I did a terse introductory post the first day I joined steemit. I feel a great need for privacy and thought I had to write something right away, so it was to the point, mentioning those things I want known about me and the things I care about.

I am writing this for thl and because today I wrote two comments that reminded me of why I joined.

I am an older person, have decided to live a reclusive life because social interactions often upset me and I do not want to be offensive to others. We are all better off this way.

This winter I took intensive care of my three-legged, dying Portuguese Water Dog to the point that I didn't even go for visits with my out of state family (I do usually socialize with them) because she was too sick to take to the local groomer/boarder. This was my whole life for months. I could not imagine life without her. I kept her alive and comfortable for as long as I could. (crying here)

We finally had to take her to be put down because she had reached that point that her life didn't seem to have enough quality left and I think she was in some pain. She had always been a food stealer. Her only joy at the end was eating. I made her a last meal which she gobbled and then she went home.

So what do I do with my life now?

I raised my 3 boys and occasionally worked outside the home at a health food store and food coop. Having those boys to love and care for was my whole life and I was happy. They were separated in age by 9 years and 6 years so I got to spend a good part of my life doing this.

When the youngest went off to school I started looking for a "real" job and ended up working in the reference department and at the reference desk at an Ivy league college. It was a very public position working with students, teaching them how to use the library. I loved it. When I was not at the desk I learned HTML. I loved that too and offered to make subject guides and web pages for anyone who wanted one so I got a lot of opportunity to learn the language.

When I retired I offered to make a web page for our new church and this led to making websites for a lot of churches. I have since cut back but there are still a few sites that I maintain on a regular basis.

What is the amazing thing about our retirement is this location. In this “Live Free or Die” low tax state we have 29 acres and live at the top of a winding, steep driveway. We bought it for the views and they never disappoint. The house was a hunting lodge, is really small and came with a lot of problems. We continue to deal with them as we improve the property. We added two sets of solar panels which will never pay us back in our lifetime but good stewardship is important to us

My husband and I have planted fruit and nut trees, a few grape vines, blueberries, and raspberries, and flowers- a few each year. We have developed two large gardens on this rocky soil so most of the usable space on this woody hillside is now planted. Last year we were able to give away 2,000 pounds (he weighs it so we get a tax advantage and keep money away from the unwise hands of the government) of food to various places, including a soup kitchen in the nearby town. We built a chicken coop and every year try with great losses to raise chickens. At this point we have one last lonely chicken. Free ranging has been impossible up here in the Wilds of New Hampshire.

Of course we continue to age so this year we hired a young boy from the "city" nearby to help us with the more difficult work. He has been great and I hope we are having an influence on him. At first, I offered him a tuna sandwich and he says he doesn't eat meat or fish...he does eat bologna and American cheese on white bread and drinks Gatorade! We will see how he eats in a few months.

After Cali died I knew I needed something to give my life interest again, asked my husband to give it some thought and he came up with steemit. He thought I could put up my Chick Stories. I tried at the beginning, but I didn’t see how they could be formatted in a way that pleased me.
Now it is more than one month later and I see that I can use some HTML mixed with the editor here and am starting to get the idea.

Again I have found something I love and it allows me to "make friends" virtually. I spend way too much time here just learning all it has to offer and reading all about so many new things.

You, the steemit community, have given us ideas that we have implemented to the benefit of the many people we get to feed, ideas about chickens, recipes, stories...all kinds of eye-opening insights.

Okay. This is long enough. I know I should not make an introduce post again so this is for the thl community, oldtimers, homesteaders, gardeners, recipe contributors and story writers.
Thanks to all of you and to Ned, the new Mayor of thl.

Greetings from KittyKate, our very skittish feral cat who protects us from invasive rodents.

And Lee, the lonely chicken