For our ancestors, land was life. Many of them were farmers, and as such, it was the land that was the source of sustenance, focus of their labor, and their home. To own land, was to have the means for provision for needs. To lose land was to become utterly bereft. Depending, usually, only on the labors of family, sons and daughters, our ancestors created the goods to fill their needs, to create small luxuries. Throughout the seasons, subject to the vagaries of weather, they labored, planted, harvested, fed and cared for livestock, processed, preserved, cooked and baked, built, repaired, spun, wove, stitched, and embellished. Such labors provided and made manifest the foundations and fabric of their lives. The source, however, remained, the land.
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