A long time ago, before modern cars, airplanes, computers, telephones, and gadgets that will do most anything, there were dirt roads, wagons, small communities, and most often extended family somewhere close by to help one another. There were people sitting on their porches waving to one another or visiting with each other. Many could tell the weather patterns because they noticed nature and clouds and knew much more about many things that had to do with nature because they spent more time in nature. Even though we live in the city, we are doing our best to live more like the past because it feels right. These two pies are the mulberry pies that I was ta ......
Above is a baby satsuma. It has been very busy in and around our house. Charles took vacation so we could get a better handle on all of the work we have to do with Madge's house and our house. We were not getting proper sleep at night and we had an upcoming special event.The event was our grandson Sean was getting married. We have been on the road a lot traveling to here and there for all kinds of things. For a full week we did our best to get our yard and garden back in order. The week before that was many trips up to Madge's house bringing loads of stuff back to our home to go through and donate, give away or throw away. For months it ......
The past several years when our children (adults) can get together at the same time, we have everyone to bring their pets and we do our family pictures and of course our pet picture. I am suppose to be the pet whisper in the group that gets them all to stay on the porch and lined up. It did take a few tries as each one at some point decides to jump off the porch.They are all getting old now as you can see and sadly we all agreed that next years picture may look somewhat different. Our Katherine is the one laying down and the one that needs the pet ramp since she cannot get up the steps anymore. Katherine and her brother Frank second from the left have lost their h ......
If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may know that Charles mother passed away and we have been working our way through her household items. It is only Charles and I to do this and it has been a mountain to climb in more ways than you can imagine, or maybe you can imagine because you have done this before.We started a new history study, the year 1917. The workload we are having to do to empty Madge's house and the many repairs has been quite difficult. The history study will not be abandoned because I am looking forward to this study. Clearing Madge's house is quite a lesson in many ways. It is showing me that we have cutter in our home that I have not se ......
The daffodil's are blooming and where Charles and I live, this means spring even though it is not spring as of yet.Since my last post, we have gone through another large load of items to go through. I have been washing and separating items to be donated. I have noticed all of the eras that Madge lived through by the items in her house.It is very difficult and sad to go through another's belongings.It has been easy to see the era of the long black gloves worn for special occasions.The difference in how things were made long ago and the quality is very obvious.I remember my dress gloves that I wore when we went to town to shop.The embellishment's were so beautiful long ago.I have tr ......
I am enjoying the little writing desk that we refurbished. It seems to bring calm to the home, maybe another feeling of living like the past. Life has been quite hectic for us for the past fourteen months, but we are not the only ones that go through complicated times. Everyone goes through some kind of changes, it can be good change and then it can be not so good such as illness, accidents, unexpected expenses, death of a loved one, job losses, a business that has failed, and then sometimes there is a need to become a caregiver for a loved one. These are just a few things that can get us out of balance.Keeping a home running smoothly can be a problem when there is ......
This is the type of Queens Cake that I make. There are many variations for queens cakes. We can look far back in time. So far I have traced them back to 1766. They were called Queen Cakes. The recipe I use is from approximately 1803. There are different types of Queen Cake and as time went forward there were recipes that looked like a cookie or biscuit, a muffin or cupcake. Then in the 1940's and up, they could look like most anything, A full cake to a sheet cake or a mini cake. I studied many queen cake recipes and this is the one that we enjoy eating, it is more of a cookie or biscuit than a muffin or cupcake. The one pictured a ......
I have been busy in the kitchen the past week or two. With the study of 1917, I am comparing old recipes with modern recipes. So I took on trying different bread grains, making clotted cream, homemade mayonnaise, spelt bread, pumpernickel bread and I forget what else for the moment.The photo above is our homemade mayonnaise keeper. Just a simple pretty container I found at the thrift store. I know that the study is 1917 and this recipe above for mayonnaise is 1919 but from 1912 to 1919 the recipes for mayonnaise are similar and different. The ones that I did not want to try is where they added whipped cream. I did not want to do those.1913 informationTh ......
There is much uncertainty in this world today, I can get overwhelmed and worry if I let myself because so much today is shocking. When we focus on the uncertain, we stop ourselves from doing the things that can bring us and our family happiness. One day I thought about this and realized that I do not remember the type of stress we have today. I asked Charles about this and we compared our experiences from long ago to now, and what would the differences be today? Pulled from my memory1968, military, Vietnam war. We received a urgent telegram. YOUR FATHER HAD A HEART ATTACK NEED TO COME HOME SERIOUS CONDITION.We had little money, we did not have a ......
I have felt very different lately since starting our 1917 study. I love researching and finding new information and when digging into the past there is a lot to learn. Some of the things that I find I do not like but I am looking for the good parts of the past because that is what I like to do. Some of our history studies that Charles and I have done had a feeling of tension, excitement, and sometimes homesickness. With this new study of 1917 I feel calm and homey. Many people love the Victorian and Edwardian era, and still today there is much Romanticizing of those times, their homes, the clothing. We can see these images in books, vintage ma ......
It all started with this bank book that we found in a box of Madge's items. It is a bank book that belonged to Charles Great Grandmother. As many of you know, Charles and I love learning new things about history and so this year we are studying the year 1917. I will not be blogging the same way that I once did with the studies, I will just be sharing new things we learn that will help with getting back to basics. You are welcome to join along if you want to do so. I would much rather live like the year 1917 than follow along with anything going on in our real time. Outside of our own issues during 2023, the year outside our home was simply exhausting,& ......
I am thankful for the time that I was born and raised. I have fond memories of my younger years and was raised city and rural life so I was able to understand not having and having, sensible and not practical. Not practical is what we have much of today.Some of you have seen this old store on my blog several times before, this store belonged to my Great Aunt and Uncle and was my most favorite place to go. The creaky wood floors, the squeaky screen door, a pot belly stove in the middle of the store, groceries on shelves on the walls, folks came and sat in wood chairs around the old wood stove and caught up on talk. Penny candy in jars and my Uncle cut meat and cheese in his ......
For those new to my blog, I am Grandma Donna and when things are going well I pop in quite often to write a post. This year of 2023, I have been taking long breaks due to health and family issues. I have been around for many years on this blog and have quite a long list of posts.My husband Charles and I live quite similar as our generations before us. We enjoy sharing the old ways of doing things and we also enjoy doing history studies by living like the year we are studying for the entire year. Sometimes we make it through an entire year before we get anxious to start another year and depending on what is happening in our life. We have spent a good bit of time st ......
I have not posted since August 2023 and I am not sure where to start because so much has happened. I believe this picture was taken sometime in early September but not sure. We moved a bed into our side room of our kitchen so we could have a guest bed in our house in case family came for a visit.Last post, Madge and her three cats had been living with us a little over a month. Madge had a stroke in July and complicated issues non related to the stroke. I was still recovering from surgery and some heart issues.Madge was an independent, eccentric, woman that had lived alone for twenty seven years. She did not like to open her blinds or allow us to help h ......
There have been many times recently that I felt I could not add another thing to do or find the energy to keep going. I even considered just giving in and staying in the bed but I knew that was silly way of thinking knowing where that would get me.Somehow I kept finding the energy to get through each day and then this week I realized that I had gotten over the hump or stepped over that imaginary line and leaving behind that burden. I suddenly felt more peaceful and more at ease. We live in a small home and this past weekend Charles and I made a big push to flip furniture in the house to make more room in Madge's room so we can fit a recliner in her room. We went from a ......
I have not had much time to sit at the computer to do a post. Actually, I had to dust off the computer and it seems strange to sit here.I do not have a lot of pictures as I usually do to tell what has been going on.I had the pacemaker surgery and everything was going well but then I had an event that put me back in the hospital. It had to do with my heart and some fatigue issues that had gotten very bad.These are our small railroad plates, I thought I would show you with my hand. They are oval and when I take pictures on them it looks like more food than there actually is. Like this. :)Well back to the story. If you have read my blog for awhile, you wi ......
This is Grandma Donna, I am writing a short post to let you know that I have had my surgery and everything is going well. I am home from the hospital, the nurses and doctors were all so nice and caring but I am glad to sleep in our bed now.The changing of the 32 year old leads was too risky for me at this time per my doctor, he made it clear that there may be another surgery at some time for this but for now the old pacemaker is out and the new pacemaker is in. I feel these old leads are going to be okay to keep me ticking. I will be on sponge baths for eight days, then the bandage can come off. They do not know that I am the vintage, history buff lady that has a w ......
I have been away from my blog for nineteen days from today. It took me at least ten of those days to figure out how to not blog and just be. It has been like going back home peeling away technology. I have found that I can use technology if I use it as a good book, not as something that is chained to me. As long as I am learning from it in a balanced away and not wasting my life scrolling. I have been in and out of the garden. This past week the temperatures have gotten very hot and dry. I have planted only things that can manage without much care and water duties which Charles will be taking over for me soon.I have once again straightened o ......
I have been enjoying my time off from blogging, getting my home ready before my surgery and resting my brain from electronics. I knew that I was feeling pressures from electronics but did not realize how consuming electronics have become and how they have slowed down getting things done in my home and robbed me of mental clarity.I feel that the internet has cause many of us to be addicted and that is what the electronic industry wants us to be. We need to relearn how to be present. When we do find something of interest on the internet, read it like a book when there is time after chores and meals are done. Stepping away from the computer and ......
What is our purpose?For the first 13 years of my life, I lived in the city of Memphis Tennessee. I understood rural living because when visiting my mothers side of the family we would drive to the Mississippi delta. When we moved to Alabama, I was thirteen and that was the beginning of my knowledge how families farmed the old way, the simple way of farming and raising a family from your farm. Raising your animals, growing your food and living with very little money. I made friends with the most wonderful people that eventually would become my in-laws. They raised nine children on a small farm without electricity and running water, my mother in law sewed quilts an ......
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