How to take a bath when there is no power
What can we learn from great granny?
Let’s turn back the clock a little today and look at the women that were born around the turn of the last century, 1880 to 1900. What they lived through must have been amazing and utterly heartbreaking. too.
The United States fought five wars in the 1900s: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War where she may have lost a son like my grandmother did.
She would have turned marrying age before the time of the widespread use of electricity, especially in the more rural areas of the country.
This is my own dear great grandmother; Matilda Blanche, born 1881. She died in 1972 in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. Her and grandpa Alistair didn’t have electricity put into their house until about 1963. I have many fond memories of visits to their house and all the wonderful food g-gramma cooked on her wood cookstove. It was an enormous black and chrome beast that covered almost all of one wall. You could feel the warmth and love in great grandma’s farmhouse kitchen!
1883-Light bulb was invented, Thomas Edison claimed as inventor.
1888-The Kodak box camera was offered for sale for $25, taking 100 pictures on a roll.
1892-the "Pledge of Allegiance" was first recited in unison by students in US public schools
1908- Women compete in modern Olympic Games for the first time
1908- Famed auto maker, Henry Ford produced his first Model T automobile
I tell you all this because in my heart, I know the time is coming to America very, very soon where great grandmothers knowledge is going to be what keeps families and households alive. Those that didn’t have the pleasure of granny’s teachings have mostly lost those precious great granny skills, those skills that kept her family warm and comfortable without electricity. I hope it is not too late for the younger women to begin learning these things.
I was lucky to have some of grannys know-how passed on to me along with many other domestic divas I have cared for and spent time with over the years. Even if a women never married or had a family of their own these ancient things are good to know. Everyday great-granny skills can help to her care for those around her. (This is some goods news, they are offering as an elective a type of home economics course in some high schools again. Someone gave it some fancy name to get the kids interested and I’ll be damned if I can remember what that fancy name is.)
When I was older one of the things that interested me in particular was how g-granny cared for those that had fallen ill. Her genuine concern for her patients comfort was felt and appreciated by the patient. That honesty and love, in my humble opinion, is what healed her sick or injured person. Chicken soup helped, of course, but the loving energy she offered with her gentle touch was and has always been, the key to a speedy recovery.
I remember standing in front of grandmothers open medicine cupboard late one afternoon. In there she had rolled up white strips of what used to be bright white sheets. Instead of throwing away an old sheet it was torn into 3 inch wide strips, rolled and a safety pin held the roll from unrolling. The safety pin could then be used to hold the wrapped sheet strip around a wound. Sometimes when safety pins were not available, the stretchy part of the top of old socks was cut off and piled up next to the rolls of sheets. Nothing went to waste. If a wound needed a wrap on the hand or arm, or even around the ankle the top of the sock could be placed over the bandage to hold it in place. Again, there are lots of uses for those sock tops.
Granny also would save cloth diapers for use in the sick room. They made great pads for under kids that didn’t make it to the bathroom. Old diapers could be used for anything that needed absorbing or cleaning. Cloth diapers when wrapped around a large gaping wound and pressure added usually stopped the bleeding and held the blood in check.
Granny and my mother always had tincture of iodine and mercurochrome in the cupboard for scraped knees and minor cuts to keep bacteria out of the wound. I added 10% Povidone-iodine to my modern day medi-cupboard. Lots of uses for this stuff.
I use Povidone when I have a sinus infection or a cold coming on. I will put two teaspoons of the 10% Povidone-iodine along with 1/8 teaspoon of non iodized salt and 1/8 teaspoon baking soda and 8 oz. warm (90 degrees) distilled water into a neti pot and rinse my sinuses. Works every time!
Nasal rinsing reduces severity of covid-19
Bag balm was another must have. Actually, it was meant for infected cow udders but farmers discovered that it worked great for their minor mishaps too. 10 uses for Bag balm.
The very best for ear aches is Sweet oil and garlic. Put a few chopped fresh garlic cloves in the bottle of sweet oil, let set in a dark place for 4 to 6 weeks. Shake daily. Strain out garlic and rebottle the sweet oil and label and date. Great stuff! Put a drop or two on a Q-tip and rub in the ear. Or simply drip a drop into the infected ear.
Campho-phenique is still around and is a wonderful pain reliever/antiseptic. I’ll add one more remedy to this list that wasn’t available in granny’s day, and that is Oil of Oregano- Oreganol P73- from North American Herb and Spice. This is awesome stuff for healing skin of rashes, bites and other boo boos. All natural ingredients; purified water, Canadian wildflower honey, propolis, royal jelly, St. John’s wort oil, wild oil of oregano P73, wild lavender oil, wild myrtle oil, lanolin and pure essence of Canadian balsam. I bet you can think of a ton of uses for this wonderful healer.
My grandmothers swore by Vicks VapoRub, but I prefer a more natural version that I make myself using almond oil, beeswax, camphor essential oil, Eucalyptus essential oil and menthol crystals. Once you breathe in a petroleum product it is almost impossible to get out of the lungs. Lehman’s catalog has many “already made” Amish natural remedies for sale. I love this place. Lehman's remedies
Many of the women back during the early, modern days used plant material as single tinctures, compounds, teas, salves and poultices of which they could make at home. Proven over millions of years of human history, herbal remedies heal most ailments very well given enough recoup time. Did you know most of the medicines you get from the pharmacist started with plant material. Profitable pharmaceutical companies have exploited specific plant molecules, harvesting just one molecule and make a chemical out of it so they can patent it. Then though the manufacturing process other stuff is added to demand the body react to it. To treat the symptoms. In the natural world, plants work in symmetry where the plant elements work together to allow the body to heal using all the different available molecules.
Making a tincture/extract for pain
Castor oil has many helpful uses, internally and externally. There has been a bottle of castor oil around in one cupboard or another all my life. Young people should really learn how to use it. 30 uses for castor oil
I have forgotten many of the things g-grannys had in her cupboard, it’s been a long time since g-granny passed. Throughout my working years, however, I have come into contact with hundreds of old people. I listened to their stories and I asked questions. Later in life I found myself in a position where I had the opportunity to actually use some of what I had learned. I found myself living off grid in the woods alone for a year or so. Just me and a big dog named gus. I was so thankful that I had listened to the wisdom of those folks that had lived the stories they told.
One story from my own grandmother. She enlightened me with a history of her great grandmother which I assume must have taken place in the late 1800’s, although I forgot to ask her when her story took place. Her great grandparents were carpet makers, the whole family helped make the carpets by oil lamps in the evening after all the farm work was done for the day. It was a fascinating story about my ancient ancestors and how they made a living long before electricity.
Another story from a lady who had been born at home, as so many babies were in early 1920’s, but she was a premature birth and very tiny. In her story, she tells how her mother wrapped in her tiny new baby in a heavy towel and put her in a small basket. The new mother made a fire in the wood cookstove and once a warm fire was going good she opened the oven door and placed the basket with her new daughter on the door of the wood cookstove to keep her warm. Apparently, it worked because the lady telling this story to me was 98 years old.
Anyway, what I was getting at is that I wrote some of these stories and recipes into a book and had it self published years ago. The layout of the book didn’t go as planned and turned out pretty shitty. It irritated me to no end that suddenly I had a zillion weird, new self publishing companies calling me a hundred times a month offering to “fix” my book. We can give you a deal it will only cost you lots of money, like $2700.00 to get started. I ended up having to change my phone number to get them to quit bugging me. Occasionally, I still get one that found my email address and tries again.
I did get a legitimate offer from a real producer from New York (I checked into her and who she represented) to audition for the History Channel production of “Alone.” I didn’t go, long story.
I felt the book was put together shitty so I never promoted it, but the information is sound. I’ll stand by that. It is that information I used at my off grid cabin. It was tremendously helpful. The stories and recipes from the domestic divas that I interviewed sure had it going on. They knew how to do things for sure. For the most part I was quite comfortable.
I offer this amazing information to you if you are interested. You can get an ebook on Amazon for $3.99. I would advise going that route or finding another hard copy seller. Amazon wants $19.99 for it from what I can tell. This book has been pirated so you can most likely find it at a discount bookseller somewhere.
The book is called “How to survive and thrive when the power is out.” by J.L. Noakes.
Yeah, that is me on the back cover from years ago when I was really living it. My book was lovingly written for women 20 to 40 years old. I was thinking about that age group because they are going to be the most vulnerable when the SHTF and the least likely to know what needs to be done to keep her family comfortable without electricity. It’s not as easy as you may think.
In the book I talk about appetite fatigue and what to expect from kids. Think behavior.
There is a section on women and babies needs. How to make diapers and emergency formula.
What is a spring house and how do you keep food cold during the summer.
What to do before the toilet backs up or fills up.
How to clean a family of 5 in one tub of water. Not all at the same time, silly.
In section 2, I encourage you to copy these guidelines and rules on what you can do when they come to your house expecting you to take care of them, for free. It’s called; Your sister, husband and 6 kids.
How to make a hydration drink, recipes for making jerky, soap, and other stuff, 3 pages of granny know-how and much more. . .
It is a starter book for some. There are a bunch of blank pages in it too, you can fill up with your own family stories and grandma’s recipes. I guess you could say you could make it like a journal and pass it down to the next generation of domestic divas. You can look at a few pages for free on Amazon.
Until next time. . .