Reflections on another day at home

Well, there's freezing rain coming down this morning, and my fear of falling on ice is going to keep me inside for the time being. So I thought I'd share some random thoughts,  tips, and discoveries from my journey so far towards a simpler, more local lifestyle.

I don't miss the air traffic and accompanying noise. We lived near the airport in Cleveland, which was a good thing back when Tom was doing frequent business travel, but some days, our house was directly in the path of landing flights. And we would always know the exact moment when the Blue Angels came screaming in from Wright-Pat for the Labor Day Air Show.  Here, there are a few small planes and helicopters around, but the skies are much more quiet. On a clear summer evening, we can sit in the yard and look up (several miles up) and see lights and contrails from the flights heading south from perhaps Toronto to Margarita Land.


We're definitely closer to nature here. I never, ever in Cleveland walked out of a restaurant to discover a dead deer in the bed of a pickup parked next to my car. In all fairness, when I lived in Cleveland, I didn't frequent restaurants where most of the other patrons were wearing camouflage and blaze orange, either.

I live in a town where a stranger can be flagged down in the middle of the street and become an instant hero. This happened on Christmas Day when a disabled WWII vet was trapped inside his burning apartment. His neighbor could not get through the locked door and ran outside frantically seeking help. The stranger stopped, kicked in the door, and pulled the trapped man to safety.  Although I think I've always lived in places where people looked out for one another, it bolsters my faith in humanity to know that it happens here too.

DRYER BALLS. Wow, that's really random, isn't it? I discovered that two of these little babies, which cost about seven or eight bucks and last (they tell me) a couple of years, eliminate the need for fabric softener/dryer sheets by fluffing the fibers in your clothes, reducing static and drying time. Obviously, this is for people who haven't gone one step further by hanging their laundry on a clothesline to dry.


The "advantages" of a large metropolitan area are not all that. We aren't the kind of people who need crowds, but when we want to venture out here, there is a wonderful variety of activities available. Spectator sports (minor league, which translates into less expensive and more accessible), restaurants and coffee shops, art galleries, theater, music and ballet, the wineries and the brewery, everything outdoors, and if you crave a "higher level" of culture (and want to pay for it), the Chautauqua Institution provides world class fare every summer.  The rest you can get from television, if you must.

Walls aren't just for painting and hanging pictures anymore. I'm learning much about vertical storage.

Are shopping malls dead yet?  I would so love to see these dinosaurs transformed into indoor versions of Main Street USA, with local businesses selling useful goods and services. Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Holidays are better when spent with family. We're already working on plans to make that happen next year.

Stuff, continued

I've been staying at home a lot this week and have been on a mission to unpack boxes, further reduce my "stuff," and devise creative strategies for using my small space efficiently.

"Functionality" is the key word. If it's just taking up space, do I really need it?  I'm donating lots of stuff that others may find more useful to them than it is to me. Not "junk," but good stuff like gently used clothing and books, window treatments that don't fit the new windows, excess kitchen wares and linens that have just...accumulated over the past twenty or thirty years.

On the other hand, I'm not giving up ALL my stuff, not yet. I enjoy making things, and I'm not ready to part with the stash I've built up of "craft materials."  I'm having to become much more organized in storing things than I have been in the past, however.

Ditto with my collection of writing papers--I used to be an avid letter writer, an activity that has fallen on hard times with the advent of real time electronic communications. But I'm accepting this challenge from one of my favorite blogs and it should help me reduce my stationery supply:

“One piece of “real” mail sent out each week. It can be a letter, a postcard, a care package, a thank you note, handmade art, etc. I’m searching for all of the cards and stationery I have collected over the years and gathering them into one place with pens, envelopes (regular & padded), lots of stamps (.28 & .44), a glue stick, unlined index cards (great for making postcards), and a few USPS Small Flat Rate boxes. Oh, and I’m updating my address book.”

Then there are all the photographs and keepsakes...that have been in this box and that one, waiting for the day when they will become organized into albums and scrapbooks. Oh wait, that doesn't happen by itself one night while I am sleeping?  Oops, I guess I'd better add that day to my schedule pretty soon.

I've decided it's my job to deal with my own stuff here and now because, although I'm planning to be around for another twenty or thirty years, time flies and you can't take your stuff with you when you go. My kids have their own stuff and don't need to have mine dumped on them too.

Celebrating the Season

Rejoice! The Winter Solstice has arrived.  Now, the minutes and hours of daylight increase as our earth moves towards the renewal of spring. It's going to be cold for a while here in WNY, but we've turned the corner, in the larger scheme of things, and now we can pore over our seed catalogs and garden books and plan for the warmer days ahead.

On another level, most of us are preparing to celebrate Christmas (whether in the Christian sense or the more pervasive secular one that our consumer society has taken to extremes) and it's easy to get overwhelmed with "stuff" at this time of year.

We've dialed back our consumerism significantly here--speaking for myself,  I've always experienced the most joy from giving to others and being with family.  In my family, that means sharing food and each others' company, and it's a warm, fuzzy time that is eagerly anticipated.

Sadly, our adult children live on opposite coasts and are not able to be physically present for this year's holiday celebration, but we are together in thought and spirit. Thanks to the modern wonders of technology (which we have at this time anyway, though there are concerns about the future of the internet), we can also communicate across the miles.

But getting back to the "stuff"--there is definitely more stuff in the house these days. Gifts, boxes, wrappings, ribbons, we even have a small "Charlie Brown" style tree, and stockings hung over the fireplace. The comfort of some traditions outweighs the inconvenience of continuing them in small spaces.  Soon, the gifts will be shipped (I always manage to be a little late) and the seasonal clutter of wrappings, etc. can be returned to storage in the garage.

Then we'll be back to our usual conundrum of deciding what is functional and what is just "stuff" and how to best rearrange our lives in a new normal.

Peace to all.

More on small houses and stuff

I like snow, but I usually prefer to enjoy it from the the cozy comfort of my living room, near the fireplace.

I've had plenty of opportunity to do that this past week, as the lake effect snow machine has been mostly stuck in the "on" position. The dog loves it.  (Maybe not as much as these guys.)  I like my winter outings in small doses. So this is a great time for reading, crafting, and cooking. 

I've been reading a fascinating book called Little House on a Small Planet and it's helping me navigate my ponderings on how much living space we actually require.  

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why we Americans think we need so much space that we seldom use and then proceed to fill it up with stuff we don't need?

How many plans for home improvements and modifications have been scrapped because, although they are perfectly suited to our tastes and purposes, are not statistically desirable enough to the majority of potential home buyers in the event we want to sell the house?

When did our residences as investments and symbols of our social status supersede the concept of our houses as our homes?  And must we be so lemming-like in embracing this dysfunctional groupthink?


Once you start to ask these questions, the dominos start falling.   I'm no advocate of asceticism, I think design and art and ornamentation are important expressions of who we are and how we see the world.  But, those things come from within ourselves, not from House Beautiful and HGTV. 

It's liberating when you can let go of how things should be, because that's what "people like us" do, and we won't be held in high esteem if we are too unconventional or, God forbid, unfashionable.

WOW. Maybe it's time to throw out the magazines and turn off the TV and find ourselves. We get this one, short life and we allow other people so much control over it.

If that sounds like an anti-community sentiment, it isn't. Communities of strength are voluntary, not coercive.

Supporting local business--the exploration continues

We did a little exploring over the weekend in our continuing quest to discover the "local" community. The Chautauqua Ave. merchants in the village of Lakewood held their "Christmas in the Village" holiday open house event. It was the perfect opportunity to check them out.  We've had lunch at Hungry Hannah's a couple of times, since we prefer the little moms and pops to chain restaurants, but we really don't do a lot of shopping.

So it was very pleasant to discover Off the Beaten Path, the indie bookstore owned and operated by Holly Richardson at 28 Chautauqua. We've seen most of our favorite little bookstores fold, as giants like Borders, Barnes and Noble, and especially Amazon.com have taken over the market. We're really, really fans of the local library.  But knowing that there is this welcoming space with a friendly and knowledgeable owner who has the most interesting selection of books makes me feel inclined to visit again. There are author events, and now, there is coffee next door (in the same building), as local  RydersCup Coffee has relocated from their former store on Fairmount.

I now feel obligated to also give a shout out to the Labyrinth (their website seems to be under sonstruction but they have a Facebook page here) at 12 E.4th Street in Jamestown, which was an instant favorite the first time we visited.  This place has a gritty urban funk vibe in the sense of the old coffeehouses where people hung out and listened to live music. In fact, Labyrinth does host bands and poetry and movie nights, but Tom and I really aren't night people. We go there because the coffee and soup are the best in town.

Back to Lakewood. A small craft fair in the community center building  had an impressive array of refreshments and offered free photos with Santa. We had our first taste of locally made (for almost 80 years) Peterson's Candies and it was good. And I met a very talented jewelry designer who is also a neighbor. Susan Hedberg  operates An Added Touch, and makes her own ceramic pieces for use in some of her designs,which she sells online at Etsy and at local art/craft venues. You can see some of her work on FlickR.

We drove by George Gustafson's place at 2505-07 Quaint Rd. in Falconer on our weekly trips to pick up our CSA shares over the summer. George has been producing pure maple syrup for more than 30 years and offers a whole range of maple products in addition to his "Chautauqua Gold" at several locations in the area.

Good discoveries. And of course we were already fans of Southern Tier.

Holiday Magic

Winter doesn't check the calendar before it decides to show up, and show up it did this week in western NY. You probably saw the news about people stranded in cars on the NY Thruway for up to 15 hours as the Buffalo area got buried under three feet of snow.

It's winter here in Chautauqua county too, minus the horror stories. Our world has become a Currier and Ives winter wonderland scene with white fluffy stuff cosmetically coating every surface.

By five o'clock on Friday, beautiful fluffy flakes were gently falling everywhere, and it was time for the magic to begin.  So we layered up and went dashing through the snow down to Third Street for the Jamestown Christmas parade and other festivities. A good time was in the air, and  even the neighborhood deer seemed to be heading in that direction.

The sight downtown answered the question: yes, Virginia, there are, still,  communities where people, thousands of them, leave the cozy sanctuaries of their homes and come together in the streets to celebrate. We arrived at the stage in front of City Hall, where the crowd was jammin' to the beat of the hometown band, 10,000 Maniacs. It was the first time I've ever seen a band performing in parkas, but hey, when in Rome...!

There was the official tree lighting, and the national anthem, ending with fireworks and a "Starflight" helicopter flyover in tribute to our troops. We may not hear much about them on TV, but in towns like Jamestown, they lead the parade.

Ah yes, the parade. It was magical, like something out of  "A Christmas Story."  The high school band, the scouts, churches, community organizations, local businesses, and almost every fire department in the area (some of them dragging their antique trucks out of mothballs for the occasion)--diverse segments of the community all came and participated, with  floats they spent hours lovingly creating, and all manner of vehicles decked out in holiday decorations (lemme tell ya, you ain't seen nothing until you've seen a line of construction vehicles, decorated from head to toe in lights and garlands). There was candy distributed, and a release of helium-filled balloons, and the peculiar cacaphony of firetrucks  flashing their lights and sounding off, which children seem to love.  And, of course, Santa Claus.

I have to say...we had FUN! Without spending a dime. Though the street vendors were there with coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, and the usual light wands and gewgaw for those inclined to indulge.

This stuff never happened in the suburbs, but echoes of my small town childhood were there on Third Street.

I'd love to share some of our winter beauty with you in photographs, but I'm not all that talented with a camera. Therefore, I'd like to introduce you to  Jennifer Schlick, a teacher-naturalist at our local Audubon center, and her amazing nature photography.  Click here and enjoy!

Buying Local

I have mixed feelings about this promotion by the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce. On the surface, it's a great idea--shop locally, support businesses in the community (as opposed to spending your dollars in some other city--and with the popularity of internet shopping these days, some of those other cities are pretty far away), help your neighbors prosper. Awesome.

On the other hand, it comes down to the question, what exactly do you mean by LOCAL?  Geographic location, local ownership, locally produced goods and services? Naturally, the more "local" you get, the greater the benefit to the local community. The chamber's definition of local is the most broad definition, since participants include the local Wal-Mart stores.

In defense of that, these stores do employ local people and in that sense do contribute to the overall well-being of the community.  However, these stores are obviously not owned by local people and offer very little in the way of locally produced goods.

We've been lulled into complacency (like frogs in a pot of boiling water) about our gradual slide from a self-reliant, production centered society to a consumer-centered one, helplessly dependent on goods produced elsewhere and delivered to us via a long and expensive (soon to be much more expensive) supply line.  Thus overextended, very little is being done to dial us back to a more sustainable level of living.

I think it's important for the frogs who have managed to jump out of the pot to begin looking around now for local, sustainable sources of needed goods and services, and beat the stampede. Even as someone new to this community,  I'm probably not starting far behind people who have lived here for their entire lives.

By the way, the chamber's list barely scratches the surface of local.