Feedback on HOME SWEET RECYCLED HOME

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The inside of my home has some unique features. There's a "china-cabinet-in-the-wall" (a cupboard with glass windows in the doors) and a "fridge-in-the-floor" (a hinged trapdoor with a box-like shelf down there for keeping food cold). I've also unearthed some other useful old items: a wooden keg com plete with spigot, a hand-powered clothes wringer with metal rollers and a spring clip for tension, a hand-cranked record player and three bear traps.

Let me add a word about country folk in these parts: They change very slowly. Each area has its customs, and the sooner you accept these ways, the sooner you'll be accepted by the community. Little things . . . in Tobermory, Ontario, if you don't have a large preserving jar full of spoons out on the kitchen table, nobody will stay to tea. In Nolalu, it's the sauna . . . you just don't go visiting after dark without bringing your soap and towel along.

It's a good thing I love the sauna, because there are several ways in which I deviate from the norm here: I live alone, I don't have a car, I don't have hydro and I do have a university education. Nevertheless, because I'm into the customs, I feel I'm being accepted now. Once you know them, country folk are the best friends and neighbors you could ask for. They fulfill your every need before that want becomes an urgent necessity.

So thanks again, MOTHER . . . you constantly renew my belief that there is a better way and that I can live it too. And good luck to all my brothers and sisters in their similar endeavors. If you believe in Mother Earth, she'll help you find a way.

Joyce Young
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print