We CAN create joy and peace after major life events.
Category: Lessons from 76 Old Broads – and a few old codgers
Collectively we have 4,940 years of experience – and great stories. These posts are your entrance into our curious and colorful circle of life long friends.
Ok so the bear did not sit at the table but I did feel like the next mealAPRIL 12, 2010
A big… and I mean a really big back bear woke me up this morning right outside my door. It was an amazing but slightly freaky way to start the day! On the way to work I went past a herd of elk, a flock of geese, assorted chipmunks and rodents . When the rain started I began to wonder if I would see an ARK next.
AUG 4, 2010
I came home from work to find the bear had vomited soap bubbles all over the window of my front door. He had gotten into a box of shampoo and soap stored outside. I guess he doesn’t like Pantene.
The bear came back and ripped open the shed.NOV 3, 2010 Bear crap, birthdays & bizzare trainings. What a weird day. It was my son Adam’s birthday. I talked with my son Toby who is in Saudi Arabia. I attended a workshop on dealing with sex offenders.
AND THEN
I got home to find the bear broke into the storage shed again. While cleaning up paper I thought oops, paper should not be squishy … I was holding fresh bear poop. The day ended with cleaning water lines in the dark AND washing my hands more times than I can count.
Nov 10, 2010
Round three. I won! The bear came back and took off the door trim to the shed today but the well fortified cross bracing I did yesterday (all by myself with a screw gun) held. I am duh WOMAN.
I didn’t start out to be a tough old broad able to use a chain saw, fix water lines in the dark, face down a bear and battle a landslide.
Nov 9, 1968 I was a city gal from West Covina, California when I married Bruce in 1968. I had eight track tapes, a hair dryer, color tv and a princess phone. I listened to Janis and the Beatles and drank fresca.
This is where I write… with electricity and internet. WOW I probably still look like a city gal if you saw me writing this today. I am sitting in a warm house with electricity and internet. Of course I am wearing sweats splattered with paint and there is mud on my nose from hauling in wood. (I won’t post that scary photo)
Our little cabin deep in the forest As to the electricity and internet, they are an amazing luxury when I think back to the years we spent in our little cabin in the woods with kerosene lamps and a wood stove.
We had running cold water only, and only if the lines didn’t freeze. Those years toughened me for the future far better than a gym could do. I hauled water from the creek in buckets when the water lines froze.
The scrub boards and wringer washer were not decorations! I washed clothes with an old fashioned wringer washer and scrub board and chopped wood to heat the water to wash the clothes.
An hour after our son Toby was born I was all smiles I gave birth at home to three of my four sons. with my hubby Bruce “catching” and coaching.
Sleds were for more than sledding. When the road was snowed in, Bruce and I hauled children and groceries in a sled up the long hill to the house. I did my fair share. I would have a baby in a backpack while I dragged a sled filled with garbanzo beans, tofu, rice, milk, peanut butter( organic of course) and assorted other way too healthy things.
1974 From city skirts to country overalls, the transformation was joyousWe never consciously chose to live ruggedly for so many years. It crept up on us until it became life giving.
BUT BACK TO FIXING THE WATER LINES . . .
In the old days the water lines brought water Forget the image of a water meter at the house or city lines to fix. Our water lines go WAY, WAY up into the forest.
In the old days Bruce would brave the rain, heat and snow at all hours to fix the water lines. I was grateful never realizing that water line duty would soon be my new, not necessarily wanted skill, for Bruce died in 2005.
By then the water lines not only brought water, they became the source of water pressure for our homemade pelton wheel that created electricity for our home.
Boots on the ground … ready to fix the water line Water lines that are broken or frozen or eaten by bears mean no water and no electricity. I had to learn fast and get tough. I am proud to say I did, with the help of my son Ryan and on occasion my neighbor Wayne. Sons Toby and Adam got roped into action as well when they visited. I wanted my sons to have a well rounded education.
I am showing off here a bit, but this video I made gives you a glimpse of what fixing water lines in Brink country involves. (giggling here at how far I have come from the city life!)
Well, that is enough for today. I need to haul in more firewood before the house gets chilly.
MORE TO COME IN FUTURE POSTS (c)shaun brink 2015
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I didn’t start out to be a tough old broad able to use a chain saw, fix water lines in the dark, face down a bear and battle a landslide.
