I got way behind on the Writing 101 assignments, so I’m going to try to kill a few birds with one stone.

Day 16 involved taking cues from the stats of our blog. Well, I don’t think we’ve been at this long enough to have any useful stats. The facilitators of the class prepared for that possibility and offered some alternatives, but none of those really appealed to me either.

One suggestion was
“Overnight, you discover you’ve gained 50,000 blog subscribers. What would you write for your next post?”

One of Ed’s favorite jokes is about a little boy who is struggling with math. His teacher decides to try a different approach.

“Johnny?” she says, “You have three dollars in your right pocket, and two dollars in your left pocket. What do you have?” Johnny thinks a minute and says “Someone else’s pants on?”

My response to gaining 50,000 subscribers overnight would be similar: “Who hacked my blog?

Day 17 challenged us to mine our own material, with an alternate suggestion to consider “things we leave behind”

I looked over my blog notes, and did find something. There was a link to making extracts without alcohol. So here is your head’s up. Next week, I will post about creating mint extract using fresh mint and food grade glycerin.

On Day 18 we were to let a map be our muse….Are we there yet?

Traveling with children is always an experience, and they are sure to make what would other wise be a dull trip memorable. James was 18 months old when we left Kansas City on Thanksgiving evening after having dinner with my Mom’s family. We were heading for Atlanta to see my dad. My grandma always made the most wonderful home made noodles for Thanksgiving dinner (my sister makes them now). James ate a LOT of noodles. A few hours later, they all came back up. That is all I remember about that trip.

When Bam Bam was five, we moved back to Missouri from Kentucky. Mom and my sister had driven down to help us with the move, and the boys and I were riding with them in Mom’s car. We had gone about ten miles, when Bam Bam asked “how much farther?” Have you ever tried to explain a twelve-hour drive to a five year old? That was a fun trip too.

When I was a kid, we traveled broke a lot. That meant there was no money for anything besides gas, and sometimes barely enough for that. One such time we had gone to my grandparents in Oklahoma. I think it was some kind of emergency trip. My sister was maybe two, so I was about ten.

Anyway, Grandma had sent some sandwiches with us for the trip home. I don’t know what the meat was, but I do know that we couldn’t chew it. My sister would not give up. She kept gnawing on that piece of meat. We had stopped at a road side park to eat and she took it with her on the slide and on the swing. That’s when she dropped it in the dirt. Of course, Mom wouldn’t let her have it back, and she started to scream. Seems to me like she screamed the rest of the trip. Yeah, another fun one.

Katherine has never had the experience of an extended road trip.

On Day 19, we were to “feature a guest” or “publish a roundup of great reads”. I have come across some great bloggers in this class, and wish I had time to read everything. I know some of them have the same “complaint”.  Anyway, I do want to share one that I just love.

This is the first post in a series of three from Casey. Be sure to read the other two posts. Together they tell a great story.

For Day 20, we were encouraged to look toward the future and think about what is next.

This one is easy. I want to get Ed back into posting his thoughts at least once a week. (He’s got something in the works right now, and I’m hoping to post it tomorrow.) Fall is my favorite time of year, and it’s very busy on the homestead. So what is really next for Old Folks at Homestead? More of what we’ve been doing. I need to gather some golden rod, finish the cold frame, get my spinach planted, and experiment with planting things now for spring harvest.

I’ll have more “pictures of the week”and I’ll be keeping y’all updated on the chickens, dogs, cats and whatever other critters wind up on the homestead. We’ll talk about homeschooling, repurposing, and eating real food. We’ll share our faith, our thoughts our hopes, and more than a few laughs.

Thanks for sticking with us.

Connie