This is the title of one of the books I picked up at the tag sale this week. I spent some time thumbing through it the past few days and I’m just fascinated. So much of what is recommended as proper household management makes so much sense, some is founded on principles of reduce, reuse and recycle and some is just plain dangerous. I’m not thinking I’ll be buying asbestos by the sheet to turn into potholders and table trivets any time soon. Still, I found a lot of tips I’ll be putting to work. She says to scrape all dishes to remove traces of grease, put the grease on newspaper and burn that in the stove. This keeps your dishwater cleaner and keeps the grease out of pipes. That sounds reasonable. I am reading about candle making right now and actually learning a lot about the making of different kinds of candles and the pros and cons of each. One thing that occurs to me is that women worked all the time. There is a section on daily tasks that is mind-numbing. Just keeping the stoves and lamps clean and fired up must have consumed a couple of hours each day. She claims that dishwashing for a large family could take up three hours a day. At first that seemed excessive but when you think about it, maybe not. Then there was the laundry. When you consider that killing the hog to get the fat to make the soap, not to mention starting the fire to boil the water and the back-breaking work of the washing, rinsing and wringing, you can see why you only did it once a week. Then ironing. Heating up the sad iron and mixing the starch took another day to complete. The good old days may have had much to admire but it certainly wasn’t all fund and games. I was tired out just reading about what was accomplished.
I did enjoy the frugal use of every small thing. String was sorted by size, then the small pieces tied together and used again and agin. All fabric was either remade for another wear or used to make quilts, pot holders and carpets. Sheets were cut in two and resewn with the worn part on the edges to get every inch of wear from them. Collars were turned and socks darned. Paper was pressed, ashes and fat made into soap, wash water poured on the kitchen garden.
We tend to be so full of ourselves and our green choices but reading this book makes me feel like a fraud. It’s pretty easy to use a stainless steel water bottle and pat myself on the back but I’m guessing that, if I had to haul the water from the well I would be farm more careful of it’s use. I may drink raw milk but I don’t need to first milk the cow, then churn the butter and make the cheese in between sewing the sheets and hand washing the diaper that I had sewn the night before by light from the candles I had made from the fat I had rendered from the pig I had butchered. People ask if we are self-sufficient here. Not a chance. Not by a long shot.
February 27, 2012 at 8:25 am
Hi Kathy
I will try and find this book myself but I have been rendering and making a couple different batchs of lamb or sheep tallow candles with different wicks, and working on figuring out burning times plus how many I can make out of a single lamb or hoggot etc.
Is there any chance that this book talks about sheep tallow and you would be willing to share it, please and thanks.
February 27, 2012 at 8:32 am
I picked up this book from a used book store just last year ~ it was one of the best purchases I’ve made. Have you gotten to the part where it mentions how healthy fluoride is for the teeth? There are many things we’ve learned since the book was published and that’s good. And there are many things that book can teach us again — like self-sufficiency and to be grateful for laundry machines and dishwashers!
Great post!
February 27, 2012 at 8:38 am
Sorry. It does not mention sheep.
February 27, 2012 at 9:00 am
I’ll be looking for that book. I remember my grandmothers ball of string and the sheets with a seam down the middle!
February 27, 2012 at 11:43 pm
It reminds me of the descriptions in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. The second one, Farmer Boy sticks out in my mind the most in this regard. There aren’t really any “how-tos” imbedded in the text, but the descriptions of the never-ending dailiness of an incredible amount of hard work was evident, and eye-opening. The tale of cutting ice from the lake in January and keeping it cold in straw for the rest of the year is worth reading the book all by itself. Nowadays kids complain when the “ice maker” on the fridge stops working.
As a people we have lost a lot of practical knowledge indeed.
February 28, 2012 at 1:29 am
I’ve been known to turn a collar and darn a sock, but the cutting & re-seaming the sheets is a new trick to learn. Thanks!
There will still be room for specialization, so perhaps some of your neighbors will become fat renderers & soap makers, while your family barters with honey and home brewed beverages.
February 28, 2012 at 11:18 am
I can remember my mother making sheets out of the white feed sacks we got cattle feed in. More seams than just down the middle but it least it gave us cheap sheets. I say cheap because otherwise we could sell the empty sacks to people to use for dish towels. I still like the three or four sack dish towels that I have left from the dozens that I started out with. They are very sturdy and soft at the same time.
February 28, 2012 at 1:36 pm
I was so excited last week to reuse the string from the top of the dog food to hang a picture. It’s a beautiful illustration of how, really, I’m just playing at this.
February 29, 2012 at 12:27 am
Kathy – thought I’d tell you that my husband saw you tonight on the National Geo Channel. He thought you came off well and had many good points. He was also quite impressed with everything you’ve accomplished! I’d mentioned several weeks ago your concern about looking like a kook, but he said that was not at all what happened.
Thought I’d let you know. For a man who never met you, he knew who you were right away and admired your accomplishments.
Nancy
February 29, 2012 at 6:38 am
I really appreciate all the nice comments.