Focus on life

I  write and paint in this little journal. It often helps clear things up in my mind.

I've been working through something of late. (disclaimer * the following information is meant to reflect my thoughts and no one is to think I am speaking to them or anyone else in general.)

If you read my blog you'll know that we have recently become what most people call "empty nesters". Personally, I don't like the phrase, but for clarity I'll let it go this time. This particular season in my life is not one I've relished. I loved raising my kids, it was hard at times but, I was satisfied that I was doing something worthwhile. Something lasting. Now, that is over. The house seems big and empty at times and to be honest I've been doing some hiding. Hiding from the reality of my life. I guess you could say I'm lonely and I've been putzing around the issue. Not facing it directly.

Where have I been hiding? In the land of the World Wide Web.... don't we all hide there sometimes? It's an easy place to go. Lots of information to flood our minds with. Than there is always the social media....you know, the ever popular Twitter, Facebook, My space or as one of my brother-in-laws once asked his daughter "Where did you hear that? My Face?" He was serious. Believe it or not, not everyone is "plugged in". 

Tim isn't. Imagine this, he stills reads books. You know that kind that are made of paper and you go to the library to check them out! Although we have a joint account on facebook he doesn't use it. Except to look at the pictures I show him of family (mainly his grandkids) and such. He makes a rare comment but, that's about it. I asked him once if I should take his name off the account, he in turn asked me something along the line of "Why would you do that? It represents us both doesn't it?"  To him it is simply a tool. A tool we use to stay in closer contact with family and friends through photo sharing. He doesn't really see the reality in online "friends". Although, many people have made some really great friendships that way, I can honestly see his point.

The country song You find out who your friends are comes to mind. Consider this.....When a serious problem comes around who is going to be there for you? Thirty seven comments on facebook lamenting your problems sure doesn't count for nearly as much as, that neighbor across the road, who is at your door asking" if there is anything he can do for you?" ...I see his point.

It does make a good place to hide though. You can hide from loneliness, boredom, a life you just aren't too happy with and the list goes on. Or you can use it to relive your high school years and regain your popularity. No thanks, I've been to high school and I wasn't impressed with the popularity games then either.

Now that I've totally trashed your favorite social media......It is something I don't intend to totally give up. It is a good tool! It's a lot of fun sometimes and I have some dear friends that I have met there. But, it is not a good place to hide or find your sense of self esteem at. And....let's face it, it can be a huge waste of time.

So, once again, I see his point. I'm done hiding. I'm done wasting my time. I love to journal, write, spend time with my family and God, read about herbal medicine, garden, wildcraft for herbs and we are going to find a way to get more hiking, camping and backpacking in!! These things are reality. It's our life and I don't want to waste any more time. I want to get on with it. When I finally came to this conclusion and begin to see what was really important in life....Contentment washed over me and I suddenly loved my life. Right now. Even being an "empty nester"! 

Ozone Falls

Looks a bit chilly to me. But than, I've always been colder than most people. When I was young and living in Northwest Montana I was often the first one in from the ice skating or sledding party. Some people thrive in cold snowy places....I, unfortunately, did not. Although Tim doesn't mind the cold quite as much, it is not his favorite season either. Which is odd, considering he's part Norwegian. Don't they swim in the ice water?! That gene must have become dormant in him or something.

Even though we are having a very mild winter we have had a few cold snaps. We get rain in abundance around here so when the cold weather hits, the cliffs and hillsides often look like this.

This weekend was Tim's Birthday and we decided to visit Ozone Falls which is not too far from us. I took a few pictures from the top of the falls. We didn't go down to the bottom this time. Tim injured his knee in November and it still is giving him problems. We are trying some natural/herbal things, as knee surgery is not an option right now.

Solomon's Seal is one of the main herbs we are using right now. It is an old herbal remedy dating back to the time of King Solomon, which is where is gets its name. He is said to have declared the plant and it's healing  properties a gift from God and named it after himself. So legend tells us. Some also think it gets it name from the leaf scar which sort of resembles the Seal of Solomon. Personally, I like the first story better. 

picture of Solomon's Seal    

I have made an infused oil out of the dried root from Mountain Rose Herbs and am wrapping Tim's knee with it daily now. This herb grows quite well in this part of the country so it is on my "to find" list for the summer. We've just started using it so we shall see if it lives up to the credit King Solomon gave it.

If it were summer that water would look so refreshing! Maybe we'll go back in July and hike down to the bottom. I have confidence his knee will be better before then.

Hope you enjoyed these few glimpses of Ozone Falls. It is a beautiful place. Everyone has special places like this near them. It's just a matter of going out and finding them. We have been making the effort to find as many as we can in our area. When we get out together it just relieves our stress, helps us to relax and forget about all the everyday worries.

 God has made such a diverse and beautiful world. What a gift!

Shopping for HIkers on Etsy

I was doing some browsing over on Etsy and was finding a nice variety of hiker's supplies. It's always good to support the handmade artisans. So I put together this "treasury list" of hiker's gift ideas. I'm pretty interested in a few of them for myself! You can click on any photo and it will take you directly to their shop. None of these, of course, are our products. Just spreadin' the love. So, if you have a minute take a look!

'Shopping for hiker's?' by BethsBirdBoutique

When I began looking for hiking paraphernalia I was a bit surprised at how much could be found on Etsy. So I thought I'd share!

Take A Hike 8 x 10 thewheatfield $15.00	Survival hiking sticks Naturalistick $59.95	Rain Hood Travel Carryi... InteryMintery $20.00	Hand Forged Survival Kn... HomesteadIronW... $145.00
Gray Womens Leather Sho... EinatsShoes $235.00	Fall Color Change - Fal... WanderingOgrap... $25.00	Whistle Necklace, Vinta... madebymoe $24.00	The Hiker All Natural S... plunksoap $6.00
Wood Tree Branch Whistl... TheHickoryTree $12.95	Thick Camoflauge Head B... HomesteadIronW... $10.00	Scenic Carolina Book Se... CarolinaBeej $20.00	Fido Stove Large Ultral... OutdoorLife $6.99
Parachute Hammock jsimcox $15.00	Wool hiking socks Lelasfriend $25.00	Adventure backpack in b... TichBags $40.00	Bugg Off (insect repell... AndiesHerbals $6.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Just a bit of random ramblings

This is the newest addition to our household. Sparks! It took us forever to give her a name. I finally gave up and told Tim, "it's up to you, I'm just gonna call her 'bad girl' til you come up with something better."

So, what did he do? He got the dictionary out and started flipping through it. He started reading to me the definition of spark and the one that made us both laugh was this: " a flash of light, esp a flash produced by electrical discharge. b. a short pulse or flow of electrical current. " ... spark

She is a live wire! So, Sparks it is. We needed livening up around here.

 I'm not sure what to think about us getting a dog. In a way, it makes me feel like one of those retired couples who dote continually on the dogs....hmmm.....not us! Not yet anyway. I prefer to think of us more like the newly weds who have no children and treat the dog like one of their own. I am not ready for the retirement mentality! Life is far from over for us.

But, it did make me think....just where do we fit in? For years we've been part of that community known as Homeschoolers. When you live in the country (or not) and teach your children at home you usually get involved with other families who do the same. Their kids and yours are friends and do things together. You get ideas and support for teaching methods and curriculum from them, just generally do a lot of socializing together.
Well, our children have all graduated high school and one of them is working on their bachelor's degree in college. So, I guess we're done with that part of life. It's just Tim and I. Well, now we have Sparks.

For me, I'm not liking this part of life so much. My kids were what I did. They were my career. I invested everything I was into them. My time, my skills (for what they were), and what I didn't have, I found a way to get, if were in my means.
Funny thing, although I knew one day it would be over, I never gave it a thought as to what I would do then. I'm sort of at this place in life of "where do I belong?" We are certainly not retirement age. Yet, we really aren't so young anymore either and no longer have the children as common ground with some of our friends.

There are a lot of things we could be doing.....outdoor things....but finances are so tight, it's making it hard. Not impossible, just hard. I like who we are though. I wouldn't want to be anyone else. Let me tell you about the part of us that I like.
America is full of money. Everyone has it, or wants to get more of it. People have such a strong desire for it that they often "cheat" in one way or another in order to achieve the "American dream". Because, we have always had to work so hard for what we do have, we have a great appreciation for it. It didn't come easy. It was earned. We don't look with disdain on the individuals who have less. We've been there and in many ways still are. Yes, we have a nice big home. It's still unfinished however, and  you wouldn't believe what we have gone through to get this far. Most Americans would never consider going without the things we have.....that is another story however. (smiling)

I have strayed too far into the "preaching arena"!  You can read my thought's about that here (that's not my job) I'll stop now, and try to get back on track. I do feel the need to find just where we fit in. In our lives and even in this little blog of ours. I know that just as the children were once a priority, it would seem that easing Tim's load might just be the new priority. In this society, it really takes two incomes to make ends meet. I'm not talking about all the latest electronic devices or two brand new cars in the driveway. That's not us. That's not what we want from life. We do want to pay the bills on time and have a bit leftover. We'd  like for Tim to not work so hard. Most of all we like to be able to enjoy our world around us, the outdoors, family, friends..... basically, our Appalachia and all that it is to us.

We just need to find a way to do that. I guess you could call this the major goal this coming year. Who knows, it may take a bit longer....

Roaring River Revisited

We went back down to one of our favorite places to cool off, on a hot summer day. We had been this last summer and I wrote about it here. The weather was very dry and the river was hardly what you could call "roaring". But when we were there last Sunday, January 1, 2012 this is what it looked like. Much better!

The view downstream.

We found some more of those mysterious ruins....After we got home that day we did some more online research and found out just what all this used to be. I had tried to find out before but couldn't seem to find anything. But thanks to a road sign with a clue, I was able to find a bit of info.

These two are from the last time we went.

What we found out was that this was once the Crawford Mills. Just up the road was a sign 'Old Crawford Mill Road'.  By searching under this, we found out that it was once a  flour and grist mill that for a time even supplied electricity to Livingston, TN. It was built around 1840. We could find very little information and no photographs of when it was in operation. Which is what Tim really wanted to see.....how it worked. We did find this one small link describing it's function. Crawford Farm
We did hope to find more....I know it's a long shot but if anyone would happen to know where we could get more information let us know. We're curious now.

Here's a picture of a few of the rocks in the area. Quite a few look like this. Fossils are so interesting.

In a different life, I would have liked to have been an archaeologist. I'd love to find out what all those "petrified remains" are.

                  Now this is my Wildlife photo for the week! I'll call it...."Snail Love". Makes me smile.