Sunday, June 19, 2005

Father's Day 2005

Today is Father's Day 2005. I wasn't going to write about that, as this is my first post. But I had to comment on it. My father is 86 years old and in pretty good health for a man his age. He has a large garden every year, but every fall he says he's not going to have one the next year and every year he gets out his rototiller and puts one in. He's the person who taught me how to can. Every year he usually gets a lot of concord grapes and he cans it all as juice. In 1995, he taught me how to can grape juice and jam.

When my mother was alive he took care of her at home. She had Cushing's Sydrome and was crippled by it for many years, and bedridden for the last few. My father and her were married for 60 years - she kept saying, she wanted to just live long enough to make it to her 60th anniversary - which she did on August 28, 2002 and she died with my father and myself at her side on November 22, 2002.

So in honor of Father's Day I just want to say "Daddy, I love you! I'm so proud of having you as my father! And I will always keep you in my heart with my mother!

One other thing I want to comment on is the fact that I am trying to live a self sufficient life. This means that I try to grow most of my own food. I live off the grid and generate my power by using solar panels and batteries. This surprises some people, as I make my living on the internet. But it is possible.

I feel that this is the way of the future. Most people in other countries think all Americans are very wasteful and selfish. Well, there are a lot of people here that are not that way. They call themselves "Homesteaders" - and they are the Homesteaders of the future. We live a frugal lifestyle, grow and raise most of our own food organically, shop for clothes in thrift shops, recycle everything, try to make our livings from our homes-be it on a computer or off our land.

Copyright © 2005  Kathleen G. Lupole

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