Lehman’s Country Life

The news is full of bad economic reports, more layoffs,and more budget cut backs. Many of us have to juggle more than a little to make ends meet.

One way to help your family economy is to plan for the future – and I am not talking about stocks and bonds. I am talking about planning a garden and starting to store up the canning supplies you will need to stretch your harvest.

Many times we can purchase packets of seeds we need for our gardens from family and friends or even the change we clean out of our purses or pockets. But canning supplies have gone up in price along with many of the other needs our families have.
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By Francis Woodruff, Editor and Publisher, The Dalton Gazette & The Kidron News

Reprinted with Permission

When temperatures drop below zero in the wintertime, there are few outside activities that many of us can do. But for several Amish families this weather presents the perfect conditions to cut, pack, and store ice in their ice houses for the coming summer months. The Amish, who live without electricity, use the ice for food refrigeration.

Recently, Joe Miller watched as his son David J. Miller and his family slid the heavy blocks of ice down a wooden plank board into a room designed for ice storage. “This is perfect weather for cutting ice,” Joe Miller said. “The colder the better.” He explained the colder it is when the ice goes into the storage room the better, because it stays colder longer. In addition to refrigeration, the room can also be used to freeze other foods, he said – like a giant freezer.
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Do you love doing crafts but your friends and family all run, or hide them again, when you break out the glue gun or sewing machine? If this is you, and I feel your pain, I have a project that that will calm your friends and family and let your creative juices flow. A simple knotted fleece pillow requires no sewing, produces a very functional item and is easy enough for children to do.

Start simple. For your first pillow it is easier to stick with square or rectangle shapes. As time goes on, you can move on to circles, ovals, and even hearts.

Gather your supplies into one area and get ready to begin. The size of your pillow will depend on the size of your form or, if you are using fluff, how much fluff you have. Polar fleece is the best to use for this project because it doesn’t fray and can be purchased in just about any fabric department. Or, you can cut shapes from existing fleece clothing you may have – a great way to repurpose that old jacket you don’t wear anymore.
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