I just returned from house sitting in Schaefferstown, PA at the home of a friend who is a terrific gardener, cook and artist. What a treat to sample what life is like in another person’s shoes. Her garden is a tangle of fruit trees, herbs and vegetables and glorious flowers, some of which I’ve only seen in books. Tending the chickens, watereing the plants, cooking and looking at a lot of books, but mostly observing a life that can be away from the world, one that is not so different from my teenaged years when my family relocated to Perkiomenville, PA. We grew vegetables,
not veggies, and had a variety of fowl; feathered friends from turkeys to Rhode Island Reds with a great variety of eggs. I’d have to say it taught me self sufficiency long before discussions of
sustainability. So, as I watched the Amish people come and go I had to wonder what life is like in their very ordered community because life in the country does tend to take the outside in—in my case.
