Hi and welcome to our oasis says lane. I will be her stenographer.

Today has been a hot day here in the North Carolina Mountains.

Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean the work stops.

Far from it; for example my day began at five twenty am.

Get up time six days a week. Lane works as a highway contractor for the post office. Gotta start early. Bath and then feed the cats, as we have seven of them. Two dogs and a husband. Then it’s off to the post office. It takes thirty five minutes to get there. Lane works four hours more or less and then comes home to do real work.

Today is relish making day. Lane waits all summer for this.

All the vegetables are mature and ready to be made into her wonderful relish. It takes most of the day to chop and cook everything, but it’s worth it to see all the happy faces when her friends get this relish as gifts. Over the years she has given away more of this stuff than anything else she does.

Every person she gives it to wants more and then more so she makes more.

She says I have been hard at work too building her greenhouse. Most everything is recycled materials donated from friends who also reap the benefits of her having a greenhouse. She says “well gotta go as the relish is ready to can or process as you city folk call it.

She just came back finished with the relish having canned twenty four pints. Now is clean up time and she never wastes anything if she can help it. All the waste from vegetables goes into the compost which helps make next years crop possible. Everything she grows here is organic which is so much better for your health. Believe me it’s not hard to do this as she says if she can, you can. It’s what she does for stress relief and her testimony is that it really works. She is ready and willing to share her methods.