[metroschultz]

Hey Rick,
Thanx Again for all you have done to help me out.
I must tell you,
when I was with you and in West Virginia, I became enamored of the simple life.
I spent 1/3 of my formative years living and working a farm in the North Carolina hills. Sprucepine to be exact. My mothers family had farms and farmland there, ( all has been sold now) I would go south in the summer to help out with the work. It was great times and hard work. Even as a very young boy (6 or 7 was when I started) they expected me to do the labor of a grown man, (o.k., a short, weak, man). I did and was rewarded with experiences few people these days get.
I can pop the head off a chicken with a flick of my hand.
I can shoot any fire arm made and when I was qualifying in the Army, I shot 79 out of 80 on my first test earning me the right to wear the expert marksman badge.
I have turned chitlins.
I have churned butter.
I've eaten, squirrel, snake, possum, clover, (and a multitude of other Beverly Hillbilly delicacies I don't remember now)
I've helped run a still. (I even have a small jar of white lightning in the house right now given to me by a relative)
I have enough experience to survive in the wild like Grizzly Adams if the world comes to that. (but I don't believe it will.)
If I did not have a family to think of or a wife who truly appreciates the comforts of city living, I would rent one of your cottages and take a job down the road at a truck stop.
Hard work doesn't scare me, and I often think of getting back to the country. We have relatives still in NC, SC, TN, KN . When the though of selling the house to get out of debt was a very real possibility, we considered which of these we would head for to re-group and re-build. I believe we would've gone to Kentucky, to live in Russellville and re-organize our lives.
Alas, life doesn't always give you what you want so you have to use what you get.
But I wouldn't trade my life now for anything else.
It was tough, we made it through, others will too.
The hard times are not over, but we as a couple, have learned a lot so we won't make the same mistakes again.
And James,
Red Beans and Rice was on the menu as well.
Thank God I like green food.
Turnip greens, Collard greens, Spinach, etc. are all relatively inexpensive.
Schultz