I grew up on a farm in west central Minnesota, a mile from the nearest town of 300 people. We visited my mother's sister in Minneapolis often and, in my mind, urban life made my rural existence pale by comparison. I could hardly wait to graduate and leave small town life behind.

Fast forward thirty-five years. College, office jobs, marriage, the usual; except no children (by chance, not by choice). My husband's job layoff and subsequent heart attack turned our lives upside down. We found, without his income, we could no longer afford our city lifestyle. At the same time my mother, now 86, still lived on the family farm but had reached a point where she could no longer live there alone. We solved both problems by moving back home in December of 2006.

I envision this blog as a chronicle of our adaptation to rural life, as well as a home for my thoughts, opinions, memoirs, and maybe even recipes. ~January 15, 2007

This photo is courtesy of Gracey at Morguefile.com who is kind enough to allow this use of her photos for free. This is not a photo of the area where I live, but I chose it for its similarity. At some point I will replace it with a photo of our Minnesota farm. At this writing it is -10F so I will not be taking any outdoor photos anytime soon.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

I'm Back

Well, this blog certainly got away from me. I don't know if anyone has even been checking this page anymore. I had some reader friends but I imagine they have given up on me by now, but here goes. Eighteen months, hmmm. A lot of things have changed for us. We are settled into farm living now, it feels like home. I have mostly let go, emotionally, from our city life and the home we left behind. I don't have time to think about it anymore. About a year ago we moved my aunt, my mother's sister, here to the farm to live with us, from her home in Minneapolis. She has Alzheimer's disease and was no longer able to live alone. The three of us, myself, my mother, my husband, share in her care, which seems to be increasing on a daily basis.


This living situation has diminished my free time somewhat but it is worth it. What free time (=internet time) I do have is divided between website design and something else I found since I last posted here. I had been a member of Second Life for a while before we moved but was not active in it until about 15 months ago. Second Life is an internet-based, three-dimensional alternate world. Think "World of Warcraft" without the war. It is not a game, it is a virtual reality, a place to have another life. After we moved here I kept in touch with the friends I left behind, as best we could, but everyone is busy with their own lives, and none of my RL friends use the internet as actively as I do. I didn't realize how lonely I was, how much I craved conversation with peers, until I found friends in SL. Then everything changed. SL gives me the balance I need, a way to detach from my day-to-day tasks and obligations, a place to do things I cannot do in RL (Real Life). I will blog more about this soon, and include some photos.

I will try not to let this blog drag in the dust any longer. Now I am off to visit some of the blogs in my faves list and see what everyone is up to.

Posted by Barb T. at 9:19 AM

2 comments:

Wicked H said...

Glad to see you back.

July 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM  
Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Well welcome back! Sounds like you've had a very full 18 months; hopefully you can take some more breathing time here with us :)

July 11, 2009 at 1:07 PM  

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