Showing posts with label drudgery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drudgery. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

"A Woman's Job"

How to Be Your Own Decorator, Helen Koues, Good Housekeeping, New York, 1928.
We are fast approaching the time when homemakers turn their attentions to storage, organization and redecorating. (If you don't believe me, take a gander at all of the plastic storage tubs filling the aisles of your local 5-and-Dime store.) To that end, I thought I would share some ideas.

Store your records, television and radio in this home-built unit of fir.

Hang your pans above the range for modern kitchen storage
Don't forget lighting in the Master Bedroom
Photographs from Ladies' Home Journal Book of Interior Decoration, Elizabeth T. Halsey, The Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. 1954.




Friday, January 24, 2014

Books Bygone: Washday

My most recent Books Bygone column, "Washday" came out in our little weekly newspaper yesterday. You can read it at the link or here where it's among all of the others.

If you read it at the newspaper, note that someone at the paper modified the title. I guess they needed to fill in some space. It's pretty funny what they came up with.

Feel free to pass along.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Episode 3: It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over & It Ain't Over Yet

Mr. mini-Hershey may have had his fill of the shrimp boil and moved on to attend to the details of his worthless life, but those of us worth our salt were still working today.

We went to the Piglet this morning-- the giveaway is up to $700!-- and arrived home to a most horrific sight.


After the groceries were put away, and the dishes done by hand, I managed to clear the undrained water in the bottom, and identify the problem. But there was no time to fix the problem today.
I won't bore you with the details of what was involved with trying to get back to normal after several days of being focused on the tailgate. It was just drudge work-- completing tasks which must be completed as efficiently as is possible without a functioning dishwasher.

The good news is there was a little bit of shrimp left over. Mr. Big Food turned it into a delightful Sunday Supper.


Barbequed Gulf Shrimp with Stephen Pyles' Fresh Seafood Seasoning Mix over Pilaf Deluxe.
I'll wrap up the post-tailgate drudge work tomorrow.

A. Leland has offered to take a look at the dishwasher.

Friday, July 19, 2013

This, On the Other Hand, Makes Me Want to Smile

This business of "homemaking" is one which engages the attention of many million women in the United States. Yet it is only at the time of the present census-taking that the lawmakers have come to acknowledge it, and have consented to list every housewife as "homemaker" instead of "unemployed." This is real progress.
Jessie Marie DeBoth in Modernistic Recipe-Menu Book of the DeBoth Homemakers' Cooking School (1929).

We've come a long way, Jessie. We've come so far, you probably wouldn't even recognize us.
~~

That's right. I've returned from the Palmer Home Thrift Store with some $1.00 books.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

I have a question.

This up just a bit ago at Instapundit.com

NEW YORK TIMES: American Women Are Fat Because They Don’t Vacuum Enough. “Women, they found, once had been quite physically active around the house, spending, in 1965, an average of 25.7 hours a week cleaning, cooking and doing laundry. Those activities, whatever their social freight, required the expenditure of considerable energy. . . . Forty-five years later, in 2010, things had changed dramatically. By then, the time-use diaries showed, women were spending an average of 13.3 hours per week on housework. More striking, the diary entries showed, women at home were now spending far more hours sitting in front of a screen. In 1965, women typically had spent about eight hours a week sitting and watching television. (Home computers weren’t invented yet.) By 2010, those hours had more than doubled, to 16.5 hours per week. In essence, women had exchanged time spent in active pursuits, like vacuuming, for time spent being sedentary.”

This’ll be well-received. But hey, it’s science. You can’t argue with science.
[my emphases]

I haven't had time to read the article yet-- I'm vacuuming. No. Really. I am. But I have a question.

Can we infer that houses are not as clean now as they were in 1965?

~~

After I finish vacuuming the upholstered furniture, I'll steam it. (Thankfully, the steamer survived wall paper removal.) After that, I'll dust and then spot polish the floors.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tell me this isn't cool. Go ahead. Try!

Three (3) crockpots in one!
Unfortunately, it's not ours. (But it's cool!) It belongs to Rhonda who blogs at Make, Do, and Mend. She's got the scoop on where you can find this 3' long crockpot contraption. And she's got a question:

Why do people think homemakers must be bored?
There always seems to be plenty of things to keep me busy
and to keep me on my toes.

Homemakers' work is drudgery!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Supper After

Jägerschnitzel


served with fried cabbage (vegan-- dude, it's fried cabbage in olive oil, you don't need a recipe) and store bought tater tots.

A heartening supper with Miss M-- who, based on the knocks on the wall-- is still cleaning up the kitchen.



Working on a conversion.

Maybe I'll talk her into going to Jackson. There will be cute smart guys there.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

I have a wringer.

More crappy old stuff
In the developed world, we forget that there was once a time when washday meant “day” rather than “toss it in the machine and come back in 20 minutes.” In many parts of the world without access to electricity and clean water, that time is still now. Design students Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles visited the the slums of Cerro Verde, Peru. There they saw women spending days on end hauling water and washing clothes by hand and they came up with a solution. They created the GiraDora, a foot-pedal washing machine that’s inexpensive and portable.
More on the pedal-powered washing machine here.


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Recipe: Deviled Round Steak and Variation

Mr. Big Food made the variation for me. I do not care for peas all that much.
This was last night's supper. After the steak is browned in the iron skillet, and the remaining ingredients added, it bakes for two hours, affording Mr. Big Food and I the opportunity to fix ourselves an adult beverage, move the little speakers to the patio, plug in the mp3 player, listen to some of The Redneck Collection, and chat about America & how glad we are we made the move to rural Mississippi & how funny the dogs are & this week's menu which begins tonight with an assortment of appetizers for supper.

BIG LIFE!

Recipe below.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Food Shopper's Creed

From Meta Given's The Modern Family Cookbook, copyright 1942, 1953, 1958, published by J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company, Chicago
So you don't need to click to enlarge...

The Food Shopper's Creed

The health of my family is in my care, therefore--
I will base my market list on meals planned according to the "DIET PATTERN" p. 4

I will choose foods of quality and in quantities that will provide the nutritive elements planned for.
Stretching the food dollar is part of my responsibility, therefore--
I will take advantage of what the seasonal markets offer in variety, quality, and price, to the end that I may exchange my dollar for maximum values.
My family's enjoyment of food is my responsibility, therefore--
I will use the possibilities of the market to provide variety, excellent quality and novelty within the limits of my food budget.
Purchasing food is an important link in the business of feeding my family, therefore--
I will make every effort to weight possibilities offered by various markets, by various foods, and the forms in which they are offered from season to season, to the end that I may take pride in a job well done.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wash day

I made mention of "wash day" in a previous post. Every day is wash day for those of us here on the Farm, except for Mr. Big Food who does his laundry on a schedule. Every so often, he has "shirt-washing days," "pant-washing days," and so on. (He's very disciplined.) But in the crappy olden days, there really was such a thing as wash day-- the one day a week the laundry was done. My neighbors still have wash day. I know this because they hang their clothes out on the line every Wednesday, although Wednesday was not the preferred wash day.

HOME LAUNDERING: Need for cleaning knowledge [full citation at post's end]
Please do take a minute to enlarge and read this. It is delightful! Look carefully at the diagram on the left-hand page. Note the decidedly non-Electric dryer. We have it so hard these days. We should protest. 

Tuesday is preferred over Monday for wash day for the following reasons. (Who does their laundry on Wednesday?) Monday can be used to:
  1. Replenish the larder
  2. Put the house in order after the weekend
  3. Mend tears, etc. that would worsen when the garment was laundered
  4. Remove stains
  5. Prepare food in advance for wash day
  6. Gather, and presumably sort (this is a dig), laundry and prepare laundry apparatus without "infringing on the pleasures or quiet of Sunday"
I say again, we have it so hard these days. Can you imagine what it must have been like for housewives women before the invention of the Electric washer and dryer made it possible for them to escape the drudgery of wash day?? They had to mend clothes so clothes would last longer. They actually had to think things through: cook a day ahead, gather-- and presumably sort-- the laundry, get the "apparatus" ready.

Could they have taken pride in this drudgery?

To be clear, I like Electric stuff just as much as the next guy. In fact, while typing all of this out on my electricity driven laptop, a storm came up and the power flickered a few times. I had to stop what I was doing, go get the flashlights and the oil lamp. I had to quickly think through what else I'd need to do if the power went out for more than a few minutes-- it's after dark already. Trust me, I am a fan of Electricity.

But I wonder how much we've paid for being able to throw a mega-load of unsorted clothes into an Electric washing machine with that new detergent that forgives us for not knowing that black and white make grey?

Citation: Care of Clothing. The Women's Institute Library of Dressmaking, vol. 3. The Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. Press of International Textbook Company, Scranton, Pa. 1925.

Note: The book in front of me makes no mention of Mary Brooks Picken, but see this.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Crappy old stuff: Mending

Few women appreciate the importance of mending, forgetting entirely the old proverb, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Every housewife should form the habit of doing the weekly mending each week instead of allowing it to accumulate until it becomes a burden. Carefully mended garments denote thrift, industry, and economy; therefore, every woman and every girl should take pride in knowing how to darn a pair of stockings, to patch a worn garment, and mend a tear. Mary Brooks Picken (Woman’s Institute Library of Dressmaking: Sewing Materials, 1923)
Thrift, industry, and economy. Pride.

I must admit I don't think I could darn a pair of socks very well. But I have a set of old books written by Mary Brooks Picken. So if worse come to worst, I can learn.

Moving on to more important matters... .

A protester at Occupy Cincinnati. She has a job.
And an iPhone. Good for her.
Please note that these photos were grabbed from this web site. I've included the citation information in the screen shot itself.

You can learn more about Mary Brooks Picken, a prolific writer on needlework, sewing, textiles, etc., at Wikipedia, Yellow Zeppelin, and Amy Barickman.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Today's harvest (UPDATED: We did it!)

No photos. Sorry. Maybe I'll update after we have supper. It's some chicken casserole dish that's already baking.

We had a very busy week. I wasn't able to spend nearly as much time in the garden as I usually do, especially since I knew we wouldn't be around much late in the week and so I spent one day cleaning the house. And Mr. Big Food wasn't able to do his chores, either. So we were outside today. Nice day. Also, Daughter C is here today to take care of Rocky. (I spend too much time with Rocky.)

Today I picked 

  • two three watermelons (one is rotten so we're going to shoot it)
  • a few beets and 
  • baby lima beans 
(I don't know what he's going to do with the beats, but the limas are going in a crock pot Tuesday morning. Limas are not called for, but we have too few to freeze so we might as well eat them.)
  • a little French melon (not sure it's going to make the cut; we'll look at it tonight
  • jalapeno peppers
That's right. We are pickling tonight. Pickling jalapeno peppers.
  • and a nice batch of cherry tomatoes.
And I almost forgot the white winter radishes. I pulled a handful of white carrots on Thursday.  We actually have a lot of radishes on hand right now. I should announce this.

That was satisfying. And now, while supper is in the oven, we will clean the kitchen. This will be satisfying in it's own sort of drudgery way.

I cannot put it off any longer. 

UPDATE

Preparing to freeze some French melon
We did it! We got just about everything done. The only thing that remains for this evening is stewing the tomatoes. But the melons (there were two, not one, aas I reported earlier) and tomatillos-- which I think I forgot to mention yesterday-- are in the freezer. The jalapeno are pickled, as are the two quarts of green cherry tomatoes that I picked just as it was getting dark. 

The melon are 

Melon Charentais Heirloom Seed

Cucumis melo (Reticulatus group)

90 days. Charentais melons aren’t found in your grocery store — they’re too fragile to ship. A true cantaloupe, the fruits have smooth skin with light green stripes, maturing to creamy yellow. The delightfully scented, creamy orange flesh is filled with unsurpassed flavor. One of the sweetest rewards of home gardening!
 from Botanical Interests and they going to taste sooo good in January!


Good day. Big life.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Drudgery, con't

I started a previous post by quoting The Meal Planner's Creed from Meta Given's (1958) Modern Family Cookbook. That post ended with the question: 

When did doing things you want to take pride in become drudgery?

The question relates to "the drudgery of _________ " [fill in some aspect of creating and maintaining a functioning comfortable home]."

I've come across this phase several times in the past few weeks within the context of "X released women from the drudgery of Y," where Y was something that wouldn't really fall under the definition of "drudgery," to begin with.

Well! Lo and Behold!

I'm using bing to search for "drudgery" just now (I'm looking for something very specific) and I see this:
By drudgery, I mean work that in itself is not pleasant, that has no immediate effect in stimulating our best powers, and that only remotely serves the purpose of our general advancement.
I click, and am taken to 

 The Gains of Drudgery from The Making of Manhood (1894) by William James Dawson

Lew Rockwell's post for 9/26/2011-- that would be today!

Here's a key part:
But the gains of drudgery are not seen only in the solid successes of life, but in their effect upon the man himself. Let me take in illustration a not infrequent case. Suppose a man gives up his youth to the struggle for some coveted degree, some honour or award of the scholarly life. It is very possible that when he obtains that for which he has struggled, he may find that the joy of possession is not so great as the joy of the strife. It is part of the discipline of life that we should be educated by disillusion; we press onward to some shining summit, only to find that it is but a bastion thrown out by a greater mountain, which we did not see, and that the real summit lies far beyond us still. But are we the worse for the struggle? No; we are manifestly the better, for by whatever illusion we have been led onward, it is at least clear that without the illusion we should not have stood as high as we do.
Read the whole thing and come back. I'll let this stand alone, even though I've not posted my watermelon picture-- which is where I was headed.