It’s Time For “Nana-Technology” To Save Our Planet

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2 Responses

  1. What a fabulous post ! I grew up w/ the maker /re-make/remake/make-do milieu of older Silent Gen parents. They came by it naturally. My paternal grandparents used to call me to run down the hill to watch each Spring’s incubated eggs as they hatched. This was in a house w/ outdoor “facilities” (until I was a teen!), but a 10 minute drive to the Farmers’ Market, which was in the shadow of our State Capitol building. They typically had both chickens & pigs, so the “meet your meat” movement here in Middle TN didn’t represent anything new for me. We supported the push for backyard urban hens, CSA’s, neighborhood farmers markets chockfull of yummy organics, etc.. My parents always had a huge garden, w/ plenty of extra veggies to give our friends, so we’re heartened to see the rise of community gardens, seed libraries, & backyard patches in our urban , bus-stop-in-front-of-our-house neighborhood. My mom’s parents re-upholstered the same sofa repeatedly, & my MawMaw made matching curtains in each of the 10+ rental homes where they were moved by his railroad job. PawPaw would obtain permission to “improve” each house w/a porch, swing, & screens for the windows , which weren’t standard. They, too, had chickens & piglets in mom’s childhood, as my uncle was active in 4-H (as were my own kids). Flash forward to today. Most of the curtains in my own folks’ house are homemade—even the thick, fancy ones that grace their formal living room. I’ve watched my dad custom refinish yard sale furniture, my mom upholster chairs; we canned pickles, tomatoes, preserves . I have sense memory of mindlessly snapping beans while watching tv, & being expected to help tend the garden after school & weekends. We had a backyard clothesline until I left for Senior year at boarding school in 1988, so I’m not sure why my mom, who worked in publishing gave it up. Not long after, the garden sized down by half, while not-as-tasty tomatoes began to trickled in from the store. They didn’t even *smell* like tomatoes should! W/ our own kids, they grew up w/ us recycling—1st loading up to take things to recycling centers—before we were blessed w/curbside recycling. We have the maximum # of curbside containers —five. But I’m embarrassed to say, no composting at our house. We’ve looked at backyard clothesline set-ups at our neighborhood real*** hardware store for 3-4 summers running. We’ve “kissed” a couple of attractive clotheslines, but not thrown our arms ’round them, & brought them home. Embarrassing, our clothesline commitment issues . Hubs finds them a backward eyesore, while I suffer from a crisis of confidence, along w/ a worry about invisible pollen beasties clinging to every sunkist sheet. Backyard chickens or a garden? Nope. Again, we’re vaguely worried we’d sink moolah in, only to learn that we suck at being greener than we are. Even my flowers are silks. I’ve been in the backyard once this month—to watch my son shoot hoops. Your post has me mentally flirting w/ that un-sexy clothesline, again. So why can’t I commit?

    ***has resident cat; not the nearby big box

    • Anna says:

      Should I admit that two of my clotheslines are just clothesline-by-the-yard knotted at the proper place and tied onto the fence? The other is a retractable clothesline that was less than 10 bucks.
      I’ve seen much fancier clotheslines, but I’ve never bought one!