Asleep On Snow

"Morning dove sat by my window and I awoke to hear his serene song".

My latest thrift shop find was a soft, mint green wool blend sweater that was hung at the very end of the ladies sweater display rack.  Finds of this nature usually jump right off the rack as if to say, "You're mine".
I tried it on for fit and made a quick check in a mirror to see if the shade was pleasing.  Two snap buttons closed the open front at the waist and there were squiggle designs all around.

I noticed the squiggle designs again when I put on my new found treasure for Sunday morning. On my way to meeting I received a call from a friend who wanted to see if I would stop by after Service and look at items that she need to part with and wanted to share..  She and her family had made positive changes and after a tough passage of time were filling a U-Haul and were moving back home.

When I arrived, one look at my sweater and my friend and her Mom instantly saw what I had not seen.  What I thought was scribbling was cursive writing. Around I went as they both read,

"Morning dove sat by my window and I awoke to hear his serene song".

~The real voyage of discovery comes not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.~

One of my favorite quotes came alive to me as my sweet friend had inspired me to make positive changes in my own life.  The sadly neglected herb garden by my front door had been in need of positive changes for years.  The first thing that needed to happen was to reduce the area to a size that was more manageable.

One morning last week I was on my way back to my house from the goat barn.  I looked at the native sandstone rocks that defined the edge of the bed and grabbed a long-handle hoe and started re-arranging rocks.  I purposed to redo one section before I stopped.

In a popular novel set in the days of the Civil War here in the South one of  the main characters was quoted as saying,

 "Only do the amount of work today that you can get back up and do again tomorrow".

In 1988 I applied postive change to my own life.  I left a corporate job that was no longer satisfying and moved back to the family farm  to pursue making a life and a living for my family off the land.

"Asleep On Snow"  is where I would like to share my daily living here on Simple Life Farm and where I would like to share interesting ideas for simple living, interesting crafts, recipes, common sense and more.  \

I have needed to do this for a long time now, I just couldn't see it...

Love,
Cheryl of Simple Life Farm

Things I Learned On The Na Pali Kalalau Trail

1) Start each day with a cup of good coffee...it might be your last.

2) You meet the nicest people in the strangest places.

3) Food is more important than clothes.

4) Anything you really need, you can carry.

5) Don't leave it on the trail for someone else to carry, unless it's useful.

6) Luxuries can become a burden.

7) Comfortable shoes are a good investment.

8) Don't work so hard today that you can't get up and do it again tomorrow.

9) STOP, and look.

10) A tarp can make a pleasant resting place, especially when you have friends to share it with.

L-R: The McLeroys' and me. 

Did The Prodigal Son's Father Wave Goodbye?

  You know the wave is a funny thing. We wave goodbye, we wave hello. So what are we, as parents, spiritual or otherwise, supposed to do when a child goes away?

  Luke Chapter 15

"...But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness (for him);" v. 20. 

  The father had kept a watch and "a fattened calf" v. 23 ready for celebration. He had been waiting for the son to "come to himself" v. 17 and come home. When the father saw him, "he ran". v. 20 and if I were him I would probably be waving as I ran too.

  So why did the Prodigal Son's father let the son go? v. 12 Because he was his son, not his bond servant. If he was his bond servant he could have commanded that he stay.

  It doesn't take very long to spend "...all that he had" and "fall behind and be in want" and "get up and go to my father". v. 18

  So get that "best robe", "ring" and "sandals" v. 22 ready. He or she may be coming home...

  I'm saving my wave for that day.

Life Begins......

  When my Beloved Uncle was sick and on the final days of his Journey he was asked about life.  He said for him he felt that life began at 50...because he found that he could do something else.

  Uncle Robert began a 20+ year career with a tax preparation service after the steel mill where he worked downsized and he took an early retirement. He helped a lot of people, including me.

  That stuck in my head when I approached a milestone birthday and I needed change in many ways, including extra income.

  My Mama got me a job the other day. I'm a college graduate, first female to ever be hired into the  management trainee program in the company I worked for and I later had my own business and my Mama got me a job.  She was talking to a guy I went to school high school with who had went on to become an Attorney.  He came home and opened a new office and was in need of someone to answer the phone and type and he knew my Mama and said that a daughter of hers would certainly be a fine employee.  I gladly took the job, happy to go to work at something that made money.

  He called me in on a Friday and I went to work...barefooted. I pulled a pair of dress pants out of my closet before leaving for my interview and put on one of my Mama's best blouses she made and wore back in the 70's and found a matching pair of dress shoes and I discovered I didn't have a pair of dress socks to go them them so I just stuck my 2 bare feet in those dress shoes and went to work feeling a little like Louis Grizzard, A Southern Man, and filed my first court case-barefooted.

  They let me come back the next day and then they let me come back the next day.

  Thanks Uncle Robert ...Thank you Mama.

American Honey

  I heard a song today as I scooted the hangers from right to left at the thrift store. It was "American Honey". My Neice, Gabrielle, was with me and had decided to skip prom so I decided she needed to skip school and go to the thrift store with my Mom and Me.  I have a friend that calls things like that "therapy". It was one of the first warm days of Spring. The pear trees were in bloom and the bees were appreciative. I was thinking about the people I have known in my past life before the coma went out of my income and I had to go back to having a real job for which I am grateful.

  I thought about that American Honey. When I left a corporate job to don the smoker and gloves and veil and the rake and hoe and shovel.

  I sat on the ground beneath the cottonwoods as the blossoms sailed to the ground around us. I sat at the feet of one of my beekeeping buddies, Ivory Darnell. Nobody was really sure how old he was, including himself, because when Ivory was born nobody gave out birth certificates. I sat at his feet and listened as he told me stories about his Mother, the Original Alabama Bee Charmer, with her white bonnet, smoking rag and bee "gums" near her clothes line. "Those mean German bees" as he refered to them. No one could go close to them but her. When they first put a man on the moon he told me what his Grandpa said... "Well, they'll not put one on the Sun".

  My Friend got blowed away by an F5 years ago. He didn't have any legs by then. We helped each other. I was his legs in the bee yard and he kept the smoker alive with mounds of cool white billows.
Moments like that made me glad... glad that I choose the life I did....or did it choose me

...of American Honey.

Lessons I've Learned From Bantie Bellbottoms

Miss Bantie Bellbottoms 

1) Be happy where ever you go.
2) Be grateful for the smallest of joys.
3) Bring joy to the lives of those you come in contact with.
4) Be good company.
5) Leave the world a better place.

God Bless Us

                                             God Bless Us...........
                                                                              Everyone.
                                         

Small Town USA

  I was in Eva, Alabama the other day. I was startled when I pulled up to the gas pump of the local convenience store and a lady came out and asked, "Can I help you?"  I said, "Uhuh, we were going to get some gas." She replied, "Oh, we pump gas if we aren't busy in the store." I was in shock, as well as my Niece Gabrielle as she rounded the front of my truck with the money for gas.

  Later as we ordered our lunch at the local Wagon Wheel restaurant- a grilled chicken sandwich and a patty melt. I pondered small town America.

  They call it The Little Town With A Big Heart. I saw men sitting on the benches in front of that same convenience store with I was through there last. I wonder what they were talking about.

  They say that the heart of America is on Main Street USA and it's being lost to perfect instant subdivisions and shopping malls. That would be a shame. I don't think you will find many grey haired ladies pumping gas for you there.

  It's nice to have a pleasant shock now and then.

  America hasn't lost her heart as long as there are some Eva, Alabamas' that have a beat.

Love,
Cheryl

The Red Hat

  I love the band RED. I got to see them in concert. I got to go see them along with my brother Richard, A Human Being, and my youngest niece Gabrielle, The Only Girl Who Could Sharpen A Knife. We made it to  the Workplay venue in Birmingham in time to get a seat in the balcony area. I  made a red hat to wear to the concert.

  I observed that almost all of the "under 21" crowd was standing in the lower level next to the stage. I've enjoyed heavy metal music ever since it was invented. At what age am I supposed not to?  Especially a band with all the talent and energy of RED. My brother Richard, A Human Being, and I were rockin' and rollin' live with Van Halen in concert back when David Lee Roth had hair and Eddie was breathing life into "Frankenstein". How could I just SIT HERE!!??

  Finally I couldn't stand it any longer. Near the end of the concert I made my way down to the floor and found a spot close enough to the stage to read the tattoo on Bassist Randy Armstrong's arm. The vibration was amazing from that spot. I could have reached out and patted him on the foot. I wish I had extended my hand to Lead Vocalist Michael Barnes as he screamed "Feed The Machine". I could barely stand up.

  Dear Abby got a letter recently from a 59 year old baseball fan who still takes his baseball mitt to the games in hopes of catching a ball and wondered what age should he stop doing it as they usually sit in the lower level near the front. Dear Abby wrote to stop taking it when you have grown so aged and feeble that when the ball comes your way you can no longer fend off the younger fans who are also diving for it. And not one moment sooner.

  I wonder if that guy wears a red hat?

I wonder if that guy wears a red lly
o
Finally I could stand it no longer.
  FF   f

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

  In the quest of finding our true love it's important to define the difference between potential suitors.

  Let's compare it to retail.

1) Window Shopper- He's not interested in buying or even browsing- he's just looking.

2) Browser- He'll come in and look around- but he's not interested in buying anything.
 
3) Try Before You Buy- He will take you home- but he'll return you if you don't fit.

4) I'll Take The Warranty Also- This guy's committed.

  And remember, you have the right to refuse service to anyone.

Water From The Branch With Friends

  This is me, Mac and Moses obtaining a water sample from the branch behind our house for a young lady out in California's 5th grade class project.

The Adventures Of Me

Call it what you will -Dashboard Therapy, Windshield Therapy, Gypsy Fever -I get a case of it a couple of times a year and I look for a remedy down a white line...on a highway.

  My Dad, The Man Who Could Make It Better, used to threaten my Nieces when they were little that if they didn't start behaving he would "sell them to the Gypsies".

  Before my brother and I were born our parents as newlyweds lived in Hueytown Alabama. It turned out that a band of Gypsies that lived in an Airstream on an adjacent lot had tried to buy my Mother. Their Queen of the Gypsies had died recently and they were in need of a replacement and thought my Mama with her long, flowing blonde hair should fit the bill. All she remembers about the incident was that a couple of men came to the door and my Dad answered it because he was closest to it. He had built his workshop onto the little trailer that he and my Mom lived in so he could hear her play the piano when he worked on his hot rods and racers. Mama remembers the Gypsy men leaving about as fast as they got there. I asked my Dad about the incident. I asked him how much they were going to give him for her and he said the conversation didn't get that far. I told Mama that in spite of everything that she and my Dad had been through my Dad loved her because he didn't even entertain an offer for her.

  I told my brother Richard, A Human Being, that he could have been a Gypsy Prince and that I could have been a Gypsy Princess if our Dad had sold our Mother that day. We would probably be living out in an Airstream somewhere. Instead, I hang my hat in a  '68 Shasta Compact that is all of 12' long (if you count the hitch) every now and then.

  The then this time is the Black Pot Festival and Cook-Off in Lafayette Louisiana. I started out the trip with 9 people and lost them before I pulled out of my driveway. The festival was on a Friday and Saturday , 3 p.m.-Midnight. I normally don't stay up till midnight. I get up at midnight. I wanted to see The Pine Leaf Boys, Blues De Musicien. They sang in French and played blues you could dance to.

The trip began with a full tank of gas, a map and some Google-ings. I tried using a GPS unit once on a trip to Thomasville Georiga and ended up in a residential area in Montgomery Alabama. I turned it off.

  I left my driveway just as dawn was breaking over the Alabama sky. I was leaving with IBS and fever and a good dog- I try not to go anywhere without a good dog. My fever broke along about Meridian as the local classic rock station played "play that funky music white boy". I started to feel a little better. They don't call it the comfort zone for nothing.

  Four classic rock stations later, "Charity" and I were in our camping spot with pink flamingos in place, just in time for a Louisiana sunset that couldn't be seem over all the RV's and tents at the festival grounds at the Acadian Village but I could hear the music of the night.

  Rumpled haired young men without shirts playing fiddles and guitars around the camp sites as their hippy chicks wandered around with their short skirts and cowboy boots.

  The camps grew quiet before the sun came up again and found young couples waking up together on the ground, women wearing overalls and horned rimmed glasses walking round as others walked their dogs.

  I met some Human Beings on that trip. Sometimes you have to leave home to find them. From my camp site neighbor who brought over a portable air tank and aired up the flat tire on my bicycle that I had had to put back on the rack: How did he know that tire was flat? What about the girl from Texas who had a Mercedes and layer of dirt road and who showed me how to keep the coolers at the Artist Hospitality areas clean and neat? Or what about the girl who just grabbed me and tried to teach me how to do the two step to the music behind the Festival Merchandise counter until I was dizzy? I will never forget the kindness and friendship that was offered to me by that sweet little family from Connecticut who were traveling cross country and missed their dogs. What a bland life it would be if it didn't touch others.

So I go back sometimes, to the floor that I love

...to the gypsy that remains...                                        

Some Things I Have Learned Since I Was Born

Photo by my friend Meg McKinney using Lensbaby photography

1) When it comes to my will vs.God's- I need to step aside.

2) Pretty is as pretty does.

3) A soft bed beats a cold cot when camping.

4) Shopping is therapeutically, beneficially good.

5) Sitting on a couch with a good dog and a good movie is alright.

6) A night of good, restful sleep can beat a night on the town.

7) I wish I had taken my Mother's advice when I was 19, 24, etc., etc.

8) Drinking 6-8 ounce glasses of water per day is mandatory.

9) Friends are medicine.

10) Sometimes you don't need something that you really do need.

To The Pure

"To the pure all things are pure,..." Titus 1:15

The Garbage Men Need The Love Too

  I was in a conversation recently with a friend and made reference to "We" when I suddenly realized that there was an "I" in that "We". "I" had said, "We have got to quit using the planet for a garbage dump". "I" had recently been sending more that my fair share of refuse to the dump without giving much thought as to how my "fair share" was adding up in the world.  I re-purposed then and there to stop it. That was a challenge. I had to think about not buying garbage in the first place.

  By choosing products that are packaged in biodegradable or recyclable packaging, re-purposing or re-using existing materials helps reduce waste and gives the garbage man a break-
he could probably use one right about now.

Because It's What We Do

  It's still there. Ivey's. The shop on the corner in Downtown Jasper, just off the courthouse square. It's owner, Evelyn opened it 60 years ago. A time when men came to town wearing Fedora style hats and the women wore girdles and if you needed either one of those items you could find them at Ivey's.

  A friend of mine had told me that Ivey's had vintage dresses in original stock for sale and I knew that it was a stop I had to make. Sure enough, the day came when my Mama and I were in Jasper and found ourselves Downtown looking for a parking space. As we went into the store, Evelyn, with her silver hair and smart appearance, rose to greet us from her chair by the window. "Is there something I can help you with?' "What size do you wear?" and she directed me to the section containing my size. My Mama had commented that she used to buy her underwear there and there it was, the same stock she wore in the 70's that fit so well.

  When it was my time to check out, I walked away with a mint green vintage formal that had sleeves that look like Angel wings when you wave your arms around and a leather purse made in Hialeah, Florida. "It's like a museum", my Mama said. That such a place exists in this day and time is almost beyond imagination. Why does Mrs. Evelyn at the age of 83 years old still keep shop after all these years? The city filled her best parking spaces out front with shrubs and the streets to the Atlanta market had become a wearisome maze that defied access.

  It's what she does.

  "Tell your friends about us"' she says as we walk out the door.

   "I will".

   And I'll be back...

     even if I do have to park around back.


p.s.

Went back to Ivey's at a later date and found this cool shirt.

.

Catherine Marshall, Something More

"Our God is the Divine alchemist. He can take junk from the rubbish heap of life, and melting this base refuse in the pure fire of His love, hand us back- gold."

How Do You Get From Wine And Roses To Guns And Roses?

  It's really pretty easy. Just stop giving the other person what they need.

  If I decide to visit a foreign country and expect to have a pleasurable visit I need to know the language that is spoken in order to communicate and get along with the residents there.

  In the case of of a woman, the man learns to speak her language of love-and that means she needs to know she is loved every single day of the year, not for just a weekend now and then-but everyday.  For the man, it's submission to his leadership, showing him respect and loving him.

  No one becomes fluent in a foreign language in a day or even a year. It takes a lifetime. If you do it and speak it:   "Every day is like a Saturday".

  Oh yeah, and make sure when you are planning your trip-make sure its really where you want to be.

Celebrate Love

  The days were filled with anticipation and excitement that lead up to that 2nd Grade elementary school event. We would decorate plain brown paper lunch bags with brightly colored paper hearts and crayola art and display our name proudly at the top. The decorated bags would then be fastened in a long row below the heater vents beneath our windows.

  When Valentines Day finally arrived we deposit small, carefully selected Valentine Cards into the appropriate bags. Soon the time would come to remove the bags to our desks and see what our classmates had for us. Sometimes a small box of "Conversation Hearts" would be found amongst the cheerful cards bearing our classmates signatures and thoughtful rhymes. I think it was just about my favorite holiday in the whole wide world with all that love and hearts and flowers and candy and stuff.

  These are a few things I have learned about love since love in the 2nd Grade, and a few of my favorite romantic movies thus far.

  Talk is cheap and pretty is as pretty does.

1) Green Card (played through TVG)-Gardener (Andie MacDowell) meets Alien (Gerard Depardieu).
Favorite line: "Now look what you've done you silly French oaf!"

2) Riders Of The Purple Sage-Rider (Ed Harris) meets Rancher (Amy Madigan) for supper.
Favorite line: "The older I get the stranger life becomes."

3) The Outsider-Shootist (Tim Daly) falls for plain woman (Naomi Watts).
Favorite line: "Why would God or any man breathing want to cover anything so pretty".

4) Never Been Kissed (played through TVG)-Drew Barrymore meets her match (Michael Vartan) on a diamond.
Favorite line: "Are you sure you're seventeen?"

5) Conagher (played though TVG)- Poetry reading Cow Hand (Sam Elliott) meets poetry writing tumble weed enthusiast (Katharine Ross).
Favorite Line: "Mr. Conagher, I think you should come home now."

 Women are attracted by pretty talk and men are attracted by pretty women. Its character that matters if you are going to "roll the stone" with someone (see pic #2) and part of that character is caring for others by making deposits in one an other's "love bag" on a daily basis, because we don't want anyone to come up empty on the sweetest day of the year.

Happiness Is...Homemade

  "I need to run something by you."  A call from a friend confirmed what I already knew about her. "You know how everybody loves my pancakes?" she asked. (This girl is famous for her mouth watering pancakes and her outstanding culinary skills.) "Yeah," I replied. "Well, I was thinking", she said, "what if I made dry mix and attached a recipe card along with a little bottle of syrup, do you think they would make good Christmas gifts?" "I think that would absolutely be the perfect gift." I told her.

  I thought of the Biblical Principle of giving one evening recently as a piano student sat at my bench as we walked through "The Little Drummer Boy", Holiday sheet music for the season. As we par-rum pum pum pumed along, the words "I played my best for Him" jumped right off the page at me as if I had never read them before-we stopped, and I said, "You know, I have been playing this music here since I was your age and never understood that line until now. The little drummer boy had given the gift of his talent. He laid it before the King just as if it were the most precious and costly of jewels.

  This season, give each other the precious gift of you talents, it's something you already have.