You know, Susan, I'm trying to figure out if there might not be a few patches that get a combined 4 1/2 to 5 hours of light between the morning and the late afternoon sun. If so, I could do some container gardening of a few summer veggies that will straggle along with that little light. I know I can do a cool weather garden under coldframes after the leaves are off the trees. But no major food production is possible. If I'm out of work, or have my hours reduced due to the economy, I could participate in a community garden. Otherwise, I don't have time.

On the otherhand, I notice a large, sufficiently sunny lot across the street that belongs with one of the two houses that bracket it. I haven't met any of neighbors over there, but they clearly are not gardeners. If hard-times came, I could approach them about letting me garden there in exchange for produce (or even propose a neighborhood community garden!)

The biggest issue with my family is that we are scattered out. Mom and Dad have the biggest house that could accomodate us, but they live in West Virginia, where the economy has been in the pits a long time. As with Sinsull's family, my Mom's family consolidated households during the Depression. No one person usually could work more than a day or two per week, but among 6 adults working what they could, they scraped by. It would be pretty tough for Annie or I to find any part-time work there if we lost our jobs down here, or had our hours drastically cut.

But we are pretty resourceful people, and we would come up with some kind of plan and move that would see to it we were all taken care of.