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Post by joebill on Jan 4, 2017 21:40:11 GMT
Really, good, Tom, except I truly hate to hear anybody disrespect a turnip!..... ..Joe
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Post by tabitha on Sept 1, 2021 1:31:03 GMT
turnips? How many calories does a turnip have. I once took a turnip along to school, boy was I hungry when I got home. Never forgot that. This was very interesting, and I wager that is hw you would operate under the circumstances. It taught me a few things. I need to invest in more jars. if I have to can the contents of my freezers, without extra jars.... I think I'll invest in the Amish water bath canner . Mother had something like that, only the quality was better. It has a firebox and holds 35quart jars. we used it for heating bathwater and mother used it for doing laundry, besides canning.. It was a great implement to have. When Dad made a bathroom where the goat stall used to be, he poured a platform for the canner, the bathtub was next to it and the canner has a spicket so the hot water could run in the tub. On saturdays my sister and I went out in the woods and picked up fallen branches, pincecones, pieces of bark etc to be used for heating the water for our baths. Nobody got to bathe alone. My brothers filled up the tub, sister and I always had to bathe together, and after everyone was done Mom and Dad took a bath together. After I grew up and got married, I was very surprised that my husband did not know that. He was embarrassed at first, but realized the efficiency of it. Most of our big decisions were made in a bathtub.
When I grew up, we always had electric lights. that is what electricity meant, lights.
a neighbor had put a generator in his shed. To this day this place is called the light house. the whole neighborhood was hooked up to the lighthouse. I know we paid for 'lights'. At dusk he would turn it on and I went to sleep with the sound of the generator . When he turned it off, everybody had to go to bed or sit in the dark. This went on for a few years.
Your episode is quite short. To survive you need milkgoats. Grandmother said, when we have enough potatoes and milk, we can live. I remember mother gathering goat feed. Goats eat stuff like weeds, poison ivy, black berry leaves... the kids have to go gather goat feed. also rabbit feed. Kids can be of great help and be very responsible. Kids also had to gather squaw wood. I still have a basket that is carried on ones back to carry things like goat feed and firewood etc. IKEA has some big bags that are useful. You also have to know what all you can eat. stinging nettles, the real McCoy are very high in protein. I think 28% or so. we like stinging nettles and I cook them in season all the time. REally nice when you have a fried egg on the side. When you have so many people suddenly live with you, it is a good idea to have the necessary tools to keep them occupied. I understand Lewis and Clark ate a lot of sun chokes on their way across the country. I am thinking of planting some out in the wilderness here and there. Got them in the garden.
I know 19 edible mushrooms. six of them grow here where I live, but not in profusion. Except chanterelles. I was still a little kid when Dad took me along and showed me mushrooms. As kids we picked up to 3 gallons of berries in a day. MOther canned what we needed, but most of them we sold. I remember, blueberries went for 20 pfennigs a pound. that is about a nickel in the currency back then. Raspberries were a favorite. they were bigger, you could gather a whole lot more in less time and they went for 40-50 pfennigs.
It was the right thing that you took charge. But you also need a woman to be in charge to run the house and children and food and clothing, and washing and treating the sick. The women around here need a firm hand. If the bottom falls out. Women's work and men's work was separate. Though women had to do men's work and vice versa if the situation demanded it.
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Post by ceresone on Sept 1, 2021 15:20:11 GMT
Might also remember to store vegetables underground either in barrels, old buried freezers etc packed with straw or has last all winter, Dad kept potatoes carrots apples etc in cellar. Just a thought! And remember to include the two holer. Come on ready for another chapter???
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Post by tabitha on Sept 1, 2021 23:14:43 GMT
this is such a big country with all kinds of different circumstances. Deep South, Far North. hot desert..My husband's grandmother used to dry fruits and vegetables on the porchroof. I used to dry things in the back of an old car. Park it in the sun. Can't do it anymore, DH always lets the dogs in the car.
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Post by joebill on Sept 5, 2021 6:15:22 GMT
Very nice!
A long time ago, I read an autobiography of an early news man, and he recalled that his first editor told him to NEVER use the word "very". He said that if he was ever tempted to use that word, substitute the word "damn" instead, and the editors would exclude the "D" word, and the text would then be perfect.
For instance, "she was VERY upset" would become "she was upset", which would perfectly portray the situation. The reader will determine just HOW upset she was for him/herself, and the story will progress exactly as it should.
The reader takes his/her part in writing the story according to his/her needs, and moves it closer to perfection in every case.
Not every writer is willing to surrender that much control, but in every case where the writer is brave enough, it pays off in spades.....congratulations!......Joe
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Sept 5, 2021 13:28:07 GMT
joebill, I doubt anyone has noticed, but in none of my writing, including posts here, do I use the word "actually". I hate that word. It's totally superfluous and useless in a sentence. Write a sentence using the word, then scratch it out, it reads exactly the same. Just one of my pet peeves.
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Post by ceresone on Sept 5, 2021 20:27:25 GMT
Tom, sounds like Judge Judy, she also hates that word! Oh, I am sorry, no one should be compared to her!
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Post by tabitha on Sept 14, 2021 2:18:23 GMT
speaking of storing vegetables underground. You need vegetables to store.
this has been the worst year for me ever as far as food production goes. Yesterday I bought carrots and a head of cabbage. If it keeps going like this, I don't know what we will eat.My folks went through some pretty hard times. we are sailing into really crazy times. That makes it extra hard. Nature acted normal. Crazy times, it looks as if somebody is fooling with mother nature. DD visited the big gardens at Shaker town. They produce for the restaurant. Everything blighted,she said, except the okra.
Peas did not bother to come up except about ten plants, and they soon died.
Out of four packs of bean seeds, only one packet had viable seeds. I am wondering, is it the seed? something is the matter. In my fifty years of gardening, I have raised a lot of beans. cucumbers, though they are supposed to be resistant varieties, they start out great and then get sick and die. and so on. I wasted more money on seeds, certainly was a loss.
the things that seemed to do well, like the garlilc and leeks, only looked like it. Some were full of maggots, and all had some kind of blight. so I got about half a crop and had to deal with it pronto or lose it all. Leeks, my folks left them in the ground well into winter. they are cold hardy. Onions were the biggest flop. And so on. What is going on?
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Post by Jolly on Sept 14, 2021 3:01:00 GMT
I had a really good year last year. I've had a very bad year this year. Sweet corn made well, but my other main crops like beans, peas, squash and okra did not. We had a huge amount of spring rain, then many days of little to no rain. And I've had the worst problem with deer I've ever had. I even had the deer eat up my banana and bell peppers.
The lesson is that when you have a good year, preserve everything you can, because the next year(s) may not be as good.
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Post by tabitha on Sept 14, 2021 17:46:46 GMT
we always do that. I still have a few tomatoes that I canned three years ago.
Things that were killed by blight. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, leeks, onions. insects, as usual, zucchini. even butternut squash was affected, I got less than half a crop. sweet taters are still in the ground. Corn did well, but some birds pulled up a lot of the seedlings. I think it was doves. so only half a crop, but nice.
what did nice was lettuce and radishes. broccoli was strange. whatever it was, it was not broccoli. the goats ate it. More like canola.
cabbage was strange. You know how cabbage will split when it is ready and you better turn it into Kraut before it all splits. Not this kind. It just sdat there, I thought it would get bigger. It rotted from the inside.
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Post by ceresone on Sept 14, 2021 21:04:09 GMT
Tom, can't you see we're waiting more? Especially since it's in our neck of the woods
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Post by tabitha on Sept 16, 2021 20:30:57 GMT
There is a difference. My folks faced very hard times with great challenges. Still, I remember them always happy, upbeat and I guess optimistic. Thinking about it, they had hit rock bottom and for them there was only one way, and that was up.
we are facing the opposite. We are on the way down and do not know yet what rock bottom will be like. Plus a lot of extra challenges that my folks did not face, like all the illegals that will be in competition for resources once we get to that stage.
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Post by ceresone on Oct 4, 2021 23:20:40 GMT
I personally will never anymore plant anything but Fortex pole beans, they produce till frost kills them, beans can be twelve inches long and still tender and snap. Had one of the seed companies thank me for recommending this one.
Tom , we re drifting on purpose, waiting till we plant a seed in your mind.!
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Oct 4, 2021 23:31:37 GMT
I truly find it very hard to believe people actually get upset over insulting turnips.
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Post by tabitha on Oct 6, 2021 20:52:06 GMT
Fortex beans... okay. I am tired of picking bush beans.
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