Grandmothers Supply Cupboard

Chapter Five--Austere times ahead

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

-- War As I Knew It (1947) by George S. Patton

I congratulate you for making it this far in these writings. Your reward is certain that you will be much better prepared for what comes next in our very near future which is basically, the break down of bountiful supply chain. Throughout history people around the world have seen change and devastation come to their daily lives and have survived it. “Defiance” starring Daniel Craig comes to mind in more recent history. It’s a true story about a surviving Jewish group during WWII.

As the family care taker you will need to keep an eye out for those family members becoming sick, depressed and angry. Coping with change can be overwhelming for some. Another thing that happens during great change is what scientists call “appetite fatigue.” This often happens when individuals are forced to eat the same rations day after day. They no longer feel the need to eat. This is seen most often in POWs, toddlers and the elderly.

Grannys supply cupboard

This list is only a starting point. Grandmothers of the past didn’t have all the modern innovations that we have today. So, we’ll go with what worked for her in her day. (I’ll point to some of the stuff you may find at Walgreens, just for fun)

First and foremost, the number one priority in all living situations should be sanitation. It’s not a fun subject but it is so very necessary to keep on this side illness, without strict sanitation and cleanliness protocols, everything will fail. Have plenty of plastic trash bags at the ready, too. You will know why when you need them.

Water----

The ability to obtain fresh clean water is essential. Next is the method of disinfecting water. There was a time when you could drink straight from a fast moving creek or stream, but that time has long gone away. Today a water filtering system is the best insurance policy against all that floats in our water.

Grandmother boiled her suspect water or ran it through a primitive filtering system. Today we are lucky to have filtering home products, iodine tablets, bleach and silver coins. Leaving filtered, clean water in a glass container out in the hot sun all day in a glass jar, will likely kill most bacteria. Here ultraviolet rays are a superhero.

Just an interesting fact— Did you know back many, many years ago when most babies were born at home, very shortly after the cutting of the cord, silver coins were laid on the newborn infants eyes? Sanitation not being optimal and the mothers health unknown babies could contract any bacteria or disease that the mother had in her body while moving through the birth canal. Silver coins laid on the eyes, it was discovered, killed most bacteria that could cause the infant to lose its sight.

Fire-----

Knowing how to get a good fire going was most certainly left up to the domestic diva of the household. Even during caveman days the female was in charge of the hearth. Make sure, in times of crisis, you know how to make a hearth and keep it going. A good skill to have for comfort, cooking, heating, sterilizing water and other necessities as they arrive.

Learn make a fire and have ready, lighters, matches and flint & steel. Practice, practice, practice.

In the cupboard

Bandages, band aids, gauze and tape, clean white sheets torn into strips and rolled for storage. Create a poultice box with clean cloth and old diapers in it and keep it handy.

Female Kotex pads make excellent wound/blood stoppers. Make sure you have different sizes. No, Tampons are not good to use for gun shot wounds.

Grandmother always had a hot water bottle or two around the house and a homemade ice pack. (Mason jars filled with hot water and wrapped with a towel work well in a pinch.) Rubber hot water bottles can pull double duty by filling one with clean water and rubbing alcohol and freezing for a home made ice pack.

How many of you remember *Bag Balm*? It was originally produced for cows but it worked so well for the farmers that you can still find it at Walmart and Walgreens. Wonderful stuff.

Modern antiseptic products are great, grandmother used rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, tincture of iodine, tincture of gentian, vodka, hydrogen peroxide, and Mercurochrome. They would last forever unlike tubes of healing goo we get today that have an expiration date when people have been brainwashed into throwing it away.

Granny seemed to always have a pan of water sitting in the sink to wash her hands when there was no electricity. Grams always had a big bucket for hauling it too. Just so you know, hauling water is really hard work.

I know she had trauma scissors, tweezers, large safety pins, wash cloth, towels, blankets, a light source, and activated charcoal, because when I went to visit she often needed some of these things for my boo boos.

Tea tree essential oil spray

Add 20 drops of tea tree oil to a small glass spray bottle and fill with witch hazel or distilled water. This spray is an antifungal that will kill staphylococcus, e-coli, shigella, and salmonella.

Grapefruit seed essential oil

Contrary to popular urban legend, bleach will not kill tuberculosis germs. Use grapefruit seed extract in the above recipe for disinfecting where someone that has tuberculosis has been.

Heliotherapy

Sunshine for therapeutic purposes is a very old healing process that should be on everyone’s care list. Just move the patient into the sun for nature's best healing therapy and mood elevator. If possible remove their foot coverings and let them touch the grass. The sunshine cures tuberculosis which was a common killer before antibiotics. The key component of sunlight, when it comes to infection, is the UV rays. These rays actually kill bacteria and viruses, however, it does take a little longer than simply taking a pill.

Sick rooms were stationed with access to as much sunlight as possible back in grandmother's day. Even better if windows can be opened to let in fresh air and let out stuffy sick air, a cheery atmosphere heals. If unable to open windows, ancient hospitals often burned herbs such as sage, rosemary, cedar or what herbs were available depending on the time of year, to kill germs and freshen the room.

A True Story

Most of my youth was spent taking care of elderly people in one capacity or another, usually as an in-home health care-giver. What made this job such a wonderful opportunity was all the stories of lives of the people I cared for. I was lucky to be the recipient of so much loving wisdom.

Denny was one of my clients, he was 90 years old but what a special guy he was! We were putting together his meds for the week when he began telling me a story of when he was only 12. He tells me his story was probably about 1926.

Denny and a few friends had been down at the river fishing most of the day. They were getting bored with not having caught many fish, but one boy wasn’t ready to give up just yet. He had to cast out one more time before it got dark.

The boy swung his pole back and whipped the line but instead of landing in the water it lodged in Denny’s wrist. The boy pulled and Denny hollered!

Fascinated, the other boys gathered around to see what had happened. This hook was not going to come out peacefully. So another boy took out his pocket knife and started digging around in Denny’s wrist finally dislodging the hook. Denny wandered over to the river and washed the blood off his skin, while the boys packed it up and all went home.

A few days went by and the fish hook wound had crusted over and began to itch. Denny picked at it for a couple more days finally getting the scab to come off. It was still red and itchy but that stupid scab was gone.

The next day Denny’s mother sent him out to the corner grocery to pick up a few items. It was a beautiful day and he had often walked the 6 blocks for his mother. When he had gotten everything on the list and paid for it, he headed back towards home. Denny had to cross the street, so he waited at the corner just barely able to look over two big grocery bags. A passing car stopped at the corner and asked Denny if he wouldn’t like a lift. It was Doc Brown, the town doctor, and he was headed in that direction. Doc Brown made house calls often to Mrs. Smith because she had become sickly after giving birth recently.

Denny climbed next to the doctor and thanked him for the ride. They rode in silence for a few moments when the doctor noticed a red pussy wound on Denny’s wrist with a green line running up his arm.

“How’d you get that nasty cut on your arm, I see it has become infected.” asked the doctor.

Denny told the good doctor what had happened, and said that it had been bothering him more lately.

The doctor's instructions were to tell his mother what had happened, then tell her I said to make a paste using flax seeds and use the paste in a poultice. “Change the flax seed dressing once a day until the green line goes away”. The good doctor emphasized.

Denny promised that he would, thanked the doctor again and got out of the car. He did what the doctor had told him to do and his mother went to work on a poultice.

Two days later the green line, which was the beginning stages of blood poisoning, was gone. That’s why Denny was to live to be in his 90’s.

“We must cherish the advantage of clear foresight, value its knowledge, and utilize it to work toward achieving a unified future world- one of human compassion, deep spirituality and world peace.”

Mary Summer Rain

The End

Janet Noakes is a nutritional educator that holds a Bachelor of Science in Holistic Nutrition, graduating in 2000 with honors.

Prior to getting her degree, she studied natural health and wellness, herbs and herbal remedies. Author of “How to Survive and Thrive When the Power is Out”. In this book Ms. Noakes offers her timely wisdom from the many grandmothers she has interviewed over the years in geriatric health care. Their stories, recipes, and know-how abound from between the pages chronicled here from a time before the wide use of electricity.

Today you will find her and her husband still living on the homestead in the backwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.