1800's Week

[Alegria]

This could go in the Schoolhouse, but I'm sticking it here.

We are studying the Pioneer/Homesteading era of history. As a lesson in history & preparedness, I would like to do an Homesteading Week. We would trun off the power (except for turning it on once a day to power the well & keep the freezers frozen (not losing several hundred dollars of food to the project), & we could blog about what we are learning.) Our house was built in 1886, so that is the time period we willl shoot for. We will cook, work, study & live like the homesteaders for that week.

What prepping/homesteading/survival lessons should we plan to incorporate into the week? (Sneaky way to get my kids thinking prepping & survival, see? )

[Explorer]

Prepare all your meals from a 1880's cookbook and nothing fancy, except maybe the final class meal.

[Explorer]

No, or little, Internet may be the hardest thing to overcome.

[nimrod]

Cheryl,

Eat only foods you grew or raised yourself or could have. No oranges imported from South Africa.

Prepare foods as they did in the 1800s.

No paper towles. I would stretch the paper ban to allow the use of TP.

No use of electricity. Don't turn off the electricity, just don't use it for lights, computer, or TV. Probable not set up to pump water by hand.

No modern toys. Kids back then had one or two toys that the parents made for them.

Curt

[BJ]

Sounds like a neat lesson. Maybe read the little house books in the evening? It gives a good idea of what people did then. Have the girls do a sampler? Your son could make something with hand tools. A shelf for his room maybe. A spelling bee would be good. They were popular then.

[sssarawolf]

OKay you have to tell us how it went. What was the best what was the worst ?

[Alegria]

Haven't had it yet! First I want to do a unit study on the 1880's so they will know what life was like then. So this should be about the end of April.

[CrossCreekTX]

Don't forget to have the girls wear long dresses and no bath till sat nite!

[Unk]

Nothing self propeled like cars. Bicycles are ok. Nothing made of plastic. I can remember that. Coaloil lights. Might use a coaloil cook stove. I remember them. No water heater. Set the copper boiler on the wood stove to heat water for washing clothes or your little pink body. Wear a bonnet. It was unlady like for girls to have a tan. No underwear for men nor women without legs to about knee length. Men wore long johns until hot weather then switched over to summer weight underwear pull ons that were just like long johns with the arms and legs cut off at the knees or elbos. Been there, done that. When you took off the long johns around haymaking time in June it felt like it was about 20 degrees cooler. You could heat your wash water in a tub setting on three rocks with a wood fire under it. Carry your water from the creek in a pail, That would be soft water in most places. They didn't have propane. They didn't have sliced bread. In the country you only had bread you had baked yourself. No ball points. I got my first one when I was a freshman. Buy some straight pens with the changable points for the kids to write with.Gotta have an ink well to dip the pen into. A jelly jar would be ok for that. Whatever you do don't forget some ink blotters to go with the pens. Trust me, they'll need them. I could go on and on, but my typing finger is getting tired. LOL <>Unk

[Explorer]

I remember my first ballpoint pen. In the late forties I was writing with a ink pen that you had to dip in a ink bottle frequently. I got a fountain pen in the early fifties that worked OK, some of the time. It leaked ink and generally made a mess of things, I expect it was a cheap model. Then about 1955 I got my first ball point. It was clear plastic you could see the column of ink and most important it didn't leak - much. I think it was a BIC.

[CrossCreekTX]

No indoor plumbing! Need to find a thunder mug.

[sssarawolf]

Lol cross i dont know if they need to go that far.Lol

[Unk]

You can not use a bathroom. That would ruin the whole concept of the 1800s. Put a couple buckets out in a shed, and bring one inside at night. Great Grandma had a chamber by her bed at night.

[Alegria]

The flush toilet was invented in 1877. :P

[Explorer]

And every homesteader on the Great Plains had one. That is why they all had wells. If they hadn't had flush toilets the aquifers would not have went dry thus preventing the dust bowl and all the Okies moving to California and the porn industry would never have gotten started.

[CrossCreekTX]

I was born in 1952 and even then the vast majority of country homes had an outhouse.

[Alegria]

I know all about outhouses. My grandparents had one when I was young & kept it for overflow when all of us grandkids were there. The kids are excited, the plan is for this to be the middle of May. I'm hoping to do it from Thursday to the following Wednesday & have my 12 yo dd birthday in the middle. I thought an old fashioned birthday (simple with 1880's games) would be fun.

[sssarawolf]

I am looking forward to hearing how it all went.

[MichiganFarmer]

pretty interesting