladies.

Food. Laughter. Community service. Friendship. Learning.

Now, doesn’t that sound like fun?

I’ve learned from these women. Not just about gardening, cooking, canning. I’ve learned about faith and duty and friendship, and the responsibilities that come with such things.

I have learned how to cook. How to save money. How to be charitable.

Because of this club, I know how many families are fed by the food pantry we donate to each month. (This month over 250 families were served.) I learned what makes great gifts for those in long term care. What needs victims of domestic violence have in the first 24 hours. I know who cares for our community cemeteries (our club), who cleans our roads (our club), who is in the hospital, getting married, feeling better.

I’ve learned about my community.

Of course, I’ve learned other things.

I’ve learned, for example, that it takes just as long to load 12 elderly women on a wagon to drive up a hillside than it does for said women to mow, rake and clean an entire cemetery.

I’ve learned that you do not meet without eating, and you do not eat without giving thanks.

I’ve learned that you often merely need to speak a need aloud, and the answer will come.

And I’ve learned about what I call, “The Country Exchange.”

The Country Exchange is based on the following principle:

“Well, if you’re going that way, take this to there.”

Let me give you a simple example.

A friend totalled her Rover. Once the smashed vehicle had been towed to a junk yard two counties away, she realized she left something in the vehicle. So she called the junk yard, they rescued the item, and were holding it for her.

Now, she doesn’t go that way very often, but another friend happens to work in the next town, and does here grocery shopping in the same town as the junk yard. So she goes two counties over from friend A, picks up the item, and returns to her own home county, still a county away from the owner.

In the meantime, friend B and I have been invited to friend C’s house for dinner. Friend B brings Friend A’s item to me, and I thus return home with the item in Friend A’s home county.

Now you can see where this is going. my next move was to take the item to town with me to where Friend A works, so that she could then take the item home.

But it’s not that simple, because today was CEOS Day. See not only did I have to remember Friend A’s item, I also had to bring a covered dish, extra copies of Two-Lane Livin’ for club members, pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House, trial size bath items for Domestic Abuse services, t-shirts for another friend’s son that came to me from a lady in Belpre, cucumbers to drop at the neighbor’s, mail to go out and my bank deposit. Plus, I left the farm with my father-in-law’s empty prescription bottles.

This is The Country Exchange.

If you think it gets crazy at the stock exchange, you should see six women trying to load the right things into the right vehicles to get to the right people after a CEOS meeting.

One person takes the donations for long term care. Another has the box that goes to the senior center. A third has the signed get well cards for members and friends in the hospital. I had the box headed to the newspaper office. Plus, of course, we had to fix a plate from our covered dish lunch for the one who couldn’t come because of work.

I go to town with a full box — I come home with a FULL BOX. This one found the special flour I was looking for. This one brought extra cupcakes for everyone to take home. This one brought her column to the meeting. I got rid of cucumbers, but came home with cantaloupe. Another had saved coupons for our dog treats to give me.

Following our meeting, I stood on a corner in town and watched our members head to their destinations, carrying our community services in boxes, plates and bags. So much taken care of by so few.

I went to the paper office, carrying the original item left in the crashed Rover. I walked out carrying a house fern left for me the day before — to be transported back to Friend B, and empty pickled sausage jars from a recycling center committee member who had left them there for me to pick up so I could make bigger batches of pickled eggs.

All these gifts delivered and received, and I never spent a dime.

THAT is The Country Exchange.

Also tagged , , , , , , – 1 Comment
« Older posts