Global Warming? Nah. It's Just July! Americans Have Become Sissies.

There are two "seasons" of feeding for me. The summer way and the winter way. Summer requires more water effort and winter requires a different way of feeding, especially the goats and donkeys.
In summer, I have little swimming pools for the dogs...they love them a lot. I notice the donkeys and goats seek shade and don't mind lounging around during the hottest parts of the day. I make sure everyone has plenty of cool drinking water.
Feeding takes a little longer in summer. While wiping profuse sweat (and yes, it's SWEAT, it's impossible to "glisten" in this heat!), I was thinking about how the summers were when my two great-grandmothers were my age.
There was no air conditioning. Manual labor was DAILY and you just dealt with it. It's a comfortable 72 degrees as I sit on my porch and type a blog. Something my great-grandparents would flip out about too...but that can be another post in and of itself.
I thought about the livestock they had, the gardens, harvesting crops to "put up" for winter, preserving meats, etc. and I look at our lives today.
What on EARTH do we have to complain about?
We run from our air conditioned homes to our air conditioned cars, into air conditioned stores and heck, there is no wonder we're all thinking the world is "too hot." We are "air conditioned" alright. Oh yes we are. That's pathetic and we've become a sorry lot. Americans are supposed to be tough! (Think about it...the experts go on about the SUN and SKIN CANCER. Hmm. I remember WELL my great-grandfather ALWAYS had on a light colored, long sleeved shirt in summer AND a broad brimmed hat! Even back then folks knew too much sun was harmful. In fact, too much of anything was harmful. Say that to the nation of "excess' that we live in now.)
Again, this is no new information! Our grandparents had far more common sense than we do.
In my 46 years, it's ALWAYS been hot in the summer! So, what's new? Nothing is particularly "new." We've just become a nation that is so very spoiled. I saw a commercial the other night on some whizbang car that has (get this!) AIR CONDITIONED SEATS! Now come on! The heated seats were something else...and now AIR CONDITIONED CAR SEATS...for both driver and passenger. I guess if you don't call "SHOTGUN!" (as we say in the south) and have to sit in the back, you're just out of luck. You'd have to be reduced to sitting on the "regular seats." The horror of having that happen, I gasp!
I remember when cars were NOT air conditioned. I survived just fine.
I love gardening. I love watching plants grow and the whole anticipation of being able to pick and eat the things I have grown. It's hard to have a garden in this spot of land, however, and I learned the hard way. I had a GORGEOUS garden a couple of years ago. I planted all sorts...even a whole section of herbs-both edible and fragrant. It was stunning! I worked it, talked to it, tended it like a baby. One little N'or Easter came through that August, however, and that was that. Briney, or "brackish" water as they call it around here has salt in it. I was ditching water, crying and doing my best to divert the water away from my beautiful garden, but it promptly shrivelled and died. I tried hay bale gardening. It worked just fine...a lot of prep goes into getting the bales ready and it produced smaller foods like tomatoes, peppers and such. The goats liked it too....hay AND vegetables. For them, it was a buffet and the end of the hay bale adventure. It was funny though. Wayne and I at least got a laugh and some tomatoes and peppers out of it.
I can only imagine what it was like for my great-grandparents. They worked all day and then came home to work some more to get ready for the work that was ahead of them the NEXT day! Day after day. There was no time to stop because you worked to EAT in winter and feed your families. There wasn't another choice in area I grew up in. Even if you had a "day time job" back then, you also HAD to have a garden. I have no knowledge of growing up in a city. Being a died in the wool "Tarheel," I'd hate the thought of never knowing the feeling of cool dirt between my toes, the smell and comfort of a much needed rain. Yep! there were droughts and "dry spells" back then too! You can't reinvent the wheel and the cycles of nature have been this way since God created this wonderful earth that we don't appreciate. Cycles of life are nothing new. Just read your Bible.
Americans have become so "me" oriented. We will do ANYTHING to make sure we get our way, or we throw a fit. We've become a nation of babies and it's rather pathetic. Everything has to be so simple, things have to be done FOR us. We are dumbing down at such a fast pace. Soon, we won't know HOW to do one thing for ourselves. That's a much scarier prospect than "global warming." A lot more scary!
We fuss about wars, gas prices, the cost of food, politics...we just fuss, fuss, fuss...and what gets done?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing...but a lot of hot air being tossed about. Is it global warming when we're all whining at once?
We don't vote out the "career politicians." We talk a lot and never DO anything. Frankly, I think all the generations before us would be ashamed to see what little marshmallows we have become...and rightfully so.
Kids have NO CLUE how food is made or where it really comes from. Heck, come to think of it, I'm not sure where a lot of MY food is made or where it comes from!
Everyone has to be "comfortable." NEWSFLASH! Sometimes LIFE isn't comfortable! That's where you learn your most important lessons!
So, what is comfort? Is it not a full belly at the end of a long hard day? Is it the feeling of safety in your own home? Is it knowing you have good and loving family and friends? Maybe a good book or a nap? A good dog who's your best friend? Those are luxuries too! No one seems to know how to nurture anything but themselves and their own creature comforts. Americans have LONG forgotten what nature is, what hard work is, what producing your own food is and we're too doggoned lazy to do it even if we did know!
I LOVE it when I go out to feed and it's as hot as blazes. I sweat, I lift, I pour, I load, I WORK..and I don't have a "farm" in the real sense of the word. What I do is a hobby. There is a sense of contentment, commitment and accomplishment in hard work. The animals depend on me to be reliable for them. They give me SO much in the way of love and caring that the "obligation" I have to them comes so very easy. There is also EXERCISE in hard work. Who needs all these "machines" and Nutri-System, and all the junk we get bombarded with on TV? Shut the TV off for just a little bit. You won't die. I tried it and I'm still here!
If Al Gore thinks the globe is warming, perhaps he needs to get some dogs, chickens, goats, donkeys, and cows...you know, do a little hard work. He can learn to throw hay, tote water, tote water again and then do it all again in the evening. Remember, I do this for a hobby and because it brings me pleasure. Perhaps Gore might think about his big house, his air conditioning and if he's getting any sort of exercise at all. The globe isn't warming. He's just a sissy. I could put him on a great work out plan that includes lifting 50 pound bags of grain and see how fast I could trim him up! Tipper might be thrilled with the new look!
I don't know...I just think there's much ado about nothing. Americans have made "complaining" an art form.
I'm not so sure that the 24 hour news channels help at all. They constantly have to shake us up and scare us to death to keep our attention so that the advertisers keep paying the bills. Maybe the globe is warming from all the tempers flaring. See? The possibilities for "global warming" are endless!
I can remember sitting on my granny's porch. Sometimes, we just "sat." The adults might talk...and they might not. Other times we might be snapping beans, or cutting up okra (when I got old enough to cut), shucking corn or who knows what...but we were content.
Everything was said, even when nothing was said. We had all in the world we could ever "need."
It was also HOT work canning. I helped can tomatoes, beans, peas, etc. Later on, we froze the corn, etc. but all that had to be blanched first, so it wasn't like we got a break from the heat. The potatoes we picked up in the fall all went into Granny's cellar...with the onions, etc. and you know, I don't EVER recall her going to the grocery store. If something was needed Grandpa picked it up, I suppose, but I NEVER remember Dora Miller going to the grocery. I'm sure she did when she "went to town" when I was younger or before I came along...but that's something to say. And there was NOTHING like the first pot of soup when the first frosts arrived that was made from all those wonderful summer vegetables. That's a taste I'll never forget. Folks today make several trips to the grocery each week..sometimes each day and there's no way that first pot of soup could taste remotely like my granny's did.
I remember my mom getting our groceries once a week. When I was old enough to drive, I did the shopping and loved it. (Ulterior motives are great when you're 16...you suddenly become SO helpful if it involves keys and a car!)
Tonight's post is just a muddling of my thoughts, memories and ponderings of times long gone and an uncertain future.
I don't think the world is all that different. HUMANS are different. Sadly, I don't think there's any turning back.
Global warming? HA! What a laugh...it's ALWAYS hot in the summer time! It happens every year!
Till next time,
Annie
PS: And now the weather folks have reported Hurricane Bertha is a CAT 3. It's too soon for all that, they say...or is it? What was that margarine commercial when I was a kid? It was about trying to convince Mother Nature that the margarine was butter. Mother Nature warned us then as she warns us now...it's not nice to fool Mother Nature! Leave her be and let her do what she has done for centuries. We need to simply suck it up, toughen up and get over ourselves already! Now shut down your computer and go find a garden to be involved in. Maybe you can't have a big one, but you can put some tomatoes and peppers in a pot! It's a start and there is a very real joy in picking your own vegetables off your very own plants. "Joy" in the most simple of things...America should be tough enough to get back to those places. Only then do we have a chance.

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