Last evening, just before I was about to go to bed, I got Annie’s email and then Tracy’s, asking me to write about the Depression era Mothers and what they would have done in times as we are now living. I prayed about it last night and talked to Jim about it. Jim had such a spirit of God on him as he spoke to me. We have had a hard time lately ourselves. Jim said to tell the families to just stock up on canned things for the winter. And if you have fresh produce out of your gardens, “can it.” Jim isn’t one with words. But as he spoke, I could see that the Lord was speaking through him. And as I write this morning, I can see the wisdom in what he was saying.

Frozen food is nice to have. But you can always trust the fact that you have canned goods that won’t spoil for years, in case the electricity would go out. So one thing I would do, if I were some of you with big families, is to stock up on canned vegetables, fruits, and canned evaporated milk and meats. And put this all in some sort of storage room. You can easily stack canned goods in flat boxes and store them under the beds, if you have little storage. Papa really spoke to me about this and I could tell it was more than just Jim speaking. It was as if the Lord was speaking. So I am really going to stock up on some canned things for the winter. Then I have my own canning from my garden.

Also, ya know, in the winter it’s not hard to store fresh milk for the week. When the children were all home, I got about 5 gallons of milk a week. I stored it in the winter on my porch. But, ya know, you could make some sort of box to put outside to store milk in to keep it cold this winter. Just put the box up by a backdoor or up against the house. Put a heavy lid on it and make sure the sun won’t shine on it. And even if the milk freezes, it will thaw out and is still just as good.

The old timers, in the winter, used to have window boxes? They opened the window and put a wooden box in the window. Like you would fit in a window air conditioner? Then the box had a door on the front. So it worked like a little refrigerator. Over the front where the door is, you could just put a curtain over it to look like the hanging curtain that is there. If at all possible, put your box on the north side of the house. My little root cellar and my only kitchen window are on the north side of my house. It’s colder on that side. You wouldn’t want to put your box where the sun would beat down on it during the day. You could certainly put some of your refrigerator items in there. It wouldn’t work as a freezer unless it gets really cold … like below zero. But this box would come in mighty handy for leftovers and for margarine or butter, ketchup, pickles, mustard, etc.

The main thing is that we need to know the state of our pantries. To keep a sharp eye as wise mothers on our storehouses. Deut. 28 says that we will be blessed in our storehouses if we obey the Lord.

COURAGE, MOTHERS, COURAGE

Ya know, I have lived in life and death situations and my knowledge took me through, in part? But I want to talk to you seriously about courage? You can know all the right things to do but not do them because you are scared half to death? Fear will paralyze you and make you just want to sit and do nothing. You can have the idea as to what to do … what you need to do? But the fear will bind you and take your strength.

I mean, you could watch 24-7 TV news about death and destruction. But you had better not? Those folks are precious that report this stuff on Fox News. My heart goes out to them, as they seem so sincere and are, I think. But they are not believing the Lord? I mean, I am sure some are … God bless them!!! And ya know, I have watched a lot of this with Jim. But ya know, I am not going to watch it that much more. I mean, I will be polite to Jim about it. But I was praying and the Lord just impressed me like this. “You have watched it enough to discern the times and the seasons our country is in, and that is enough. ”

I mean, it don’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that “What comes around goes around.” What is effecting one state will effect the ones around it. Some of us are in for some hard times ahead. And yet, as Canaan has shown us, God’s word works. There are hard times up ahead to be had, but the Lord is with us and will be mighty in our midst. We must be dutiful and faithful as homemakers. But it is He that will either make or break us.

We must put Him first and cry after His presence. His life … His anointing is the key, let me tell ya. Fear will take you down quicker than starving to death. Get the fear out of your house. Turn the TV off and make a full pantry. Canaan said that Psalms 91 is what brought her through. I am going to write this chapter down and put portions of it on the wall in every room of the house. When I homeschooled the children, we memorized this chapter. But in times of fear, sometimes we forget what we have memorized. We need to have the promises of the Bible out where we can see the words. We need to hide the word of God in our hearts and speak it to our children.

My children would say something negative to me when they were young and I would say, “Don’t confess it.” And they still tease me about this and say it themselves. And yes, Mother, you may feel scared half to pieces, but don’t say it. When you open your mouth and confess fear? Then demons are loosed in your house like a virus and will go to the rest of the family. And you get a family that is running on fear? And they will run right out he door to the street. No, Mothers … don’t spread fear into your house. Speak the word of God into your home and into your children. Confess openly, “I am a mother of faith and courage. I will make a home out of nothing if I must. God will help me. He won’t destroy my home as I am faithful to Him. The old time mothers made it through the Depression era and if they did it, I can do it, too.” And ya know, those Depression era women had so much less than what we have. I mean, in the flat prairie lands, it didn’t rain for 3 years. They didn’t even have a garden to take them through. The ranchers didn’t have any rain to water the horses or cattle. But ya know, they all lived to tell it? And we will, too.

I told Jim a few days ago, “Ya know, Honey, folks are gonna be livin’ like we have all along.” Well, it didn’t hurt us any. But it sure hasn’t been that we have made it because of survival skills. I mean, the survival skills come as you decide to trust in the Lord. As you decide to not give up, no matter what. I mean, right now Jim and I are between a rock and a hard place. But Jim said last night, “I will find another job if I have to cook in a restaurant.” And wild man would walk to work, too, if he had to. That old boy is hard to keep down and is tough as a nail. He is 65 years old … but he is strong in spirit.

A WILDERNESS HOME

And ya know, if I was in one of those homeless camps I have seen on TV? I would just make a tent for my family. I think, with all the debris around, you could find a few poles or tree limbs and pound them into the ground. Then put a rope between them and hook blankets up around them. You could use one of those 5 gallon plastic containers for a toilet? They are easy to sit on and hopefully you could find a lid for it. Then make another clothes line on the outside of the tent to hang wet clothes. Then just take some sticks and build a makeshift fence to put around the tent. At least you would have some privacy and give the children a place to rest. A Mother can make a home wherever she is. Just tell the children you are camping out. The main thing is to give the children a place away from the other people to be quiet.

And, like Annie was saying, you could make a formula for the baby out of watered down milk. In the 1960s we used the canned milk to make a baby formula. All the mothers did this, back then, that didn’t breast feed. We mixed it half water and half evaporated milk. We put a Tbs Karo syrup in one daily bottle to make sure the baby didn’t get constipated. And also we started feeding our children baby cereal at 2 weeks old. Just once a day in the evening. Mix it up really fine and gooey with milk or warm wate.

Take care of the baby and keep him warm and dry and fed. Baby should be a top priority. I think the elderly would be treated first, anyway. But make sure, Mother, that your baby is cared for and the young children, especially.

But if you have a home to live in as, thank the Lord, Tracy does? Then, yes, I would stock up on canned goods. Cookies and crackers would be good to make and keep in a dry, cool place in the house. Ya know, you could make quick breads in canning jars and store that away. You just use the wide mouthed pint or quart canning jars. Bake the bread in the jar and make sure the bread doesn’t go over the top. If it does, just slice it off the top. But while it is hot out of the oven, screw the canning lid and ring on … it will seal from the heat. Store this bread in a cool, dark place. It should last for at least a year. If you open it and it isn’t moldy and smells good, then it is good. If it has mold on it, then don’t eat it.

Tracy, if I were you, I would just bake a bunch of goodies for the freezer. If the electricity were to go off, the baked goods would still last a while.

Now as far as buying things at the store for your family storehouse. Just buy the canned things. Then stock up on the white sugar and brown. Buy as much flour as you can store safely. Buy cornmeal for cornbread and a box of oatmeal. Then make sure that you have baking powder, baking soda, and bread yeast. Go through your spices and see if you need cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger. The spices that are outdated, I save to boil in water in the winter to keep the house smelling good and to keep the moisture in the air. Make sure you have shortening and cooking oil if you can afford it.

Buy candles on sale … but make sure, Mother, to watch them. As you light them, put them up someplace away from the children. You can make a country candle holder like this. Just take an old jar and put one of the little candles in it. The glass reflects the light and makes it brighter. This way, the open flame is down in the jar. You could put some of your outdated spices in the jar, too.

Also buy some cocoa to make cocoa for the children. I still buy the big box of instant milk to cook with, and it makes a nice hot cocoa.

But Tracy, yes, just put your trust in the Lord and make a home in the wilderness. You know how to do it. I will be writing more on this later.

Oh Mercy, it’s been busy here at the house. I am up writing in the night. Well, I guess it’s 4:30 in the morning. I can feel the Holy Spirit lift me to the place of abundance in Christ and then I feel pulled back to the barrenness. I have a writing to birth and I can feel the signs of labor coming on.

The Lord, for the past few days, has spoken to me about the empty hands of the women in our country and, even now, it is harvest time. The fruit in our gardens is ready to be harvested and to be put away for the winter. And yet, many women stand about idle with empty hands and depressed hearts. The women are no longer happy at Harvest time as they were for generations before us.

Always during hard times, Mother went back to the land … back to her roots. Back to teachings on the home and back to a simplicity of keeping a home for the family. Now we say, well we don’t have to work so hard, as we have stores now to buy our produce from. And yet our food is so poison with preservatives and our country’s land is no longer good as it once was. Mother could simply save her family in her own backyard garden and with her own compost pile to give her garden fertilizer. Our land in our country has been raped repeatedly, all for the love of money. And the hormones given to the animals we eat are not safe. And yet we could, if we wanted to, grow all of our own food and preserve it.

I am not writing to bring condemnation — I am not that good at canning, myself. I know how to can and to preserve food but I have let the devil make me think I have been too busy. But I don’t want to get sidetracked but to follow the Holy Spirit on this. He has a message here and I want to find out what it is.

In our country, when the pioneers traveled West, they had to go back to the land and learn to live off the land. And then during the Depression era, folks went back to the land to survive. And for generations before the pioneers, most families lived off the land. The pioneers knew that they had to go back to the land to survive. Well, we are in a place now in our country where the times are just as rough as any that the pioneers of old ever saw. We live in a dangerous time now. We are blinded by satan, as we don’t think we have to work to keep our family in food. And yet trouble looms about us and we have a knowin’ that we should do something about it.

Lately, I have seen in my spirit Mothers with empty hands during the harvest. Sure, we lack knowledge as to how to prepare our foods for canning. Or Satan robs us of our time. We have a vague idea of how we saw our grandmothers live off the land but we don’t have any idea where to start. Or we don’t see a reason to. And yet there is such a famine in the land of the Bible truths being spoken. On TV, there is an array of witches preaching against homemaking. These women are goin’ into our spiritual storehouses and literally tearing the people of God apart. These witches have torn their own homes down and now are tearing at the temple of God.

Of course, the men have driven these women to it. Most of these witches have a hubby behind them telling them to do it. These women have not had the backbone to know the scriptures and to stand up for their authority in the home. They are puppets who are being tossed about in the wind. They have been a day late and a dollar short. They haven’t had the older Titus Mother in their lives and neither have their husbands. And they want to be free and think they find their freedom in having no responsibility to work for God. They hate the virtuous woman and they dig on her whenever they can.

But we mothers and keepers at home have a place in God that no man should boss us around in. God in Genesis gave us authority in the garden, too. And we are to take authority in the earth over the animals and the land. We are called to tend our gardens and to make a home and to have babies.

And don’t get me wrong — we must be servants of Christ and submit to our husbands. But I want to tell you a story. Back in the old days, in order to keep my kids fed, I would go to the store and buy the leftover produce that the store was going to throw away. Jim hated it and said it was a big mess, but he allowed me to get it. And through much tribulation, I saved his ornery hide and kept the family fed. I only had 100 bucks for 2 weeks to feed the 5 children I had at home. Jimmy was in the Navy. Something had to give. I had my own garden, too, but couldn’t produce enough food. I had some knowledge of gardening but sorely lacked the know how and the time to take care of it. I had weeks that the 100 bucks was almost spent for one week’s groceries. The second week, we lived on the fruits and vegetables I salvaged from the store.

But no, I never stood up to Jim and told him off. I had to be submissive and quiet. I had a clearer vision of what we needed to keep the family from going under. And Jim has bailed me out many times in our marriage, as he has had wisdom where I lacked it. But ya know, we mothers and wives are held responsible to God to do what He has called us to do. If the husband is interrupting this calling, then you need to know that and fight in the spiritual realm against this. Don’t let a man make a slave out of you.

When a queen is taken off her throne to work in the street, then this breaks the Lord’s heart. We are the weaker vessels and are to be homebound and to do the work of home. If you are told to go get a job and to leave your home and place of protection, then, of course, you must go. But look at Esther. She didn’t just say, “Well, my husband wants to slaughter the children of God, so I guess I will submit.” No … Esther had a place with God. She knew God on her own and knew enough to follow the Spirit of the Lord. And yet she had a heart of reverence towards her husband. The King loved Esther. The king could have killed all the Jews and slept the next night without interruption. He had no heart for the Jews. But he loved Esther and wanted to make her happy.

A lot of men are as hard as a nail, and especially in this age. Well, they don’t know any better and have never seen a virtuous woman. So, yes, you submit to them and have gentle loving hearts towards your husbands. But God has called YOU to be the keeper at home. And you need to walk that out.

You have no place else to go. The work at the house is all yours, Darlin’. I don’t care how much education you have. If you have children and a husband, you need to stay home and take care of the children.

Ok, this is just basic Bible teaching. And women knew this as basic Bible teaching for many generations before us. But now we live in a time where witches are ruling. Ya know, any woman of dignity would know to feel compassion towards these witches. They are like flies on a dead horse. They breed more flies and fill the air with a binding controlling spirit. And all of this lady preachin’ may sound good at church? But when ya get back home to the kids … is it preaching that will help you to care for the children? No, it’s a preaching that leads to abortion and neglect of the children. It’s a preaching that is causing divorce and child neglect. And yet we women who know the Lord should have compassion on these women, as they are poor and must work in the street. They have been pushed out of the home by men who have made slaves out of them.

Many men are like Esther’s husband. They could tell you to go get an abortion and never think a thing about it. But a woman is to soften a man and teach him her ministry as Keeper at Home. She shows him her worth as she makes a home out of almost nothing. And you can make a home out of nothing. I did. I had 6 children and went on welfare to care for them. Heck, they didn’t know it. They had food and I made a place for them to be warm and cared for.

And oh, lately, they tell me that on the news, another Mother forgot about her baby in the car and went to work and the baby died. I can hardly bear this news. And these women say they are Christians. I don’t know about this woman, but many do say that. We live in a wicked generation. But as women of dignity, we must walk as Mothers in Israel. We must pray for these women and stand as examples of Godliness before them. Forgive them as they know not what they do.

This unholy preaching in the land, done by abused orphan children that have never known a virtuous woman, is a cancer in the Body of Believers. It is eating at the foundation of the temple of God. But we as Godly Mothers must take courage and strength unto ourselves. We must see all of this for what it is … it is totally a lack of teaching on the home. And this lack of teaching has promoted an evil that is like an unholy fire that is out of control.

Our only hope is in God … we must pray and throw our hopelessness as a country over on Him. And ya know, many of us will have to be examples that don’t maybe have a heart for it. Jim makes enough money now to keep us going. I don’t have to have a garden. But I desire to be an example to those about me. I cannot use my liberty to squander the life of the young women about me. As a Titus 2 Mother, I want to live a life pleasing to God as an example of a keeper at home. I am called as the older woman to act out my place as Keeper at home.

In the early years, God called me as Esther. I couldn’t do much back then as a wife forsaken. Yet God told me that I would give my sisters spiritual tools to fight with as Esther gave her people. The King, on her behalf, gave the Jewish people weapons to fight their enemies. So many of you don’t understand that I love the body of Christ. But those who feed His sheep are the ones who love Him. The Mothers among you that give you the spiritual tools to fight the enemies of your homes are the Mothers who love you.

Many of you older Mothers are called to be Titus 2 Mothers. It’s a hell of job, let me tell ya. I walk out on a battlefield every time I come to this e machine. The wounded lay about me and I stand silent in their presence. Surely, they think I don’t care, like Kelly and some of you Mothers who suffer so. I don’t read all of your emails. I can’t or I could never go on. I know, mainly, what they say as I have been there and done that. I am thankful for many of you who minister to the broken hearted on this group. And yet, in this battlefield, I am called to keep on going and to write. The Lord tells me that the written word is more mighty than the sword. I am called to write and to live my life on the battlefield with you. I don’t have to be there now and the Lord told me I could leave. But my heart has been pierced by His sword. I am wounded, too, as I have been chosen to suffer for Him. To suffer and, yes, to lead you to victory. I know how to be abased and to how abound.

A woman of dignity and honor will always sacrifice her own life for those about her. She gains many crowns for herself and she gathers them up to throw at the Master’s feet. She stands strong in a wicked and perverse generation. She does not bow her knee to the gods about her. For her King is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is Christ Jesus.

And ya know, I am mainly just an ol’ huntin’ dog lookin’ for a place on the front porch to rest? I am so much slower on the draw than I used to be and Jim runs circles around me. But I will tell ya one thing, “Before I leave this world, I plan to kick the hell out of it, one way or the other.” Mostly by smartin’ off on the email, probably. But the Lord does do things to keep me awake, like He has my trick skirts fall off … or up? And then the racoons falling from the kitchen ceiling certainly keeps me awake. But ya know, it is in my heart to make a dent in this world before I go. To leave my footprints in the sand.

Someday my Christian grandchildren will say to me, “Where were you, Grandma, when 1.5 million babies were being murdered each year?” I mean, generations of children are being murdered in front of us. But I believe that God’s true word of the Bible would bring our country back to sanity. It’s gonna take a lot more than a walk on Washington. Man, this murder started in the heart of the unbelievers and now has entered the church … it’s the wickedness of the hearts of the believers that keeps abortion going. And, of course, this wickedness is causing such a disregard for the live children. It has to stop and wont stop when a law is passed. Judgment must begin at the house of God. The heart of the believers has to be cleansed. And when the believers take a stand, then satan’s blood bath will be over.

But God is calling holy women who will be obedient to all things concerning home and family. He calls us to come back to the land and to make gardens and homes for our families. We have done all to stand and we must stand. We must cultivate a place, a spark of energy that God can use to be an example of His word.

In the old days, as I would sit and rock the baby, I would say, “Lord, I love you and want to do something for you. Are You sure that this is all I am to do? Just care for the baby and make a home for Jim and the children?” I couldn’t understand that this small act of obedience would mean anything to God. Yet God told me that He would multiply my obedience to Him and take it much further than I could understand. Oh, and I didn’t understand it. And I often lamented to the Lord, as I prayed and rocked the baby … I cried out, “Lord, what do you have for me to do?” And, of course, He had called me to rock the baby and to do as I was doing. I didn’t understand that at the time. So many around me told me to do something important like get a job? Thank God I had enough sense to just stay put and care for the family.

And when God called me to write, I thought it was the end of the world. I cried out to God, as my children were gone and I was alone and barren. But I went to the battlefield because He called me to go. And I went for 7 years. And now God has given me my Rose in the desert to care for. My little baby Rose brings so much joy to my heart. I was tested as the Lord called me to serve Him in my barrenness. I had to say with Job, “Tho He slay me yet will I trust in Him.”

As I raised my children as a young mom, I was always hidden. And my company was from Hidden women. I gave my testimony rarely, even after 18 years after Jim was healed. I gave it maybe twice a year … if that? I didn’t know my neighbors — I lived secluded with my family. And for the Lord to call me to the arena to give my testimony was surely something I hated. And yet I was called unto Him to do what He asked me to do. And now I go willingly without always a prompting from Him. He is my husband and I am learning to know His heart. My prayers have been etched in His heart and now I am holding still for Him to carve His word in my heart.

One voice of truth could save our nation. A voice of truth and the energy around it to create a place for the Lord to dwell. Let His voice enter your hearts, dear Wives and Mothers. Let us call Him to our inner temples. Let us give Him a place.

LIGHTS OF HOME

And I see in my spirit wastelands and a wilderness. And in the midst, I see a few homes here and there across the barren lands. Homes set on a hill and tiny lights sparkling in the darkness. Homes made by wise mothers who have discerned the times and have prepared their homes for the coming darkness.

For a few years, they are witnessing to the neighbors and teaching them to have gardens and full pantries. But then the time comes that no man knows. And each of the little houses in the darkness must turn off their lights and close the door for the last time. And as in the days of Noah, the time of teaching is over — the door is closed.

And mother looks out the window and sees the suffering families on her porch crying for a bit of spiritual and physical food … it breaks her heart but she must not open the door again. Her time of teaching is over and now her own obedience will save her home. She saved the ones she could … she made hay while the Son shined but now this time is over. The angel of death has passed over her house and couldn’t touch her, as she was trusting in the Blood of Jesus.

In this age, dear hearts, I believe that we have a block of time that we can gain knowledge and wisdom as to how to make a home that is somewhat self sufficient. Use this time to read and to learn how to make a home and a garden. Gather knowledge and wisdom now while you can. Because ya know, hard times — even harder times — are coming? Don’t go out to work and leave the children. Find out a way to keep them with you. Use this time to glean enough knowledge that you can say that you are not afraid of the future.

Let quietness and confidence be your strength.

Wisdom is the stability of the times. Wisdom is the wise woman who builds a house.

Let your home be a light house until the days come that you must turn off the light for the last time.

Obey the Lord in your calling as Keeper at Home.

Good Morning.

Yesterday I was writing about homesteading and going back to the land. One thing I was trying to caution my readers about is not biting off more than they can chew.

I know one time, I read an article in Crowned with Silver about a dear Mother who nearly died from overwork. She had these dreams of moving to a farm with her large homeschooling family. Cooking from scratch and having goats and chickens. Well, she wasn’t prepared for any of this and way overdid it. She and her children got the flu and, because of being so stressed, it took a long time for them to all get well again. Her garden was way too large and she couldn’t care for it. So, of course, the city women mocked her and told her that she could never make a go of it on the land.

Well, ya know, slow and steady wins the race. If you have a small garden in town and can’t keep up with it, then don’t try to go to the country and plow up a big garden and add animals to care for to the work. Judge yourselves by what you have done with your small garden in the city. If you have outgrown your city garden, then you are ready to get a bigger garden.

I say all of this to say again, “Make hay while the sun shines.” Prepare yourselves now for the coming harder times ahead. Do what you can to learn survival skills. At different times in my marriage over the past 40 years, I have had to do many things to survive and to keep my family from going under. I was prepared with knowledge and I was glad I was.

Ok, now let’s say I have my Homestead and I am preparing to move in about a month. Again, it is the spring, like now. I would want to stock my pantry so that I would only have to go to town once a month. I will be busy with gardening and children and won’t have time to leave the Homestead more than once a month. So this is basically what I would buy.

I would buy a lot of canned vegetables, fruits, and meats. I am shooting for total self sufficiency but I am not there yet. I will be canning tomatoes out of my garden in the fall. Until then, I will need some canned items. So I will buy as many canned items as I can until I learn, gradually, to replace them all with homemade. So I will buy the canned items that I think I could grow in my garden. Such as canned green beans, peas, and corn, etc.

Ok, Papa’s coffee … a big can! I am imagining that I have big shelves in my Homestead Pantry. I would use large glass jars to store macaroni, rice, dried beans, oatmeal, cornmeal, and bread flour. This way, you always know at a glance if you need more beans or whatever. You just can’t beat the big tight lidded glass jars for storage.

Then, of course, you need other baking supplies like shortening, yeast, baking powder and soda for biscuits. And if ya can’t make biscuits, learn now as they come in mighty handy for a big family supper of gravy and biscuits. Now, for me, I use the gravy mixes from Aldies. We don’t eat a lot of meat and so I need these mixes to put in soups, etc. for flavor. I can make my own soup stock and can it, too. And eventually, if I needed to, I could again.

I will bring a bottle of ketchup to my homestead but will make many jars of it the coming fall with my homegrown tomatoes. Then, of course, you will need big bins in your pantry to store potatoes. I would also buy a lot of canned milk and instant milk. I would buy maybe 6 gallons of fresh milk for the month and can some of this to last the month. I have canned milk before and I know how.

So this is basically it. Jim is up and I need to go fix breakfast.

I would have a freezer and extra fridge my first year of homesteading if I could swing it. As ya need eggs and meat before you get your flock of chickens established. But eventually, I would want to can the meat and have a dugout for cold things.

Dear Pioneer Sisters,

Here are some ideas to start out with, when or if you were to move to a cabin in the woods. This is what I would do if I knew I had to eventually be totally self sufficient and I had a family to care for.

Ok. It’s spring, as it is now May 13th. And say I was to move in about a month. I would begin digging up some of my perennials in my yard here and bring them to my cabin to plant. I would make a small homestead garden there, too. Since it is my first year, I would plant just tomatoes and green peppers, cucumbers, some lettuce, and radishes, and a good crop of onions. For the first year, I wouldn’t plant a lot, as I would want to get chickens and a chicken house made before winter.

Around here, it is fairly easy to get potatoes cheap, and carrots. And you can buy fresh corn on the cob practically for a song. So I wouldn’t worry, my first spring, about plowing up a corn field or a potato field. Carrots are another fresh vegetable that I can buy cheap. Carrots will last practically forever in the fridge and they don’t need to be canned or frozen. Just keep a close eye on them and, if one gets rotten, throw it out before it rots them all. I would buy a few bushels of apples for the first year and store them in a cool place for the winter. But the first spring I would plant apple trees and other fruit trees on my land.

That first year, I wouldn’t worry over potatoes and carrots or corn, as they are easy around here to come by, and would be too much work for that first year. Also I wouldn’t plant a lot of beans to mess with the first year. I mean, enough beans to have for summer meals and peas, too. But going to the Homestead the first year, I would just buy the dried beans and split peas and lentils, etc. They are easily stored in jars and nothing to worry about. I mean, if one of the Sisters shares her garden beans, then Praise God and can them up for winter. But the first year is gonna be hard, and dried beans will get ya through.

I couldn’t live without my herbs and I would be haulin’ all of those to my cabin.

What I am tryin’ to say is that first year of planting will be a lot of work without overdoing it. Then, as you are established, then begin planting more in your garden the next spring.

Then I would get a goat and learn to milk her and care for her in the spring. Even if the family don’t drink it straight up, you can cook with it and make cheese and soap, maybe next year. But the main thing is knowledge and learning to care for a goat and milk her. I wouldn’t force the goat milk on my children if they didn’t like it. I would mix it half and half with store bought until they got used to it. If they are young, they will adapt pretty fast, but older children wouldn’t. Papa ain’t gonna drink no goat milk. I mean maybe in 20 years but I ain’t gonna hold my breath at that.

So in the spring and summer, the goat and the chickens will provide a lot of food. But when the cold weather comes, the chickens won’t lay eggs as much. But eggs are easily stored, too, in the fridge. I have seen directions for storing eggs and it all sounds very complicated to me. But eggs will last in the fridge for months on end. If an egg is good you will know it and if it ain’t, you will know that, too. Just break the egg open in a bowl before you cook it and you will know if it is good or not. My brother had chickens and kept eggs in the fridge for over 6 months and used them to feed his pregnant cats. And when he broke the eggs open, they were as good and fresh as ever. Cats won’t eat rotten eggs, believe me. You can get real complicated recipes for storing eggs in lime water or a bucket of lard … whatever. But to me they stay just as fresh in the fridge. I mean, providing you have electricity. And that first year, I would for sure have electricity until I got the hang of the other stuff.

Also, I would make certain I had a good mother cat about the farmstead. A female cat is a good mouser and I would have a lot of ‘em about the farm. Keep her away from the baby chicks and the chickens until they are grown up and can fend for themselves. And I would also have a good Lassie dog to chase wild animals away from my garden, at night especially. You may need two dogs. Well, they will surely earn their keep if they aren’t lazy. But most Lassie dogs are good with the children and will protect the garden, hopefully. I would have a house cat, too, as to keep the mice and other critters out of the house.

And, ya know, a homestead is a real woman killer? You take a wife and mother who homeschools and wants to do a good job of it and then she tries to live without electricity and all that first year? She will be dead as a door nail in the first 6 months. And long before your first year of homesteading, you need to get a lot of back to the land books and gather knowledge and wisdom first.

For some of you … you may not get to a homestead for a few years. Practice now for the time to come. Learn to plant herbs and use them for medicine and cooking. Start now and see what you can do this spring. Use the land you have now and see how many things you can grow and preserve for the winter. I mean, women think all this knowledge will come to them once they get to the homestead … and it won’t. The greatest preparation for the homestead life is knowledge.

For me, I have some land here and we own this house. This is my little homestead for now. I know how to make goat milk soap and cheese, as my milk man used to give me fresh goat milk when the children were young. He used to give me goose eggs, too, and I cooked with them. So I know all about goat milk but I have never raised a goat. In the old books, they call goats a poor man’s cow. I would rather have a cow, but I would start out with a goat.

And as you get into another year of homesteading, you could add more of a garden and learn to can and preserve all of your food. And then maybe, as the years go on, you may get off the grid altogether and learn to get along without electricity. You will have to dig a root cellar to keep things cool in the spring and summer. Or if you have a nearby cave, you can put food in there. I have read about using a window box for a fridge in the winter. Just open the kitchen window halfway and put a box in there with a door on the front. It would look like an air conditioner with a door on the front? Anyway, you could keep milk and butter and eggs in there if you were without a fridge. I mean, you could store it all outside in the winter in a small shed, but it would be easier or handier to have a window box in the kitchen.

I used to write to Wanda who was homesteading in Alaska. She would keep her gallons of milk in a cold stream by her cabin. A bear ate some of the milk, plastic gallon jug and all. Some of my letters fell in the river out of a plane one time. I lost track of Wanda years ago, as I started my email writing. I am gonna pray her back, though. God only knows I couldn’t find her, otherwise. She wouldn’t know which end of a computer to plug in, even if she had electricity. She could barely get her battery operated radio to work. She had seven children and worked like a dog. But she was my age and just had one child left at home. So she had a lot of knowledge and this kept her goin’. She couldn’t tie her dogs outside, as a wolf would eat them. Dang, if I didn’t lose track of Wanda. She could have told us some things, for sure. Please pray that I will find her again.

Ya know, as I write today, I feel the presence of angels. I feel that this writing may help someone along the way … maybe even many years from today.

I wonder often, when I see street people, “Could they have made it with knowledge?” My older children tell me they see whole families living on the streets of NYC.

HOMESTEAD MOTHERS

Ya know, a few days ago we were out garage saling. And we came to an area of huge new houses. Two income families with maybe one child. Then we passed new apartment buildings. No place for a garden or clothesline … no place to live or have a dog. I said, “Oh, Papa, these poor families are just existing and have so little. They aren’t learning anything.” These poor folks are paying for a lifestyle and not a life. They have run with the herd and bought the lie and will run off the cliff with the rest of the herd. And it’s got to be ok, as all of their friends are doing it.

How off the wall do you have to be to think our country is doing good, and all we need is better schools and education and the right president to put us back on target? I mean, I am no rocket scientist … just a poor housewife, really … but I can tell things ain’t goin’ all that good in my country. I don’t get this opinion just from watching Fox News (which ain’t all that good.) But I have folks in dire straits around me. Oh, I wish I didn’t.

And, ya know, Christian Joy has told me that, as she sees street kids, she tells them of her Dad and Mom who have made it on practically nothing and they can, too. It takes a pioneer spirit and, boy, we need to develop this in our souls. We need to grow some spines of steel and teach ourselves to just flat out make it, one way or the other.

Our nation’s homes were formed from the prayers and the tears of the Pioneer Mothers who came here with nothing. And if they made it, so can I. By golly … so can I. And you can too, dear Mothers.

I need to write more about buying things for your Homestead Pantry for that first year. But I will have to get to that maybe tomorrow.

Good Morning.

It got really cold last night here in Iowa. I bet it got to about 30 degrees. So I am glad I didn’t get my tomato plants in yet. This is unusual, to be this cold this late into May. It will warm up, though, hopefully soon, and I can’t wait to plant my tomatoes.

Jim plants the big garden way down in the back yard. Then I have a smaller kitchen garden right outside my dining room door. In this garden, I will just have things I can run out and pick for summer meals. But out of Jim’s garden, I will can tomatoes. For my kitchen garden, I will have green peppers and hot peppers. Then the beef steak tomatoes for slicing and a couple cucumber plants.

I will plant my basil in pots. But basil will not grow in cold weather. It will just sit and wait for warm weather. So I don’t have this planted yet. I have the lettuce leaf basil, the lemon and the purple basil to plant. Then I will be buying my favorite … the sweet basil. Now, the sweet basil you can get in the 10¢ seeds and they are the best seeds, I think. I plant my basil in pots … in case the weather gets bad, I can bring the pots in on the porch. And then, too, when fall comes, I bring all the basil in and use it until about Christmas and then it’s about done, or too scraggly to use anymore.

Well, I could never have a summer without basil. It’s my favorite herb. In the summer, I slice up my tomatoes on a plate and use the basil as a garnish. One salad I make goes like this. I just take a quart canning jar and fill it with chunks of tomatoes, onions and green peppers. Then I add basil, rosemary and chives. You could even add mint, too. Then I put in about a fourth cup of vinegar … about a fourth cup of sugar … and let it all set for a while in the fridge and it is so delicious. I add salt, also, and black pepper.

Also we plant zinnias everywhere and marigolds. I make many bouquets with my flowers and I add long stems of basil and other herbs.

I have a lot of dill. I let it grow everywhere, as I love it. And I often stick this in with my bouquet of flowers. I enjoy seeing the long stemmed herbs mixed with the flowers. I use my dill for cooking before it gets tall and dry. I don’t like using the seeds of it. I just use it when it first starts to grow … before the heads start to develop.

Also in my kitchen garden I have the Seven Sister Rose bush, and lots of comfrey and other herbs. Also horseradish.

I can hardly wait to get these tomatoes and peppers in.

Another favorite herb that I like to use fresh for my iced tea in the summer is the lemon balm. I just pick this and wad it up to bruise it as I wash it good in cold water. Then I just plop it in my iced tea. You don’t have to boil it … just pick a long stem and wad it up and throw it in your tea. So I run around all summer with weeds (Jim calls them) in my glass of tea. Jim always tells me “I want just plain iced tea.”

The Colonial Mothers called the herb teas Liberty Tea when they no longer bought their tea from England. “Honest Tea is the Best Policy.”

PLANT LIL GROCERY STORES

I don’t have the perfect garden. Land sakes, no! And the siding on our house is doin’ some serious falling off. And the roof leaks still like a sieve when it rains. We have had the hole in the kitchen ceiling fixed at least twenty times. It will be fixed for a few years and then it leaks again. And the foundation of our house is awful, too. But the Lord tells me, “Connie, you just make your garden and take care of Rose and don’t worry about it. Jim will take care of it.”

And ya know, this is how it used to be in the old days. Many times, a man would buy a piece of land he felt that he could work to feed his family on. The family would live off the land … then they wanted to have a cash crop, too. But the husband never looked at the house. He just looked at the land. The wife and mother was to make a home out of whatever house she got.

And Mama would get busy in the spring and plant tiger lilies around the foundation of the house to hide the crumbling foundation. She would scurry about in the spring and plant all kinds of flower gardens to make bouquets for the family table. In the winter she dried flowers upside down to give color to her little winter home. Then she was expected to plant things that come up each year. She called rhubarb plants, pie plants. She would trade seeds with the other country mothers. It was her job to plant the herb garden.As one mother was thinning out her raspberry plants, she would give the other country mothers some raspberry starts.

Mother was expected to make a house a home. To take control of her home and land and make it work. Usually the husband was too busy making a living to worry about the house fallin’ in on one side.

My friend Jill and her husband moved into an old farm house about ten years ago. The back side of the house was sinking so bad, they couldn’t close the back kitchen door. So they hoisted it up with rocks and then the back door closed.

The old time Mothers just made a home out of whatever they had to work with. The home wasn’t made perfectly for them? They had to make it. And the Mothers would plant many perennials … plants that come up each year. They would plant strawberries and horseradish and rhubarb and asparagus. They would start their grape arbor and plant as many fruit trees as they could. They would also plant walnut trees and other trees that bore nuts. All of these I just mentioned will come up each year.

Then, of course, they would plant their herb gardens. Herbs for cooking and for medicine. Mother planted ginger root to spice her ginger breads and cakes and to make ginger tea. She knew the names of all of the flowers and herbs and taught this to her own daughters.

Mother would forage in the woods to find wild lettuce, onions and other wild greens in the spring. See, our country used to be a lot different and the land produced many herbs and wild foods. Now, with the poisons put on our land to kill weeds, many of the wild herbs are dead. And it is not good to use this stuff, as it kills many of the health giving herbs and wild foods, like the little wild strawberries and other wild berry plants. Then the poisons sink into the ground and hurt your water supply.

We need to say the hell with the perfect yard and plant lil grocery stores in our yards. Yes, the mint will spread and take over the yard. Well, so what? Who wants grass? I would rather have a yard full of mint to mow. Think of how good it would smell to mow mint instead of grass. Mint and other herbs popping up in the grass is a good thing. It is medicine growing in your yards … don’t kill it.

During the 1930s many families lost their homes and were forced to live in the country in abandoned farm homes. Had the Mothers not known how to make a home out of nothing, the families would not have survived. In our present generation we mothers need to learn to work and prepare while the sun shines.

MAKING HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES

This spring Papa planted a cherry bush called “sugar cherry.” Also a dwarf peach tree. We have several dwarf apple trees and a plum tree. All of these plants come up each year. Then plants like tomatoes and peppers and other garden vegetables just last for the season. You have to plant them each year.

But ya know, dear Mothers, the old saying is “Make hay while the sun shines.” In other words, you can’t bale hay to store for the winter when it’s raining. Wet hay will rot and won’t store well. And we need to seriously consider our ways in these troubled times. Things are hard now but, Darlin’, they are gonna get harder yet. We need to put some of our money into buying fruit trees and food plants that will come up each year.

Many of you know nothing about the herbs or how to use them. Now is the time to go to the library and get books and store up knowledge. Go to book sales and buy books to have at home for a Mother’s Home Library. Books on gardening and herbs and home remedies. So many people are afraid of herbs but not of the harmful drugs from the doctor. The medical profession is in serious trouble. It’s time to break loose from them and find your own ways through the wisdom of God. If you need a certain herb, then learn to grow it and use it, if it is possible.

Gather canning jars this summer while the garage sales are plentiful. Buy some big pans with lids to do some serious home canning this fall.

Gather wisdom and confidence that you can make it. That if push comes to shove, you could make your own soap for laundry and baths.

The more knowledge you can store up and the more you can learn now, the better. If you have wisdom and know-how, then you don’t need to be afraid of the coming hard times. Dear hearts, build your confidence now. Learn the many survival skills of housewifery. Come back to the land now and learn all you can.

My yard isn’t huge but is big enough to have two gardens, four dwarf fruit trees, and many perennials. If you are in an apartment, you can store up knowledge through books for when you can move to where you have some land. You can start some tomato plants or green peppers in the big five gallon buckets. But do something to store up knowledge for the hard times that will surely come. Especially the families who plan to have many children. Of course Papa and I just have Rose now. But I want to be an example to my older children and their families. Our son Johnny (age 29 and married with our first grandson) told me while he was here visiting a few years ago, “Mom, your whole yard is a garden.”

Mothers, I would just encourage you to do what you can this spring and summer to learn what you can. Maybe you can only work on making a Mother’s Home Garden Library. But just do what you can and give some priority to storing knowledge and survival skills.