Searching for Direction & Purpose in Life's Sea of Opportunities
It seems strangely appropriate that on our Independence Day I write about a post about Britain at War. In this case it isn't the Revolutionary War, but instead World War II. I've mentioned before how much I enjoyed learning about the British home front in WWII. Leave it to the BBC to come up with… Continue reading Wartime Farm
Thanks to a spectacular sale on asparagus, I pulled out my canning equipment. It was pickling time. Last year I made a small batch of dill pickled asparagus. I don't really care for dill pickles, but I liked these - the dill taste didn't completely overwhelm the asparagus. So those were in the line up again, as… Continue reading Use it All
When I first moved into my place, I bought some cheap storage containers because they fit on my oddly shaped shelves, and I could stack them. Right after I started using them, I realized that they didn't really seal, and air and determined little moths could get right into them. That really defeated the entire… Continue reading Getting Stuff Done
At my birthday dinner this year, I mentioned to Ms. M that for gift giving purposes, all she had to do was think of what a 1950's housewife would like. Ever since I said it, I realized there was even more truth to it than I had intended. The infamous "they" ask, "What would do… Continue reading When I Grow Up
A few months ago I went on a jam making spree: Mixed berry jam and both half and non-bitter marmalade now crowd the shelves of my canned good storage. Well that and five pints of chow chow! Having this fabulous stash wasn't meeting my need, though. We are in the prime season for inexpensive fresh… Continue reading Putting Food Up
Three years ago tomorrow I launched this blog. That first post is still my favorite of all that I've ever written. It feels just as true to me now as when I wrote it - more than 300 posts later. In my first post I talked about how different my life was then versus five years… Continue reading Three Years Old
A week ago a friend of mine had to go out of town, so I had the privilege of watching his affectionate cat, SuperStar. When I showed up the first day, there was a note that the watermelon on the table was for me. I love watermelon, so I gladly hefted it back home. As… Continue reading Pickles of the Rind
All my long(ish) term readers out there know that I love canning and of my penchant for following prepper websites. One day, these circles collided. I was minding my own business, reading through my RSS feeds, when I learned something new: I could make my own pectin! [For the uninitiated, pectin is what makes jam… Continue reading Cooking with Apples
Early on in my canning adventures and when my tomato plants were about to provide me a ton of produce all at once, I decided to try making homemade ketchup. It was a fermentation recipe, where after going through the preparation process, it sat out so biology could do its thing. Well, it did, but… Continue reading From Scratch Ketchup
I love YouTube. Not only is it the home of cat videos (!!!!), lately it has enabled me to watch full educational films that used to play in schools in the 1950s and 60s. While there have been a lot of really good ones, Iowa State University's Home Economics Story from 1951 has to be… Continue reading Too Late for Home Ec
Grown Up, Now What? 