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Yay!  Many well wishes until November.  I will be letting a few others know that for October I will not be posting and probably not often available via text etc. Looking forward to it:-

When I read your words, "When we are scrolling, they were doing.  We need to be doing," I found myself nodding in agreement! I spent yesterday evening planning alternatives for my usual scrolling temptations, such as when eating lunch alone. True, we can't plan for everything, but this should help. Plus, it is such a telling exercise to actually sit down and think about one's weaknesses and how best to address them!

I will miss the forum and the camaraderie here, true, but it will be exciting when we all "get together" again. Sort of like getting the rare letter or visit from a distant friend!

I was thinking about the ice being delivered for the fridge and it made me think of something.  Technology is everywhere.  For instance my fridge, I purchased so we'd have ice and water in the door.  Neither work well.  Over $1,000 for a fridge that makes me exasperated.  The ice just comes out half crushed (not on crusher) and the water comes out too slow even though we have good pressure.  The washer is new and is better than the last one because it actually uses water and I can set load size myself rather than by auto, but with digital and the power going out, which it does often, it resets it all and you have no idea where it left off.  The lack of water on the old one was problematic because it was all load sensing. Clothes were never clean.  How many times I've hit a digital button on my fan above the stove and it doesn't register, or goes brighter by two lights or off, or whatever.  I like mechanical buttons.  On/Off.  Anyway, so yesterday, I left my phone in the kitchen while in the shower.  I took my little plug in radio instead with mechanical buttons. I took music as it came. The feeling was WONDERFUL - freeing actually.  I didn't have to micromanage anything - all the ads on the you-tube talks by hitting skip - changing the talk.  It was so much less of an annoyance.   In a nutshell, I wonder how much less annoyed I'll be during this month. The sheer amount of ads I get on FB and the tracking of what I do has become completely insane and therefore a huge annoyance.  I will listen to my cd's and my radio and get excited when I hear a song I like rather than to replay only favs all the time.  Sometimes it's freeing in a really weird way. 

Good luck ladies!  I'm just so excited to do this.

Very best wishes on your shared retirement.

Enjoy your October retreat, drawing in, like the days and the season.  

Have a wonderful, productive break Grandma Donna. Love to hear from you again on November 1st.

Dear Grandma Donna

I am finding this study very interesting, so much so,  I am trying to incorporate many of the ideas you teach about.  First is portion control on food.  It’s a slow process and we are finding we are satisfied with much smaller portions.  I have always been used to cooking large meals, first for family, then for lunch after our religious services on the Sabbath.  Next, I and hubby are going to sit down with 4 brand new notebooks and he is going to show me in detail how he handles the our income and out go.  I want to find the info how you have managed from your blog.  That should keep me busy for November.  
I love your idea of hanging laundry to dry indoors.  I have always hung my laundry outdoors even in winter that is until my knee and shoulder has kept me almost house ridden.  I just cannot maneuver the sloping back yard at my age.  
I love canning and preserving.  I wonder if cabbage rolls could be canned?  We have our first side of beef in the freezer.  I really want to can a lot of it and save the space and electric bill.  We live in mid western Tennessee and have milder winters than north central Ohio has, but that does not mean we don’t have power outages too. 
Keep up the good job of teaching/reminding us of what is truly important in life and how easy it is to get distracted.  Oh, another thing we have changed, the TV isn’t on FOX News all day and evening.  I am loving the quiet time and have started daily reading again.   Also, I don’t spend as much time on my tablet scrolling FB and Amazon as I sit in the chair with my leg up and resting this ole shoulder.

Enjoy November, wish I could take the break too.

Granny Sara

PS I am 75 and still learning new things!

Won't be going through til November, but I will probably do until October 20th or so, as technology free as possible.
I have a school break and class changes in October, so going until November is a bit tricky.
However, excited to do 2 weeks+ with low technology, and no scrolling! I am sure I will fall off the wagon more than once, but if I can get back on, all will be well.
Good luck everybody!

Dear gDonna,

     I am so glad to stay in the 1930's and am going to continue paring down, eliminating modern technology and finding the simple that works for us. Your blog is a tremendous blessing to so many people. Your articles encourage us and give us strength to know we are not alone in our desire to find the simple hard work of the past. Thank you so much.

     May the next month be a positive and eye opening experience for everyone that is desiring to find their balance. I will miss your posts, but will look forward to November 1. Thank you again for all your work and sharing.

I bought a wooden drying rack and can always dry my clothes indoors.

During the winter, the drying rack adds humidity to the home.

Once, after a hurricane, when most of us were without power and sometimes water, as I was, a co-worker teased me about being too "soft," that my grandmother would have done without those modern conveniences just fine.  I responded that of course she would have done well; she had the tools to manage - a hand pump on the well, a wood stove, oil lamps or candles, an ice box, and more.  He paused and admitted he had never considered that.  That started me thinking back then, and today, I have a generator for electric power, true, but I now have a well hand pump, a kerosene stove, oil lamps, battery lanterns and candles, a hand-powered little clothes washer and a wringer, drying racks and a clothesline outside.  I thought about that when GDonna mentioned refrigerators as opposed to ice boxes.  I don't think one can even get ice delivered these days in the US.

Technology has changed our lives radically, sometimes for the better - air conditioning is something I would fight for - but some simply makes us busier or is even detrimental.  I am looking forward to cutting back on the busyness and the craziness, but I will miss this place in October.

Dear Donna, the sentence “when we are scrolling, they were doing” is the most important essence of your blog post today for me! I will take that to heart for October. Read less on my phone, do more myself, try things out! I look forward to reading from you again! Best regards from Bonn (Germany) from Alexandra

Well I am aiming for no social media, scrolling for October. My husband who is addicted to his phone has said he will do this with me this month. I hope that he does. I plan to use my phone only as that, a phone. 
Thank you G Donna for your blog posts. Although I haven’t done the studies myself, I am learning or re-learning so much and I have been making small changes in my every day managing of my house. One thing I thought of, it would be nice to get some of this information by mail; or possibly have pen pals. It would be exciting to look forward to mail/ letters, instead of instant gratification of cell phones and social media. 

Have a wonderful October everyone

One thing to remember about the 30's is that the majority of the population was rural.  Many did not have electricity or ice delivery.  They stored foods in their caves, in baskets lowered in their wells or tiles buried in the ground.  

In reading the Dirty Thirties which was published in the 1980s, the stories throughout the book are the stories of people who lived through those years.  A common thread is community and family working together to survive.  Many commented that they missed the close connections of those years.

My aunt and her sister had one pair of shoes between them so one sister had to sit out a school year in high school.  Both did eventually graduate. 

Ann E I'm reading Towards Zero by Agatha Christie, published in 1944, and one of her characters, a rich invalid woman, explains why she uses a bell pull to summon her maid instead of an electric buzzer. She said it's because the electric buttons break down and she can always rely on her bell pull. I thought she'd fit right into the forum! :) :) It made me wonder if Agatha Christie herself had trouble with modern technology. 

Michele S I hadn't thought about the humidity that drying laundry indoors would bring. My house gets very dry in the winter, so that's another reason to hang dry laundry. 

Good luck, everyone! 

I am very much looking forward to moving more towards a truly simple life . I hope we all can gain more clarity this month . I’m hoping to create better habits during the time that I would usually pick up my phone. I pulled out a new puzzle and got some new records from the thrift store This last week just challenging myself to stay off the phone has not only increased my productivity but made me look at some of the silly things I look at . In the 1930’s I know people weren’t counting how many steps they took or window shopping constantthroughout the day. 
Thank you Grandma Donna for sharing all your insights and letting us all join you on your adventures. Blessings to you all this month. I too will miss this blog and hearing what everyone is doing in the forum. 

I made a technology discovery earlier this month.  We were just starting a vacation to New England.  The first 15 minutes I had 10 texts and 5 calls.  Leon looked over at me and asked if I was on vacation?  That if I kept my nose in the iPad I would miss the slow changing of fall.  I let my daughter know I would check in with her at night.  Used my phone as a camera and phone only.  During the week we were gone we used it for navigation and motels until we had no service.  Leon panicked then I told him “ I can read a map and we have this!”  We navigated across 2 states on backroads and beautiful fall scenery.  
   When we got back home I discovered I couldn’t watch news and couldn’t handle a lot of Facebook reels.  We have been back 2 weeks and this morning I noticed myself scrolling.  I will try to limit.  
   I can also relate to being creative.  Your tatting and bobbin lace are gorgeous.  I did learn bobbin lace years ago and belonged to a very creative group.  While on vacation I normally crochet but this time I didn’t.  I wanted to make a scarf for my Grandson and found a nice pattern.  I hadn’t knitted a pattern in a few years.  This week I knitted during commercials.  I also found an old creative journal from 1990 and couldn’t believe how creative I was. 
   I will miss your posts but will enjoy all the responses in November.

Donna,

             Thanks so much for giving us another fine post before the big silence. I am very glad you are sticking with the 1930s studies. There is so much to learn about how they lived. I like the book "We Had Everything But Money," which is a collection of real-life accounts from people who lived through that time. Mostly, it isn't about the tragedy or struggle of the times, but rather it focuses on how people persevered and became even more united as families. It shows how people managed to do all the usual things in life despite the lack of money and how they learned to make do with what they had. It is an inspiring book. Another good book is "Tough Times, Strong Women."

             I think the no or low tech month will be good for many of us, though it will be very hard for some. Technology is very addictive. I am old enough to remember a time before all of this technology was invented. I often think about how much simpler life was, how there was less stress, and it seems like people had more time. However, I still find it very difficult to quit wasting time on the computer. I appreciated your point about when we are scrolling, they were doing. I hope to get a lot of housework and organization done in October. I want to try some old recipes also. There is a bread recipe in "Thrifty Tips From the War Years" that I've been meaning to try for a long time.

           I also want to see if I can lose some weight in October. ChatGPT says the average weight of a woman of my height in the 1930s was about 130 - 135 pounds, so that would be a good eventual goal for me to reach for.

          I hope we will all have a good and productive month. I plan to journal my experience, and I hope others will also do so. Have a good month!

Becky Sue

Relevant to this topic; yesterday I wrote out a post about what I was going to do in October with little internet connection.  Just as I was finishing it, it disappeared!  So frustrating!  

I am very excited for this low/no technology month.  I have been addicted to it for a while and wanting to cut back or cut it off.  I love Donna's posts and have been following her for several years.  I think she and I are of an age ( I'm 76) and I have learned so much from this blog.  I am going to follow Donna's "guidelines" for the no-tech/1930's month to the very best of my abilities. i love history, especially the '30's and'40's and wish I'd been alive then.  

I don't have or use many of the "modern conveniences" that are so popular such as clothes dryer, dishwasher, or microwave.  I've lived this way for several years and it just comes natural to me these days.  I moved to a small apartment a year ago which has washer, dryer, and dishwasher furnished but I only use the washer.  I hang the clothes, sheets, towels, etc on a rack in the shower or on the shower rod.  

I have often pondered how I lived back then without ask these modern gadgets.  For one thing I was very busy with 3 little girls born within 3 years.  When I had a spare moment I would grab the book I was reading and enjoy a little bit of escapism.  I also did some sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery and paint embroidery ( does anyone else remember that?).
 Alongside Donna's guidelines I have made a few of my own -

* wear a watch ✅

* have a movie night 3 times a week ; one night watch The Walton's on DVD, one night All Creatures Great and Small, and one night an old movie on YouTube.  There are a lot of old movies there.

* Cook from scratch.  No convenience foods!  ✅

* No online games! ✅

* get a phone receiver for my cell phone 

* check email once per day 

* get out Mom and Dad's 1940's clock radio 

* find and read the Dirty Thirties book 

I'm so glad that we can read the blog and the comments during October.  There is a wealth of information there on living simply.  Looking forward to hear of others experiences on November 1.  I think this may be life-changing.  

I forgot to add that I think Bethany's idea of pen pals is a good one.  Anyone interested?

I would like to be a pen pal. Maybe Grandma Donna can pass on addresses for people on the blog to retain privacy? It's just an idea. Maybe it's something we can talk about in November. I know Grandma Donna has enough to do, so maybe there's another way someone else can think of. 

I will participate in this.  I will have no problem giving up my cell phone. I hardly ever use it. I have 11,000 minutes. I sits on the shelf in my kitchen all the time. Play scrabble with my husband. 

I will spend  October reading. Mostly the Bible . So I'm turning off the TV and reading. I don't do facebook, so that is no problem.  I read this blog and a couple of others. I may come in to read more articles.

I may try to learn to knit. Or do some embroidery.  And cook from scratch, no more microwave!!!.

Grandma Donna, 

I love that glass coffee pot. I have several pyrex glass coffee pots. I replaced the aluminum base, glass stem with stainless steel. I use it for coffee daily.  I also have the same stove, except my is gas. 

Penpals sounds good, an oldie but a goodie.

I agree, Penpals are great. I used to have penpals when I was younger. Always looked forword to the letters arrival.

Lisa

Grandma Donna,

Thank you for this post. I am looking forward to the October break but will definitely miss the blog and forum. Since we will remain in the 1930's, I will use the time in October to prepare my home more for that era. Best wishes to everyone for a blessed and productive October, see you in November.

Angela

Grandma Donna wrote,

I will give the thought about the pen pal consideration.  When I started taking notice that many of you seem to feel part of this something special we have here on this blog, I was thinking that I need to have some way of connecting those that want to be connected.  The world that we live in at the moment has kept that from happening because we do not really know the people that we communicate with.  I will run this past my son and see if we can figure out the best way to do this.  

I forgot to answer a question that was in the post before this one from Ann E asking if Charles made the phone base for the cell phone with hand receiver.  He has not finished the holder, he has been working on other things so that will have to come later. Charles is adjusting to not going to work, this is brand new to him. 

I hope that all of you have a great month of October no matter I will be thinking of everyone while we on our technology break.  I am thinking that word break does not fit what we will be doing. Lol

Either way, I hope that we all find a way to slow down with the things that we are doing, take our time and be more present.  Be kind to ourself and others, be patience with learning how to listen to the quiet.  Think of it as calming and healing our home, our body, and our family and or pets. 

I started something awhile back when I was cutting back on many things and I started talking to my appliances and things that pull electricity.  I know that just sounded strange but now I do not let things run,  Take for instance the fan, I will tell the fan as I turn it off that I am going to give you a rest now, I even give it a pat. I tell the stove the same thing, thank you for helping me, now you can take a rest.  I do the same with the lamps as I turn them off.  Then at night I put everything to bed so nothing is running but what is necessary. It has made a change in our electric bill and I have a different feeling about the things that we use in our home and I has helped me to not let things stay on but for their needed time.  Just though I would pass that along. 

You all have had some very insightful comments as usual, I love how we write so much and still have things to talk about. 

My son will be turning off the forum during the very early morning of October 1, he is going to keep the blog online and hopefully keep the forum to where it still can be read for those that need to catch up but we will not be able to comment.  Grandma Donna

I know I will feel the effects for the first week of not scrolling on my phone. It will be struggle but I have no doubt I can do it!

Pen pals would be fun. I had several as a teen. I have one now. My daughter had pen pals as a teen also. 

I write real letters to people and they email me back. Oh well I try.

I'm glad you're staying with the 30s. I look forward to learning more.

My mother is still hospitalized after her hip fracture in August. She's not doing well. I'd appreciate prayers.

I'm excited for tomorrow.  But I'm also afraid I'm going to forget it's a no tech month. I'm resolved to get back on the wagon if I fall off and not use it as an excuse to quit.

October will be a low buy/ no buy month. I want to use my new found time to use up pantry items and work on Christmas gifts using my vast collection of craft items.

Weaverbird, I remember paint embroidery!  The ladies in my family could do every type of craft and do it well.  I think they all liked the painted embroidery because it went so fast.  I know that my mom liked it because she could easily personalize something.  I still have a clown pillowcase that she did for my brother.Not sure why, because we both hated clowns haha!!

I love regular embroidery.

I remember the slower pace at my grandparents farm and yet they seemed to get so much done. I want that.

I will miss you Grandma Donna, but will do as you say and scroll through past blog posts :)

Personally my phone does not tend to interfere with my life and it doesn't affect how productive I am. I'm a list maker and I just work through my list each day and if I have spare time I can sew or garden, depending on my health and the weather. 

I won't be participating in tech free month, but wish you all well :)

Many blessings - Linda NZ

Thanks for the last post for September. I hope everyone enjoys their October and will have much to report in November. I will miss everyone but I'm looking forward to the challenge. :) 

great idea

Thank you for the reference books