When you are sitting around thinking about the things you should be doing do you also think about those other Not to Do things too? We are in the Autumn of the year now. What do you normally do in the Autumn ? Some of you may think about winterizing the yard like taking your garden hose and clearing the water out and putting it up. Some may think about the house aspect of changing the curtains for the fall and cooler weather. Some may think about washing the walls down so they will be fresh for the winter months.
Some people used to clear their drawers and closets of the summer clothes and get out all the winter clothing. Do you remember doing these things? I do. Growing up momma would make sure all of our winter clothes were laundered and see what we could still fit into and what could be handed down from one kid to the next. Then she would get out of law-a-way the new winter clothes she got on sale and wash them and put them away or if we were old enough we would have to put them away.
Many of you have large families, much larger then mine. I am the 3rd daughter of 4 daughters to my parents. Mom grew up in a large family of siblings and her father did also. While I myself only have one child, I also used to do many of these things depending upon the season.
Do you still do many of these things? I know I myself have NOT DONE THEM in many years !
I was looking in my pantry the other afternoon and seen canned goods that needed to be rotated and threw some in the garbage that was a year or more over do ! Just like many things I used to do each season or to some in each quarter of the year. IT is funny how our lives have changed dramatically thru the years. Many of us still hold true to ole ways of doing certain things in our lives. While others that we know do not have a clue to these things only due to the area they were raised in, the years they were raised and their over all circumstances in their lives.
I have been boxing up many things in my basement over the past 6 months due to I have run out of room for all my things and instead of getting rid of them I am stacking boxes filled with my collectables, linens, nick-knacks, pictures and genealogy research papers. Since I moved all my things to the basement 16 years ago my things have seemed to grow exponentially since I was still doing family research, still buying books to read that went along with research and other books that came out from vairous authors to read when I found time. I think I have about 20 books set aside to read from the past 6 years alone. While they do not have anything to do with research, they are in their own rites are of Historical content.
I boxed up almost all of my bedroom decore after I cleaned all items real good and wrapped them up. I still have all my jewerly boxes set out on my dresser and my vanity and all the dolls I have are in boxes except for three. Yes I love dolls. I like the ones from different eras of time, dolls that look like real babies and are about the size of a 6 month old child.
My bookshelves I have my books on are metal shelves which were here when we purchased this home in 2004 and they have come in very handy over the past 17 years. I went thru all my books and disposed of about 100 of them since I had paperback and hardback of the same books for the most part. I like my hardback books ! I have another set of 2 shelves of books near my desk that have all my genealogy books on them along with a regular bookcase with the doors on the bottom to hold all the various paper, printer paper, picture paper, unused file folders, tabs for them and a whole host of items that are only used for certain projects.
For anyone to look at my things they would think I am a hoarder. In some cases, yes I am, but in many cases the things I have for the most part of things I have collected over my 30 year marriage and several things from former marriages, plus the things from my mother which she gave to me or was left over from yard sales and when we had our booth for 18 years at the flea market. I tend to make use for things from those days as there is nothing wrong with the stuff and did cost money to buy the items when they were bought initially. So the way I see it, if it can still be used then keep it !
About 15 years ago I stopped collecting ceratin things and actually sold off a great deal of my collections and made a pretty penny off the sales. Since I am a yard seller type person and as they say “one man’s trash is another’s pleasure”, it has worked out for me in the long haul. I have bought things for a mear 50 cents and re-sold it for 3 or 4 dollars. That was the life I loved to do in my hobby with my mom of having a booth at a local flea market. I still have bolts of fabric wrapped up tight in the closet waiting to use for new curtains or to re-cover a chair or couch or even a footstool.
So when you look around your home now that it is the fall season are you preparing for the upcoming Holiday season? I am looking forward to the cold weather and hopefully a lot of snow on the ground not just for Christmas but for the entire winter. I long for the days where we would have 18 inches of snow on the ground and the nice cold crisp temperatures of 25 degrees outside. While I do not like ice on the road, I do love seeing ice hang from the trees and the gutters sparkling and glistening in the light. I love seeing bare trees whose leaves are on the ground under the snow. No, I do not rake up the leaves in the yard. Daddy always said let the leaves lay and rot over the winter and turn into good fodder for the spring growth on the yard. Rake the leftover leaves up in the spring from the flower beds or let it dry out and mow them up to be muclh for the yard.
Everything in nature has a purpose. I choose for the most part to let nature take it’s course and refurbish the landscape. Same for my home, I would rather change everything in my home for each season so I myself do not get bored. Since we can not really changes spouses every season it is best to make other changes so you do not get bored with the same ole same ole !
We all have our hobbies so with all our hobbies what do we have, we have stuff that correlates to our hobbies. Many people I know and have known over the years do not like stuff. They do not like having any form of excess ! They do not like having more canned goods in their cabinets, they do not like having more then 2 sets of bedding or having more then 2 sets of bathroom towels or kitchen towels. I myself use to have sets of towels for each season and for each holiday season. You know the cute towels you only get out for company when they visit ! Just like those soaps you get out when other people come over.
For the vast population we live within our means. While you would like to keep up with the rich and famous we know we can’t. So we choose to take little aspects of what we see on tv or in catalogs or in this day and age of technology what we see over the internet and incorporate some of those little things in our lives. Many of us only spend good hard earned money on the big item purchases, like our stoves, refrigerators, washing machines our Home it’sself. And while we can not really affrod to live like many people we choose to recreate items we have seen. In some realms of today’s society people who take this route are considered tightwades or in some cases poor. In all honesty re-creating things means you are imaginative and if you can re-create it then it saves spending good money on something that is so expensive and using your creativity to make it yourself with comprable items and get the same results.
I call being able to do this as being smart. If you are going to spend your money on a 1000.00 dollar cell phone that is not being smart. I, like a few other people out there does not own a cell phone. I underline few only do to the most part of today’s society can not get by without one. I can get by without one and I choose to do things the old school way by having a land line and only a desktop computer. While computers these days are not old school it is better then writing on paper and is faster for myself. But if my computer ever went by the way side atleast I know how to write with a pen on paper and distribute it by regular ole post office and stamps. But of what I have been hearing the postal service is having to up the costs on mailing anything due to the Postal Attorney General who has his own hands in 13 other companies that also deals with the postal service services. Once the big wigs in Washington decides to fire this person, maybe the postal carriers will beable to deliver mail like they used to. Then maybe all the postal sorting machines will have been replaced since many were distroyed ofter the last Presidential Election in 2020 throughout the country. I heard last night that we can no longer mail anything to Australia ! If you don’t believe me, look it up on your cell phone or your laptop or destop computer !
IF you are old enough to have been taught some of the older ways of doing something then you have it made. I pitty many that would not have a clue on how to cook on an open fire if they actaully had to. And I do not mean out on a grill, I mean on an actaul wood fire or on a wood stove top or even in a house fire place.
Knowing history, reading about how people used to live before all these nicities we have today or thru for the most part of some of our lives, it is a real eye opener and something to keep on our brains so we an tell younger ones how to do it if God forbide, the power grid goes out for a few weeks and they are forced to have to learn how to cook, how to heat up water to take a bath or even down to washing clothes by hand and hanging them up to dry. I myself have never had the pleasure of hunting for food like they did back in the 19th century and even in the 20th century. I have never learned how to skin a deer , rabbitt, squirrell or other critter you can eat. I do not know who to kill a cow, cut it up and cure the meat. But I do have a good idea of how it is done and before the internet goes down permanetly and the power grid goes off line I will print the information off or find a couple of books that demonstrates how to do these things. Why, well I like to be prepared for the what if’s that could happen and not be caught off guard if the day does happen in my lifetime. No I am not one of those Preppers! I am a realist. If it can happen then why not know how to do it and then you do not have to rely on someone else to do it for you and charge you ! Thus you save your hard earned money to spend on something spectacular that you an not build or make your self.
So do your do it or not do it? That is the question…….
My Taylors, Montgomery's and all the Branches 