If you decide to buy some acreage to live a homesteading lifestyle, be sure to include a yard where children can play. And be sure to include folks like me, “Granny”!
Homespun with Grandchildren!
Children take my breath away! Ha ha! Literally! When I play soccer or basketball with them, they’re hard to keep up with. I am 72 years old (I think?) and just moved last winter to Wisconsin to be with my son, his wife and five children, including a set of very young twins. They homeschool—it’s the homesteading lifestyle, after all. And it is downright thrilling to me to chase and be chased by my dear sweet grandchildren! I think I use as much air while laughing as while running!
Seriously, I’ve always tried to keep in shape since my younger years and will always feel indebted to the parents who drove me to swim team practices 5 days a week, at the local YMCA, year after year.
Slow living and swimming
Here in a land of lakes, I plan to keep up with that swimming habit in the summer —which will continue to enable me to keep up with the kids! When it comes to running, my nine-year-old grandson can already leave me in the dust and one of the granddaughters will probably leave me in the dust this coming summer. Nevertheless, I am just thrilled that I can rest a bit and repeat the whole race over again!
And the family has a pond where I can teach them all to swim and no one on the homestead can keep up with me in the water! Slow living has its triumphant fast moments.
Homesteading lifestyle with a hip replacement
Now this may sound a bit odd….. but consider this: I had a hip replacement when I was about 47 years old. AND there was no one in the medical profession who could tell me WHY I had a lousy arthritic hip.
There I was, walking up and down a steep hill in West Virginia to get to my house in the woods and slowly but surely it became more and more difficult!
There was speculation and I tried various cures—like not eating nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants.) The irony is that NOW some professionals on infomercials are saying nightshades are precisely what I needed in my diet! Go figure.
Also, my surgeon told me I would probably have to have the replacement replaced in about 15 years (at age 62). He cautioned me to NOT RUN on it as the impact of my left foot on the ground could cause the replacement to be damaged.
So, I was careful for a very long while. (15 years?) But I finally gave up and started running and worked up to 3-mile jaunts. I even experimented with running barefoot but alas…. I pushed myself too hard. The hip never failed me, but the left calf muscle or the tendon would now and then yell out “stop”!!! So now, I just walk/ run about a half mile once or twice a week and sprint a bit.
In the early arthritic years, I took aspirin, and as the need grew worse, a doctor prescribed something called ANSAID. When I read the side effects of the ANSAID, however, I gave it up. Of course, I consulted the ladies who ran the local natural food store. And I consulted the best seller by Louise Hay titled You Can Heal Your Life.
As years passed, I decided that I had probably injured my hip and cut off the blood supply to the tissue between the ball and socket. I assumed that there HAD TO Be a reason but really, it’s still a mystery.
But the hip replacement saved the day, and I am truly grateful!
