Making do

Now and then, Marge will go to the icebox, and she will see what leftovers we have for breakfast or dinner or supper. (Dinner is at noon.) We may have a little of several things, but not enough for the two of us. So we kind of divvy up all the leftovers so that we each have some. If we definitely don't have enough, we can always make up some Ramen noodles. In many ways, we are "making do" with what we have.

Making do was a regular practice back through the years. We watch some "Mountain Men" shows on TV and most of the time they make do. They were accustomed to getting a moose to eat during the winter, but they ended up not getting the moose so they made do with whatever they could catch or trap or shoot. This was everything from small game animals to birds to fish. They made do. At no time did they have more than they could eat. They pretty much went from meal to meal. I would imagine there are some of us who would have eaten what they did, but most of us would have turned up our noses.

We end up getting around to supper kind of late, so we decide to cook up some hot dogs and some pork and beans. Darn, but no hot dog buns, so we make do with bread. Our place butted up against some guys to the south several years ago. So between us we put in a good five-wire fence. I brought over a cooler of soda for all those working on the fence. Got to thinking about it later, and I'll bet most of those guys drank Stag for breakfast. But they made do and drank down my soda. Wasn't perfect, but the soda made do.

Several years ago we were using a small square baler, and I was using a Massey 135 with live power to pull the baler. Be darned if the power steering went out on the 135, so all I had left was a TO30, which doesn't have live power. I went from 45 horsepower down to maybe 20. It sure left a lot to be desired, but the TO30 made do. I wondered if it would bale hay up some of our hills, but it just kept cranking on. It worked. It made do.

Most all the settlers up where I grew up burned cow chips in their heat stove and kitchen stove. That is pretty much all they had. They made do with what was available, which was cow chips. There simply weren't hardly any trees of any kind up in the Sandhills. It was probably a 25-mile trip one way to some trees along the North Plate River, so they would have had to make a 50-mile trip for wood. So they made do with cow chips. There weren't any trees, so lumber had to be hauled in by wagons and horses, but they had acres of sod and grass. So they cut the sod about 3 inches thick and two feet wide and cut it to lengths they could carry and built sod houses. Some even used this sod to cover the roofs. They made do.

Kind of like Marge needing some buttermilk. She said she can take a little milk and sour it with a little vinegar. Making do! Growing up there pretty much always was a little bug in the flour, so you always sifted the flour. You made do. Dad grew up way out where there weren't any stores and especially stores that stocked lemons, so they made vinegar pie which tastes a lot like lemon pie. That's making do.

After Marge and I and the boys moved to Oklahoma, we needed transportation. We couldn't afford a nice vehicle, so we bought about a 1955 pickup that was old and worn out. We made do. When we lived in Kentucky, most everyone we knew was poor and lived on government cheese and peanut butter with some canned beef or chicken now and then. We made do. But it wasn't just us. Most everyone we knew that lived around us lived much like we did.

Making do is a way of life. You make do with what you have instead of buying something else that would be nice to own. Instead of a $40,000 brand new pickup, you drive a 2000 with 150,000 miles on it. Instead of a three-bedroom, three-bath house, you live in a two-bedroom, one-bath home. You make do. Instead of eating T-bones and rib-eyes, you eat hamburger steak. When deer season rolls around, you hunt for the meat and not so much for the horns. Horns from an old deer are tough and the meat is strong.

Many times, rather than making do, we use plastic and live on credit. Instead of living within our means and making do, we live above our means, kind of like we have wealth and riches. Making do has been around since time began.

To live within our means means we will most likely make do. It's a commitment. It probably will mean we have to scarify now and then and even do without. But at the end of the day, I'm betting you'll lay your head down to rest and be at peace.