A Sign of the Times

I totally stole this, I admit it. Someday the trademark police will come a'callin', I just know it. Until then, however, I am keeping this beauty up! Once upon a time, not so very long ago (try, 50-60 years), people all over the United States kept little flocks of animals in their garden-filled yards. Oh yes, it was patriotic to do so--not wierd and unusual and threatening to small minded old lady neighbors...but I digress. (No, my dears, nothing recent from that corner, but the memory rankles still.) So, keeping chickens and growing your own veg and canning the bejeezus outta everything was commonplace. Making your own bread was commonplace, for crying out loud, where now we have an entire monstrous aisle dedicated to tubes of white air-bread that don't mold for months. For some reason, we went from thinking it was part of our citizenry responsiblilities to grow and pack our own foodstuffs, to expecting everything to be delivered and wrapped in plastic and CHEAP. My favorite line in this ad from the USDA is "Do Your Share!" If we all did just a little bit, like maybe planted a couple tomato plants in a big pot or grew some lettuce or made friends with a local farmer and bought some stuff direct from the source in recycled packaging (mason jars are ah-mazing), just think. We could do our share, be happier and healthier and have entertaining lives. Oh yes. I say entertaining lives, such as the one you read about in this silly little blog of mine. I mean, really. Can you believe all this crap happens to one individual? I posted over 130 times in 2011. And more stuff happened that I never got around to writing about, or telling anybody about, because it is normal for all kinds of craziness to go on around here. See? Exciting lives through backyard farming. It's where it's at.