Hello All

I was once a frequent contributor back in the seventies when we had 14 acres and tried to provide for ourselves and made frugality a recreational activity. In the half a lifetime since we have bought a larger farm (180 acres) and taken a shot at commercial farm as cow/calf beef producers.

We made money on 14 acres in the 70's, but really can't ten times bigger in 1999, still it is a beautiful farm and a great life style.

My question is--how have our values changed as we have gotten older and somewhat tired-er?

I still think most of what I thought in 1972, but am not so reclusive, I don't see us as separate from the world, though I am sad about the way things are drifting.

After writing my things for Countryside, I kept writing. Now I have a rural life column in a syndication which has been fun.

I guess I am, like Paul Simon wrote, still crazy after all these years.

-- John Sillick (silfarm@netscape.net), November 09, 1999

Answers

Response to still crazy after all these years?

Dear John, (I always wanted to start a letter that way ), You should take solace in your craziness, after all it is all a matter of relativity and in the circle of life, a day will come when it is "we" that are crazy, and you that are sane- keep writing for us, you blazed a trail that others are sure to follow, and they may not take notes as well.....

-- sandie baker (sandiebaker@net1plus.com), November 10, 1999.

Response to still crazy after all these years?

John, Sure, we're all still crazy, I hope. Back in the early 70's when our first son was born we moved to a house we had built from scratch, no "city job", large garden, etc., and did well until the "I wants" drove us to jobs, earning m oney, etc., partly due to boys growing older, etc. Since then we have moved to fewer acres, existing house, and a "real" job. Now that the boys are grown and we have been simplifying life again, although we never did get too "citified" in our lifestyle. Always had a large garden, chickens, orchard, etc., and I don't think that our ideals have changed, just (as you mention) "not so reclusive".

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), November 11, 1999.

Response to still crazy after all these years?

I dont think our values change as much as our prioritys change, as we feel the achs and pains of getting older we start scaleing back our work load to lessen the tole on our bodys. we still try to be as self sufficiant as we can be but after the kids move out we dont need as many animals to take care of our needs so we start scaling them back and shorting the garden, and start learning to rest a little more. And start enjoying the sun rises and sunsets more and linger over our morning tea more,ect, ect, ect.

-- kathy hart (www.sadlebronc@msn.com), November 11, 1999.

Response to still crazy after all these years?

we moved to our current location in 1975 - we built the house while living in a tent - we built a replacement house across the driveway and have lived in the replacement earth sheltered house since january 1981. we purchased only wooded land so had to clear a garden and building sites - we tried to do things that allowed us to live fairly lightly on the land - we no longer do things that we found to be extremely onerous such as butchering chickens - we both work in town but have been careful to not get so far into debt that we are working at jobs that we hate to keep from being thrown on the parish. personally, my values haven't changed but I am less willing to argue with anyone about anything. if someone's values are repugnant to me i will now more readily expend effort to avoid them rather than be confronted by their stupidity and say somethng about it. civilization is going downhill and is probably not sustainable but my guess is that there is nothing that anyone can do about that so they better put their energy into making their life sustainable.

-- kirby johnson (kirby@selco.lib.mn.us), November 12, 1999.

Response to still crazy after all these years?

Strange you use that song; I have revisited that song from time to time for the last 25 or so years and each time I seem to view my past as much being more crazy than my present...the "crazy" part has become relative to the aging process, no doubt. That song means a lot to me for reasons that are probably waaay to complicated and philosophical to delve into. But anyway, many of the things that were important to me haven't changed and they remain to be a "bit out of the mainstream" but then, I had a history of moving on when what I was doing became mainstream. The biggest change is that I no longer "burn the weed" and that has made a big difference in how I approach most things.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), January 27, 2000.