Sunday

[mamadeb]

Today was quiet.

I did call my mother, who spent the day with her boyfriend's family, and I spoke to my mother-in-law, who asked to borrow a cane - we're lending her mine, which is adjustable and collapsible and lighter in weight than Jonathan's. She's also having cataract surgery soon. My mom will need that as well, but she's doing okay right now and the longer they can put it off, the better.

jonbaker went to the gym today, which is wonderful. He needed to go for all sorts of reasons, one of which is his brother. M is buying a farm - ostensibly so he can grow potatoes on it for his biology students to kill bugs on in the summer,but really for "when the gas runs out." Which will happen. Which is scary. Which is making my husband paranoid. He's talking about learning how to do shchitah! And M? Has no idea how to run a subsistance farm. He's thinking vegetables and a few chickens, and using windmills to power an electric tractor.

As opposed to a mix of animals for food, fertilizer and traction. Which is what we're telling him. To plan for this, you need to go early Victorian tech. And, honestly? I don't think we (as in my family) can do it. Though for me it's fun planning. For Jonathan, it's terrifying and I want to...well. I'm not happy with M.

However, going to the gym made Jonathan less paranoid. So that's good.

We also paid a shiva call - friend's mother died last week. Sitting shiva for a mother today has to be rough.

I know Father's Day will be.

Oddly enough, Mother's Day by itself was NOT hard today for me. Yeah, still not a mother. Yeah, inundated with reminders of that. But. I *do* have my mother, and she's happy and well, and I do have a mother-in-law I love, who is less well, but still doing okay. And that's a lot right there.

Comments

[devilc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my first mothers day without my mother was a bit rough.

---

Yeah, still not a mother.

Y'know, now that you're losing weight and getting your blood sugar under control, I wouldn't be surprised if its a boost to fertility.

{{{{{{{{{{wub}}}}}}}}}}}}

Sending the good vibes your way.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

It's possible to live mostly on potatoes; I even know of someone who did it (in the Soviet Union, early 1950s) and still likes potatoes. Subsistence farming may be more practical than you think, for someone who's willing to live on the kind of diet which so many people left the poorer parts of Northern Europe to escape from.

And it's possible to run gasoline engines without gasoline. On alcohol, or on charcoal gas. (The added equipment for the latter looks about as big as the car itself, in the photos I've seen.)

Having grown up in a farming area with bad soil, I don't find the idea of subsistence farming very appealing.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

It's kind of surreal to read a New Yorker talking about subsistence farming techniques, I just want you to know.
I mean, my mother's parents actually were farmers, and I don't think I would be able to do it. I can't even grow houseplants.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It already is, I think, given that I'm actually having monthly, um, monthlies.

But, given my age and physical condition, and that there are other issues involved, I don't think pregnancy is going to happen, or that it would be a good idea if it did.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I don't, either. But if you're going to plan for such a thing after a collapse, don't plan for 20th C tech. And don't think that having a "few chickens" will be enough, either.

Amish. Think Amish.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I have houseplants now. Five thriving little basil plants all in a window box.

I need to start harvesting some leaves.

And, you know? First houseplants I've had. Ever.

[magid.livejournal.com]

First houseplants I've had. Ever.
Wow. Hope it's the start of a lovely herbal trend, then.
:-)