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USE IT UP! WEAR IT OUT! MAKE DO! OR DO WITHOUT!

GREEN is everywhere these days. I've been doing the whole green thing for over 50 years. Grew up in New England in a very poor family. Wasteful we were not! Passionate about recycling, reusing, and reducing the waste stream and protecting our natural environment. I will share my experiences, stories and information so you may also live the Green Life.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~GreenJeane

In The Beginning.........

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Contributed by: Jeane Thompson on 5/8/2008

....there were grandparents & great-grandparents who lived through the Depression Decade. Farmers and Jack of All Trades they were. By the late 1950s they were fairly comfortable yet continued to live as if in the Depression.
Grandmothers raised chickens, sold eggs, canned and froze vegetables from their own gardens, stored root veggies, apples, pears & nuts from their orchards, made jellies, jams, pickles, relishes and more. Great-Grandma had 12 Jersey cows she was still milking by hand at age 92. She also had lots of grape vines and pear trees. Juice was made from the grapes, but absolutely no wine.
Grandfathers raised beef cattle, hogs & bees and sugared (maple syrup) every spring. They also hunted for venison, bear, moose, turkey & duck. Ice fishing brought in delicious perch, spring and summer was trout season. Butchering was done on the farms and everyone helped. One grandfather had an oil furnace but the other continued to cut and burn his own firewood until he died in the late 1990s.
As the eldest grandchild in both families and all being girls until I was almost 5 years old, I was chosen to help the grandfathers with the outdoor work. I learned to cut firewood with both an ax and a chainsaw. Everything was saved as all had a use. Even the leaves! I loved working with the bees, driving the tractor while the men piled the hay on & digging the potato fields in the fall.
Meanwhile back at the house, grandmothers were saving everything. Glass jars, tin cans & boxes from the few store bought items like peanut butter or orange juice. Clothes , newspapers, magazines, books, everything was recycled & reused within the families or with friends and neighbors.
I came of age at the end of the 1960s. Owned 1st car when the 1973 gas crisis hit the US. When I started living on my own, the lessons I learned from my grandparents about what was then called "penny pinching" came in very handy.

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Jeane Thompson

Thornton , CO

Jeane Thompson has posted 1 blog entry and 0 comments since joining on 1/4/2008. Jeane Thompson 's average blog rating is 0.

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