We’re living in a time of great shaking, and the world feels heavier by the day. While we can’t control the course of history or pause the unraveling of an age, we can choose how we live within in.
It’s for anyone who has longed for a life that feels less like surviving and more like coming home.
– Lea Ellen, author “The Lost Art of Living-Finding our Way Back.”
Last Wednesday the family sat out on the porch in the cool of the morning. The family at home includes Sam, Wilhelmina the cat, and me. We enjoyed the awakening of the first day of October. We sipped our morning coffee; the sun was warming but the breeze made it nice. The oak leaves cast the color of autumn in the sun. The birds were singing, and the hummingbirds were still visiting. Then came the chores. The grass was dry, so Sam set out the sprinkler before hauling out the bushhog to clean up around the lake dam. As he comes across the field, I see a cloud of dust, behind him our earth is very dry. Wilhelmina had disappeared when the sounds of the bushhog started up. She finds no joy in noise. We certainly don’t live a Prairie life like people did decades ago when the Prairie people farmed for food, cooked from scratch, made their own clothing, fixed equipment that no longer worked. They owned a cow, a mule, raised chickens and pigs. Water came from a well. Oil lamps provided light. Providing for cold weather that would come they cut wood and stacked on the woodpile. The fireplace warmed the house. Homemade quilts covered the beds.
More than a decade ago we did run on well water until the well ran dry. Oil lamps were on the shelf in case electricity went off. On cold days a stack of wood sat on the porch and a roaring fire burned in the fireplace. After years of Sam stoking firewood through the night it was time to modernize a bit. Some of those ways of living continue and some passed away. We do have appliances like the washer, dryer, refrigerator and freezer; there’s the mechanical dishwasher, but we never use it. We both like to recycle and refix items if possible.
I’ve ordered a few of Lea Ellen’s books. I’m reading the one listed above on the lost art. She also has a YouTube, “Our little house on the Mountain.” I can learn some things from her lifestyle.
Before it’s time to go to bed I do my reading. A daily journal and a Bible sit on the bedstand. Another book purchase is the 2026 “Old Farmers Almanac.” Mother always bought one. The contents cover a multitude of interesting subjects, gardening, weather predictions, home remedies, farming, and so on.
Sam just popped in to say deer were on the dam drinking water from the lake. It’s a good life.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
