What Really Matters, According to Me

On the way home from work and school the other day, my most excellent teenage daughter asked (pointing to a new double-wide mobile home that recently appeared on the property down the lane from us), “Why can’t we get something like that?” You see, we live in a 100+ year-old cabin on 100 acres of hill country land that has been in my good husband’s family for five generations. The cabin has an old single-wide mobile home pulled up against it, and though some may not consider it to be beautiful to look at from the outside, it’s homey inside and being here (we have all agreed), fills each of us with a feeling of safety and peace. There are enough bedrooms to accommodate us and we share the single bathroom well enough. I replied to my daughter, “Y’all are going to grow up and leave home in less than ten years. We don’t have a mortgage on the farm, and Wilson and I don’t want to be stuck paying for a big place like that for the next 30 years when y’all won’t even be here with us anymore. B...

If you value homegrown goodness like I do, you’ve probably spent some of your time gardening. The thing about a garden is; if you don’t pay enough of the right kind of attention to it, it’ll stop producing for you, eventually. Last year’s garden can become this year’s briar patch in less time than you might think. It doesn’t matter if the soil is fertile and the seeds you planted last year were good; without the tender care of the master gardener’s hand, the wilderness will creep in and overtake even the most beautiful and fruitful field. Case in point: Last year, our garden was (according to our son), “legit." Last year we had everything we wanted (and everything our kids wanted), growing in our garden, and the harvest was plentiful. This year (the year of a few set backs due to some health issues), we have ¾ acre full of mostly ragweed, milkweed and numerous other such plants…and that’s the way it will remain until we do something about it. To be fair, my little nine-year-old so...