Comments On Article: First Day Of August Update On The Lake And Recap

If you would like to share your comments for article First Day of August update on the Lake and Recap, this is where to do it! 

Click the Reply To This Topic button below to post yours.

My goodness you all have really been through the wringer.  Reading your update really brings home how much you both have had to cope with on a more or less sustained level.  I can see how you would be hoping for cooler weather and time to just breathe easier with nothing out of the ordinary to really have to deal with asap.  It sounds as though you are beginning to get a handle on the the lake cottage which should take at least some of the weight and worry off your shoulders (and minds) and keeping it at least for the next few years will give you time to make any needed changes slowly and thoughtfully.

 The weather here has been terribly hot with much higher humidity levels than usual has made getting the yard and garden in shape  a less pleasant task than it ordinarily is.  All the spring work is pretty much done now but we've had so much rain that the grass and weeds are keeping me  running trying to stay on top of them.  I too am looking forward to cooler weather (maybe by the middle of September) but my outdoor work will continue until all the leaves are raked, shredded, and stored or put on beds as winter mulch.  So cooler weather will help a great deal with that.

Take it as easy as you can----- you sound like a very industrious person-----so I expect taking it easy is not in your nature.  But do try.

Take care.  Victoria  

Grandma Donna, the gleaming stove made me smile!  I remember reading long ago an article by Amy Dacyczyn where she wrote about visiting someone who lived in a home with older belongings (furniture, appliances) etc. and everything was clean and tidy, and it always stuck with me that often my dissatisfaction with my home was related to cleanliness, the kind that comes with deep cleaning and is often hard to manage when raising young children.  These days I’ve learned myself that a clean and tidy home protects my mental health and is worth the effort to scrub and polish.  When I find myself wishing I could redo the kitchen, I tell myself it probably needs a good decluttering — and a couple coats of paint which it will get next year!

Like you, I am working the numbers for our retirement budget, which includes 5 months of pre-retirement at the same budget.  I have gone over it many many times, figuring all of the annual bills and breaking them up for the retirement budget, rather than just having one line item for all of those bills.  We got insurance quotes for homeowners and auto, but they were all higher than we are paying now — but it’s good to check every now and then.  Every time I thought I had things settled I would remember another expense such as bicycle maintenance and repair, which I had forgotten at first.  I finally feel like this budget is something we can manage!  My husband has even come up with some ideas to save money by doing things ourselves like bathing the dogs and cutting the grass.

We signed the contract and our solar electric system will be installed this month!  It felt a little scary at first but I had to remind myself that, 1) we saved the money for this over several years and, 2) we are spending the money now to keep our budget lower in retirement and to help protect against rising electric costs.  I went through our bills and 5 years ago our electric bill averaged $150 per month and this was during Covid and we were all home all the time.  3 years ago it average $200 per month.  Now it is averaging $300 per month, and that is with us using less electricity now than back then or even last year!

I am really digging into my frugal skills and also slowing down our living more like the 1930s.  I made a decision not to thrift shop in July, and I didn’t, and now I am extending that to August.  My new plan is to only go if I specifically need to buy something and not to browse.  There simply won’t be money for those kinds of discretionary purchases.  I look around the house and realize we have what we need.  I am doing more and more in the kitchen.  I made a dish that calls for orange juice and rather than letting the family drink the rest of it, I froze it in portions for the same recipe.  One can of concentrate makes enough juice for 4 double batches — freezing the juice for later saves $3 per double batch!  Today I shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheeses with the food processor and froze it in smaller amounts so it will stay good.  I don’t like the added ingredients in pre-shredded cheese, and it’s less expensive to do it myself.  I also found a small hunk of Gruyère that had a little white mold bloom, so I cut those pieces off and shredded it as well, to use in a quiche.  I find that I’m eating more cheese now, in place of meat

We don’t expect to have to clean out our parents’ homes.  We already helped my dad downsize 5 years ago, and now he lives far away and it won’t fall on us.  My mother-in-law lives with her daughter and will until the end.  Of course we will be willing to help my sister-in-law go through my MIL’s things, but it won’t be a burden as my SIL will keep the household items, and their house — while cluttered by my standards — is kept clean.

It is wise to take time when making those kind of decisions — keep? Sell? Fix?? It’s so confusing. Keeping the house to enjoy is wise! That means you will indeed enjoy it and maybe rest and restore! You both certainly need it after the past three years! 

Myrtle cottage looks so peaceful, I love seeing her. I felt the same way about my gardening efforts this year. The weather earlier in the season was too cold and rainy, then it switched off to extremely hot and humid. My tomatoes didn't produce and everything just seemed stunted, can't seem to find why. Finally just pulled everything up and for now I have empty pots of dirt in the front yard... but I decided to order some books on wartime England in the 1940s to distract myself  and learn how they managed back then. I think of you often and how you just keep on going and don't give up even through difficulties. Thank you for your lovely blog. Enjoy it so much and all the comments!

oh I had that same range when we lived up the river. I miss it. It was a workhorse. Yours looks great now. 
We’ve had some severe events within the past several months. It’s been pretty rough but here we are. And as you said, the sun rises again.  We are finally beginning to feel the turn around. Nothing happens quickly but if we do what we can each day, we make progress.  We have a hoarder in our family too. It’s clean but sooo much.  We do try to be gentle and firm, but it is challenging at times. 
Will sure be nice for you both when Charles retires.  He’s kinda a handy fella. You might oughta keep him around:-

Thanks you for your wonderful research, ideas, encouragement.  Working on several houses is quite a challenge.  Glad you are slowing down in the heat.

 I am a long time reader, but first time to comment. I live in hot, steamy Mississippi, widowed in December, working part time, will be 70 and start pulling Social Security in November, raised by parents who lived through the depression and were frugal and hard working.  I have written a few comments from previous posts.

First – do not be fearful, please. We can all be good stewards of what God has provided, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. For years now there have been dire predictions of the demise of Social Security. And now also of our various insurance options. Research your options yearly, if you use Secondary insurance or Prescription coverage, on the Medicare website.. Each state has a separate office giving free help in making these decisions. We can only use the information that is true today. Ignore all the social media and fearful news!

Conserving power - When my husband died, I unplugged all his televisions and extra refrig, and unplugged the chargers in the shop. And my electric bill stayed about the same. I turn on one light in the room I am using, and keep my house warm. Downstairs 80 to keep the mildew away, upstairs 82. I have ceiling fans in every room. In April I called the power company, and asked for an itemized bill (before I had to start using the AC). To be a customer I pay $35 a month. My power fee for that month was only $12. All the rest is taxes and company created fees $23!

Clothes - I don’t own a clothes dryer. I use my clothes line. Clothes last longer – no shrinkage or losing a handful of fibers each time you dry. I wear all natural fibers – woven cotton in the summer is much cooler than knits. I don’t wash my clothes each time I wear them. I work in the yard most mornings, at daybreak (we had 116 heat index yesterday) and wear the same yard clothes all week, and wash them at the end of the week. Then I change into a house dress, cooler than shirt and pants for me, that I only put in the laundry when needing washing. When I go town/work, I wear town clothes.

Meals - It is very important when planning meals to get enough protein. Women need 25 g three times a day, men 30 grams. I have a summer menu that repeats each week, using up some of the food in my freezer. I try to take advantage of sales. My grocery allows up to 5 of a sale item, and when my husband was alive I would buy 5. Now I am eating down the excess slowly.

Healthy breakfasts – I have a glass of milk with breakfast every day, to get protein and Vitamin D. Women in my family end up disabled due to bad bones. My weekly menu includes – Sunday a muffin made with white wheat flour, nuts, and fruit, spread with ricotta cheese or plain yogurt or cottage cheese and a sausage patty Mon Wed Fri 2 medium boiled eggs (no pan to wash!) and 2 slices whole grain toast. Tues Sat oat squares with nuts and fruit (in the winter oatmeal) Thurs whole grain pancake made with nuts, topped with ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, or cottage cheese and fruit.

Baking - I bake all my bread products using whole wheat flour called White Wheat. A milder and softer result than standard whole wheat (red wheat) flour. My recipe for bread makes 4 loaves. I slice them, and freeze them, and then pull of slices as I need them. I often make a cinnamon raisin loaf – good with nut butter and jam! I bake 2 dozen muffins at a time, and freeze them. I make a batch of pancakes and freeze them!

Money savings - I am blessed to have been raised by parents that taught us skills – cooking, sewing, gardening, repairs, house construction…. That is a huge money saver. Older folks are usually happy to teach you skills they know. A local church here has a large yard sale twice a year. Usually someone will have died, and there is everything from an older person’s household – good quality furniture, kitchen items, tools…. at very low prices. I only watch, rarely, free videos on the internet.

Money - Keep track of all you spend. Finding any excess or holes in your spending is important. Probate in Mississippi is not a costly or scary thing. We have to post a notice in the paper for three weeks, to give creditors a “last chance” to make claims against the estate. I have a kind, reasonably priced attorney. Yes, you need a will, Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, Living will (what care you want when dying). If simple, these are available free online. Unless you are wealthy, you probably don’t need a trust. Anything that has a beneficiary or Payable on Death or joint ownership passes outside the will. But beware, there can be tax consequences. If I give my hosue to my daughter to avoid probate or to “qualify” for long term care paid for by the government, she receives it at the value I paid for it, years ago. If she inherits the house, she receives it at the value of my date of death.

Before you make any financial decisions, do lots of good research, from reliable sources – not Social Media!

Sorry this is so long!  Glad this is a good place to encourage each other.

Just a thought, but have you considered renting Madge's house out as an Airbnb once you get it cleaned out?  That would be a way to make money off of it while still keeping it available for family use part of the time.  

Or rent the main house out to a permanent resident, and the family could still use Myrtle as a tiny cottage. 

The weeds in my garden are above my head.  I did get in there with gloves the other day and pulled out most of the blackberry vines that were smothering everything, but even the desirable "weeds" like cup plant, milkweed, dogbane, germander, jewelweed, that I leave for pollinators are a bit much this year!

I've been seeing a normal amount of native bees, and even more butterflies than most years, so that's reassuring.  I had monarch larvae on my milkweed, and now milkweed tussock moth larvae which are so cute:)

I've cleaned out another shed (though this one had mostly stuff I'm keeping) and I'm now in the process of fixing it up.  It wasn't in horrible condition but needed the doors rehung, lots of carpenter bee holes patched, and is badly in need of a fresh coat of paint.

So, that's what I've been up to - more of the same basically.  Oh a bit of fun news, I found a GREAT swimming hole within walking distance of my house.  Rocky bottom which is unusual around here, nice clear water, and just up to my neck when I stand.

I’m glad things are turning around for you, Lady L!  We’ve had a rough time of it, starting back in 2020.  I was battling a major undiagnosed IBD flare, and only in the past several months has my health started improving enough to feel like I can function, but even then there have been so many other things!  My MIL got scammed, my dad got cancer, a close family member has been struggling with mental health issues, another family member is battling addiction and homelessness, we had two major plumbing issues, I got pneumonia, and so much more.  Just last week I was at the ER with my youngest after being called with lab results and being told to go to the emergency room immediately.  But the sun rises, and we find the resolve and strength to keep going.  My own grandmother lived through WWI, her father’s suicide, a divorce, the Great Depression, WWII, my grandfather’s job loss, plus the Korean and Vietnam wars, along with the usual health and family struggles.  She had a quiet faith that I didn’t fully appreciate until I got older and realized what she had lived through.  My grandparents are my touchstones now, the people I look to when figuring out my own life

I have a copy of the publication "Our Farm Visitor" published by Bankers Life Insurance Company, Des Moines, Iowa, January 1932.  Bankers Life Insurance held mortgages on farms and foreclosed on many of those mortgages during the Depression.  My grandparents rented one of the farms.  My mother told me that Bankers Life painted all the rented farm buildings a bright yellow/gold.  In this four-page publication there is an introduction "Welcome to 1932" which I'll attempt to type out -- my keyboard is giving me fits!

Welcome to 1932

The year ended has not been a prosperous one for American farmers.  Neither has it been a prosperous one for other industries in the United States or in any other country in the world.  Nineteen thirty-one had but a few mourners when it passed into history and 1932 was welcomed with more than usual warmth and with fervent hopes that it will prove a happier year than 1931.

Nineteen thirty-one had many discouraging factors for farmers:  low prices for practically every farm product extending through almost all the year with only partially compensating reductions in the commodities which farmers must buy; decreased valuations on land and as high or higher taxes than ever before; drought and grasshopper losses in much of the territory in which Our Farm Visitor readers live.  We can feel, if we want to feel that way, that we have had a hard and discouraging year, that the farmer's life isn't much worth use struggling anyway.

On the other hand, what the depression really means for almost everyone of us is giving up things which our fathers and mothers never had.

It is but a scant hundred years since the beginning of Iowa and the adjacent states to the northwest.  The fathers and mothers of many of us, the grandmothers and grandfathers of more of us were the early settlers in these states.  Have we so soon lost the desire for adventure, the physical endurance, the ability to bear pain and misfortune without flinching, the self-reliance, the courage which, unless we are entirely false to our inheritance we must show in times of adversity and hard living?    We all like to brag about our ancestors, but what would they think about us?  What kind of ancestors are we, if a few years of depression destroy all our morale and make grumbling, whining men and women out of us?

Did we learn lessons on thrift in 1931?  Did we learn that spending can be made to balance earnings?  Did we learn there are values in life which money does not pay for?  If we did, 1931 was a good year for us, not a bad one.

Our Farm Visitor believes that 1932 will be a better year for farmers, that there is a silver lining to the cloud of depression and that the edges of lining are almost visible.  All of us will appreciate the silver lining more, will be better prepared for prosperity if the years of depression have stiffened our backbones and have renewed in us some of the courage and fighting spirit of our pioneer ancestors.  

Greeting to 1932!  It will be a better year for all of us IF WE MAKE IT SO.

This issue also published contest entries from 10 farmers living on Bankers Life properties with three winners.  If anyone is interested, I will type those out in future posts.  My paternal grandmother wrote one of the letters about which my father said it bore little resemblance to what he recalled.   The contest was to answer the question Why I Live on the Farm.

Grandma Donna, you are such an amazing example to follow! You just keep going and going and going! I love Myrtle. I can imagine the simple, happy life that could be lived there. :) Thank you for the update. 

I was caught up in a lot of worry lately, but then I got my budget finished, and I amazed myself with how much I cut down our spending. Now I feel that I am in control of my money instead of the high prices being in control of my money. My husband's company released its latest quarterly report. It's not good, but the company has enough assets to sell to keep it going through 2026. I get one more year after this one to prepare. Whew! That made my stress level go down. 

In happier 1932 news, things other than the 1932 lifestyle of wondering when the job will dry up in the bad economy :), during my latest one room proper cleaning I finally took my oven door apart and cleaned the inside. I'm finally back to my mending and altering too. Our dishwasher that came with the house is stainless steel but I bought a $7 can of white enamel appliance spray paint to paint it white. As soon as I can figure out how to take the door off, I'm going to spray paint it to match my white stove and fridge. It's part of my kitchen makeover on the cheap. Since we're painting the inside of the house this year, I wanted to take off the crown molding attached to the kitchen cabinets so that painting around it wouldn't be a nightmare, besides the fact that I don't like it and want plain, old-fashioned straight edges on my cabinets. I watched a YouTube video and found out how to take it off. The crown molding on the cabinets is so close to the ceiling that you can't get your arm over it to clean the tops of the cabinets, which is another reason I wanted to get rid it of it. When I started to take off the crown molding I discovered that the tops of the cabinets are raw, unfinished particle board. I do not understand modern building design. 

My garden has been doing pretty well, but my son takes care of it. I go out and pick something once in awhile or do a little watering, but that's all I do in this heat. Some days under the heat dome were too hot for me to hang my laundry. I used my dryer twice and resented it. :) We have a regular window air conditioner that we keep in case of a power outage. I learned that you can buy a solar window a/c, but it is very expensive, and I wondered why we couldn't convert our regular window a/c to solar. As soon as we finish reorganizing the garage, that will be our next project.

Stephanie G. -- I put newspaper on top of my cupboards so all I have to do is roll up the dust/dirt in the paper and toss it.  I then wipe down the top and put down new newspapers.  I have a collection of pottery up there, so the papers stay in place.   To make the pottery easier to clean I also stuff newspapers into the containers without lids.  Of course, the pottery is difficult to wash up but at least the tops of the cupboards are easy.

Ann W that's a very good idea! That would keep things much cleaner. I am looking forward to getting all of the crown molding off so I have room to put decorative things on top of my cabinets. The raw particle board is filthy with dust and the grease from my stove hood that doesn't vent outside. After I get it cleaned, I'm going to seal it and paint it. 

Thank you for typing out the Welcome to 1932. There's a lot of truth to be found in considering what kind of people we are when adversity comes. Those poor people didn't know that the worst was yet to come, but at least they were preparing themselves with the proper attitude. It was very inspiring to read. It strengthens my backbone. :) I'd love to read more from the publications. I like to hear things from that time in their own voice. 

I laughed at comment "At this very moment I feel that my ancestors did me wrong moving south"!   My ancestors lived mostly in the area I do, and summers are always humid, but not as humid as in the deep south.  I could not live there, and you will never see me retiring to Florida!  Tuesday this past week was the worst.  At one point during the day it got to 99 degrees.  We waited until sunset to walk the dogs, it was so miserable.  I joked with my husband that the humidity must be 90% right before we went out-he looked it up and it was 95% Just awful!

Because of the heat and all the rain we've received, the weeds are very lush this year!  I grew a few things in pots, but the deer got them. The hanging baskets of flowers did not do so well...I think they got to much water.  The native plants (flowers) I am growing seem to be doing better than others I have purchased, so i am learning more about native plants and trees to plant next year.   We want to put in a fenced in area for a small garden so the deer cannot get in, and also so the dogs have a safe place to run around.  My son got me 4 steel frames to use for raised beds.   So I am making plans for next year.

I have seen some bees, although not as many as in previous years, but I have seen more bees elsewhere.  Maybe they are having trouble finding the flowers at my house because the weeds are so lush!  In your garden pictures, I did not see as many flowers as I have in the past, but i am thinking that maybe yours come in earlier then mine.  Do you think that could have contributed to the lack of bees?

I looked up Jim Walter Homes.  That was an interestting read.  Do you still have the plans for Madge's house?

I want to add that I admire you and Charles for your enthusiasm, hard work, and forward progress on your many projects, despite all the upheaval going on around you and the weather this year!  When I don't want to do something, and feel overwhelmed about life and the weather is too much, I remind myself that whatever I can do is going to have to be good enough, and it's progress toward my goals.  So I thank you for your positive example in so many areas.

It has been a while since I've commented but I read every blog post and every comment. I'm always encouraged and informed! I check every day for a new post or comments. I am so happy for you, Donna, that Charles will finally be home with you full time. Your post on the budget really got me thinking and motivated.

Since May of this year, my husband has had physical difficulties culminating in a trip to the ER and 4 days in the hospital at the beginning of July. He is now on blood thinners and starting to be more active. Although he will probably not be able to return to work, he was able to go fishing with his friends in their boat yesterday. He is walking more and doing a little more yard work. Our family and neighbors have really rallied around us, helping out in various ways. We feel so blessed.

I still work full time and will continue doing so for at least 5 more years when I am at full retirement age. Our company continues to downsize and make cuts. Out of the 7 people in our department we have lost 3 so far in the last couple of months. The added workload on us 4 that are remaining has been significant. I'm grateful that I can exclusively work from home right now. Not only am I able to be here with my husband, but we are saving wear and tear on the car along with gas costs.

Our garden hasn't done very well this summer like it usually does. I think it's a mixture of negligence, weather, and not as many bees. Our zucchini plant produced 2 zucchinis and then died, although we have gotten some tomatoes and peppers.

I think my favorite part of the publication you shared is that it basically accuses the generation that lived through the Great Depression as young asults of being soft, while today they're thought of as among the toughest!  I mean, those are the strong ancestors that today's young people are so often and unfavorably compared to.

I'd love for you to share the book titles!  I'll be happy to share some that I enjoyed.

Amy K if it gets too hot, the tomatoes won't produce in the summer because the heat affects the pollen. But if you wait, your plants will produce like crazy in the fall because they had all summer to grow. If you wanted to, you could plant another tomato plant in one of your empty pots and tell it to not lose heart because fall will come. :)

~~~~~~~~~~

The chaos I was thrown into with the changes in the economy in April have stressed me to the limit, but coming here and finding the direction to put things back in order has helped me to stay on the right path. Mostly I had to change my thinking about how we allocate our money and then make a new way to eat and a new way to budget. I've finished that, and with the news that I have one more year to prepare, I'm more than ready to get back to normal! Now I'm going to follow my budget plan and then look for all of the happy things. I'm going to follow the advice of the 1930 song,The Sunny Side of the Street.

"Grab you coat and get your hat, leave your worries back on the doorstep. Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street. Say, you hear that pitterpat? That happy tune is your step. Life can be so sweet on the sunny side of the street. I used to walk in the shade with those blues on parade, but I'm not afraid, I'm a rover who crossed over. And if I never have a cent, I'll be rich like Rockefeller, gold dust at my feet on the sunny side of the street." Ted Lewis recording 1930

I had some muslin leftover from a project so I cover the soffits with that.  Husband tacks them down.  They come down once or twice a year and go through a hot wash with rags.  Then we tack them up again.  It's a huge work saver.  They're pretty filthy when they come down.  Glad to avoid the scrubbing.

I am also living on my pre-retirement budget.  I don't expect to retire for another 7 1/2 years but am living as if I am already on that budget.  I don't miss anything really and the extra funds will go into savings and investments.  My basic living costs have really risen for certain things like the homeowner's insurance and repairs so my intention is to sell this house and buy a small condo outright which should help reduce my overall living costs.  So I have been getting rid of things that won't be going with me.  Once a month, my trash collection will take one bulk item so I either give stuff away or put it out for trash one piece at a time.  And I am doing some mostly smallish repairs in the house over the next couple of years so it will be ready to sell.  Other stuff I am working on is just to rebuild physical fitness which diminished due to long Covid and too heavy a workload at my paid job.  

You have had a few rough years but I can see how you really persevered with determination and grit and also with sensibly taking on what you could do when you could do it.  You have so much to teach us and I am grateful for your posts as always!

It was a very nice post.  I could relate to your frustration.  My yard and garden is a disaster.  It started out good in March.  I spent 3 days for 3 hours gardening …. Pulling weeds and it looked great. Then the Fourth day I couldn’t get out of bed.  Of course Leon wasn’t here and I took myself to the doctor.  He gave me meds that did not work.  X-rays were good but everything was inflamed.  It had been 20 years since I had back problems.  Anyway it was a month before I could get into PT.  When they asked my goal I told them work in my garden. When they told me a couple months I cried. We worked up to very little pain.  
I was finally released for 15 minutes a day gardening.  My garden was terrible.  I concentrated on my small azalea and rose bush.  A young friend who use to garden with me (now  22yo) came over to help but then he went on vacation.  Then the heat and humidity came.  No relief at night. Not like I ever remember.  We may have hot weather but usually it releases after a few days. This has lasted almost a month and 1/2.  We have had rains almost every day and some flooding and the weeds go crazy.  My only happiness was the perennials and gobs of roses.  My strawberries went crazy but 4 little groundhogs and Mom ate them.  
That brings me to yesterday. We had our first 10 degree cooler day! I was in heaven and did not want to go in. My Grandson mowed. I pulled weeds for 15 minutes and we trimmed and carried the privet.  Then it was gorgeous in the evening and I pulled weeds around volunteer tomatoes for 30 minutes. The mosquitoes forced me to go in way past dark. 
Soooo today I was back to pain, did some stretches and came out for breakfast.  The cool hit me. 64 degrees compared to 2 days ago when it was 87 at 8 am!  I will be gentle with myself today maybe paint outside and 15 minutes of weeding!  I miss my pots of geraniums and dahlias.  My vegetables garden didn’t happen and I miss the bouquets of zinnias in the house.  The hummingbirds and 2 cardinals came in to say “Hi”.  I am happy

Grandma Donna, I forgot to post that I also plan to sew panty liners very soon!  I plan to use what I have for now, and if I find I need more absorbency I will purchase some “Zorb” fabric to use in the middle.  I even have a yard of PUL fabric to use for a waterproof layer inside, purchased when I planned to tackle this project before I got sick.

(I was actually chronically ill with IBD for more than 25 years, with many flares, but my condition got more difficult to manage in 2021 and then I got worse and worse until last year when my body broke down completely).

However, my sewing/craft room is a disaster and has been for a few months now.  It never recovered from all of the fabric I received for free and all of the yarn I purchased when Joann was going out of business.  Plus I switched to fixing sewing machines instead of sewing with them.  The reality is that there is more in that room than there is room for, so today I am headed in to do some decluttering and organizing.

I do not want to be a hoarder!  In most areas I would say I definitely am not, but when it comes to art and craft supplies I have a hard time because everything seems so useful.  Just today I washed 6 little tins with screw on lids (they hold 1 ounce) to use for making salves.  My husband and son get brake pads for their bikes and recently they started coming in these tins.  Why would I buy tins when these are perfect?  The lids even screw on which is nice for in a handbag as they don’t accidentally open.  I save the aluminum tubes from my toothpaste and hand cream, cutting them open and washing them well — I plan to make little star ornaments for the Christmas tree because the inside of the tubes is such a pretty gold color.  I do craft and create on a regular basis.  I held on to shrink plastic for 8 years and then my youngest wanted to make some earrings and used some of it, so I was glad not to have decluttered it.  I decluttered so many nice vintage sewing notions in 2015 when I did KonMari and I think it scarred me a little.

But creativity in retirement is one of my main goals!  My husband has said he wants to do more in the house so I can have a retirement too.  And I need to be creative, because the budget for Christmas and birthday gifts will be much smaller.  Last year we splurged at Christmas, and it didn’t feel right.  I think we were using money and online shopping to compensate for my health, as I wasn’t able to make gifts or shop secondhand.  But now I am right back to wanting a frugal Christmas, and making gifts is one of my favorite things to do.  I have all the yarn to crochet Santa hats, purchased before I got so sick.  I saved the alphabet stamps my kids and I used 14 years ago to stamp names into salt dough to make ornaments, and have plans to borrow a kitty cat cookie cutter and make ornaments for my youngest, who now has 3 cats.  I learned to sew a Dopp kit and plan to sew those for the young adults (I already have the fabric).

You are truly an inspiration Gr.Donna and Charles! Your Myrtle cottage is like a dream and I understand completely the amount of work and time cleaning and fixing Madges place has proven to be. My beloved grandmother wasn't exactly a hoarder but she definitely carried over her "Depression "mindset. My Grandparents had 6 stair step kids and absolutely no money or hopes of getting any short of day jobs if Grandpa could get one. They burned dry ear corn because after raising it there was no market for it. After what she went thru in the depression Grandma kept almost everything because she was worried she might need it for "something". She recognized her wrong thinking but it was hard to break out of it.

When we moved her from the big house to a smaller place after grandpa died she labeled what she wanted to keep and then left while we as a family disposed of the rest . Her only instructions were if we threw it away she didn't want to know.

It has been horribly hot and humid here for about a month and a half. I have been able to keep up with the garden pretty well but the flower beds suffered as a result. Because it has turned off cooler and humidity is down I am slowly getting the flowerbeds straightened out.  I just figured this year producing food was the most important growing I could do. 

I did get overheated one day in the garden, picking beans and weeding...it definitely taught me a lesson as it put me out of commission for 2 days. 

Those of you discussing the tops of the unfinished cabinets, I also have them. I too line them with newspapers for easier cleaning. I display my collection of vintage toasters, percolators and waffle irons on them. Also did you know that back in the day homemakers would line their cabinet shelves with newspapers even cutting a decorative edge on them. They may not have had real shelf paper but they used what they had and made it pretty.

I never knew that unfinished tops of cabinets was a thing. Mine were always finished. But then I never had a stove hood that didn't vent to the outside before either. Last Depression study in 2023, I found a picture of a 1930's kitchen that resembled mine and I decided to match the decor style. That's my kitchen makeover plan. It was all in primary colors which was very popular then. My kitchen is in various shades of brown. When we first looked at the house, my husband called it the dungeon. :) The thirties' kitchen had bright blue cabinets, so I've been planning to paint my brown ones. I just wasn't planning to paint them until next year. I have enough painting going on this year with painting all of the walls. The picture of the thirties' kitchen didn't have any crown molding on the cabinets. It had nice, sleek, easy to clean cabinets. 

I looked up about the Jim Walker Homes too. How very practical to have that as a housing option. If the addition was taken off, I'll bet it would be worth more in resale value. I know the Craftsman homes are worth more the more authentic they are. 

I decided this year that I never wanted to weed the garden again, so we pile the mulch up until we defeat the weeds. We're planting the fall vegetables in trays now. All except the carrots that get seeded into the garden, then watered, then cardboard put on top that we wet everyday. It's the only way we can get things to sprout in the heat when planting in the dirt. 

I'm getting lots of ideas from everyone's comments as usual. :)

For those of us looking for a way to make the tops of those upper kitchen cabinets easier to clean, my dad bought cheap peel and stick vinyl tiles to line inside his cabinets and the tops of them as well.  He used a paper cutter to get clean cuts.  This has been on my list of kitchen to-dos for many years, and is one of the projects we plan to tackle in 2026.  It made his kitchen cabinets much easier to clean inside, and ended the top of the cabinets absorbing grease and odors.  After we line the top of our cabinets with the vinyl tiles I plan to lay down newspaper as well (I’ll ask for some on Buy Nothing as we don’t take the paper).

I accepted several years ago that a kitchen remodel before retirement wasn’t in the cards.  We’re going to paint the cabinets (they were professionally painted 22 years ago so we at least have a good base to work with) plus paint the walls and trim (painted 25 years ago), and we are going to refinish the wood floor at some point.  After fighting dirt on the white cabinets for 22 years I plan to paint them a color.  The lighting fixture will stay as outdated as it was 25 years ago when we bought the house — it’s one of those box lights with fluorescent tube bulbs and plastic panels.  It was put in the house in 1987 and while many trends have returned, I don’t think those boxes ever will.   But it works to light the kitchen and that’s what matters.

These are the books I ordered, some I've read, some not. You may already have read these, sorry : ) 

A Vicarage in the Blitz

The 1940s House

A Family in Wartime: How the Second World War Shaped the Lives of a Generation

Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries of Post-War Britain

Donna- 

My heart hurt to read of all your losses.  I suppose that's the price we pay for loving deeply, but it sure makes me ache.  

 And might I say that you and Charles are like the two little engines that could!  Everything the two of you touch turns out lovely.  I can't imagine having so many things going on at once.  Please be careful of the heat.  My husband was only 46 and super healthy when he suffered from a heat stroke that landed him in the hospital for 3 days.  It caused amnesia and he had no recollection of 10 years of his life, including that we moved from our home state!   His memory did come back, but he still remembers nothing from the weekend it happened.  It's no joke, the most frightening thing I've ever been through.  It was right out of a soap opera.  

I forgot to add that I've been making liners for about 10 years now.  It wasn't on my to-do list, but in my thrifty living read, I found a pattern on making them and tried it.  I've changed it over the years and now put Zorb in between.  I originally used an old thick cotton mattress pad for the absorber.  I only wear commercial liners when I go out, which isn't a lot.  I change them several times per day to keep them fresh and dry.  They're more comfortable than the boughten ones.

Amy K-  Thank you!  Only one sounds familiar, so I'll look those up.  I will post the several I have in a bit.  I'm on stove watch and I can't leave my post haha!  I think mine are mostly British, but they were good reads.

Stephanie G, I had to laugh when i read the song lyrics you put in your comment. I literally was listening to that song because I have Father of the Bride 2 on while I am doing computer work.

You have had so much on your plate G'Donna! Some times life just gets overwhelming with events and decision making. My kids were always in a hurry to "be an adult" I would always say, do NOT rush, adulting is more worry and bills than you realize! I am having some success with the garden, I do have bees and butterflies. I planted 2 dollar store packets of zinnias and wildflowers and they are HUGE!! i also have several rose bushes so I think they are visiting them. I have two apple trees that are too young to produce right now, my garden will not sustain me, but I do get jalapenos, anaheim peppers, chives, pumpkins, basil, rosemary and some tomatoes. One plant of tomatoes is slowly producing, the other two not so much. Tomatoes seem to struggle here (I am a mile high in AZ) and every year I say I am not putting them in but then try again. Next year I will stick to the one that is kinda producing and not the others. We are now getting hot, it has been in the mid 80s until last week. We are now 95-100. Yes, it is a dry heat and I think, while it is still HOT, it doesn't weigh you down as much. i know humidity as I lived in MD for 38 years. We actually need the humidity in AZ because it means it is building for monsoon. Sadly, we aren't getting much rain at all.Not good. Last year we were 100-106 for months which was really weird, we don't tend to get that hot for that long.I understand the sell/not sell issue! i want to move back to MD but it's just not in the cards right now with where my life is and the people I care for. And the market isn't cooperating much right now as well.I will wait it out. I find having no social media apps and staying away from daily news helps my mental health esp lately. Somehow, I always find out when something important is going on. I work fully remote and love it. I also work in the evenings/night which allows me to get everything done I need to and take care of my mom. I clean her house/do repairs and all her yardwork every week. Thankfully she isn't a hoarder, but she does have an extraordinary amount of knick knacks and china stuff..I have asked her to get rid of things but she doesn't want to. She thinks everyone is going to want all her stuff when she dies. They will not, I have already asked. It will be up to me to get rid of it all.Thankfully, after my dad passed 26 years ago, when I moved her closer to me, I was able to go thru a lot. He had saved every paycheck he ever had in his life! I love seeing the kitties! Good to prepare beforehand with Charles retiring. It should not be a prepare after the fact situation, good thinking!

Stephanie G, I’m excited to see how your kitchen turns out when you’re able to do a makeover!

With my California bungalow house built in the 1920s, I’m mostly interested in kitchen inspiration from the 1920s - 1940s.  But I have no idea what my kitchen originally looked like.  Next door, my neighbor’s house is similar to mine and we think we had the same builder (there were at least 10 builders for our little subdivision of 80 homes).  I’m pretty sure from her house that what is now our breakfast room wasn’t connected to the kitchen but was rather a small office or den off the dining room, because we know where the arch to the dining room from the kitchen was closed — and she has that same doorway.  But her parents remodeled the house in the 50s and her kitchen has more of a 50s vibe — they even put in a small peninsula island in her kitchen.  Based on where the original opening between the kitchen and dining room was, we think there was a small eat in space in the kitchen across from that.  Even now we could have a small table for 3 in there if I didn’t have a 1930s Hoosier-style cabinet where it would go.  The other house very similar to ours had last been remodeled in the 60s when I saw it, right down to having a Frigidaire Flair range.  Again, the little room that was changed to a breakfast room in our house is a small office in that house, not connected to the kitchen.  But in ours, we had a breakfast nook built in custom made by a family member, because a second place to eat that wasn’t the formal dining room made a lot of sense with young children.

Bright blue cabinets sound cheery!  I am thinking of either jadite green or a turquoise color for my cabinets and trim, with either white or pale yellow walls.  Turquoise is winning in my heart, lol, with yellow walls.  But jadite green cabinets with white walls might be more calming and also more versatile

Although our last year hasn't been as stressful as yours, Grandma Donna, it has been a bit challenging. 

We moved in April, just when we would have been putting in a garden, so all we have are a few tomato, pepper, and chard plants in containers. My spouse's business has also taken a great hit due to everything going on. We live on the Canadian border, US side, and border traffic is down nearly 40% which impacts the business. My seasonal plant nursery job went part-time due to reduced sales this year, so I have been trying (and succeeding!) at building up my own gardening business. We are also worried about our eldest son. He teaches at a university and funding cuts have led to mass layoffs, although the program he teaches in isn't currently at risk as it receives a lot of alumni and independent funding.

Fortunately, we have access to our bachelor neighbor's orchard so I have been busy canning plums and plum jam this week. He has no interest in the orchard, so he offered us all the fruit in exchange for maintaining the trees. He is a good friend as well as a neighbor, and we have a history of borrowing and sharing with each other. In fact, our affordable housing on acreage is thanks to him, as he owns it and gave us quite the bargain. We are very lucky and exceedingly grateful to have good people in our life! 

Next will be processing the blackberries from the bushes that line our lane/driveway. The move turned our world upside down, but it was well worth it to move to a house on acreage where we don't have to worry about the frequent rent increases anymore! Finally things are beginning to feel more settled, although I am still behind on just about everything.

I was gifted 200 lbs of new potatoes a week or two ago, and I am slowly getting them processed. 28 qts and counting canned, and about 25 lbs dehydrated for use in soups and stews. I recently read up about how to dehydrate one's own potato flakes for mashed potatoes, so I am going to try that this week. I'm also going to try my hand at making potato chips in the dehydrator. New potatoes can't be stored as long as larger ones, but I am keeping 20 lbs or so for fresh use over the next month or two. Whatever I can't get preserved in the next week will go to the senior center, as they take food donations for the free lunches for seniors. My neighbor works there and will take them in for me. 

After blackberries, the orchard apples will be ready. We aren't much for applesauce, but I will be canning apple slices, cinnamon apple rings, and apple butter.

Whew! It sounds like so much! But, the upside is we rarely buy produce and we rarely eat any that isn't grown locally -- the occasional avocado or citrus is all. I feel this is very inline with how people consumed produce in the 1930s.

Jenny Wren, what a wonderful way to make the best of a situation!  I feel like caring for an orchard to get fruit is very 1930s!  Also being gifted potatoes and preserving them, picking blackberries, etc.

It is so hard to know what will happen with jobs, between tariffs and AI.  My oldest has a B.S. degree but took a pause to decide what he wants to do rather than going to grad school immediately.  I think this was smart because many of the fields he was interested in are set to lose jobs because of AI.  Meanwhile, he works as a bike mechanic and AI can’t take that job away from him.  But tariffs can impact his job.  It sounds like you have a double whammy of tariffs and the fallout with Canada because of the tariffs and things that have been said about the country by the current administration.

One reason my husband is looking to retire very soon is the situation with AI at his workplace.  While it hasn’t take away from jobs yet, some employees are being transitioned to a project where they will use AI to do their jobs, meaning eventually AI will be able to do their jobs without them and they will be redundant.  But the people who use their product want AI incorporated, which is the other side of AI in the tech industry.  My husband just isn’t interested in moving into this next phase, which helped us make the decision for him to retire soon.  Other shakeups at work make it a good time.

This is a new revolution, and just as the Industrial Revolution changed human lives forever, so will this one.  I read that young people today will spend more than half of their lives attached to screens!  Even older people will have spent 20 or so years in front of screens between TV, computers, and phones.  4 hours a day of screen time is 2 months per year!  Learning that statistic has me cutting my screen time dramatically!  I hope the small minority of people who want more human lives in the future, lives connected to nature and other people (in person), will make a difference.  One reason I am enjoying the 1930s study is it has brought me back to pen and paper, physical books, walks outside, time on the front porch, and because my health is allowing it, more time in the kitchen making our food from scratch without any ultra processed foods.  I plan to increase my sewing, crochet, and knitting skills too, and eventually to learn to can.  Most of all, this 1930s study helped break a creeping consumerism that had taken hold of me — mostly second hand things but still consumerism.  Thinking like I am in the Great Depression has made me realize we have all that we need and at this point we just need to use those things and take care of them.

Fortunately, we have access to our bachelor neighbor's orchard so I have been busy canning plums and plum jam this week. He has no interest in the orchard, so he offered us all the fruit in exchange for maintaining the trees. He is a good friend as well as a neighbor, and we have a history of borrowing and sharing with each other. In fact, our affordable housing on acreage is thanks to him, as he owns it and gave us quite the bargain. We are very lucky and exceedingly grateful to have good people in our life! 

JENNY WREN... Snap... Same living situation as us. God bless the landlord/friend who shows care . After our landlord/friend mother died he's let me use the 3 huge vegetable gardens she had. My husband does the lawn mowing and keeps his section tidy for him as he's a farmer and it takes one pressure off him. All the fruit I preserve from the many trees is shared between us. Our house has an issue with the piles BUT we are so so grateful that our rent is less than half the price to what most pay in the area we live. In the last 3 years he had the house completely rewired electrically and put a new roof on. We all show respect to each other.

 Jenny, I made apple butter in the crock pot for years.  It takes 12 hours to make.  A friend of mine said she makes hers in the InstaPot for 30 minutes.  I got the recipe online and tried it.  It turned out beautifully!  You can be done and canned in an hour.  Such a time saver.   Hope this helps.  

I enjoy reading this blog and the comments.  It motivates me to keep trying to simplify. I'm finding great satisfaction in simplifying life and my surroundings. Thanks everyone for sharing!

Oh goodness I don’t blame you for waiting to work on and make a decision about the lake house.  This time of year is not the time anyway!  And I totally understand about not helping her clean out the house when she was alive.  We got educated about that when we attempted to help a friend who was a hoarder.

I have entered my summer hibernation mode.  I’ve noticed the past few years that starting about this time of year up until the weather cools in September that my brain just slows down to a crawl.  No energy either.  Just don’t expect much from me.  Hubby and I really aren’t terrifically interested in food either.  I have my quilting to do.  I have promised myself that this summer hubby and I will go through the photos of past journeys we have made (since we feel we can no longer travel) and compile them into books we can actually look through and enjoy (yes we are old school.)  So many repeat photos!

My last couple of years have seen hard losses and expensive repairs and replacements.  And my garden this year is almost a complete failure. The pests have been ferocious and the heat and humidity have almost killed everything else. But I will try again in the fall. 
I am working on cutting expenses before I retire and picking up some frugal skills in addition to what I already know how to do. 
Gdonna I hope the lake house works out perfectly for you, in whatever form that takes. 
I will continue to come here for information and encouragement as I adjust to a simpler life in retirement. 

Amy, we live in the hot and humid tropics of northern Australia, and can only grow things like tomatoes and cucumbers, capsicums, zucchini etc in our winter months, which are still very warm indeed. Most days currently are 28-30C mid-winter (82-86F), but the winters are our dry season and great for the veggie growing. 

Our spring, summer and autumn are hot and humid, with a wet season of monsoons from December through April. The combination of heat, rain and humidity make it virtually impossible for vegetables (tomatoes especially) to set fruit, and we have loads of bees here so it's not lack of pollination. This made me think that both you and our dear GDonna are struggling with your tomatoes due to high heat & humidity in your summer garden. Just a thought. 

Bless you all, 

Jennifer

So interesting reading all the posts, particularly from the American regions - we're in Queensland, Australia - and winter here is mild - summer is humid and sometimes very wet but mostly bearable so we have the good with the bad.  We require no heating or almost no heating in winter as the sun does it all, and summer it's mostly fans with perhaps the air-con on the tear-drop setting at night to make sleeping easier - that uses very little power.  And we have subsidised power anyway, so we haven't paid a cent this last couple of years,  plus we have solar panels on the roof.

At our age, we've given away the vegetable gardens that we've always had, and that is purely because water is so expensive - we do have a few volunteer tomatoes come up and some capsicums (bell peppers) from time to time but mostly we shop at the discount outlets and buy fresh but slightly damaged produce which I buy in bulk and process - we also frequently take a short trip to the citrus growing areas and buy from the farm gate - and that includes cheap avocadoes, pumpkins, watermelons, sweet potatoes and so on.  We also grab dragon fruit when we can as well as chokoes - very welcome if we can get them.  We have dragon fruit growing but nowhere near fruiting time as yet as they're only young plants.

We have a chronic hoarder living next door and he's a real problem, wife has left him and the children won't go inside - so there is a problem with rats and mice, as well as snakes (we welcome the snakes as they eat the vermin) - however with his hoarding comes the threat of white ants too (termites) and we have a timber house.

As in previous posts, we are living on our age pension, medicare covers our medical needs with free public hospital treatment and subsidised specialist visits, and we pre-paid our own funerals/cremations many years ago when the man of the house retired.

I’m sorry to hear about Belle GDonna, I always enjoy so much your stories about the animals that share your life and it’s hard when we lose them isn’t it. We recently welcomed a rescue dog into our home, she’s a complete sweetheart and it good to have a dog around the place again.

This, and your other readers talking about life here in the UK during the war, reminds me of a story that my Grandma would tell about her dog. The rationing at the time was very strict with little in the way of animal protein and with no ammunition available for hunting her Mum, my great grandmother would go across the heathland with her dog and he would catch a rabbit or two to go into the pot to feed the family. Many domestic dogs in the cities were put down but in more rural places folk kept them for just this purpose

Dear Grandma Donna,

It was so lovely to see an update about  Myrtle cottage and also Madge's house (the lake house :)

I was sad to read that so many of your pets had died..I didn't know that. Maybe you had written about it in a post and I missed it? :( I'm so sorry for your loss xo.

Also I don't often comment, as when ever I go the comment section there is usually a plethora of comments and I start to read some and then I feel I will just be repeating something someone else has said..maybe this is silly?

Anyway it was just lovely to have this update, and what a blessing to your family to have the Lake House to go and stay at :)

Here at home I haven't been saving money, I've been spending money actually. I've started a new hobbie - Quilting, which has meant that I have needed to buy fabric. In the past I've made quilts and other craft items from recycled material, but as I will be retiring in 5 years I wanted to have a stash of pretty prints that I will enjoy making things with. I've spent so many years being frugal and making everything from scratch, so I have actually gone in the reverse direction of the study...maybe thats also a reason I haven't commented. But no doubt the dust will settle very soon and I will be back to my frugality.

Many blessings to you Donna, your blogs are such a joy and an encouragement to me ~ Linda - The Little Homestead (NZ)

Madge's place looks amazing! Growing up, my neighbor had a stove like Madge's. It was actually from the 50's. She probably still has it! It was an amazing piece of history and worked like a charm even in the early 2000's. 

I relocated to South Carolina about 18 years ago from Northern NJ. My allergies and asthma certainly appreciate our central AC here in Charleston. I never had that growing up, and boy did I suffer! But, I can't stand the South's constant heat. I'm so tired of being house bound because the heat indexis 115 almost daily here. I miss my long walks and haven't tried a summer garden in years. 

I'm also so heartbroken here because of the constant and relentless over developing. I cried the other day when I noticed they cleared an entire chunk of forest across from our public library. I'm so sick of all the construction just to have more banks, churches, and shopping malls! Don't they realize that trees keep us cool?! I told my husband we need to return to the North when it's time to retire. No offense to SC, but my values no longer align with the people in charge here. I'd rather trees than more chain restaurants, hotels, and Targets. No thank you!!!

Kimberly F, It's good you are planning ahead. AI "took my job" two summers ago. I used to provide website copy and catalog copy for landscaping and other companies in the horticultural fields. Slowly all of my clients began switching over to AI-generated content. The worst part was, the AI was making so many mistakes that some tried to hire me back to edit it, but at a fraction of what I was being paid before. No thank you! That's when I went into nursery work. My degree is in botany/plant science, but most jobs are in either academia, which wasn't a good fit for me, or pharmaceuticals, which I have some value-based issues with. I just want to play in fields of flowers all day!

Karen S, Your situation does sound similar to ours. The property is 12 acres, and each house has about an acre of private space with the rest being shared woodlands, lawns, and the orchard. Originally this house was for his mom as she aged. He tried renting it once before to strangers and the tenants took advantage of a good situation and caused a lot of damage, which is why he decided to only rent to people he already knew. We have cheap rent and we help him fix up things around the place. He is in is 70s, so it is helpful for him to have younger people around to give him a hand when needed (we are in our late 40s and our son and his partner, who both live with us while in college, are in their early 20s).

Cate D, I will try the instapot apple butter. I've always used a crockpot as well!

We stopped by a thrift store today so I could buy some sheets because I need to make some window quilts before winter. I look for pretty patterned cotton sheets and linen tablecloths that I can use for making clothing, quilts, and other crafts. I won't use the nylon or "microfiber" ones that are becoming more common, though. I was thinking how used sheets for sewing projects are kind of like the patterned flour sacks that people used to collect and use to make clothing in the old days. We may not have pretty cloth flour sacks anymore, but I sure can find a lot of pretty sheets for just a dollar or two apiece! 

Grandma Donna wrote,

To everyone I am doing my evening check in to read the forum comments that I had not read yet.  Another great group of commenters and those of you that do not comment often, I am happy that you decided to comment.   

Thank you for your kind words of sympathy for our losses of our pets and family that have passed.  This weekend I have once again been working on the budget, I keep simplifying the budget and making it easier to read the numbers and have put entries in categories. 

What I am working on now is a budget sheet to balance all categories and then balance the budget for each month. This is the most detailed budget I have ever made and I have taken a spiral notebook and drawn lines down the middle and added lines to enter figures for amounts spend.  I am calling it my E S System (Everything Spent System) book where I enter every item money was spent on so we balance at the end of the month.  

Back to school specials are on sale right now and the student spiral notebooks are on sale for .thirty five cents each and the composition notebooks for .thirty eight cents at walmart.  We purchased several to have our supply for the year.  

It feels good that we are at the no spending stage of pre-retirement now.  We cannot spend on anything that does not have a category that has a fund for that item.  The notebooks came out of the office supply fund.  I hope you all had a good weekend, not sure what day that I will do a post this week but I plan on doing one.  :)  Donna

Oh Grandma Donna, I feel this post so much.  My mother started hoarding and living like this when she and my father divorced. She was only in her mid 40's and is now 68. She just gave up. She now lives in Florida and I live in Maryland, so its difficult to be as helpful as I'd like. For many years I would fly down for a few days and 'reset' her house. I would get rid of as much as she would permit me to, clean everything, purchase healthy foods, and generally just get her set up better. She would kick and scream the whole time. She also prefers to only use the microwave and toaster oven as her stovetop and oven are used as storage or places to put garbage. She usually has bugs, piles of dirty dishes and toilets so dirty that the insides are black. I finally had to stop.  It was ruining my mental health and it was ruining my relationship with her. Our in-person interactions were always so fraught with stress, it wasnt worth it anymore. She has chosen to live this way. I can't change it. I know I will inherit her house, but with the debt i know she carries from over-spending, my brother and I are seriously considering turning her estate over the the state once she passes. I don't think it will be worth the stress, effort, heartache and time to clean everything out, open and estate and have pennies (if anything) left at the end. There is no sentimental value to the condo, so i will travel to pick up a few boxes of pictures and some items that belonged to my grandparents. The rest I am willing to walk away from. 

I send her fresh produce every week as she tells me she can't afford to eat healthy. I pay some of her medical bills directly. But i refuse to give her money when she asks, because it will go to Temu, QVC or to cigarettes. Its a really hard line to draw and she gets angry at me. But i do my best to help without enabling. 

I'm so sorry that you had to go through something similar, but thank you for sharing your story. Its a comfort to me.

I'd love to see a before and after photo of your kitchen; it sounds so cute! 

Thanks for sharing these books! I love to have paper books to read. I just bought two of the ones mentioned. I've enjoyed "Tough Times, Strong Women",  "The Ration Book Diet",  "We Had Everything But Money", and "Thrifty Tips From the War Years."

Thank you, GDonna, for being honest and real about your situation and your challenges! Last summer, everything just ground to a halt when my oldest daughter was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. The garden just flat wasn't important anymore. Sometimes we have to accept that we're in a time when all the plans we had aren't going to work for the moment (I'm preaching to myself with that statement). 

My mother-in-law once told me, "I know why you love history and historical documentaries so much! Because you already know what's going to happen and so you don't feel anxious about it!" I think some of that same thing is why some of us love living "like the past." We know people survived those times (one morning and one step at a time, as you and some others above have been saying), so we can survive these times too. We are surrounded by a barrage of news these days. Instead of reading a newspaper once a day, we are bombarded by tweets, texts, TV, and thus constant fear. What is going to happen next?? That person said he's going to [whatever] and if that happens, then [whatever] happens and then [whatever] and then ....

You ask how we are coping -- I'm coping by trying to remember that I MUST stay in today. I cannot spend my time thinking about what tomorrow may or may not bring, or I'll crumble. The only world I can really impact and affect is the one close to me, the people near me. I have to let the politicians and the influencers go hang, as it were!

Hello All,

At the moment my husband and sons are remodeling one of the rooms in our 1890's farm house. They have stripped all the horse hair plaster and wooden slats off of the walls in order to drywall because the horse hair plaster is crumbling in spots and it causes dust in the house. Three walls are torn down to the original log and chinking walls which we will likely just clean up and leave exposed. There is a chimney in the room that runs from the bottom floor on the house through the second floor room. It was covered in horse hair plaster that but isn't anymore. We will also leave it exposed. I guess at one point those chimneys being exposed was not popular anymore. 

When they tore down the horse hair plaster from the ceiling, an antique dip pen fell from the floor boards of the attic above. We have no idea how old it is. I wish I could find some information on it. It's always an adventure remodeling and repairing these old houses. I thought you all might enjoy our find also. 

Goodness me, Grandma Donna. You have had such a lot on your plate these last few years. I hope you can both take a deep breath and relax a little when Charles retires. You sure deserve it. 

I am having a hard time with my elderly mother at present. She lives a couple of hours away and is estranged from all family members except for myself. She undoes all measures to help her, yet does nothing to help herself. I wish I had other family members willing to assist, but I can understand why they don't want to. It is a real mess. Thank you for sharing about your own situation, and thank you to Sharon A, also. 

In regards to the 1930's study, I have been paring back my spending as much as possible. Once a month, I go to the bank and withdraw the allotted amount of grocery money for that month. Whilst I am there I do a minimal shop at the supermarket from a list I keep on my fridge so that I have a three month supply of the basics. We do a shop once a week at our local small fruit shop for fruit, vegetables and milk and we also sell them surplus items from our garden. Last week it was wood from our fruit trees for smoking. This week they will take some passionfruit. It all helps. I am really enjoying shopping this way. 

I've been watching your northern hemisphere summer with some trepidation. I too have noticed a lack of insects but thankfully we have a lot of bees. I am continuing to plant out vegetables in August, September and October and then I will rest the beds from November until February. I'm also making a concerted effort this year to save as many seeds as possible so they can become more climate adapted. I was reading that 80-90% of seeds in Australia are imported and that is why they are sometimes unsuccessful. I will give it a go and see.