Brenda L I really like what you said about being a producer more than a consumer. That's a good way to put it. That's my goal too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since we're having a practice week, I've been reading everyone's comments, and they are very helpful! We're really taking the lessons of the 1930s to heart here at my house, because my husband has decided to take most of our money out of the stock market! He's looking at his rollover options. He says our rate of return dropped enough this year for him to be comfortable moving the money to the safer IRA account. He will make enough contributions to get the employer match, but that's it. I got the Dirty Thirties book from the library finally, and the first thing it talks about is drought. We've been talking about how to use our hoses with our rain barrels, and we're going to experiment with the height of the barrels next year to get the gravity flow right. It's fall now, and we're getting rain, but we want to be prepared for next year. Our latest water bill made another huge jump! I'm going to be busy in October canning pears.

It certainly won't be hard for me to forget about the mobile phone (we call them mobiles in Australia) - mine has been up on the bench for the last three days now and not used.  I just checked the battery this morning to make sure it was still charged.  I really don't bother much with it, make or receive the occasional call or text, but that's about it.  I use a desk top computer for anything online.

I have found lists of some of the more popular books published in Britain in each year of the 1930s, and have been gathering some of my collection to re-read in October. It was a Golden Age of detective fiction, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Patricia Wentworth and Margery Allingham. 

I have started All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West, then there are E M Delafield, the delightful books by O Douglas (Anna Buchan,) Winifred Holtby, D E Stephenson, Angela Thirkell, Stella Gibbons, Noel Streatfeild and Georgette Heyer, just for a start. 

I love the snippets of domestic history in old novels, the missing buttons on clothes returned from the laundry, and the frustration over the fish course for dinner. 

Melanie D.,

Others have correctly warned against canning anything without following a recipe from a reputable source, but I thought you might like to know why it would be such a bad idea to boiling water bath low acid foods, even if planning to use them up quickly. 

The danger there is botulism poisoning, rather than traditional "spoilage."  The bacteria that produces the toxin is not killed by the temperature reached in a boiling water bath, and it thrives in low oxygen environments such as that created by canning.  Improperly canned low acid foods may become deadly in as little as 2 to 3 days, so it is really not something you want to mess around with. It doesn't even make the food look, smell, or taste spoiled, it just kills those who eat it.

There's a home canning guide from USDA which I believe is available as a free printable pdf download through the University of Georgia.

Thankyou everyone for giving me your advice about home canning!  Tea S I have found that USDA guide to download that you mentioned, which definitely looks super helpful (once I convert everything from imperial to metric!).  I'll start with fruits etc. that I can preserve safely using my water bath preserving pot.  Once I've become confident using that, I'll look at investing in a pressure cooker.

I just wanted to remind everyone that the hummingbirds are starting to fly south. If you live in the southern part of the US, it's time to make sure your feeders are clean and filled to help our little friends make their way even farther south. They'll need those way stations to fill up at to help them keep going! 

If you've never fed our hummy friends before and would like to, this is the feeder I use. It's glass and very easy to clean. You can boil 1 cup of water and add 1/4 cup of plain, granulated sugar to make sugar water for them. Let it cool and fill the feeder. 

You'll need something to hang it on like a shepherd's hook hanger. Amazon has them, though I got mine for $7.99 at Aldi's. 

I'm entrusting the care of my hummys to those of you in the south! :) 

I cleared off a shelf this morning and stocked it with a few leisure activities to enjoy in the evenings of October. I was careful not to pick too many projects lest I actually overwhelm myself. I want to be ready to reach for an activity instead of my phone with a sense of peace and not a mandate that I must get stuff done!

I get the kind below, because I have to have ant moats (fire ants will take over, otherwise) and these have moats built in, plus they are super easy to fill, monitor and clean.  Some hummingbirds stay the winter in Florida, so I keep my feeders up all year, but bring them in at night if there are freezing temperatures.  I'll admit these feeders are not nearly as pretty as the glass ones, but the birds come to them anyway.  I am vigilant in the spring and fall, when the birds are on the move, to keep them filled and fresh.  Since we still have 90+F days, that means I am doing it often.  How nice to see someone else here is feeding the hummers.  And it's a fun, no-tech hobby.

FEED GARDEN 2 Pack 16 OZ Hummingbird Feeders for Outdoor 5 Feeder Ports Ant Bee Proof Leak-Proof Cleaning Brushes Nectar Easy Clean Fill Bird Feeder 

Thank you for sharing what you use, Joan S ! I use Tanglefoot on my hanger to keep the ants away, but those ant moats sound very handy. I am so pleased to know you feed the hummers too. :) I believe Grandma Donna does as well. It's a cheap hobby too, once you've got the feeder. Not like my other birds with their fancy bird seed! 

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Stephanie, yes we do feed the hummers, they do not stay all year here, we have them from spring to to mid to late fall and then they make their long journey. :)

My mother is nearly 90. She was born in 1935. So this study is for me a peek into her life as a child. She had 6 siblings with oldest being born 20 years before her. My mother remembers the outhouse and her daddy walking behind a mule to plow his farm. 

I remember the house she grew up in. It was a real farmhouse in South Carolina & not something "curated" with purchases from Target or Wayfair to have the right "aesthetic". It was minimalist because money was tight and not because the burden of buying & owning was too much.

I'm sure if I told her about this study she would think we're nuts. She had no qualms about embracing modern life. 

I wonder at my grandmother's reaction if in 1935 someone suggested to her to pretend to go back in time 90 years to simplify her life. That would be 1845. Before the civil war. I don't think she would have even understood the idea. When my grandparents got married no one had a car. I have pictures of everyone in the family posing with my grandparent's new car in 1951.

Did anyone in 1935 lament how complicated life had gotten? I suppose so. But I think most probably embraced the changes not realizing what they would lose.

I'm hoping this October challenge helps me recalibrate balance in my life. I want to rediscover the sweet spot between the simple life of my grandparents  and the modern life of my mother.

This is a great post.  I hadn't talked much to my mom about it, but she died 1-1/2 yrs ago at 93.  Her parents owned a store and her father, a butcher. My grandmother on my Dad's side never learned to drive.  I think they did lament on the way the world was going, perhaps more in a moralistic way and some books I read already talked about the wants over needs in society, the status of stuff, etc.  Walden saw people chasing the almighty dollar, but I think it was always like that to varying degrees. I think (or hope) it's topping out now because now it's so easy to have everything at our fingertips, but it's all at the loss of knowing how to do anything for ourselves, anxiety, depression.  I was born in 1960 and I will choose that sweet spot as well, between simple and modern, but I also know having grown up without technology, the destruction of it.  I'm so glad I have those memories to look back on.  Makes me realize what is ridiculous and what isn't and sometimes I think society is just desperate to not be angry, and be more connected to people, and realizing they don't know how to do things, whether they realize it or not.  There are young kids on you-tube going phone free and all their experiences so far have been how much they love it! Hopefully they can experience it, rather than look back on real life.  We all need to find our sweet spot in an era where it's all too much. With everything at our fingertips we all need to learn discipline with it, something that is lacking.  Growing up, we had e.n.o.u.g.h. My opinion is that we've surpassed healthy times.  But what you said, they embraced changes not realizing what they would lose. Wholeheartedly, I believe this.

Ann E I think you've hit on something very important. I feel so much better about myself and my life the more I learn how to do things for myself. The more I learn how to do things for myself, the less I need to look for satisfaction somewhere else. I felt so good outfitting my bike with a cargo rack and a basket. Now that I have those tools, I am not dependent on anyone or anything if I need to go somewhere. It takes stamina to ride a bike, but that's what my weekday walks are for, building physical stamina to live my life with a better balance between doing things myself and having others do it for me. I don't want to build my own house or haul water, but I think people are uneasy when they can't do basic things themselves. I think we need to know that we could manage if we couldn't have other people do things for us. We need that security, and I don't think most people feel that anymore. 

I’m so excited to begin this ‘new way of life’. My husband and I recently purchased his childhood home and presently, I live here alone until he officially retires. When I moved here a year ago, I stopped watching television altogether, and do not watch/hear the news although I am considering subscribing to the local newspaper.

Living in an old mining town of population being approximately 2500, things are pretty slow here which I feel is such a blessing. We moved here from a large city on purpose and this has been an answer to prayer. I’m grateful to be here and I’m thankful to have found you and your lovely group.
Im a quilter so does that count for making household items? I never make quilts for show, only for actual use. I would love to knit/crochet but I’m ‘yarn-challenged’

Thank you everyone for your comments. They are interesting and thought provoking. I like that idea of finding the sweet spot between the old ways and now. I think that's realistic. I lean slightly more towards the old ways. I agree with the sentiment that being more self reliant is important. I have a lot to learn there but the satisfaction and resilience it gives me is so good. Being connected to each other in real and meaningful ways rather than through screens is the human touch I believe society needs. That and connecting to our natural world of which we are part of is soothing. Walk a little each day with bare feet on the actual earth and breathe deep.

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Patricia A, absolutely quilting is a wonderful addition to the projects we can make while we are doing our living without technology month and beyond :)  

Stephanie G, your battery going dead was possibly a blessing in disguise as it had such a valuable lesson and has giving you a new perspective of how to step back and think of how can I solve this myself.  

Margaret P, I like your comment, well said and thought provoking.  I do wonder what my grandparents would think about todays world but I feel they still would have remained the same because they had been through so much in their lifetime that they were steady in their ways and remained frugal and unchanged until they passed on in their 90's.  They were born in 1900 and 1904 and they knew to not rely on modern things and how they made it through so many troubling times in history. They did what they knew worked.  We would be in a world of hurt if such things happened today as dependent as we are to technology.  

All of you have had wonderful comments, I read all of them.  (Heart) Donna

Hallo opnieuw vanuit Nederland.

Steeds wanneer ik de commentaren lees wordt ik blij van alle bemoediging.

Gelukkig ben ik ouder dan 65 en niet afhankelijk van computers. Mijn boodschappenlijstjes knip ik uit gebruikte enveloppen. Heb een vaste telefoon om mee te bellen. Heb buiten geen wifi en laat dus mijn mobiele telefoon thuis. Denk bij heel veel dingen 'hoe deden mijn oma en moeder het?' Heb zelfs geen internetbankieren. Er zijn nog geen  100.000 mensen in dit land die geld gewoon overmaken via een formulier en ik ben er één van.

 Heb de afgelopen dagen meidoornjam, veenbessenjam en duindoornjam gemaakt. Zelf geplukt. Ook ander zoet beleg gemaakt. Boter, suiker en cacao goed mengen en klaar. Geleerd van mijn oma en moeder. Van oud brood, met suiker, rozijnen, ei, melk en kaneel een cake bakken. Ook ouderwets. Een blikje gecondenseerde melk koken met de deksel onder water maakt heerlijk beleg. Verder heb ik mijn maaltijden vereenvoudigd. Vaker aardappelen, groente,vlees. Dat was wat er gegeten werd. Op woensdag gehakt. Op zondag een kip of heel soms rundvlees. Voor de hele week jus voor over de aardappelen maken. Herinner me niet dat mijn oma ooit de braadpan afwaste. Lol...Er was bij mijn oma om de hoek een poppen winkel waar je je pop li et repareren. Een petroleumwinkel waar je warm water, kaarsen, lucifers en petroleum kocht. Heb het mandje nog waarmee ik een boodschapje daad voor haar heb. O, zoveel lieve herinneringen. 

Mijn man komt van een klein eiland, tegenwoordig ingepolderd: Urk. Hij had zelfs geen toilet in huis. Een hokje aan de straatkant waar een emmer in stond die elke week werd geleegd door een man. Er was armoe. Maar iedereen was arm dus je merkte het niet. Wc papier waren stukken oude kranten, je maakte een gaatje en hing ze aan een touwtje.  

Sorry voor het lange bericht. Zal zeker meedoen in oktober. Denk dat het voor mij niet moeilijk is. 

Oja, iemand schreef dat zij in Kampen geweest was. Dat stadje ken ik.

My new cellphone handset arrived today, and it's already made me think differently about my phone. I think of it more as a phone than an internet device. :) 

Other than that, I've made more tomato paste today, and I'm dehydrating oregano. I read about preserving fresh basil leaves in salt, so I'm giving that a try. I like making tomato paste so much that I've decided to grow Roma and Italian Oxheart tomatoes next year specifically for making paste. I'll can some of it next year too, for longer storage. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

I took off the week of 9/21 - 9/27 to practice the low tech October challenge, and it was quite interesting.

I woke up this morning, remembered that my 7 days were completed, thought about opening up the news app, and decided I didn’t want to.  I didn’t access news at all during the break, not by radio nor the newspaper.  Not playing daily puzzle games was a non-issue.  Not using social media was a non-issue.

I have so much more time than I had before!  I easily get all of my tasks done for the day early on, so by afternoon I can concentrate on making things or reading without a trace of guilt.  This has always been my goal, but I wouldn’t get my tasks done in the morning.  I knew it was because I was using devices, but I would justify it since I was updating finances, checking or making the meal plan, etc.  Well, I set a timer now for my “desk time” at the computer, and I don’t even need 30 minutes a day.

During my week break I made three Santa hats (1 crochet, 2 knit), completed 3 partially done dish cloths and knit the pastel waffle weave dish cloth from start to finish, read a non-fiction library book from start to finish, read part of another book, decorated my house for fall, and reorganized the pantry.  The Santa hats still need pom poms but I’m going to do that all at once after I make all of the hats.  

I learned how to put my phone in standby mode with a clock and the weather on the display (photo attached) because I realized I am most likely to pick up my phone for to check the time or weather.  Because we are already choosing to live on our retirement budget, I don’t have extra money to spend on this challenge and couldn’t buy a weather station or outdoor thermometer, so I figured out how to use my new fangled device for old fashioned purposes.  To use it in this mode the phone must be charging — like a corded phone!  If I’m going to be in another room for a long period of time I unplug the phone and charger and plug it into that room, like a phone extension, so I don’t have to run if it rings.

I’ve found that with the solar electric system, I don’t need to check the electric usage on the utility company website, and after tracking the natural gas usage for several months I feel confident we are doing our best there and don’t need to check that in October either, as we are averaging $40 per month and that includes our winter heating.  For the water the only way for us to track it is by looking at the meter.

I’ll use the next two days to take care of things I missed going into the practice week, such as printing out more recipes and making templates for meal planning etc. I can fill out by hand.  I may have to revamp that entire system, as I’m accustomed to editing my monthly meal plan and reprinting it as necessary.  I also need a freezer inventory sheet I can update by hand.

I'm so glad you gave us your update, Kimberly F ! It's so encouraging to hear. :) I've been practicing too, taking out different things on different days. I tried taking out looking at the weather online, which I did obsessively and shouldn't, but found I do need the predictions of the forecast to help me plan gardening and laundry. 

At the beginning of the year, I wanted to learn about home weather prediction and bought some items. That interest got bumped by worrying about getting our money in order for a Depression era-style event! I've only recently been able to get back to studying it, and I'm finally learning how to use my thunder glass, which I find is more accurate than my wall barometer. 

I have a rain catcher and an outdoor thermometer that also shows humidity. Your rain catcher and thermometer are supposed to be placed four feet away on all sides from anything that might affect the readings -- information for anyone wanting to do this too. :) I have old fashioned analog weather tools but the digital ones are supposed to be very accurate. The only thing I don't have is a wind sock. 

The thunder glass is the most predictive, but only by hours or a day, though I'm getting better at reading it. I was learning to tell weather by the clouds earlier in the year, but I only got partway through that. The clouds are good for short term prediction too. I've started listening to the local radio weather predictions, and my local newspaper has predictions, but sometimes I still need to look online to know if I can hang laundry in the afternoon, for instance. 

Stephanie G, that’s pretty cool that you are looking into home weather prediction!

I do a 30 second full weather check during my morning “desk time”, so I can see the hourly and the 10 day.  The weather is important to me as well, for hanging laundry and also planning electricity usage, since we make less electricity on cloudy days.  I’m learning to be very adaptive, even changing meal plans if what I was planning to make takes the oven and Instant Pot but my batteries are low and I know we won’t make as much electricity because of the clouds.  I already enjoyed being connected to the weather because of line drying exclusively, and now it applies to our electric usage as well.

By November hanging laundry will become a lot iffier on a day to day basis, because of clouds, humidity, potential rain, etc.  That’s when I switch to a variable wash schedule, skipping days that won’t work and taking advantage any time it is unseasonably warm to wash the extras and things that need more drying time.  Worse case scenario I move the pole rack under the carport for drying — this year we plan to add a portable umbrella rack as well.

Thanks Kimberly F for the update. I was waiting to hear how it went.  I'm retired and an introvert ;) so staying home is my thing, and  99% of the time finish everything I need to daily, but I could use some hobbies. The phone and internet usage for me is bad for my anxiety, mental restfulness, energy, and creativity. I'm hoping for a change in that area! Weather here in Tucson is well the same.same.same and we do log our rainfall already, but I've always wanted that barometer thingy. I also have a gauge.   I would like to grow some herbs though.  I also have some aloe that overgrew the windowsill and I should replant those to our patio.  So I'm going to make a list of things to do. I do some laundry hanging on the patio, but my space is limited as it's screened in.  But we get a lot of dust devils, so dust is really an issue and if I had a line outside, it gets sun rot.  Maybe though I'll just be more intentional about fixing that. I'll have to look up that portable umbrella rack. I don't knit, but I absolutely love what you've completed!!!  I have to seriously think about what basic things I want to keep like news and what to dump.  Thanks so much for the update!!!

Ann E, I’m touched that you were waiting for my update.

I’m introverted too, and staying home is definitely my thing.  I think one reason I have so many crafty hobbies is because I love home so much!  My husband and son are also introverted.  Being with people definitely depletes us and we need time to recharge.  I think newer technologies are unfortunately making introverts even more introverted and lead us to think we don’t need other people.  Then we end up deficient in human connection.  It happens just like vitamin D depletion, slowly, and with mild symptoms that will eventually get worse.  I know I’m never going to be the person itching to go out on the town to hang out with strangers, or the person who delights in making new friends, but I am going to work on connecting more with the people I know and like, in quieter settings, of course.

I love Tucson — we were last there in February!  We used to go far more frequently in the 1980s and 1990s, but now most of our visits are to northern Arizona.  I pretty much have only experienced November - February in Tucson, and then August quite a few times.

My laundry lines are made of PVC, which I think is common with Hills Hoist models.  Like your weather, the sun quickly rots cotton clothesline where I live in the sunny deserts of California.  I take my clothespins and bag in and out of the house with me rather than leaving them outside all of the time, again because of the beating they would take in the sun.  And I have to remind my son not to leave his clothing outside in the sun all day because the dark items will get sun bleached!  My navy nightgown is lighter on the outside than the inside because I’ve been drying it outside every week for years

@Jenny Wren – your comment about reading your local newspaper online via your library really inspired me! "This helps me avoid the talking in circles and constant rehashing and random editorializing of the same story one finds on TV or online news." I can relate to this because I do find myself at work easily saying "Did you all hear..." or "Can you believe..." – I think calming down and focusing a little more locally would be good for me.

I need to read more comments before responding further but had to mention that I really liked this idea. 

@Grandma Donna – I can't wait to see what Charles builds for your phone setup once you're back on the blog/forum, it sounds adorable just from the description.

This will be an interesting start for Charles' retirement I think. 

My husband retired a year ago and it took him 6 months to adjust. He was used to having so little free time while working that he really wasn't prepared for the extra time and what to do with it! He also lost 20 pounds which was great. Had to be because he was no longer stressed.