Concerned About Growing Old?

[SPedigrees]

After hauling my enormously huge Christmas tree up the hill into the woods two days ago, I am finished! My knee and back are killing me and I am so exhausted that I've spent most of the time since on the couch. Tree was so wonderful while it lasted, but I'm realizing it was the last time - next year it will be a very small tree, or maybe even just the ceramic tabletop tree!

My spruce trees (on the left) were probably watching in horror as I dragged this corpse of one of their kin up the hill toward its final resting place. Fortunately the snow wasn't any deeper.

Left for the rest of winter along with treats for the birds and critters on and around the bench. Half of Hubbie's ashes are in this spot, so in some way he gets to enjoy the tree in the company of woods critters. In Spring I'll toss the tree onto one of the brush piles.

 

[Phaedra]

Winters off makes good sense.

It's the first winter for the cafe, and I am happy about this decision today -- we have 15cm snow in a couple of hours. I need to dress like a bear when I fed the chickens and wonder what wants to go for a coffee or a cake when the weather is so bad.

i really enjoyed living in a small town where i could walk to everything i needed and it did make it easier to be more social and have regular places i'd visit.

I also enjoyed living in a small town, but there are very few small stores that people can visit and be more social, sad. Besides large discounters, now the vending machines full of junk food and canned beverage are introduced and implemented in different corners.

 

[SPedigrees]

I also enjoyed living in a small town, but there are very few small stores that people can visit and be more social, sad. Besides large discounters, now the vending machines full of junk food and canned beverage are introduced and implemented in different corners.

Nice to see you again, Phaedra. The same is true in small towns and villages here in the USA, less and less of the old general stores, diners/cafes where you could get home-cooked lunch or dinner, family owned businesses. It's a different world.

In summer I visit a farmers market where home grown and homemade foods and goods are sold by those who grew or made their wares. But it's a 1/2 hour drive to get there.

 

[digitS']

 

[baymule]

@SPedigrees pardon my laughter at a 30 minute drive to get to the farmers market. For me, a 30 minute drive is my normal. There is a small blinking light community with a dollar store, convenience store, post office and that’s about it, 10 miles away. Anything else is 30-40 minutes in either direction. I’m in a rural county with one town large enough to have an actual traffic light, in fact it has 2 of them! The other towns have blinking lights, including the county seat.

 

[flowerbug]

the closest town to us (2 miles) is a blinking light crossroad, it has a bar, a meat market/grocery store, the township hall and a church (which is being sold), it used to have a post office but that was closed down and now the meat market takes care of some of those functions. i've had a recent fantasy about buying the church and turning it into a library. oh, noway, they want over 200K for it...

 

[SPedigrees]

pardon my laughter at a 30 minute drive to get to the farmers market. For me, a 30 minute drive is my normal.

I didn't mean that only the farmer's market is a 30 minute drive and other conveniences are closer.

I am halfway between a small city (pop probably 20k or so) to my north, and a slightly smaller town the same distance to my south. Both are a 30 minute drive from my house (one way - twice that of course for round trip).

Closer to home is a village with a post office, a small convenience store/gas station, and the town transfer station (trash & recycling) & town clerk's office. That village is probably 10 minutes from home. From my house to the main road is 2 miles of a gravel road with the lower 1/4 mile paved. No need to laugh - I'm out in the sticks, just like you.