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Isn’t the quiet so wonderful!! I remember when I first moved to my old house I couldn’t hear the main road three miles away; now I can because trees have been cleared for more houses or for timber. We also have more houses here. I dread summers because we have so many flatlanders coming here and they run four wheelers and side by sides up and down our peaceful dirt road. It is still cold here — 50 today with rain. I’ll be glad to see my garden look like yours!!  

My biggest change is in employment. My spouse is self-employed and their income is taking a hit as the economy falters. My employer (a plant nursery) is already cutting hours drastically to save costs even though we are in peak season. This was normal in the 1930s -- reduced hours and reduced pay -- and apparently it is becoming normal again.

So, I am branching out on my own as a gardener for hire. My specialty is adaptive gardening, which is helping seniors or anyone with mobility challenges get back to gardening. I come in weekly to help with garden chores as needed, and I also make adjustments to make gardening more accessible for my clients (such as building a raised bed, etc). My rates are less than a traditional landscaping service since I work side-by-side with the client, which is something traditional landscapers and gardeners don't tend to offer around here. I also enjoy helping others grow food and find independence again. 

I feel in hard times it is important to have multiple ways to bring in resources, whether it is income or food. I know my grandparents and great-grandparents did lots of odd jobs, and not just during the great depression. 

I had looked at a Jackery the other day and wondered if that was what you had.  I'm thinking about getting one as well.  

I have not committed to the 1930's, as I said before, because I work in another town and am out of the house for 11-12 hours a day, five days a week, including my commute.  I do what I can - cook simpler meals, hang laundry, use my hand pump for water outdoors, usually read or sew instead of watching a tv and so forth.  Wait, I just thought of this, though.  My mother was the daughter of a policeman, and in the thirties, police families in our town got free movie matinee tickets.  She spent nearly every Saturday at the theater watching the matinee, she always said, so I should feel as though I'm living like my mother in the thirties when I watch a movie now and then, although I watch it at home.  

I finished reading Clara's Kitchen that I borrowed from the library.  It makes me wish I'd known her in person.  

Hurricanes are my reason to develop non-electric strategies to get by, but they come in handy when trying to live "back in time", too.   And I agree, batteries are expensive and always exhausted when I need them.  I'll look at those solar bulbs, thank you.

I am in 1932 this week and have begun with scrubbing the house according to the one room proper method. I'm buying some grapefruit this week so I can have a grapefruit half with breakfast like so many people do in the 1932 movies I've been watching. Just a bit of fun. :) 

We have the Ecoflow Delta 2. We have three of them and at least one extra battery. We also have one overhead solar light that I am trying to decide how to hang. Since Grandma Donna mentioned using her solar lights daily, something I had never thought of, I've been trying to think of how to use our solar things daily. We have four of the large panels for charging and use two at a time on a sawhorse. I might put the other two out too. I started plugging everything with a cord into the Ecoflows that I can. My husband says it should run the fridge if we need it to, but we have a different kind of generator for emergencies that we keep for the fridge since the last power outage. The solar light I have is  upsidedown (so that the light is pointing up) on a living room chair, and we use the remote to turn it on from the bedroom when we want to go to the kitchen after we've retired for the night and all the lights are out. We want to get some more solar bulbs for lighting. First, though, we got a couple more Thermoses for hot water and keeping food hot, trying to cut down on stove use. I made some beans and greens a couple of days ago that not everyone ate at the same time. If I'd had the large food Thermos then that I just ordered, I could have put the hot food in it and let everyone eat when they wanted without having to keep reheating. 

I harvested another cabbage and some peas this morning. I love picking peas and shelling them. It's such a calming activity. I made a variation of Clara's poor man's meal with the hot dogs. I added cabbage because we have so much of that right now. My family loves the hot dogs! Nathan's hot dogs were around in 1932, so that's what we use. 

Jenny Wren -- you are certainly in the spirit of the Great Depression! I think that's so important, and I'm impressed with your problem solving. :)

I have been looking at the solar lights and trying to figure out which ones and how many to buy. 

I have been trying hard to stay 1930's ish and so far so good.  The holiday weekend messed me up a bit as we had made family plans and I didn't get my baking done on Saturday, doing it today. Bread and several pans of cinnamon rolls. I share with family.

My garden is producing lettuce and spinach so far, have harvested asparagus from the side of the road. 

Laundry done, hung out to dry and taken care of. 

I developed seasonal allergies as an adult.....I wonder what they did for allergies back then?  I do think that environmentally we have more and different allergens nowadays.

I am so glad that you showed how you are using your solar bulbs. I have solar lights that hang from my ceiling all the time, and the solar panels are in the window all the time. It is a nice arrangement because it is all automatic. Whenever the sun shines, my lights are charging. I also have the ones where you set the light in the window to charge. I do like the look of your bulbs, though, as they are smaller than mine and seem to fit quite easily under a lampshade. It really looks nice how you are using the bulbs.

Isn’t vinegar pie the same as shoefly pie ???? 

I have made shoefly pie - it’s okay, interesting.  Amazing it came cook into something solid. 

Grandma Donna wrote, 

Lady L, I looked back at the recipes starting in 1900.  The Shoefly Pie dates back to 1920 in the paper, however that is from a Bakery, no recipe until later.  The vinegar pie dates back to 1900, possibly before and the story seems to stem from Ohio.  There are stories about this pie as a paste and meager ingredients.  

I will include some info. The top one is 1935 and the bottom one is 1931 so the 80s pie mentioned would have to be 1880. 

I’m feeling healthy this week and am working in my kitchen, decluttering and reorganizing.  I’ve been keeping track of what we use, what we don’t use, and what we are lacking.  Unfortunately, most of the bakeware I bought 15 years ago needs replacing.  It is USA Pan and while they use a silicone based nonstick rather than PTFE or “ceramic”, it does wear over time and become unsafe to use, something I didn’t realize when I bought it.  There are also questions about the safety of silicone used at high heat regardless of scratches.  Coming into 1932 I decided to purchase large cast iron loaf pans for my bread baking (I have vintage Pyrex for quick breads).  For awhile now we have been aiming to “buy it for life” and I think the cast iron fits that description.

One of my goals in coming to 1932 is to improve my health.  With several autoimmune diseases, including IBD, I have learned so much about our food system.  I was already avoiding most additives, seed oils, etc. but now coming into 1932 I am taking my diet even farther back than that!  I learned about GMO rennet for cheese so I am looking for animal rennet cheeses.  With our cookware and bakeware, we’ve already mostly been using cast iron, stainless steel, Pyrex, etc. so not much has had to change.  But I am really looking at everything, even products that have been sold as safe such as If You Care muffins liners, which still have a chemical lining.  There is so much greenwashing out there, and something can look safe but then you find out about how they had to process things and they aren’t as safe as we thought.  There is no way to completely avoid plastic, but my husband and I agreed to work with the food budget to buy as much as we can in glass even if it means cutting other items from the list.  We can do more of this now that I am feeling better and have more energy for cooking and baking.  Basically with my health I am a canary in a coal mine, and we figure anything that helps me will help the rest of the household even if it’s less subtle (but they eat more processed food than I do because they mostly eat plant based and lots of soy protein — not something I have control over)

We’ve done the math on our current lights and they cost us about $2 - $3 in electricity per month (depending on the time of year) to run all of the basic lights, based on which lights we use when and estimating how long they are on, so I don’t think it makes any sense for us spend money buying new solar lightbulbs.  The incandescent twinkle lights we use in winter add more to the light bill (almost doubling it), but also add much happiness in the dark months.

Oh I love that solar night light you made:) It reminds me of the one my grandma put on in the guest bedroom I would stay in at her house. I do love the idea of solar bulbs. But I  am going to keep minimizing my electricity usage and using candles ( I have a lot I need to use). I will pull out the oil lamps in the cooler months as they put off heat too. As for adjustments I have loved  having a baking day every week and I have been keeping my 1929-1930 Montgomery Wards catalog on our coffee table to look up items if I question them being used or the price.  I just started harvesting some black berries from our patch, lettuce, strawberries, and some cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse. I have been saving all our kitchen scraps that are compostable and putting them in the compost . In the garden I have also divided and replanted plants , so that I don’t have to spend more money on new plants.  I have an old sheet that is starting to fray on the end so I’m going to cut it into a couch cover.I can’t wait to hear what everyone else is up to. Thank you Donna for another thought provoking post

I admire your creativity in making solar globes and lights fit in so well with the decor of your lovely home, Grandma Donna!

The idea of incurring costs in advance is appealing to me - purchasing solar lights and solar generators is a good example.

Using mains electricity always brings with it the risk of going over budget, even though it's possible to monitor your use as you go.

Everything being paid by automated funds transfers makes it even riskier; whatever is owed can be deducted by the electricity company. That's reasonable, but it makes it harder to control consumption.

I've seen shows about the past where people had to put money in a meter to keep the electricity going (maybe even gas, too) in some homes. I'm sure that made them very selective about when they used lights etc.

In some ways it would make budgeting easier, albeit with very stretched resources.

Folks on the forum here are so resourceful in adapting or replacing modern technology in order living with the values of the past; I love reading everyone's posts.

I recently bought a lot of outdoor solar lighting which came in handy during an unplanned power outage. I've now been inspired to extend their use to indoors on a more regular basis.

Interesting.  I just went on a 45 minute search for the recipe I made beginning with my oldest cookbook from the 1870 - looked for both vinegar and shoofly and couldn’t find either one in any of my books or recipe box.  Will be interested in hearing what you think of it.

I made poke stalk pickles today, and now I'm impatiently waiting for them to be done.  It is basically a quick pickle recipe - using vinegar rather than fermentation - so will be ready to eat in a few days.  My family ate a lot of poke in the spring when I was young and we were poor, and now I basically eat it for tradition I guess.  Maybe to remind myself that I can.  Personally I've never been a big fan of poke leaves (even after parboiling, they still taste poisonous to me) but even now, with other foods to choose from, I really like the stems.  This study got me thinking about how much foraging probably saves on my grocery bill, even though my motivation for doing so these days is more environmental in nature.

Jenny Wren,Your business or side hustle helping people garden is such a lovely and wholesome idea!

Someone mentioned using a sheet to cover a sofa. I have an old top sheet that is worn in spots. I haven't thrown it away (as I would've in the past) but I don't know what to do with it. I feel part of my 1930s learning is to learn to use what I have. I don't need a sofa cover or a tablecloth. I'm wondering what others would use it for. 

I’m the one using the  old sheet to make a couch cover. I looked at many projects but this was something I need. You can always make an apron, pillowcases, potholders, window coverings , stuffed animal pillows,a skirt, really anything you’d like. Let us know what you decide on. I would love to see your finished project too

Margaret P, I've got a worn out set of sheets I'm going to make rag rugs out of. 

Grandma Donna, thanks for the tip about the lightbulbs being on sale. Over $12 each or two for $16.83 is a good deal. My husband said to buy two sets. You have such a wonderful design sense in turning your lamps with solar bulbs into something beautiful. You painted your kitchen white! I must have missed that. 

Kimberly F, thanks for the info. My If You Care muffin liners are now in the trash. Have you heard of Netherton spun iron? It's a lighter form of cast iron, so not as good for long cooking, but it browns meat like nothing else I've ever used. It never sticks even with little oil and it makes the best corn tortillas. My one Netherton pan is now my favorite. If you're replacing things, you might want to give them a look. 

Everyone else, I love all of your posts. :) 

I am going to comment about Jenny Wren.  I really wish you were in my area. What a fantastic service you offer.  I can’t get a single teen to help with pay.  

 I generally have pots of geraniums and a few small yellow tomatoes.  I generally keep up the weeding and potting with a little help from a young friend who is now 20.  He is off to college.  The problem is I have been down in my back since March and just started PT last week.  The dr. Gave me strict instructions no gardening.  A month ago when he said still no gardening I literally cried!  Everything is grown up in weeds for the first time in 40 years.  Sooo I am living through all of you and your gardens.  BTW I am so thankful for a few perennials that keep my spirits up.  

Kellie

When I was growing up in the 1960s, the electric meter was still prevalent here in the UK, and continued for decades after that for people who either didn’t pay their  bills, “inherited” a meter, or simply preferred that method of pay as you go. However, it worked out more expensive probably because the electric supplier has to cover the cost of installing a very secure meter, and the  employment of a man to empty the meter of coins every three months.

Hi Lesley, thanks for sharing your own experience of the meters. 

You make a good point. It's often the case that things cost more when you are already disadvantaged, isn't it?

Our power company brought in "Self Reading", where you can choose to send a photo of your meter for three of the quarterly reads. They come and check it at least annually and make any adjustments to your bill.  These are expensive Smart Meters (paid for by the customer) which provide "real time" information about your usage to the power company - so I'm not clear on why they're read in situ so frequently. 

The DIY reading is a convoluted process. I thought I had nothing to lose by asking whether there was a discount for reading your own meter (we live in a rural area, so it potentially saves them a lot of time)...  the answer was "No"!  :)

It was worth a try

Grandma Donna

Your mentioning of your pets enjoying the quietness of the home is very interesting. When we got rid of our television many years ago now, of course, our home became quieter. But there is more quietness to be had isn’t there? It’s just that we are often not aware of the noise around us until it’s pointed out, or it disappears for some reason. There seems to be a gradual process of becoming aware as we make changes to the  environment in our homes.

In our home, we have changed our noisy, powerful electric kettle, for a quieter one, and have a very small one also for our night kettle. We don’t use the very noisy fan in the bathroom,  but open the bathroom door to allow the steam out. 
 
The worst things are the petrol run trimmers and the leaf blowers used by gardeners,  and people maintaining the grounds of golf courses etc. they are horrendous. The people using them have to wear ear defenders. I have no idea why they don’t use quieter rechargeable electric ones. We must all be on edge because of these, and our animals too. 

Lesley,

Yes, gas leaf blowers are the worst!  My nearest neighbors are 1/4 mile away through dense woods, and I still get annoyed by their leaf blower.  Sometimes they blow leaves all day, and just when I'm starting to tune it out, they stop for a minute, then start back up again!  They've got barking dogs and crowing roosters and do a lot of target shooting on the weekends, but the leaf blower is the only one that really wears at my nerves, lol.  And what ever happened to raking leaves the old fashioned way?

One area of 1930s living we are struggling with is staying home in the evenings and not doing errands.  Because I was sick for so long my husband has become accustomed to us going out after dinner to accomplish errands.  While I can work on doing my town day while he is at work, he still thinks of things he wants to buy after work (for his hobbies).  I am thinking of suggesting a Saturday morning town day for these kinds of things, perhaps once a month.  My goal is for our evenings to be calm and quiet with no commerce at all.  I’d like for us to eat supper, clean up, take a short walk (good for blood sugar control and a very 1930s past time in good weather), do a bit of stretching and balance work (not very 1930s but important as we age), and then either relax in the living room or watch a bit of TV (DH very much enjoys watching TV most evenings).  I feel like this is part of turning off the constant demands of the day to not go out shopping, allowing us true rest

Stephanie G, thanks for the reminder about Netherton Spun Iron!  I took a look and think maybe you have mentioned it before and I completely forgot?  The pieces are so expensive, but I’m sure it’s worth it for the quality and it being family owned and made in England.  I already placed an order for my cast ion bread pans from Lodge, but I will keep this company in mind for the baking sheet for a holiday gift!

Thinking about quiet, I feel like my home is anything but, mostly because of the dogs!  It’s nice to live close to the downtown of an old city (we think of it as a town but with a population of 65K+ it is a city to most people), but we do have people walking past the house regularly, mostly with dogs but sometimes not.  Our dogs like to bark at the other dogs, and at the delivery people, of which there are many — our neighbor across the street seems to get packages daily.  Like many others, we also have the sounds of lawnmowers and blowers, and we also have the sounds of vehicles living in the downtown area.  We love where we live because we can do so many things without a car, but it definitely isn’t as quiet as if we lived farther from downtown, in the hills, or in the newer planned neighborhoods.

Tea S

If only they realised that raking leaves keeps you fit and saves you money into the bargain

Kimberly F, there were exercise programs in the thirties. I found this out during the 2023 study. Here's a video to show some women's exercises. All you need to do is find a beach and skip down the sand flinging your arms out. :) 

I find the observations about noise to be very interesting. I am a person who is very comfortable with silence. I will go months and months without turning on the tv or radio. I know many who automatically turn on a tv when they enter a room & always put the radio on in the car. It's something I never think of. 

I've also noticed that these same people seem to have a different understanding of what noisy is.

It seems to me that it's noisy all the time. I think there used to be an understanding of quiet times. I can't help but think the  constant noise must have an effect on people's physical and mental health.

Our evenings growing up were quiet. Now when I visit others it seems the active day continues right up to the minute one decides to get in bed & sleep.

Grandma Donna wrote, about the electric meter.  We are fortunate that our electric meter and water meter shows the constant accumulating kwh numbers.  Each morning Charles goes out and documents our usage.  He has a notebook and reads the electric and water meter and we know exactly what we have used each day.  Some towns and cities now have it online at the electric company where you can put your account number in and find out your usage.  When we have a high usage day, we do our best the next day to use the very minimal which we are already doing but even more as possible.  I just thought I would mention that.  :)

Margaret, I made an apron out of one sheet and curtain backing (for the intense sun on a south window) out of pillow cases.  I made curtains to cover the glass on our exterior doors out of sheets.  Simple envelope pillow covers can be made.  You can also make drawstring bags out of them, which could be used for many things.  Once I used worn out jeans and an unused bandana to make a snap-closure pouch for each of my daughters to carry feminine products in their purses at school without the worry of them being seen when they opened their purse.  Pouch and its fold over flap out of jeans, lining out of bandana.  

Margaret P.  For me it would depend on where the sheet is worn.  If it is just the edges, I would either sew simple new seams or do what someone recently showed me which is using a sewing machine scallop edge stitch to create a new, pretty edge.  If the worn spots are throughout the sheet I would probably cut it into smaller pieces, keeping the less worn pieces to use as fabric for sewing and the more worn pieces to use as rags or filling/stuffing for other projects.  There’s no real point to sewing with the parts of the sheet that are likely to tear soon anyway.  You could also tear/cut the sheet into strips and crochet or braid it into a rug.  You could even keep it whole and layer it inside a homemade quilt or door curtain as part of the batting.  It could be used whole in the garden as well, as a lightweight row cover.

Things you could sew with the pieces:  a quilt top, laundry bags (either for holding laundry to be washed or small items to keep separate), door draft stoppers, a nightgown (bonus of already being soft fabric), smaller curtains (like for a closet or bathroom), pillowcases, handkerchiefs, a half slip for under skirts and dresses, a hair towel, covers for bowls and jars, tea towels.  Really, it’s just fabric currently in a different form.

Grandma Donna, that looks like my kind of meal. You've given me a lot to think about with uses for the solar lights. I might incorporate some into our emergency plan. 

The main thing I am taking away from the study is to give considerate thought to how our household can consume less.

Go out less and be thrifty with fuel when we do use the car. Combine trips.

Use cash. Know what you spend. Stick to a budget.

Walk to the store for milk, eggs, etc or make do without.

Hang up clothes up to air and wear them again.

Water vegetables with a watering can instead of the hose.

Turn lights off when we leave the room.

Shower in daylight hours and open the bathroom windows after.

Simplify the vegetables we grow. Grow only what thrives here and find ways to use it.

We can both simplify and enrich our lives at the same time.

I have always lived this way, but your study has helped to sharpen my focus. 

I love all the ideas of using a top sheet to make things. I don't know how to sew. I have always wanted to make a canning apron, but not sure how to start without a pattern. I see one place has a pattern that I like, Candle on the Hill, but I don't like purchasing things online. I like stores I can drive to.

G Donna,

Thank you for all you do. I wish I lived near you. 

I appreciate all the ideas for my top sheet! Thank you! For some reason I wasn't seeing it as fabric! That's funny isn't it? But I guess that's part of living a simple life‐ looking at things differently instead of rushing to the store or online to get something to fill a perceived need.

I look forward to trying several of the ideas as my daughter has given me hers so now I have two. She asked me if I wanted and I said yes because I felt like I should say yes even though I didn't have any ideas for it yet. Now I do!

Kimberley F. I'm with you as far as castiron cookware goes. Not the modern glazed ones but the straight black type.

My husband brought me a cast iron bread pan for my birthday and it cooks the best bread I've ever eaten. It's a 100% wholemeal no knead bread.

I took need to replace modern bakeware and it will be stainless steel, cast iron.

I read a while back one has to be very careful buying dinnerware etc that's made in China as there's often lead paint used in the glazes.

Thank you all for your most interesting comments, I have a slightly different perspective on having a quiet house as I lost my little dog back in January and since then have found the house far too silent so tend to have my little radio on in the kitchen just to fill the silence. I tend to tune in to a classical music station rather than having to listen to some  DJ chattering on

So many wonderful ideas here!  I am so encouraged and inspired everytime I read Donna's blog and all of the comments.  

I am very blessed to have many things that belonged to my maternal grandmother including the ledgers/notebooks that they used to record their monthly expenses from the '30's up until the'60's.  Donna mentioned that the electricity bill was called the light bill back then.  In the ledger for March, 1932 my grandparents paid $2.86 for the light bill compared to my $50 some dollars.  They lived in a town of 200,00 people in 1932 as compared to my town which is currently at almost 500,000.  They were also paying on a car at $15.90 per month, water at $2.38, phone at $3.50 and groceries at $30.00 per month.  My grandfather was fortunate to always have a job as a salesman so they did all right during the depression.

I really enjoy a quiet house and it is just my little dog and me although he can be a bit bark-y once in a while.  I live in an apartment across the street from a commercial laundry and they have very loud trucks going starting at 5 am or earlier.  I am very glad that they knock off work at around 3 pm but since the cross street is a main one there are noisy vehicles going by at any hour.  Oh! The motorcycles!

I would like to be able to read my own meter as I did at my house before but alas, in the apartment building that is not available to me.  I just look at the monthly usage and try to do better next month.

I am working on making my home more 'me' and more 1930's which will involve painting some furniture, replacing the knobs in my kitchen and putting up some kind of backsplash - either stenciling or using peel and stick wallpaper tiles.  I also want to make new curtains for the living room and bedrooms (the only rooms that have windows).  I am scouting the thrift stores for large sheets to use for that purpose.

Question - I live in a 3rd floor apartment with no patio or balcony.  My only windows (living room and bedrooms) face south and I have a bay window ledge.  Currently I have spearmint, spinach, chives, parsley, and basil growing in pots on the windowsills, also some houseplants.  I would love to hear from others who are living the apartment life.

Well, that about enough for now.  Time to fold the laundry. Love to all,

Jackie in CO

Karen S.  I bought some expensive enameled cast iron pieces 20+ years ago and most of them did not hold up well to daily use in the kitchen — lesson learned.  Meanwhile my 10” cast iron skillet that came from my grandfather is still going strong, as is the little cast iron skillet my grandmother used to cook her eggs in — it fits just two eggs and now I use it to make my breakfast.

I’m glad to read that you love your cast iron bread pan!  I also make 100% whole wheat bread

Lead and cadmium in dinnerware is an issue, not only with cheap new stuff coming from China, but also in antique and vintage china that was made in other countries such as the United States and England.  I have to be very careful with contaminants, so I use Corelle, both the solid white and some newer patterned pieces that are lead and cadmium safe.

Kimberley F

It never crossed my mind that the vintage English bone china would also have lead in the paint. I have quite a few beautiful plates, soup tureens etc.

I guess the answer might be stoneware plates. Don't know . I'm not going to get uptight about it.

Karen S, a few years ago I cleaned out all of my old kitchenware and got stainless steel or cast iron for the pots and pans and clear glass for the plates, bowls, mugs, and glasses. I felt physically better after I did that, but then I had been eating off of vintage dishes with lead in them. When buying new you have to make sure your cast iron or glass or whatever it is is lead-free. With cast iron, you have to check the manufacture process too. I have a few pieces of enamel bakeware from a reputable manufacturer. Stoneware can have lead, either in the ware or the glaze. I have one clay pot where the distributor had paid to test the products before selling. Almost all clay is contaminated. For your beautiful China, you could enjoy it displayed in a China cabinet.