Where is everybody! I sure do miss you all!

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Answers

I know this is difficult to believe, Tren, but I have nothing to say. I think we're all feeling a bit (or more) depressed.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Please guys, lets talk about it, lets talk about our symptoms, lets lean on each other. I know exactly how you feel Joy! I had a couple of days where I felt like, what is the use to carry on, everything is too much, now we have biological and chemical war, to worry about, will our electric go off tomorrow, what will I have to watch my children suffer through, Should I do more to prepare? Are my preparations just senseless worry. I wonder of what use is a poet in a world staged for fighters? I have been so jumpy lately and everylittle sudden noise makes me jump, I have dreams of warplanes and sleep lightly , awaking at the slightest sound.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Trendle--I haven't been posting too much on any forum. Just too darn depressing I guess. Praying is supposed to help, but that is hard too when all that comes is tears down my face. And a little while ago my vet called and said my cat, little Sister, died last night. She's only been ill a few days, and died over night from liver failure. She was only 5 years old. Such a beautiful kitty. My little garden friend. She kept elephants out of the garden you know. Anyhow I'll say a prayer that everyone on the forum finds some blessings for themselves and their families this week.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Tren, and all. Yes, it has been very, very depressing. I don't usually break down in tears as much as I did a week ago, but I get choked up a lot still. I still am unsure of what I am doing, much less feeling half the time.

Yes, we need each other on this forum. I think even just a note about our gardens, or what we are having for dinner, etc., will help us keep in touch. I know we have a lot of different opinions about what is going on. Well, we always have had a lot of different opinions here!

Vicki, I'm sorry about your kitty...as if things weren't already sad enough...take care.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

vicki, I cryed when I read about your kitty. I keep going around in circles in my mind, torturing myself trying to comprehend what is happening in our world. At the feed mill I was telling a friend about it, my struggle, and an old guy said "sweetie, you might never understand it". Kind of set me free for a while. It is all just too much and we have to stay in our now I guess. Right now my "now" is o.k. The only thing I can do today is try to hold love in my heart not hate. The president hasn't called me for advice and I can't seem to change anyone's mind to hold love as the answer. But, I can love because I know it is a choice. Peace and love to all.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

Howdy Tren and everyone else, too.

I guess the only thing all of us can do is keep on keeping on. There are still tomatoes to can and stringbeans to pick. Laundry still needs doing and hens keep laying, so what else can we do? I am trying very hard to get back into my regular routine (no more daytime tv watching for a while) because routine works best for me.

DH and I had a great time at camp this past weekend. The leaves are turning and there is a great "apple" smell in the air. We went to a Grange dinner and had the most delicious chicken. Boy, I sure wish I could cook chicken like that! It was so moist and tender; just fell off the bone. Yum!

I'm planning a solo trip to camp this coming weekend as DH has family business to take care of concerning his father's estate. I'll miss him but will really enjoy the peace and solitude of being in the deep woods of Vermont.

Love and hugs to everyone. Hope to hear what else is going on with everybody.

Wishing you enough.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001

I posted on the chat thread before I came back to this one, so I'll chat a bit more here.

Vicky, my sympathy for the loss of your kitty. My ten year old pal died unexpectedly last year, and no one could figure out why his kidneys and then heart just started failing. I miss every pet I had that has died, but the ones that didn't get their full life really bring me down. But I'm glad for all the time I DID have with him.

So, discussing what we had for dinner, I ate out with the friends who went to the concert with me (see the chat thread). The service was VERY slow, but the food was good. I had broiled salmon with a side of "garlic reds", which turned out to be oven-roasted new potatoes with garlic "sauce" on them. It was a yummy meal. The place is called The Jailhouse, as it is housed in the building that contained the original courthouse and jailhouse. Apparently there are shops in the old cells, but that part was already closed for the day. The ladies room at the restaurant had been a jail cell, according to the plaque on the wall, but I was disappointed that there was no evidence of that in the room. Just the standard metal stalls, tile walls, etc. The rest of the restaurant was quite cozy and pleasant.

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001

I wrote a lengthy post for this last night, and then deleted it. I've been pretty darn depressed since the 11th, now that the shock part has passed.

However, Joy encouraged me to go ahead and post on this thread tonight, so I'll give it another try and attempt to keep from getting mired down.

What I had for dinner -- home-grown tomatoes, zucchini, new potatoes, and Roadkill. Really.

I think it was possibly the best Roadkill I ever had. A ruffed grouse had the misfortune to fly across the highway and bounce off the windshield, killed instantly, and this evening was panfried and on the plate. I haven't had grouse in at least 20 years (i hate the idea of hunting them, no matter how tasty they are, but I didn't feel too terribly bad about this one being utilized after its demise).

If the deer don't start being more careful, I'm going to have venison soon too. I've seen as many as six bucks in a night playing Slap out on the highway (where they slap each other with their forefeet).

I spent several hours rustling up every old sheet, blanket, towel, and mattress pad that I could dig out and covering the garden up. We are supposed to have frost/freeze tonight and low temps with same possible for the next three, just long enough to kill everything, but usually if you will empty your linen cupboard onto it until that passes you get another two or three weeks of moderate temperatures in which to hopefully wring a little bit more harvest out of it.

I dug up the late planted potatoes and got a smallish yield, but better than none at all, and lots of very tender new potatoes out of it. As the beds empty, I am digging in compost and such for next year, emptying the bins so that I can pile in all the tomatoe leaves and vines, potato vines, etc, add the donations of my guinea pigs, rabbit and horses and get it cooking for next year. Physical labor right now is good.

The Renn Fair was somewhat subdued this year, not surprisingly. I got to find out what is under a Scotsman's kilt, or rather, a Scotsturtle's kilt. Angus, of Clan MacTurtle,(an African Spur- thighed Tortise) meanders around the grounds with his two attendants who solicit donations from the public for Como Zoo and their rescue work, wearing his little red turtle-kilt and leather panniers (complete with American flags this year) and donation hat balanced on top of his shell. This weekend everything these collected was going to the Red Cross, as was a lot of other collections being taken up. Angus is a very patriotic African-American-Scots. Joy became enamoured of a younger member of his Clan, who we took to calling 'Netsuke' since that is what he/she looked like -- a tiny version smaller than the palm of your hand who looked like he was carved out of antique ivory, and was working industriously to eat a green grape that was the size of his head.

I have been watching a lot of Canadian geese overhead lately, have for a couple weeks now. The woodpeckers have started banging on the house, so I've bribed them off with suet. I haven't seen hummingbirds around for several weeks, I suppose it's okay to take down the feeders now. All that and the frost tonight are signaling that we won't have much more nice weather to enjoy, altho I am scratching my head to figure out how to rig up some cold frames in the garden and such and try for some cool weather greens crops, which I haven't done before.

I'm sorry about your cat too Vicki. I think it is much harder to lose a young animal, than one that has lived a long life and is naturally winding down. A friend of mine just called me to tell me she had to euthanize her cockatiel, which was one of the last babies that I bred and raised, a very sweet little girl who loved snuggling, popcorn, and trying to pry the buttons off the remote control.

I have been mulling over thoughts on a previous thread about 'It still feels like something is going to happen', and at the time, I dismissed it, never forseeing the events of the 11th as a possibility. I'd had hopes that perhaps we were going to see a new era of world unity, but with members of over 50 nations dying in the World Trade Center, this was not quite what I had envisioned or perhaps only hoped for. I'm depressing myself again. I'll quit now.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001

Hey Julie , where is that thread, It still feels like something is gonna happen? Can't find it. Gosh, Oh Golly Oh Ghee, it sure was good to read these repsonses, seems like what keeps us going is family and friends and food! He He! I just want to say right now, that if anything I have ever said , or any emotion I too readily displayed, or any stand that I too rigidly took, offended any one and is keeping them off of this forum.Please forgive me! After all I disagree with my Mother on just about everything but I still LOVE her, Much! And I feel a love for you all too. I need you people! Love TRen

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001

Tren, it's your thread remember??? Don't know where it would be in archives though, do you remember what subject heading you picked? Don't worry, I get more Senior Moments too these days :-) !!!

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001