Getting ready for winter....

Bob reminds me we still have to winterize our boat...I just did an Farmer's Almanc review in another web site...you all sound like you know your seasonal weather enough to know what to do...for the Rocky Mts. they say the snow comes at higher elevations the first week of Nov....and kind of takes it eastward to the end of the month for New England areas...again higher elevations. Sounds like we might have an slihgtly higher snow this winter all over, but not overly drastic. They predicted the possibilty of frost to freezing rain three times for Florida this winter..all at the end of each month. Girls....let's save the Oranges...anyone know how to knit?....laughs. How about miniture "solar" fruit covers???  It was an fuzzy idea in my mind there for an brief moment...OK...everyone drink yor "OJ" this year, don't let them oranges stay idle.!!!

Okay Shirley, a few answers as promised:

Rarely even in the coldest depths of the UK do we have to prepare for winter.

Apples, pears from the garden etc are harvested but kept in the cold shed, garage or similar until they rot or the spring approaches.

Brocolli, and all other vegetables and fruits for that matter we get from all over the world, so no need to worry there.

You actually have time to write a book as well as keep us informed here in POE. Can't wait to read what you have written Shirley, well done! And thank you for the intended donation for POE to help keep the site running. Not sure if a cheque is the best way to make a donation from the States (the banks normally charge the earth to convert them $ to £) but will see how things progress. Of course a better way, if you are able, is to donate via PayPal from one of the many links on the POE website.

Season's? Well, I guess it depends on where we each live, because it would be very different.

Winter chores Shirley? We don't cut up and save logs for the winter anymore, we might prepare the garden for the next winter crop as would the farmers, but no I don't think we do anything special.....do we members?

Don't sweep the chimneys anymore.....most have central heating, meaning that few 'open' fires exist.

We freeze goods, but not to the extent that you might it seems. The ever stocked supermarkets are just too close Shirley and therefore no need! Potatoes, Carrots and Onions are also available all year round.

The majority of the remaining post is about the same as us I guess, and yes some Grandma's might start knitting woollens for their kids and pets, but not me though!

And finally, Pancakes.......we have them on pancake day! Perhaps you mean something different Shirley

In comparison I think we have it easy.

Ron, yours is an ever eventful life (along with the rest of the UK i'm sure)

Coloradan 's love their fireplaces and cant wait to use them! inside or out !

I love October thru May (May is when it is safe to plant outside)

When is Pancake Day??

Well, Ron...this is an time honored thing for me in part, to keep the traditions alive...but it also gives me an chance to contributre to the means of the family by doing my part..and many of the things I do you can't "buy" if you tried. It also teaches the new generation how to not be dependent upon others...and learn new talents.Have you ever heard of George Ure, from Urban-survival....he is an finanical expert, his philosophy of life is to always try to learn and one talent, at least every two years, and earn more education in life.He claims that is sucess..for you can then flow with the ebs of life within the world of its ups and down and not be harmed in you rlivabilty. For meit helps to also have helped the nearly 200 others in my life that have come an gone thourgh this household of mine...mostly kids.But some of th ethings I do, I do for your own convience...like the quarts of roasted carrots with onions...so we can com home and whip them out an  from an quick heating up in the microwave..or sharing an loaf of homemade zucchinni bread with someone as they go out the door...you will often find the easiest things in life are the most costlyand unhealthful for you these days. I heard my daughter in-law tell the young grown fella next door as my son was chopping wood, that he's save himself the money of an health club and probably have muscle deveopment if he'd learn to chop wood now and then..and you can't do it if you don't try. Not to mention  the wood for the fireplace...which he could be seling for money if he didnt' wat to burn it. He was so proud o fhis new bike, and very expensive one, and I aske dhim what he did to earn that thing, it was an beaut..and he said, the state gives my parents money for having us there, I guess as foster kids..she had no right to claim hey are hers and she adopted them ,if everyone else in life is paying for them...that's not parenthood, that's an paid babsitter.I did not tthough tell him that to his face. At least she gives him some money apparently, though it is at 20 years old he should be making his own way in life here soon. One can not spend their life riding the streets on an bike with an ciggarette in their hand,... betcha he'd love to help do this if he could...getting out in nature for the male gender brings out the best in them. Fpr $10, it would make an nice Chirstmas present. It's no tmany these day shas thr chainswa, the truck, and the time an dfriends to go get an firewood these days. Mothe rearth news Magaine did an article one time about tow teachers in New York, gave up an lucurative jos, both oif them to move to Canada and "live off the land"..they supplimented an cash income during the summer by working as an firetower lookout post...but they grew thier own veggies, built thier own house, cut their own wood..and except for their computer their neaest neighbor was miles away, and so was the next town, educated their own kids also,..she did though spend Christmas with the kids, and hubby yearly for one month in New York...as they had no one there to tell them they couldn't. But as she says, you have to know your wits about doing this...or it could cost you your life. because you are your "everything".  Doctor, nurse, policeman, game warden, horiculturlist and the list goes on. But people are doing it more all the time, they are simply tired of someone dictating what and how they will live their life.

PayPal woud be so much easier for me also, if I didnt' have this goonie on board, and have the fear of letting out my credit card number, I'd go that way..Diana was kind enough last year to let me send her the cash and then go by way of Pay pal to POE.I'll talk to my banker, he's busy right now opening up an new branch office out in our area, one of the few banks that was solvent in this mess....see what he suggests.One of my old neighbors branch offices (they helped to open most the of the states Far West Bank Branches when they first started up)is opening up down the street also. We have banked at our bank for 43 years now, I knew everyone then, and I know them now....that is the way I like it.

true, in some cases, but my general finding is that kids suffer an great deal of insecurity is why they do that "give me" bit, these are kids because their parents work, are at age 6 onward feeding themselves, dressing themselves, going out to the bus top by themselves, and there's no one there otherwise...many of them are that way by first grade...they come home to themselves, if they are the oldest, they have to watch over the youngest....for those don't have working parents with an income they find anyone else they can to live with just to get something to eat. Parents have no choice to offer their kids either and still have a house to live in, and newer car to drive, and prestige in society. The school for the most part is now feeding them breakfast and lunch these days..to make sure they get something to eat altogether.

Front headlines of yesterday's paper....6,600 jobs were lost in August in Oregon. The state unemployment rate jumped to 12.2 percent..up from 11.8 percent in July and well above the nation's 9.7 percent level. Since August 2008, the number of unemployed Oregonians has risen by more the 109,000, to exceed 235,000 this August.

As you know "George Bush" hated us way back when, he minced little on letting us know it also, (remember those pictures of huge crowds here supporting Obama)...so in his era of handing out lucrutive Govt. contracts, Oregon was for the most part over-looked and forgotten. Obama is doing it an different way, and its readily seen also, ..he simply ignores us.  With these kinds of statistics, do you think we are not having to help ourselves, it's in the data coming out constantly. About the only thing they do is send out our young  guys off to be killed in war.Ron Widen whom Obama, tish toshed off and out the door say if his health care plan passes it means more money from the middle-income group and less over all care. Sentaor Ron Widen has been in the health care issues since he was local guy out on the street, he likely knows what he's talking about. He is also Jewish, and not an radical one .Which makes em wonder about Obamma's ties to the mid-east at times. We wonder how we ae going to pay for it in health care...without being twisted to our knees to become poverty stricken for help. That's what they are doing to us you know...making us bow on our knees for what should be an undeniable right given for free to  the majority. Ron Widen says that employers are paying less in beneifts every year to their workers.Most likelyy bescause they are not "Americans". But in there greed to make the almight dollar they have not left options but for the higher income groups...and that is not the majority...that is where as politicians they have failed us miserably. It does not matter what party they belong to any more.

By knocking out yards around the new houses, they have done two things, all but shut the tree nursery business down, which is Oregon's main Industry, and they also have kept people without income...having the ground to support their own gardens..These houses are little more then row housing. Just doing this alone has trickled through the industry, next to housing concerns for time time problems in ways. As one secotr relys on support from teh toher...and the housing indsutry didnt' give ti to begin with...so ther eis none now. Again, Govt "bail-out" but for the most part those getting the money are wasting it.  I went out to the houses that I consider one million dollar plus houses, evreyone this year had gardens of some kind.We have had so many wine festivals for the Food Bank people this year, most everyone is alcoholic any more these days....but back to the kids. Parents have always worked to some degree, as I said, they have to, but when tkids can't have that homemade cookie on an cold rainy day, their lives are missing an "comfort" of growing up.They have maybe the first 14 years before they start branching out due to school activites anyway.After that it's much harder to give them an sense of family life. You have to combine the "new" all the time with the old to make it work. As an generation, they want their own identiiy, but they also want the security and comfort of "home". One that doesn't feel empty and cold...so it is warm cookies baking, fireplace crackling, kitty cats and trusty dogs and "Do your homewoirk"...contirbutes to it all. When its not being done around here, it is at "Scouts"...around an camp-fire. Providing you don't have the gun-ho type of adutls guiding the kids. It reminds me of Sharon and Dorothy whom had to go around an pick up what the boys left an didnt' put away...and then came ceremonies and out came the "Lagoon monster" mothers with all these items, Sharon had on swim flippers, and snorkel, wearing an ponco with an T-shirt wrtapped around her head..stomping through the area, somebody's dishes hanging off her neck, flashlight in her hand, probin gthe forrest with its light...and we coulnd't help but laugh as the boys were quickly running to retrieve things they knew was their's. These are the type of things they remember years down the line. Your kids are lucky to find this kind of artmopshere that goes beyond "competition" these days. We don't allow electronics at scouts, if htey come with cell phones, they get put away in and trunk an locked while there, same for the hand games. Leaders have electrocis, but for emergencyt purposes mainly or outside commnicatiosn with parents if needed. We do that to keep them "involved" with each other as an group...without the "Mine is better then yours thing" if possile...they are on the same footing so as to say...as "Scouts".