WAYWO 4.13.08: Just Like Granny Did It

In the late 1980s, GM launched the "Not Your Father's Oldmobile" campaign in an effort to revive interest in the brand. The Olds is now defunct, but the tagline lives on in various forms, pushing the idea that old is bad, new is better and that the previous generations are hopelessly square.

At the same time, though, PBS launched a series of reality programs that documented modern families' attempts to live as their forbears might have -- in a frontier house, or in the 1900 house.And you know what? It's hard! Those old folks lived differently than we do and had to invent their own solutions to their particular problems. Perhaps there's a lesson here about learning from the old ways.

I thought about that recently while reading through Cheryl Mendelson's "Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House" (and while avoiding unpacking):

Living in your home constantly uses up its good things -- food, clean cloths, linens, shiny floors. Housekeeping routines provide for their continual renewal. The best way to begin keeping house is by setting up your routines and schedules.

That's pretty much where I am. I got as far as Blue Monday for the laundry; my house is blessed with a long drying line and stiff breezes, and line drying reduces the load on my dryer by about 80 percent. (Oddly enough, one municipality I know of bans open burning on Mondays because it's laundry day and nobody wants to smell like a burn barrel.) But the rest is a sort of mystery to me.

I would like to live more in tune with older ways of doing things -- fewer cleaning chemicals (I love my vinegar!) and an established routine for doing chores both major and minor. Monkey work I can do; it's the endless figuring out how to fit everything in that makes me tired. I need routine and schedule, otherwise the house just goes into...freefall. I love Mendelson's daily/weekly/monthly/yearly list, I just can't quite figure out how to adapt it. Something around here is always on fire ("Mama, I need a wipe!" "Honey, can you bring my gear by the office?" "WAAAAAHHHHH!") and I'm having trouble saying no long enough to figure out how to make time to say yes.

Schedule- and routine-loving folks: How do you establish and maintain your chosen ways? Do you take your cues from your grandmothers? And how in the heck do you fit your craft in around what needs to be done?

Sorry this is so short -- it's strictly last-minute fill-in, just like so much of my life at the moment! The floor is yours... I have to go vacuum mine!

•  Tips for a pinch-hitter?

  Wish I could stick around, but duty calls. Back later, folks -- please do carry on.

  by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:02:51 PM PDT

  •  re: how to schedule, make routines etc

    Have you discovered the Flylady?
    Flylady.com or Flylady.org or Flylady.net

    Some of it can seem preachy sometimes, but there's an awful lot of good stuff there, from fellow travellers who were not "Born Organized"

    by Thestral on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:54:27 PM PDT

•  Found this diary last Sunday

  YEA!  My mom's a big vinegar fan also.

  I love the smell of laundry dried in the air and sun, just don't have any place to hang it.

  WAYWO:  started a new shawl for a friend.  I can't seem to find the right lace pattern and have frogged it about 10 times already :-).  I did find a fern lace pattern that I like, but I'm thinking it's printed incorrectly in the book.  Boo....I hate that!

  BTW, I have cast-on-itis!  Way too many projects going.

  by juslikagrzly on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:07:29 PM PDT

  •  Me, too

    Cast-on-itis, that is.  I have 4 projects on the needles right now, only one of which I'm working on with any regularity.

    Yes, the scent of sun-dried laundry is wonderful, isn't it?  I don't have a place to hang it either.  On a day like today (90+ F) it would dry pdq.

    by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:24:54 PM PDT

  •  I swear by vinegar

    Love it. I worry much less about my kids getting into vinegar than into chemical cleaners, which is important when I absentmindedly set my spray bottle down...

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:34:40 PM PDT

•  It is against my development's deed restrictions

  to have a clothesline, or other solar-powered clothes drying device.

  My first weekend here, I washed some stuff and hung it out on a line stretched from porch to tree, and got a call from the Civic People.  

  by escapee on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:22:12 PM PDT

  •  My sister in law came up against that

    and she was able to get them to change by arguing about global warming (didn't tell them she does it to save money!)

    Not an easy battle to fight!  

    In the winter, when the house is incredibly dry, I set up several wooden racks in the basement for drying.  Doesn't work, however, once we don't need the furnace.

    by EJP in Maine on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:26:41 PM PDT

  •  "Right to Dry" movement

    There is actually a movement named that, working at getting the laws changed to permit solar clothes drying :)

    http://www.laundrylist.org/...

    by mem from somerville on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:43:16 PM PDT

    •  mem, where the heck have you been?

      It's so nice to see you!

      by escapee on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:04:33 PM PDT

      •  Oh, hey...nice to see you too!

        Combination of business/life-maintenance (tis tax season, you know :) and the candidate conflama.  I have been sparse.  

        I put my toe in the water to keep the TU a few times a week, but not nearly so much as before.

        Please, my kingdom for a candidate to beat McSame!

        by mem from somerville on Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 03:23:37 PM PDT

  •  Did you see gchaucer2's diary?

    Hanging Laundry on the Line.

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:32:45 PM PDT

•  Cooking

  Making baklava to freeze for a school bake sale.  And working on a cookbook as a Nordic ski team fundraiser.

  I always find it easy to do the things related cooking.  The kitchen floor is dirty, but I don't think I'll get to that tonight...  Have to finish the baby hat...  pick up the papers that have piled up...

  First, I'll finish the baklava...then, we'll see if there is time...

  by EJP in Maine on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:24:09 PM PDT

  •  Can you please ...

    Develope some kind of edible link to those baklava?

    I haven't had good baklava in a few months.

    by mickT on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:38:39 PM PDT

    •  I am so sorry, but

      I can give you a link to the recipe here.  I assemble it, cut it, and freeze it for baking later, when I need it.  It is a pretty reasonable do ahead project.

      I was complimented by an Egyptian woman, who especially liked it because it does not have rose water, which she felt ruins baklava.

      by EJP in Maine on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:46:57 PM PDT

      •  I agree with her

        I love the scent of rosewater, but to me it makes things taste sickeningly sweet.

        by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:26:47 PM PDT

•  i use this, after a fashion

  flylady

  don't take her too seriously - it's easy to get overwhelmed.

  by jlms qkw on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:25:31 PM PDT

  •  I signed up for that once

    and unsubbed two days later.  The number of emails they send is astounding!

    by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:27:42 PM PDT

    •  it is. you can look at the messages

      online too.  now.

      i signed up when there weren't very many users, over 8 years ago!  i'm a hard core case though.  

      by jlms qkw on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:56:36 PM PDT

    •  Yep. I lasted a week. n/t

      by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:29:55 PM PDT

•  I don't get the

  "dried in the sun" scent anymore when I hang my clothes outside.  I think air pollution is the reason.  But at least, since we cut down the big elm tree that shaded our clothes line, I am not dealing with bird poop on my clean clothes!  

  Kind of OT, but today I was making 7 minute frosting.  I was thinking that I should make sure my daughter knows how to make it.  Then I realized that I learned to make it when I was growing up in the 50s and used an eggbeater to beat the frosting.  I don't remember my mother ever having an electric hand mixer.  An eggbeater is one utensil I don't want to ever have to use again.  Progress can be a good thing.

  by myrealname on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:26:31 PM PDT

•  i made this week

  and did not take a single picture :-(

  3 loaves of home-baked bread.  

  i am using James Beard's "Beard on Bread", which may have been published after his death?.  I am modifying the basis recipe the way i feel any given day.  

  this is my protest against mysterious chemicals in store-bought bread, high food prices, etc.

  i use my kitchenaid mixer and she does a fabulous job blending and kneading.  the bread is as good as bakery bread.  

  by jlms qkw on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:27:42 PM PDT

  •  Hooray for homemade bread

    I make all of our bread using the dough cycle of my bread machine.  I love finding healthy recipes.  So much better than even the very expensive store-bought bread.  My 3 year old grandson loves to help me, and he's getting quite good at it.

    by myrealname on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:33:43 PM PDT

    •  We use our bread machine frequently, too

      Its a Wellbilt and we've had it since the early '90's.    Got to love that fresh bread!

      by Ellicatt on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:45:22 PM PDT

    •  have you seen the basic recipe

      from beard?  it's a bit salty for me.  i've been modifying it ever since i succeeded with the first loaf.  last night was wheat germ and yogurt.  

      by jlms qkw on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:55:39 PM PDT

      •  No

        I almost always cut the amount of salt in half in the recipes I use, anyway.  I haven't seen the cookbook you are using, though.  I have recipes that call for bran flakes, bulgur, all bran, all kinds of seeds, wheat germ, wheat bran - just lots of great ingredients.

        by myrealname on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:07:37 PM PDT

  •  Mmmmmm...

    I love homemade bread.  That's why I don't have a bread machine.  Do you use one, jlms?

    by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:28:52 PM PDT

    •  no bread machine

      i let the kitchenaid do the mixing and kneading and it is so much powerful than my little hands.  

      by jlms qkw on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:54:52 PM PDT

  •  I will have to dig out my BOB

    I stick to my old favorites -- French style and Honey Whole Wheat. I can't get pumpernickel to rise for love or money, though I love it.

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:29:36 PM PDT

•  Help!

  I am working on a music video - to My Little American.  It currently has 3 children or nephew/nieces of Kossacks in it...

  I want to include a bunch of them.

  If you have pictures that would be cool for the video, please email them to me, or post them to me in comments on my diary thread, or something!

  Here's a link to the video:  http://www.youtube.com/...

  by sheddhead on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:32:12 PM PDT

  •  Almost done with my kitchen cabinets

    I forgot to take the before picture.

    It's been a rough two days. Cabinets are easy. Plumbing sucks. When I went to remove the old sink, the entire cold-water valve came off the 60 year old rotted out nickel pipe. Water gushed everywhere. Took me fifteen minutes to get the valve in some shape to screw back on the pipe in between emptying buckets of water. Fifteen minutes of hell.

    While I was emptying buckets and trying to plug the pipe, my mother-in-law called a plumber to help. By the time the plumber came, I had at least had the old valve screwed onto the half rotten pipe. It leaked, but it was gushing. He fixed the pipe, showed me how to cut the water off (previous plumbers all said only the water company could...liars), told me normal weekend emergency charges are $200, then charged me nothing.

    But I still had to put the new plumbing for the sink in one I had the cabinets in place. Several trips to Lowe's later, I finally have it down to only the drains on the new sink leak a tad.

    Hopefully next week I can get the last few pieces of trim in, get the drains to not leak, and take some happy pictures.

    Right now, I'm too pooped.

    by mickT on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:54:25 PM PDT

    •  What a great plumber!

      You should keep his name on file.

      by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:29:57 PM PDT

•  Not really working on anything creative

  right now, just waiting for the weather to warm up some so that I can go out and play in in the garden.

  I posted the following in another diary, and jlms qkw asked me to share in tonight's WAYWO diary.  It's a quilted wallhanging I made a few years ago:

  

  It measures 3' x 3'.  I used the paper-pieced method and it is hand quilted.  It hangs on my living room wall and the color combination inspiration comes from the area rug in my living room.

  I used a pattern from Carol Doak's "50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars".  I have the book and disk.  The disk is great to use because you can alter the block pattern to any size you wish and print out as many block section pieces as you require.  Its a big timesaving feature!

  I've made other wall hangings from the patterns from the book and I've given them out as presents.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures before I gave them away.

  by Ellicatt on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:41:05 PM PDT

  •  Amazing

    That's psychedelic!  I could gaze at that for hours.

    by myrealname on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:22:10 PM PDT

  •  That is gorgeous!

    You did a wonderful job.

    by el dorado gal on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:05:32 PM PDT

  •  No pictures?

    Glad that you have a shot of this one. Really nice work, Ellicatt.

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:27:53 PM PDT

    •  Thanks! ;~) n/t

      by Ellicatt on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 07:10:33 PM PDT

•  I just did some simple bead stringing and earring

  It's fun and easy for me to do with my arthritis plus I love playing with all the colors.

  
  freshwater pearls,swarovski crystal and bali silver

  
  handmade alli beads, swarovski crystal

  
  murano glass and vintage crackle glass and gold vermeil

  
  freshwater pearls and gold vermeil

  alli beads, serpentine and glass

  by Its any one guess on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:42:42 PM PDT

  •  Very nice - I like them all!

    I especially like your murano glass and vintage crackle glass and gold vermeil earrings.  Very pretty.

    by Ellicatt on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:48:55 PM PDT

    •  Thanks Ellicat

      I used to do really intricate beading but now I can't see the darn little beads well enough and I get handcramps that kill me. Heh, oh well, I still like messing around with beads. Simple but lots of fun.

      by Its any one guess on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:54:14 PM PDT

    •  Me, too

      Do you sell them?

      by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:31:36 PM PDT

      •  Yes, I do sell them

        to anyone that writes to my email.

        by Its any one guess on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 08:04:31 PM PDT

  •  The blue/green is lovely! n/t

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:27:15 PM PDT

•  Cool ties and seedlings

  I've been working on cool ties this weekend.  I've just about finished with my seeds, just have to find the timer for the lights.

  Not much else going on, kind of quiet weekend.

  Peace.

  by Ninepatch on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 04:53:24 PM PDT

•  It's been a little too hot

  for knitting or gardening.  Hopefully, after the sun goes down, I can fertilize the roses and water them.

  by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:32:39 PM PDT

  •  Hmmph! Too warm?

    We had snow today!  Bah.  My first daffodils came out last week.  It was great to see them - I don't know how they fared today.

    by myrealname on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:09:48 PM PDT

    •  Snow??

      I'm sorry.  I guess I won't say anything more about the roses.  

      by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:42:03 PM PDT

•  traditional rug hooking

  Thestral went to a hooker's convention with her Mom last week (Maryland Shores Rug Hooking School).

  Much fun was had, & I'm amazed how much I got done on my new piece, hooked in a #3 cut (3/16" wide strips of wool fabric on a burlap backing). Design is called "Chinese Herons" by Jeanne Fallier.  

  

  

  by Thestral on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 05:46:19 PM PDT

  •  Ooohhhhh, I am so jealous!

    Busy, busy, busy, but I wanted to pop in and say how jealous I am of this piece -- it's gorgeous! I can't get to my hooking to save my life. I hope we can talk shop some other WAYWO weekend. Or email me; addy's in profile. I'm a primitive gal myself, but I do love what you're working on.

    by monkeybiz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:26:52 PM PDT

    •  I'm just a baby hooker

      I started going to my Mom's regular monthly class with her a year ago September (in part so that Dad wouldn't have to drive her back & forth). Only finished finishing my first piece -  approx 1 ft square(whipstiched w/yarn) on the way down to the school, so I'd have something to show off. (Hooked in #3, almost entirely odds & ends & leftovers from Mom's stash)...it goes pretty slowly when you only hook at class (&/or your cat thinks your frame's a kitty hammock), and class is only once a month. At rug school, we could easily get in 6 or 8 or more hours of hooking a day!!!

      Thestral's first hooked rug, Pearl K. McGown's Gato de Peru
      

      by Thestral on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:47:23 PM PDT

  •  my bad, #3 is 3/32 inch (n/t)

    by Thestral on Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 04:52:49 PM PDT

•  Just wanted to mention

  that I'd been thinking about a solar clothes-dryer for a while, and this diary finally triggered me to ask Tod about it.  He's going to set up a clothesline for me!

  by Marlyn on Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:44:29 PM PDT