Lehman's Country Life

There was only a half a load of laundry and I decided to wash it by hand rather than use the washer.

The bathtub was my container of choice, and I decided to use a plunger to work the clothes in the hot water. Now, I’ve washed clothes by hand before – quite a few times, as a matter of fact. I used to own a washboard, a tub and a hand wringer, but when I moved to town, modern conveniences and all that mythology was calling me, so I got rid of both the washboard and wringer.

Anyway… the bathtub worked great, except that I have one of those push in plugs and when I caught it with the plunger, it came loose and the water started draining. The plunger worked fine, too, except that if I wasn’t careful it would stick to the bottom of the tub and I’d have to pry or pull it loose with a mighty splash. (Lehmans has a real laundry plunger called a “Rapid Washer,” and it won’t stick to the bathtub!)
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 In the fall of the year, here in Minnesota, there are many historical rendezvous and history fairs that are planned for school children to visit. Historians, re-enactors and demonstrators of past crafts gather to demonstrate their skills or simply talk about the past.

The events usually run from Thursday through Sunday, with the last two days being open to the public.

The demonstrators set up the day before, or sometimes even a few days before. Many of them go from event to event and rarely go home for the entire two months of September and October! They live in tents and keep in the costume of their period while in the campsite. You will not see any modern equipment during the event if it is a “good” one.
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Greg’s post about his oil lamp and the responses to it had me feeling nostalgic. When I was young (very young!) Grandma used sit in her rocker alongside a table in the living room, reading by the light of a coal oil lamp. I can see her reading there now, the lamp throwing rounded shadows that swayed and danced as she rocked.

Although she called it coal oil, the fluid that burned so brightly might have been kerosene. There is little distinction between the two fuels, but coal oil is distilled from a combination of cannel coal, mineral wax and bituminous shale, while kerosene is distilled from oil. Kerosene burns brighter, longer and cleaner than coal oil and it smells (a little) better, too.
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I’m not really a nut about cooking, but the closest I’ve ever come to really, really enjoying it was when I had the wood cookstove.

We had this old house that was built around wood stoves, pre 1900 style, with a central chimney and a kitchen that just cried for a woodburning cookstove. My husband, patient man, indulged me, even though he didn’t even like to cut wood (I wound up doing a lot of it myself). Anyway, we set off on a quest and after asking around, soon found a real treasure. My brother-in-law’s father had two of them in a shed about three hours away.

Off we went in the old Chevy truck (a story for a different time), reasoning that if one of them was workable, we could just bring it home.

Well, never to do things halfway, we brought both of them home – for $50. Who could pass up a deal like that? After another $50 or so in stove bolts, rust remover, soap and water and stove black, we got one of them in working condition. There was even a coal/wood grate and a lid lifter that fit the lids. I was thrilled!
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Instant insulation for $20!

When I was little and my grandfather was building our home “up in the sticks” of rural Massachusetts, we lived in three rooms plus an enclosed porch while the second phase was being added onto the back. It would become another two bedrooms and a bathroom, but for one winter I recall, it was enclosed but not insulated or finished, so an army surplus blanket hung in the roughed-in doorway at one back corner of the kitchen.
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(from The Dalton Gazette & The Kidron News, Vol. 132, No. 51; reprinted with permission)

Bidders from as far away as Florida, Iowa and Georgia attended the 60th annual machinery sale, held Aug. 25 in Kidron at the grounds of the Kidron Auction. By the start of the sale on Saturday morning, more than 2,500 bidders had registered, hoping to snap up a bargain by day’s end.

Kidron Auction owner John Sprunger noted that items put up for the sale came from surrounding states such as Iowa, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, New York, Michigan, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois and of course, Ohio.

The annual machinery sale, which is sponsored by the Kidron Community Council, had the air of a carnival during the day. Several food vendors were on hand, the Kidron Volunteer Firemen sold ice-cold pop and the flea market vendors were set up everywhere there was a spare spot.
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Here’s an article from our Country Life Archives. Much of this information may be useful to missionaries living in remote areas. Enjoy!

Solar energy is perhaps the most versatile and the most developed of the alternative/renewable energy sources for the home. The available energy is on the order of GJ/yr, with the exact value depending on where you live. This discussion will break the topic down in three areas: passive solar heating/cooling, active solar heating, and photovoltaics.
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